#but listening back is going to be interesting to bw sure

[rainia]

Rain I have to tell you I’m listening to our dnd session 3 rn and genuinely I like put a hand over my mouth at some points during the Astra/zola confrontation thing what Was that omg /pos

oh god I’m gonna have to listen to that back huh,,, the spirit of roleplay took us both I think, just lost in the rp sauce hahahah. I’m v excited to relisten :DD

anyywayyyy I’m sure both characters will deal with this is a healthy way ermm. dnd really be like; step 1. create a guy, step 2. put them through the most, step 3. cry???? lmaooooo

[phoenixcatch7]

Kintsukuroi

'What if I put a clock pendulum in my torso' was the sort of question Bruce had come to expect when visiting Oracle.

"Pendulums are dependant on a stable base," he replied, because the last time he'd assumed they were being unserious Tim had tried to fit a chemistry test lab in his mouth and accidentally leaked the fumes through his mask.

"It'd be so aesthetic though," said Barbara, not looking up from the dozen screens she was surrounded by. "Listen. It would look so cool - Spoiler, robbery on fifth and main - Especially if I put a clock face over my heart."

"I thought you were trying to fit a super computer in it?"

"I was, but progress is slow. It's hard to fit it and enough padding to protect it plus leave enough room for ventilation. If I add the pendulum I might at least get inspiration." She gave a heavy sigh and pushed away from the desk, gliding in her chair to where her doll body was resting on a table, the glue separating the two halves of the smashed torso still glistening. Bruce followed, peering over her at the many scanners and wires hooked into it, flashing and beeping.

"Any luck?" he asked, and they both knew he wasn't talking about the computer anymore.

"Nothing."

He squeezed her shoulder, and she leant into it. They stayed there for a long moment.

"I just don't understand!" Barbara finally burst out, hands clenching on her chair arms. "I glued nearly every single piece back together! I made sure every splinter I could find went exactly where it should! I know the contract is still there. She's worked with more missing pieces before. But she's just not responding!"

"It's not you," Bruce soothed. "You've more than enough determination and strength to puppet, and we know the human body's state doesn't affect performance."

"That's the thing!" Barbara threw her hands up angrily, nearly smacking Bruce in the face. There was a chatter over comms, and both reached for their own. "One second," she said tightly, and wheeled back into the glow of the monitors. "Copy. BW, you're nearest? Thanks. Try and avoid the sniper this time. Wing, backup is in five."

She muted again and spun around, pinning Bruce with a heavy stare. "Is there anything, anything you can think of? We've - nothing I've tried has worked."

"Well...." He trailed off, one hand coming up to rub at the chin of his mask - a quiet night meant the opportunity to forgo the practical but muffling gas mask for his favoured plain black.

It was far from the first time a doll had been horrifically damaged. The incident with Bane came to mind - Batman had been in a very similar condition, body shorn clean in two and tossed to opposite corners. It was an awful memory, but the expression on Bane and the audience's faces as his bloodless body fell apart like a rotting tree trunk and then kept moving was a silver lining he'd always treasure.

But he'd been repaired and back on his feet in weeks, if bearing the incandescent fury of the doll for several more. It had been months for Barbara, and still nothing was happening.

"There's something we're missing, and I doubt it's on your side."

"I know THAT-"

"Listen," he demanded, and her jaw clicked shut mutinously. "There's something we're not seeing. Batgirl is in no shape to demand it herself, it seems. So its inaction is something we can't fully rely on."

"You've got the most experience with the dolls of all of us. Can you.. I don't know, sense anything?"

"Nothing more than the usual, with the Patriarch Doll, but we might get more if we return to the doll house -"

"No." Barbara interrupted again, but Bruce did not take offence. "She's not going anywhere. She doesn't want to head back to the cave."

Oh?

"She doesn't want to, or she doesn't care to?"

"I say she doesn't."

Interesting. This was likely a case of the doll exerting its will. The bats were well versed in avoiding the few lines their wooden bodies drew in the sand, treating them with the wary respect one would give a favorite blade or a highly trained attack dog. They could work together, share the highs and lows of life with them, but never get complacent. The dolls were forever a foreign, inhuman presence, and as with all wild creatures they would never be so arrogant as to assume full understanding. For Barbara to so strongly decide for the doll meant she was most likely not the only one deciding.

Which meant the solution would not be found in the cave.

"Perhaps there are upgrades she wishes to have?"

Oracle paused.

"Maybe," she conceded. "But there's practically a limitless amount of things I could do, and I wouldn't know where to start. And I could more easily do them when she's up and walking."

Not that then. If the doll wanted something to change but not receive upgrades or heal, than what?

... Not heal.

Batman hurried to the table. Oracle watched him with hawk eyes, but another call on the comms turned her away with a final warning glance.

Recovering every single splinter from a damaged wooden object and perfectly reattaching it was nigh impossible on a good day, never mind in the dead of night with a moving target. The dolls always returned to the cave to regenerate scratches and nicks they couldn't buff out, or accepted plaster to transmute with whatever supernatural power guided them.

The batgirl on the table, divested of all covering and armour, was still as chipped and scuffed as the day nightwing recovered last splinter.

The pieces fell into place.

"She doesn't want to be perfectly rebuilt," he realised. "She doesn't want the damage to disappear as it normally does... She wants it to remain visible. A different type of repair, then."

Oracle spun in her wheelchair to face him.

"Why?" she asked, something sharp in her eyes. Bruce chose his next words carefully.

"Perhaps she thinks such damage doesn't need to be hidden away," he said, slowly, and didn't comment when she turned away. Though she put on a strong face, and the doctors had recently released her full time, it would be a long time until the young hero was able to truly heal her mind.

"She doesn't need to do that for me. She's just causing me trouble."

"I don't think she is," he tried. "Dolls tend to reflect their puppeteer even after they accept us. You can't deny your trajectory has been changed."

They both sent a significant look to the enormous super computer taking up the wall.

"You've said you almost feel better able to protect Gotham now, with your reach and skills. Do you really feel that way?"

"I - I don't -" her mouth worked silently, and Bruce waited. "I mean I guess... But a part of me always assumed it'd be temporary, you know? Once I fixed batgirl.. It'd all return to normal." Her voice wobbled, and Bruce didn't hesitate to crouch before her, wrapping her in a long armed hug. She buried herself in his chest, regardless of the chilled metal.

"It's okay if you don't," he whispered into her hair, and held her as she shook. "I'm just throwing ideas around."

"I do though," she rasped. "I think I do feel that way. There's so much that can't be solved by violence, and it feels good to be out there but... I think I can help even more people, this way."

"That's good," he praised, "that's good. You can do whatever you set your mind to."

"You stole that from a parenting book verbatim."

"It's applicable to the current situation."

"Fine," she sighed, and pushed him away to roughly scrub at her eyes. "I'll give the doll another chance. Find some glitter glue or something, I don't know."

"Any materials you need will be provided," he promised. "I wouldn't recommend glitter glue or our usual tar."

He moved to pat her on the hair as the emotions of the moment faded, making sure to keep his unsheathed claws out of her hair.

"Once you fix her, though, I would recommend you puppet the doll during night hours still," he told her. "It wouldn't be good to put your body through twenty hour days."

"I've got a good system set up for now, but thank, B-man."

The computer dinged with another alert, and oracle spun to squint at it with a muffled curse, typing furiously. Batman escaped to the other side of the room, where the folders he'd originally come looking for lay. She waved, distracted, as he left, and although the doll could not smile, he could feel it on his face all the same.

@puppetmaster13u I summon thee dear mutual ^^

[1358456]

(More) NG+ Banters

Cynthia: "Jirachi? A Pokemon that can grant wishes? I've never heard of that one." Red: "I'm not surprised. Apparently that thing is asleep for a 1000 years at a time. But it wakes up in a couple of years. In my timeline, me and my friends were turned into stone so our juniors used a wish to save us." Cynthia: "... Wow." Sabrina: "... Still not lying." Red: "I used the wishes in the last timeline, so we're going to do that again this time. But first, we need to go to Hoenn. Find the HQs of Team Aqua and Magma, and find Archie and Maxie so I can stick my foot up their asses. And hopefully that'll prevent a giant water monster from spawning in Hoenn... twice!" Cynthia: "... I won't ask."

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

Red: "Huh. A wild Salamence? That's pretty uncommon. ... Uh oh. Is this that Salamence incident that I heard about? But surely two 5 year old kids would run and not-" Ruby: "Oh, you want a piece of me?! Bring it on! I'll take you!" Red: "... That is one crazy ass kid. ... Though I did pick a fight with Mew when I was 11, and that's not any better. ... I better go save them..."

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

Erika: "I must ask, why did you volunteer to accompany that boy on his journey? ... Is it just out of gratitude for how you are valued over in Team Rocket?" Sabrina: "You mean Red? Well... I am grateful. It's certainly better than being shunned by the public and hiding and running all the time. But I want to follow Red around from time to time because of his memories. You wouldn't know from just looking at him or listening to him, but he's hiding a tremendous amount of loneliness and sadness. So I want to accompany him and alleviate some of that." Erika: "I see... I can understand that." Sabrina: "And when the time comes and he goes back to his own timeline... there will be someone who'll need our company far more." Erika: "That is quite kind of you." Sabrina: "Also, you would not believe some of the things he went through or heard about. I would like to see some of those for myself." Erika: "That... is also understandable. It will be quite the interesting journey."

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

Erika: "Why are you investing so much money on this brand new talent agency?" Red: "Uh..." Erika: "Surely you have no interest in such a thing?" Red: "Sure don't. But I kind of know the president of this company in a different timeline. So I just want to help her out a bit." Erika: "Understandable." Red: "... And maybe now I'll find out just what the hell "BW" stands for..."

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

Red: 'Huh. This kid looks like Black... oh.' Black: "Oh! You're him!" Red: "Uh... huh?" Black: "You're the guy who steamrolled through the Pokemon League at the age of 11!" Red: "Uh... yeah, I guess." Black: "I want to be just like you! Please, let me train under you!" Red: 'This is probably not fine? I highly doubt he'll get to meet and befriend White if I let him follow me around...' "Sorry, kiddo. But I'm not very good at training other people." Black: "But... you trained the Sinnoh League champion!" Red: "How the hell did you- uh... never mind." 'Sabrina, help!' Sabrina: <You're on your own. Just enjoy this reunion. Give the kid a few tips or something.>

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

Sabrina: "... You love him, don't you?" Cynthia: "!!!" Sabrina: "Doesn't take a telepath to see that." Cynthia: "..." Erika: "Even I was aware of it. However, given the circumstances..." Cynthia: "... I know. ... It's not going to work. I can only hope that he doesn't know." Sabrina: "He does though. He's just pretending to not have noticed. His heart belongs to another, and has for over 40 years at this point. He's been aware of your feelings for him since the last timeline, which is partly why he feels so guilty inside. Your help is essential for him to return home, but he doesn't want to hurt your feelings when he leaves you behind. And he doesn't know what he can do to change that." Cynthia: "I realize that I can't make him love me back. The only solution would be if I stop loving him, but... I can't control that. I don't want him to go back to his own timeline, but he wants to. He won't love me as I love him, but he's still my childhood friend. If he needs my help, I will help him. Even if it breaks my heart to do so..." Erika: "You are so strong, Cynthia. I know this is very tough for you. But we are here whenever you need assistance." Sabrina: "And you still have time to figure this out. Best of luck." Cynthia: "... Thank you..." 'There's no way... Even if I somehow get myself to stop loving him... he's still my only childhood friend and he will leave me behind. There's only misery waiting for me, regardless of what I do...' Sabrina: "..."

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

Erika: "We have been through so many regions together, even though Sabrina and I have not accompanied you through your whole journey so far. So I must ask. Why do you not stop the evil organizations that you know about ahead of time?" Red: "I did stop some, but there are simply too many and too spread out. I already beat the crap out of Archie and Maxie. I do have to go to Sinnoh at some point and stick my foot up Cyrus's ass. But then to stop all the evil, I'll have to go to Unova next and stick my foot up the cult leader's ass over there. And then I'll have to go to Kalos and find whatever his name was and kick his ass. And then I'll have to go to Alola and... I don't even know whose ass I have to kick over there. And then there's that mess in Galar or something?" Erika: "... Though crudely stated, I do see your point." Red: "Yeah. Simply put, there are too many asses to kick, and not enough time. So for those, I'll have to let my juniors handle them."

[velvetthetrashmammal]

Okay so I’ve been in a big Pokemon (specifically Mystery Dungeon) mood so I’ve been listening to the Pokemon anime OPs and fuck it I wanna talk about each one and give my silly little thoughts. They’re in order of release just in case you don’t recognize the names. 

Indigo League: Bro it’s fucking Indigo League that shit’s classic for a reason. It hasn’t aged a DAY it goes hard and if you say otherwise we literally cannot be friends anymore I’m sorry. Also it has an extended version which is more of the same vibe but like... It’s like getting more good food. Same flavor but MORE. Orange Island: Honestly underrated in my opinion. It kinda gives off a celebratory vibe? Like everyone ate up Indigo League so much that the Orange Island OP is just the team cheering themselves on. Feels very grand and epic in a way. I like it! Johto Journeys: Bruhhhhhh this song is so good. Not my favorite but GOD it’s up there. It has just such a positive energy and I can’t help but just STIM the life out of me when I hear this. It also leans back on the motif of “Gotta catch ‘em all!” the first OP had so I think that’s just kinda cute.  Johto League Champions: THIS SONG IS PEAK HOLY SHIT THE FUCKING INTRO THING I DUNNO ANYTHING ABOUT MUSIC SO I DUNNO THE WORD FOR IT BUT GOD THIS IS LITERALLY HYPE CONDENSED INTO A FUCKING MP4 FILE THIS MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE??? Master Quest: This has a mix of being peak hype, sounding like the cheesiest and corniest shit, and also being the intro song of my favorite Pokemon movie. It’s so good! Not as good at invoking the emotions like Johto League but it’s close! Advanced: This kinda has a really good vibe. It feels like the series is growing with it’s audience a bit and is trying really hard to be “cool” and is honestly succeeding really well. I appreciate the vibes behind this. Also “There’s a hero buried deep inside” I know they mean emotionally but my brain can’t help but go “Bro dig him out??? Can he breathe???” Advanced Challenge: Hmmm, I like it allot. It does lean into a cool “epic” aesthetic. But I don’t have any thoughts past that? It’s just good. lol Advanced Battle: BRO HOLY SHIT, THE ONLY TRUE WAY TO LISTEN TO THIS IS MAX VOLUME! IT’S SO GOOD okay okay no but for real though godddd this is peak Pokemon OP! I have no fucking real thoughts just LISTEN TO IT NOW I DEMAND YOU Battle Frontier: This is pretty good, I do find the lyrics “If you’re strong, you’ll survive, and you’ll keep your dreams alive!” and “It’s the master plan!” kinda... Hello??? Is this weird or am I overly analyzing it? Probably both. lol Diamond and Pearl: I may have not found this season interesting but the second I heard this OP I was READY for PEAK. This song has such a POWERFUL energy that felt like I was about to FIGHT GOD DP Battle Dimension: Ehh, I’m very mixed on this. Some parts feel like a theme you’d hear during a fun adventure (and the focus on the friendship of the cast was nice) but it also lacks a real energy I enjoy from the Pokemon OPs.  DP Galactic Battles: This song genuinely sounds like the end of the series. Like a beautiful swansong! Almost as if they wanted Pokemon to end with a beautiful send off. Besides that it’s genuinely fantastic and I come back to Galactic Battles’ OP allot! Sinnoh League Victors: I’m gonna be honest it’s like... Okay? It’s kinda middling at best. It sure exists you know?  Black & White: The time I hopped back onto the Pokemon anime since it was back to airing on Cartoon Network! I like this one! The start is a bit too slow for my tastes since I prefer the hype but hey when it gets there it really gets there! BW Rival Destinies: I dropped off the show again during this time. It’s pretty alright, I prefer the Black & White OP though, this feels like it doesn’t have the same energy as the previous one. It’s focus on the friendship aspects does add a bit though! BW Adventures in Unova: It sure exists. It takes so long to really get to the punchy parts of the Pokemon aesthetics. I do like it’s focus on the fact that Ash has come so far and stuff. Overall I don’t really care for it.  XY: After dropping off I came back for XY and honestly after so long after Indigo League hearing them essentially come back to that original theme with a twist was amazing! This OP goes hard and high-key so did this season. I recommend XY allot! XY Kalos Quest: It takes so much build up to the good stuff BUT GOD IS THE WAIT WORTH IT! I THINK THIS IS MY FAVORITE OUT OF EVERY OP SERIOUSLY IT’S SO GOOD! I cannot recommend listening to this enough, it’s full of so much life and energy!  XYZ: Again, dropped the show. So I have no nostalgia for this. All in all though I kinda like it. Not enough to sing it’s praises from the rooftops but enough to give it a listen every once in a while. It’s mostly just not my vibe.  Sun & Moon: IT SOUNDS LIKE THAT SHITTY BEACHSIDE TRACK FROM SONIC LOST WORLD IT INCITES ANGER AND HATRED IN MY HEART Sun & Moon Ultra Adventures: This sounds like the kind of song someone would blast out their car with the windows down and make me wanna throw a rock through their window, pass. Sun & Moon Ultra Legends: Better than the previous two OPs so... Good? Journeys The Series: Woo, back to the kind of energy I come to Pokemon OPs for!!! I have yet to watch Journeys but boy howdy this is a nice bouncy vibe!  Master Journeys: Oh shit sorry I accidentally put on my Hatsune Miku music oops (not bad but... Not the vibe I want?) Ultimate Journeys: Way different vibes from basically all the other OPs but honestly I kinda vibe with this. Not what I expect but still something fitting.  I wrote all these in a single listening session AS I WAS LISTENING TO THEM so uhhhhhhhhh hope you enjoyed? (Maybe I’ll make a tier list of them? Who knows.)

[stargirlfics]

We’re not calling them an embarrassment to black women we’re just saying it’s fucking embarrassing and gives us a bad rep. If you see the comment section to half of these mediocre looking men it is FILLED with mainly black girls specifically asking if they like “chocolate” or calling themselves white man’s whore. It’s gross and it makes people lump us all into one group of just being desperate for black and mostly non black men’s attention. They don’t think of how it affects black women as a whole when they say stuff like that so why shouldn’t BW be able to say when something is embarrassing or cringe to them? Everyone’s feelings are valid and some of the women doing this pick me shit aren’t apologetic about it either. I’ve literally had someone curse me out after I kindly tried to explain why the term white mans whore is so damaging. I understand that some stem from insecurity and stuff but some are just downright disrespectful and not willing to learn in anyway.

But you are and yes we should/are able to say hey this behavior is more damaging than you may realize to people within our community and outside it as well and it’s cringe to see it happening, I’m not disputing that nor saying we shouldn’t express that, I’m saying I want to be intentional and careful about the way that is expressed

If you wanna talk about embarrassing specify the pick me’s, make sure it’s about the pick me’s, don’t lump the rest into that, it gives insecure or sensitive black girls a bad name too

There’s of course a whole heap of pick me’s who deliberately do these things and exhibit that behavior and don’t care about the harm is causes and that’s dangerous and pick me’s are not interested in nor do they care about being seen as cringe they just care about being chosen by whomever the fuck. My personal view is that when we talk about those behaviors I don’t wanna prioritize pick me’s, I am more interested in speaking to those who actually have a listening ear and where it stems from pain and insecurity before it’s internalized to the level of a pick me

The ones that aren’t willing to learn ain’t give a fuck to care so I’m not wasting my energy on them when I can actually help another black woman who’s gonna understand it better without shaming her in the process

I’m just tired of shame. Pick me’s don’t care that we shame their behavior and the rest are only hurt by being blanketed into “if you have ever felt this way or done this you’re an embarrassment” so in my eyes I’m going to approach it differently, you don’t have to by all means but for me that’s what I’m gonna do bc as someone who found it so funny at one point to say I was this or that’s white man’s whore, what didn’t help me open my eyes and realize I was wrong and harming myself and others with that kind of behavior even as a joke which wasn’t a joke was feeling like I was personally setting my people back and a bad person when really I just struggle with self worth and needed to do a little better and have, that only made me shut down and sink deeper into that original feeling and thus we have a cycle, I’ve been that person, we all have

Because the reality is, at a human level we have all and will all feel insecure and unloveable as black women at some point or another and I want to be careful about saying that those who have made missteps because of those feelings (not talking about pick me’s) are the cause of others thinking we are desperate for attention, even if that’s not the intention and you’re just calling out the behavior, it can feel that way and I don’t want another already vulnerable black woman feeling like it’s her fault that she feels insecure or her insecurity just by itself is causing others to give us a bad name or has asked or pined for attention before when there is a bigger tide that is at fault

Again, excluding pick me’s that do this deliberately (although that same behavior still all goes back to insecurity, they just internalized it so much they think it’s empowering when it’s not) something just doesn’t sit right with me to approach this conversation in a way that starts with “you or this thing you might have done before is the reason why people think we’re this and that, it’s your fault” is what that sounds like when even if you take all that away and have us all rid of insecurity, there’s a societal message being hammered into our heads every which way built to tear us down while simultaneously taking our style and features, the shame and embarrassment needs to go to that

[punz4lyfe]

Wasted Plotential: Cameron/Vertress Conference

Out of inspiration for my favorite MK YouTuber; The4thSnake, I’ve decided to do my own Wasted Plotential take with the Pokemon Anime series, so let’s see how this turns out!

The Best Wishes series is quite... something to the Pokemon Fandom. Many go as far to outright claim it’s the worst out of all the Pokemon Seasons. Whether you go or don’t go by that, I wholeheartedly respect whatever your opinion is, but to me personally, I think it’s just fine. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but then again, nothing in media is, but I will agree with many that there are still plenty of things that could’ve been dealt with a whole lot better, starting with one of Ash’s BW rivals: Cameron.

Oh Arceus, where do I even start with this character? To me, he is absolutely the worst, the most horrible rival Ash could ever get in the anime as a whole. Worse than absolute jobbers like Stephan and Nando, worse than no-personality and motivation Bea, worse than shoehorned Tobias, this little good-for-nothing twerp is just THAT bad. Let’s start with his intelligence... or lack of any, to be more precise. This dude thought you needed 7 Gym Badges to qualify for a league instead of 8, a remote controller was his Pokedex, 5 was the max limit of your team for a Full Battle, and that Unova’s league would take place in an entirely different region. This isn’t just plain incompetence, this is Team Rocket levels of incompetence. Heck, these are all things that freakin’ Original Series Ash knew before he started his journey! Just... how can you be this dense? And the writers want us to take him seriously by making him a rival? Freakin’ no! And despite showcasing himself to be an absolute idiot 24-7, he’s somehow a competent battler as well? Talk about an example of inconsistent character.

Besides being an absolute moron, Cameron is also shown to be... just like Ash: brash, competitive, hot-headed, and fun-loving. Yeah, because in terms of rivals, it’s not like that’s unoriginal at all *coughRitchieandMorrisoncough*. Many people say one of his redeeming qualities is that he has pretty awesome mons on his team like Lucario, Samurott, and Hydreigon, though to me, that just raises his dislikability even more, because how would someone as stupid as Cameron have such mons on his team in the first place? Writer’s pet much?

Anywayz, in terms of the whole Wasted Plotential thing, there really wouldn’t be all that I would change for Cameron pre-league. I mean, Ash already has an intense rivalry with Trip, so I don’t see a reason giving him another one in the form of Cameron. With that said, things would largely play out the same as they did originally: Cameron shows up, proves to be an absolute dope, but showcases at least a semblance of talent through his fight against Marlon. At this point, this is when things take a slight change. After giving Cameron his badge, Marlon talks with Ash in secret afterwards to tell him that at the near-end of the battle... he actually had his Pokemon take a dive (har-har) for Cameron. Ash is surprised and Marlon tells him that throughout the battle, he saw how determined Cameron was despite many seeing him as a brainless dope, so with his goal of reaching the Unova League being so close, he felt sorry for the young trainer, which is why he intentionally lost to him in order to help the kid out in his quest.

This whole conversation adds more depth to Ash and Cameron’s friendship. After leaving Marlon’s gym, Ash keeps a close eye on Cameron from there on out, wanting to make sure his friend stays on a steady path to the league without getting himself lost by his own incompetence all the while falsely praising Cameron on his win in order to keep his confidence up.

At the league proper, Cameron manages to make his way through some fodder trainers and Bianca and these wins make Ash a little proud for Cameron for a bit... until he realizes that his win against the fodder trainers were mostly dumb luck and that literally anyone can beat Bianca, considering her incompetence is about almost as on-par with Cameron’s. When Ash and Cameron’s battle starts, everything plays the same with Cameron, like in the original script, realizes he brought the wrong amount of Pokemon for the Full Battle, and this time, he loses. Badly. Even with Riolu’s evolution.

This defeat crushes Cameron. So much so, that after he recalls Lucario without so much of a word, he admittedly turns around and bolts for the exit, tears streaming down his face. Despite the win, Ash can’t help but feel sorry for Cameron, feeling this devastating defeat was partially his fault due to his previous inflating of Cameron’s ego after his battle against Marlon. After Ash gets his Pokemon healed up, he finds Cameron sitting outside the league with his Lucario, sulking. Ash sits with them and that’s when Cameron tells him just how embarrassed he is, considering he went into a Full Battle with only 5 mons and lost horribly in front of a live audience. Not wanting to hurt Cameron even more by revealing Marlon’s false defeat, Ash decides to humble Cameron by telling him this: Cameron, you’re a great trainer and you care so much for your Pokemon. That’s why you now have Lucario here. But while it’s one thing to train your Pokemon, you also must train yourself.

Cameron is confused by this at first until Ash brings up all the incompetent moments Cameron had ever since they first met. This makes Cameron realize just how poor of a trainer he can be to his Pokemon if he doesn’t improve on his own faults. This whole conversation, I feel, would add even more depth to Cameron’s character and put a little touch of majority on Ash’s part. And this is when Ash reveals the truth of Marlon’s defeat. Cameron is shocked at first, but quickly regains his confidence when Ash tells him that, once he feel he’s ready, go back and show him how Cameron wins.

The two make up afterwards and Cameron watches Ash’s battle against Vergil. In order to not change the narrative too much, Ash will still lose, but unlike in the original script, he will go down with a whole lot more dignity. It’s a fairly close battle and the climax will ultimately with Pikachu facing off against a mon that even catches Ash’s friends by surprise: Sylveon. Being a new type, Ash and Pikachu are completely unaware of how to properly deal with it and not even Iris and Cilan are able to help that much either. While Ash does learn that Pikachu’s Iron Tail is super-effective, thanks to their previous struggles combined with Sylveon’s powerful fairy moves and healing, Pikachu faints at the end, albeit, during some serious damage to Sylveon beforehand.

Introducing a new Eeveelution, combined with a new typing, would’ve honestly been great way to get both Ash and the audience interested in what Gen 6 could offer. Sure, Alexa in the Decolore Islands and her team kinda did that, but I feel things would’ve been a lot more interesting had Gen 6′s tease been introduced in the form of a league. I mean, they did the same thing in a way in Johto with Harrison’s Blaziken and Kecleon, so I don’t see why they couldn’t do it here. Anywayz, after the lost, Ash and Vergil congratulate each other for their efforts, with Vergil telling Ash that he pulled up one of the most intense battles he ever had in his life. Ash thanks Vergil and then asks him about Sylveon, with Vergil telling him he got it while exploring a region called Kalos, sparking Ash’s interest.

And there we go! That’s how I would improve Cameron’s character and Vertress Conference without changing up the narrative a bit. Hope you enjoyed reading this little experiment and thanks for listening to my random anipoke thoughts.

[lovemesomesurveys]

When did you go to bed yesterday? Not until like 6 in the morning. :/

How much money do you have on you at the moment? None on me.

Have you ever been to the St. Louis Arch? Nope. I’ve never been to St. Louis.

Who was the last non-relative of the same sex to call you? No one calls me except for my parents and brother.

What day is it? Sunday.

Do you live in a city, town, or in the country? City.

What color is your toothbrush? White and blue.

Who was the first person you spoke to today? My brother.

What time was it 2 hours ago? 1:21AM.

How many children do you want/have? Zero.

What else could your initials stand for other than your name? I don’t want to share my initials.

When was the last time you had a nightmare? Recently.

When was the last time you went to the doctor? Earlier this month.

Who was the last person to make you smile? Something my brother said.

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? Can’t go anywhere. Do you keep a diary/journal regularly? You’re lookin�� at it.

Have you ever made up a secret language? No.

What was the last thing someone called you other than your real name? My family calls me Sis.

Would you rather have 6 months or daylight or 6 months of nighttime? Hmm. Maybe 6 months of nighttime. That’d be interesting. 

Are you wearing a watch at the moment? No. I don’t even own a watch.

How old will you be in 7 years? 38.

Were you born before 1992? Yes.

If you could meet anyone who lived before your time, who would it be? Lucille Ball.

What is your dream job? I don’t have one. 

Is there a candle in the room you are in? Yeah. It’s one I got from B&BW a couple years ago during Christmastime. I don’t know why since I never light candles. *shrug* I just really liked the scent and the exterior of it cause it had a sweater design.

What if you found out tomorrow your mom was having another baby? Well, that’s impossible since she had a hysterectomy. Unless she just made the decision to adopt, which would come as a complete shock to me. I’d have a lot of questions and things to say about it.

If you got married now, how old would you be by your 50th wedding anniversary? Like 81.

Do you know the middle names of your closest friends?

How long until your birthday? 4 months. 

Are you currently taking any prescribed medication? Yes.

About how long is your hair? It’s down to my butt.

What did you do last New Year’s Eve? Stayed home with my family and watched the New Year’s stuff on TV.

What is the longest relationship you’ve been in? 3 years if you count whatever Joseph and I had.

What was the last song you listened to? I’m blanking at the moment.

Have you finished high school? Yes, back in 2008.

Are you taller than 5'7"? No.

If someone gave you a $250 dollar gift card, where would you want it to be? Can I have one of those Visa gift cards so I could use it wherever? 

Do you have any pets? Yep, I have a doggo. <3

How much was gas the last time you checked? Like $3 something, I think. I’m not exactly sure cause I don’t drive, so I don’t pay much attention to gas prices.

[tigerlover16-uk-2]

Thank you, Sun and Moon

I know I'm a day early with this, but I wanted to get this out while I was still motivated. So, here we go.

To give an idea of what the Pokemon Sun and Moon anime means to me, let me start by going into my history with the anime.

I started watching Pokemon since the day it first aired in the UK. Back then, i remember Pokemon feeling like it was the biggest thing in the world, and for me it remained that way as i grew up.

I followed the show through the original series, Advanced Generation to well into Diamond and Pearl, and I always loved it. It was a constant presence in my life, and while I don't think I usually called it my number 1 favourite show, it was something I cherished and enjoyed more than most others. And at the time I was watching Diamond and Pearl and finding it possibly the best season yet, I was convinced I'd be following the series for pretty much the rest of my life.

And then, somewhere halfway through DP, something odd happened... I started missing episodes.

Like, id missed an episode of the series once in a blue moon due to extraneous circumstances, but I never actually took a break from watching the show, even when it was in reruns.

And yet for some reason, for a couple months, I couldn't be bothered to keep up with the anime. I'd later sum up that I was feeling burn out, but it felt odd how I'd just randomly seemed to lose interest when I'd been really enjoying Diamond and Pearl up until then.

Eventually I did start watching newer episodes again, but the same thing happened during the league arc, of which I only remember reading summaries on bulbapedia and only actually caught the last battle against Tobias. Something which... kinda bothered me. Not to a great deal at first, but the aftertaste felt more and more sour when I started watching the next series, Best Wishes.

I'll say right now, this is where I really started to question the quality of the Pokemon anime. I stopped watching the series after the dub got a few episodes past where the cancelled Team Rocket vs Team Plasma two parter would have aired. I did keep following plot summaries and checking new episodes pages on bulbapedia for a while, but that eventually lessened as I came to a realization.

The story was going nowhere. The show was just running in circles and making excuses to keep Ash's journey going in perpetuity.

I suppose maybe that should have been obvious already, but up through Diamond and Pearl, for all it's own backtracking, it still felt like Ash's journey was progressing and that the show itself was evolving and getting better in a number of ways. That we really were getting closer to seeing Ash becoming a master.

But between Tobias randomly being thrown into the league to eliminate Ash in a really lazy manner that felt unnatural compared to the last two times he'd lost a league, and a lot of the blatant bad writing decisions I was seeing like Zekrom showing up out of nowhere to nerf Pikachu so it could lose to Trip's Snivy, it really made me question where the story was going... if the show was even trying to tell a consistent story anymore, and they weren't just spinning their wheels and repeating the same patterns over and over again with no sign of ending or really moving forward.

At this same time I'd also been looking into the production history of the show and seeing what other people were saying about the anime online. I learned the show was originally supposed to end with Kanto and Ash winning the league, and I began looking back and noticing all the dropped plot points and mishandled story moments.

The GS ball plot never being resolved properly, the stuff with Ho-oh in Johto amounting to pretty much nothing, the mishandling of the Team Aqua and Magma plot, and a bunch of other things that made me realize...

This show is kind of a mess. There really isn't any kind of a plan or an end point. They're going to keep forcing Ash to lose at the league, reset his progress and keep running in circles because they don't want to do what Digimon and Yu-gi-oh did and let the story end and getting a new protagonist.

Needless to say, this coming at a rough time in my life where I was pretty miserable and becoming increasingly cynical with the world as well as more critical of media I watched, and in conjunction with what I saw people were saying about the show, left me feeling VERY disillusioned with the Pokemon anime.

Because I loved Pokemon, I thought it was the greatest franchise in the world and it had infinite potential. Surely, the anime should be better than this. Surely, Pokemon deserved better. SURELY, it should have been a great show for all ages like Shudo wanted it to be, and not some cheap commercial for the games?

I think the thing that broke me completely was Newtwo in the Genesect movie, because the anime's original take on Mewtwo is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, and his story through his movie, Mewtwo returns and the birth of Mewtwo short and radio drama was what younger me had always thought represented how great Pokemon could be at it's best, and that the series was something meaningful...

And here OLM were giving us a boring copy of that character minus the nuance.

Did they even care, I thought? Was I just stupid for liking the anime as much as I did for so long? Was it even worth hoping things could get better?

By the time it was into XY, I had given up on the Pokemon anime and become disillusioned with it as a whole, spending the next few years bitter and pining over a better version of the series that only seemed to exist in my mind. I didn't even bother to keep up with reading about new episodes on Bulbapedia anymore, I didn't have a clue what was going on. And I was sure I didn't care, and I never would again.

What reason was there to be invested in a series that clearly had no faith in itself, and certainly no regard for people like me who had had faith in it and wanted a good story.

I did start listening in again towards the end of XYZ when i kept seeing so many people gushing about how great it was and how competent Ash had supposedly become. For a minute i almost got caught up in the hype that he might win the Kalos league, and that the writers had finally learned their lesson.

And then Ash lost.

I remember shrugging my shoulders and going "oh well" and then moving on with my life. I didn't even feel mad, I'd already resigned myself to what the outcome would most likely be, so what was the point in getting worked up when I don't even care about the show at all, right?

... Right?

I still remember the tepid reactions the trailer and announcements for the Sun and Moon anime got at this time. I'll admit, when I first heard the premise would involve Ash going to school I laughed and thought it was a stupid idea.

... but watching the various announcements and teasers for the show, something about it... intrigued me. I watched the first 5 episodes shortly after they aired and found myself enjoying them, but after that I got a bit distracted and didn't watch any more of it for a while.

A similar thing actually happened with XY, where despite my frustration at that point I did try to give the series a chance, but I quickly got bored, dropped it and stopped paying attention to the show as a whole until much later.

But unlike back then, I actually did pay attention to what was going on in the show, and what I was hearing did sound generally optimistic. I think it was a mix of the 20th movie coming up and the announcement of the Kanto two parter that convinced me to really sit down and watch the whole thing. And what I saw... was pretty darn good, I must say.

I was surprised with myself. I'd given up on the show, hadn't I? All the damage was already done, wasn't it? No matter what Sun and Moon did to shake things up, the show as a whole would still be inevitably tied down by it's status quo in the end, and nothing that happened here would matter or mean anything come the next series, right?

And yet, here I was. Having a good time and finding Pokemon Sun and Moon a pretty fun series overall. And I started to realize how much... just how much I'd missed the anime. How despite my insistence that I'd moved on and didn't care anymore... I never really had. I still wanted to love the series.

From that point on I kept watching Sun and Moon on a weekly basis, and eventually re-watched the entire series from start to finish, including everything I hadn't seen from BW and XY.

Slowly over time, my resentment and bitterness started to subside. For while so many of my problems with the show remained, I realized I could still have fun with it even though it wasn't perfect.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

I won't pretend Sun and Moon was a perfect series. It had it's dull episodes and missed opportunities, just like all the series that came before it. There was plenty of stuff I thought could be better... and yet, the show never felt like it got bad or stopped being overall enjoyable despite those occasional gripes.

It didn't so much feel like the writers were just repeating all the same formulas and going through the motions anymore with Sun and Moon. There was a sense of fun to the show, a consistent level of joy and quality and, dare I say, PASSION to the series that I appreciated and kept me coming back to it.

And when the show was in top form, it honestly blew me away at times. I'll never forget the feeling of watching episode 108 and the scenes with Mallow reuniting with the spirit of her mother and thinking to myself "... THIS is a real episode of the Pokemon anime?"

I was happy. For the first time in so long, I felt content with the anime and not embarrassed to like it. But even then, I was thinking I'd have to like the show in spite of it's gaping, frustrating faults. I never dreamed the show or the writers would have the courage to break the dreaded cycles that pushed me away from it in the first place.

And then, only a few weeks ago now, the unthinkable happened... Ash Ketchum won the Alola league.

I'm still gobsmacked by it, honestly. I literally didn't think I was going to live to see the day. I'd resigned to the thought that the writers would always force him to lose... but against all my expectations, he did it. Ash won a pokemon league from the games.

And then just to really seal the deal, they even let him beat Kukui, a champion equivalent trainer, AND Tapu Koko right after that. Something that I never would have thought was possible to see happen in the Pokemon anime.

Honestly, watching that four parter, it felt like if you swapped out Kukui and Tapu Koko with Lance and Ho-oh, that could have been the ending I always thought the original series should have had... and it was GLORIOUS.

So now I'm sitting here, eagerly looking forward to the next series and feeling captivated by it's all regions premise and deviations from the formulas we'd come to expect as the eternal standard for this show, and I can hardly contain my excitement.

Because for the first time in a long time, Ash was finally allowed to achieve something extraordinary besides the obligatory "save the world from the current gen's villains" plot. For the first time since Diamond and Pearl, it feels like the story is actually moving forward into the next phase and the show is evolving.

For the first time in a long, long time... I look forward to the future of this series.

I could go on. There's plenty more I could say about Sun and Moon as a whole, discussing it's story, the characters and the writing, but... Honestly, there'll be plenty of time for that in the future. And for now, I feel like ive said all I needed to say.

At the end of the day, looking back on it all, I don't actually know if I'd call Sun and Moon my favourite Pokemon series. There's things about the Advanced Generation and Diamond and Pearl I liked more.

But Sun and Moon is, without a doubt, the Pokemon series I'm the most grateful for.

So, without further ado...

Thank you, Sun and Moon. Thank you for being a fun, charming, wholesome kids show. 

Thank you for being entertaining and a joy to watch these past few years.

Thank you for being creative and not completely repetitive.

Thank you for fulfilling a childhood dream of mine I never thought could come true.

Thank you for helping Pokemon to evolve and move on to a new era.

Thank you, Pokemon Sun and Moon... for restoring my faith in the Pokemon anime.

Though I'm sure there'll be many ups and downs in the future, I swear I'm going to stick with this show until one of us kicks the bucket. And I'm content with that now.

It's late and I should go to bed. Hope the final episode tomorrow is a good one.

[levelrazearts]

Sun and Moon

So, just watched the last episode of the SM series, specifically the subbed cause I was waiting for it to come out so I could write this, making this the 6th fully completed series that I've watched of the pokeani, with XY, OS, Orange Islands, DP, and BW, which is the order that I watched them in cause I am chaos incarnate, but I've got to say, I thoroughly enjoyed every single episode that this series produced, which is a first given how I felt about the previous series, and I'm really glad that I experienced this as it was still continuing and not after the fact. From seeing Alola for the first time to seeing Brock and Misty show up to the Ultra Guardians to the Alolan League, I'm very glad that this series went the way that it went and chose to do things differently than other series did, and that's in part due to how the games had gone so yay. Guess I'll go over some of the highlights now.

Spoilers Below, thoust have been warned.

The characters, my god, the characters really helped this show become an emotional rollercoaster both in joy and sadness.

Ash and Pikachu: The boy and his best friend are back and for the first time is in a mainly non-changing setting, taking a break from traveling while also exploring the Alolan region and all that it all has to offer. His training and experience is still there which was nice to see after XY, and his battling effeciency has definitely improved, with only a couple of loses here and there. Here it's almost as if they're both home, which is what Alola is all about, home and family, which allows them to both grow in ways we haven't seen them grow before. And let me say as someone who is a real big fan of electro ball, electro web is the perfect replacement for it, acting as a defensive move really helped provide some interesting combos in and out of battle, which really helped in the end. And let's not forget, seeing these two finally achieve their dream of winning a League after 22 years, it's a real heart warming moment, especially for those who have grown with this series since day 1 like me (more or less lol). This was a relaxing and reinvigorating journey for them, one they desperately needed and one that they deserved, along with all their accomplishments throughout.

Kukui and Burnet: Sure when Kukui was first introduced, I was a bit iffy on seeing him host Ash and Pikachu as it felt just a little bit weird, but seeing him grow into a father figure for Ash was something that I didn't know I needed, and with the introduction and later marriage of Burnet, it was also a great family relationship between everyone that we hadn't really gotten to see Ash experience due to his absent father and considerable amount of time away from his mother, and to see that just about every other character in the series acknowledge that Ash was a lot like Kukui was really heartwarming, even from people such as Guzma and Nanu. I hope we get to see more of these two and their family to-be in the new series.

Ash's Pokemon: I'm putting this all as one cause really, they were all great and this is the best way to say it, they were his closest 'Mons to date, with Ash putting as much love and care into their training as possible, and the results were a strong and reliable team that were also family. With Rowlet, it was a bond of listening and acceptance, wanting to stay as a basic evolution so he could stay in Ash's bag and sleep, Rockruff having a found a forever home and someone who helped to push him further with his limits and later his troubles in battling, Kitten finding trust again as well as someone with love forever, and being able to evolve due to that love and determination, Piople in a promise to return home, gaining a second home and family, and Meltan finding his place in the world, a best friend in Rolwet, and evolving to Melmetal, pushing as hard as he can for those he love. It really was/is everyone at their best and true-est. You also have the family pets with this setup in a bird, dog, and cat with a beautiful purple birb and metal protector. Seeing them stay in Alola, as much as it hurts, I think is the right choice for Ash to have made, for they're as much of a family to the professors as Ash was, and will continue to be, and I love that.

Kiawe: THIS FIRE BOY IS MY FAVORITE. I can not express how much this character has grown on me, especially within just the first season. At first, I thought he was going to be the serious-stick to the rules kinda guy, and I'm not a big fan of those, but then he started to lighten up, episode by episode, and then came the Dugtrio episode, and from there on out, he was my favorite. He's just written really well, super funny especially with his expressions, and overall a lot like Ash, but more focused on responsibilities. Not to mention, he's loyal to everyone, as seen in the Tapu Fini arc, which is one of my favorite episodes/arcs. All of his Pokemon were great too, Turtanator especially, as much as I love both his Marowak and Charizard, I feel that Turtanator was his best, in both personality and relationship wise, not to mention he was just to cute. Seeing him working on becoming an Island Kahuna is really befitting of his character as he greatly respects traditions and is the perfect role model for any youngin looking to be a challenger or trainer.

Lillie and family: So much growth, and so much more to go I feel, Lillie was a real great character to add in and I'm so glad that they went in a different direction than what the game had held and her overall arch from being someone who was afraid to touch a Pokemon, to now wanting to set off to find her father, truely a beautiful story, and her mother and brother also were great characters in their own right, as both supportive and riverly and both fueling her desire to become better than before, it's great to see the theme of family carry over into what is the supporting cast, making them feel more important than ever and I love it. Her relationship with her Vulpix (Snowy) was really touching and watching them both grow was more so. And seeing her be able to reunite with Magearna and by extension, her father through memory was so heartbreaking, I really hope we get to see the conclusion to their trip. As for Lusamine, I'm again, really glad they went a different route with her, making her a caring yet grieving mother instead of a careless one, and she was a definite highlight whenever on screen. And Gladion was just as much so, seeing him loosen up throughout the series was a blessing and reuniting with his father's Zoroark was just as heartbreaking, but seeing him in the semi-finals of the league, bursting with laughter with Ash at the amount of fun they were having, was really sweet and so in character with who he had become. Again, I really hope we get to see the conclusion to their trip to find Mohn.

Lana: She's the Meme Queen and my second favorite of the cast. Her constant joking contradicts her almost serious tone and allows her to be one of the most humorous of the cast, and I love it. While she didn't have to many arcs throughout the series, she was a strong Battler and fought for what was right no matter the risk, and I like that. Her dedication to making sure everyone was okay and safe while at the same time having fun was a neat touch. Her Poplio was also pretty fun, and seeing it evolve into a Brionne and later Primarima was a great growth to someone who was seen on the lower side of the spectrum in regards to power, and now it holds the spot of one the more powerful Pokemon within the group. And the addition of her Eevee (Sandy) is just heartwarming, and that haircut is to freaking adorable. Time will hopefully tell if it'll evolve or not, and I hope we do see that come to fruition, along with the search for Manaphy. Overall a joy of a character.

Mallow: An aspiring chef while not that much of a goal, was definitely a new direction to go in regards to a menu for both people and Pokemon, but I feel her growth came most in the form of both her Bounsweet and Tapu Fini arc, in how her Bounsweet evolved to help their friends, which is derived from her wanting to help others as much as possible, which I find to be perfect. And the Tapu Fini arc, well I guess it's more of an episode, really explores the trauma that she faced when she lost her mother and her regrets of having said things that shouldn't be said, and later gratitude for her mother leading to a Shamin appearing before her was really one of the most heartbreaking parts of this whole series, and even in writing this I was beginning to tear up. And while Shamin has now left, I do think it's message has remained in that one should be grateful for all that is now in the moment instead of grieving on the past forever, to make amends were possible, and to look to better the future, hence the Human/Pokemon menu/resutsrant she's hoping to bring to life. A great amount of growth in such a short time, this is a goal again I hope we get to see sometime in the future, as she's the only one to stay in Alola (unless Kiawe is as well which not to sure on that).

Sophocles: Easily the most panicked of the group, it was great to see him find his footing whenever he could and stand his ground, and improve his battling skills, which was really a testament to just how smart he his. Little by little, he has grown into a stronger and braver person and I love that. His Togedemaru was also the funniest Pokemon throughout the whole series next to Turtanator I think, and seeing him grow with his Chargabug and later Vikavolt was really something special. Becoming an Astronaut is also something that his growth has led him to be able to do, as the journey to space requires a lot of training to become stronger to overcome the effects of zero-g and as well as bravery to venture out that far, and just like with everyone else, fits him perfectly. And as much anxiety as he has, he's always been able to overcome it, be it with the help of his Pokemon or his friends, it's really admirable. What's more to say about him? He's going to achieve great things just like Clermont before him I believe.

Team Rocket Gang: I think this is the most that I've liked them in a long time, mainly due to them not causing as much trouble as before, and that's thanks to Bewear, who was able to change them into less-troublesome people and I hope we see that carry over into the new series, and eventually see them leave TR for good to start their own lives for better and worse. Mimikyu and Mareanie were also great highlights in both their personalities and abilities, and seeing them be left behind with Bewear and Stuffle feels right even though it hurts just as much. I will certainly miss bear mom.

Rotom-Dex: A character I initially didn't like, turned out to have grown on me, and I'm glad he was there, as he was like a brother to Ash in a sense, and was a bit of comic relief at times, a I enjoy him a lot more than his debut which is good. I'm sad to see him go as I was hoping that was him in the SwiSh promo images, but who knows, maybe it is. I would certainly hope to see him again in the future. As for now, him mapping out a new land is a good fit for him, and he deserves his job.

Honorable mentions

Hau: His voice is perfect. His desire to become better is pure, and while untrained, he's got a lot of potential for sure. I really hope we get to see him again

Guzma: A perfect antagonist, who only appeared in like what, 10 episodes? but I wish we had more of him to be able to grow with, cause there's potential there for it. Here's hoping that we get a more informative conclusion to him in the future.

The stories: From being in a school, to saving a second reality, this has got to be one of the best written series for Pokemon. Starting off in a primary location and slowly visiting each and every other island was a new approach and I'm glad that it was done as such, cause again it greatly highlights the familial aspects of it all, and how much Alola means to the people and Pokemon that inhabit it. If I had to choose my favorite arc, it would probably be the Tapu Fini arc (Poni Island arc, as I'm now remembering what it's actually called) as it greatly highlights all of the characters and allows them to grow in their own, as well as mess with our emotions and I'm all about being forced to cry. That, and the Alolan League Arc, it's just so rewarding to see Kukui's dream come true, and as a result to see one of Ash and Pikachu's biggest dreams come true, not to mention that Pikachu vs Tapu Koko battle is so beautifully animated. Seeing this class become closer and closer was truely something that Pokemon hadn't tried as hard to do before, and I'm really glad they were able to do it here. And again, by changing the format of traveling to staying mainly stationary, you get a sense of home with Kukui's house as resting place, the Pokemon School as a daily experience, the city as a whole as a part of something close. Again, it's something Pokemon was missing and again, I'm glad they were able to do it right by this. If there were any negatives that I had, I guess it would have to be A. The promotional material for when this was first starting up didn't do it justice, as it put me off from watching this, and I hate that, cause this is all great. B. Would have to be that we weren't able to see any of Ash's previous companions return like Brock and Misty or even experience their reactions to Ash finally becoming a Regional Champion, but hopefully we'll be able to see that with this new series.

The animation: OH MY GOD IT'S THE BEST. This is some of the best that the series has ever produced and I'll be hard pressed to say I don't think it can ever be topped. Especially with the final league battle, Pikachu vs Tapu Koko, seriously one of the best fights ever. There are also so many hilarious facial features that this art style was able to pull off and I thank the people responsible for that because I still get a lot of good laughs from them, I really don't think any of it could have been pulled off with the BW/XY art style, as much as I love that one, I feel that this is truely superior.

Z-moves: I was wondering how this would be handled as in the games, the z-crystal acts as a held item for the Pokemon, and it seems to not be the case here, as shown with Rowlet and his Everstone, which I like, along with that as epic as the move name appearing on screen whenever the z-moves is performed, I do like it not being there in the dub. Also seeing that only one z-moves can be performed unless with assistance from the Tapu's was a nice touch too. As far as favorite z-moves goes, it has to be either Gaurdian of Alola, or 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, my gosh those two are so beautiful looking and good and just seeing them clash was aaaaaaah, the best thing ever. I hope they can treat Dynamaxing right just as they did Z-moves.

Overall: This is my favorite Poke series to date, topping out the previous holder of XY, with how much love and attention was put into it, the overall result is one that anyone can jump into and instantly fall in love with. I highly recommend this series to any and everyone, it's just that good. I also recommend listening to the Japanese songs cause they kick ass so much omg. Like, Type: Wild, is my jam right now omg. A perfect 100 across the board. Really sad it came to an end, but grateful that it happened. Here's to SwiSh, hope you can be just as good.

[jinjojess]

Jess Talks FE3H

I had a Thought the other day that I shared on my Twitter, and @goldstarzzz asked for some elaboration on it. Since Twitter sucks for nuanced, long-form discussion, I decided to type it up on my blog instead (though the draft I was working on during my trip home on the train has been lost twice because of annoying reasons I don’t want to get into now).

Be forewarned that I’m gonna be verbose here, so this shit will be long.

Obviously, we’re going to touch on some FE3H spoilers, so be aware of that.

I haven’t finished any of the routes yet, but there’s something that I want to discuss about the game--namely Edelgard and how if you aren’t on her route you get very little in the way of context for why she does the things she does.

While on one hand, I like how realistic that restricted perspective is, since in real life you don’t know the motivations and past experiences that have shaped a person unless you actually do make an attempt to engage with them and get to know them, and it fits in nicely with the themes in Three Houses of how history is written by the winners, everyone is the Hero of their own story, and conflicts are not Good vs. Evil so much as clashes of worldview/agenda between groups of fallible individuals.

However, the fact that you don’t get any context at all from the other routes does Edelgard dirty as a character, and is where we get these tiresome, dumbass takes like “Edelgard is literally Hitler” and “Edelgard just does things for no reason” from fandom members who are only engaging the narrative on a superficial level. 

(As an aside, there’s nothing wrong with just taking a narrative at face value, but you do have to give up any claim to commenting on its non-subjective quality if you do that.)

And I mean yeah, if you’re on one of the other routes then it does kind of seem like Edelgard’s heel turn comes out of nowhere, rather than a steady, uneasy build to an eventuality. In a game where you couldn’t get close to her beforehand and see the dominoes lined up along the fault line, as it were, this would be Bad Writing (e.g., Monica/Chronia), but you can take the time to hear Edelgard out and listen to her justification before that happens. She’s a playable character with an actual route, which is a big departure from the usual villain.

The things Edelgard is fighting for are objectively good: eliminating the aristocracy; disrupting the Church’s unquestioned authority; dismantling obsession with crests and fate and birthrights. She’s a trauma survivor who wants to help people who have been hurt and destroyed by the machinations of the Rich and Powerful. 

Her methods may not be ideal, but honestly, is she doing anything any different from anyone else in the game? It’s possible she does and I haven’t seen that yet, but so far the things you do on her route aren’t much different than the things you’ve been doing all game already, just under the banner of Seiros. Sure, you have no emotional connection to the NPCs from the East or West Churches, but that doesn’t change the base fact that you’re still going out to exterminate them at the behest of someone who outranks you.

Edelgard and her route’s existence is a challenge to the status quo of Fire Emblem--it makes the player question the usual set up of Good Guys vs. Bad Guys, makes you stop and wonder if hey, maybe all these brigands you’ve been hacking through have the same level of interiority and charm as the characters you’ve been playing as.

The problem with this is that Three Houses is still a Fire Emblem game. Yes, what you’re fighting for is ostensibly different, but the way you get there is identical: kill off the Enemy until they run out of guys on the map. So even if the point is that Edelgard’s goals are lofty but her methods are unacceptable, the entire theme goes belly up since Claude and Dimitri are basically using the same methods. Unless they have some mechanic I haven’t heard about where you can diplomatically resolve conflicts, they are functionally identical to Edelgard with regards to what they actually do. 

This dissonance between the themes and the mechanics reminds me a lot of Pokemon BW, with N and Team Plasma. They’re positioned to address the elephant in the room re: Pokemon’s base premise, but then because they’re restricted by the mechanics, every dispute is resolved with a battle, which kind of undermines the whole thing. Even N, who is depicted as the one who most sincerely believes in pokemon autonomy and rights, still battles you to prove that battles are unethical.

Is this realistic in that many real people will use noble goals as a smokescreen for their actual, more selfish agenda? Sure! But while that applies nicely to Ghetsis and his little cult, N feels more like he’s intended to be an anti-villain, someone who Has a Point Actually, and you should critically examine your actions in-game. It’s far more powerful when the antagonist isn’t actually wrong, just different from you, and it’s a shame that N had to sacrifice some of his integrity as a character to fit into the format of a Pokemon Game.

Going back to Edelgard, while I’d 1000% percent be down to be able to play from the perspective of someone who’s manipulating people under the guise of social reform, that a) doesn’t seem to be the intention, and b) doesn’t really fit with the other themes of moral relativity. If you make Edelgard a Bad Guy but Claude and Dimitri Good Guys (or Neutral Guys, even), that doesn’t really say much about the nature of conflict.

So it seems like Edelgard should be just as sympathetic as the other two leads, yet there’s some really troubling things in the way. 

For one, the fact that she’s a noble herself and the heir (later Empress) to vast resources, including a military that unquestionably heeds her, makes her crusade feel more like condescending Noblesse Oblige rather than a revolutionary uprising. There’s a kind of scummy appropriative element to it that is difficult to ignore, especially since you have Dorothea right there, who’d make a much better figurehead for this movement than the heir apparent to a goddamn Empire.

(Side note but Edelgard also has the misfortune of being a literal Imperial, which in today’s society is not a connotation neutral thing. Being from a “kingdom” or an “alliance” is quaint, but “empire” has become such a staple trope for villains that it’s not even surprising that she’s the one who heel-turns. Add in the fact that Hubert is presented the way he is, and it becomes really obvious which of the Three Houses is going to be the Problematic One. Fire Emblem just can’t help being itself, even when it’s toying with more mature themes.)

But on an even more general level than that, Edelgard’s convictions get a bit undermined when her goal is “stop the powerful from using the less fortunate as pawns” but all of her victories happen thanks to...putting her social inferiors in mortal peril. 

Like yeah, right after you choose to side with her (and she manages to get over the vapors that induces), she has that moment where she appears to be cognizant of the paradox, but I somehow feel like her route isn’t going to end with her dissolving the Empire and handing off all the power to the populace.

She can’t, because this is a Fire Emblem game, and in Fire Emblem games, you win the war at the end. There’s a heavy cost, of course, and we’re all going to have a moment of silence about it, but there’s still a victory and a happy ending when it’s all said and done.

Obviously, if this doesn’t happen at the end, and all four routes (including the Church one) close on a Pyrrhic victory or something, then I will stand corrected and be very pleased. However, my money is on the standard happy ending that conveniently ignores that the common folk are going to be feeling the effects of the war long past any of the privileged, powerful people in your game.

So yeah, that’s my thoughts on how I think Three Houses took some really interesting steps toward being more nuanced, but still gets tripped up on its identity in some ways. Given the way the narrative is set up, this ends up affecting Edelgard way more than the other characters.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[red-sterling]

natural harmonia gropius :)

whoops i just woke up hewwo?

favorite thing about them

N is like. objectively not a bad person? he’s really interesting as a “villain” character (and i hesitate to call him that) because it’s kinda hard to fault his actions. he’s not the typical Team Rocket give us all your pokémon so much as he is i have been taught that you are unethical and i am here to save pokémon from your abuse, and like. he has no way of knowing he’s misled until he meets bw’s protag. 

he also doesn’t deny that pokémon are happy with their trainers when he realizes your ‘mon actually like being with you!! he’s confused and he feels lost that suddenly his whole world view is coming undone at your hands, but he’s able to bounce back from Team Plasma’s ideologies when he realizes he’s wrong and i think that’s an amazing way to treat his redemption!!! 

it’s a very self-driven redemption arc, it’s not like Hoenn’s villains where they realizes oh we’re wrong because this legendary is gonna fuck shit up, his realization is very much a matter of his own understanding - and it’s a realization that you bring him to, it’s a very intimate and very personal reform that i feel like you don’t get with a lot of other antagonists and i love how much depth there is there. 

like, when N does awaken his dragon (usually Reshiram in the official renditions of him), he doesn’t actually get the chance to really attack the region. you’re right on his tail, and when you confront him for the last time, he just… relents to you. you win with your dragon and that’s the last straw that makes him admit listen, i know you’re right, i just needed to be sure - and once he is sure, i and once he runs away to god knows where, i feel like he’s absolved of all sin in that moment

on that note - 

least favorite thing about them

- the fact that he goes missing so soon after becoming a “good guy” kinda stings. i know we get him again in bw2 as someone who works alongside you, but it kinda kills me that bw protag doesn’t get to spend more time with him when all’s said and done. i understand kinda why he left, but it stings that he’s suddenly just… gone, y’know. i don’t blame bw protag for going missing looking for him at all, it’s such a bittersweet i’m glad you learned but where are you now

also. gropius. 

favorite line

this fucking memory link line killed me because i didn’t expect N to actually like. say the name of my bw1 playthrough’s character so when i read this line i kinda cried ngl

“Touya! Is it because of that Trainer that my heart wavers now? Were the words of the Pokémon in Accumula Town really true? Does that mean Touya is an ideal Trainer?”

brOTP

i got attached to the idea that N and Red would probably get along, partially bc i fixated on them BUT also for real reasons - they both handle pokémon way better than people, they both ran away from their region without a trace, they probably both have some amount of social anxiety, they just seem like they’d be able to get along ghkjdgjkdf idk

also - whenever i see Touya/Touko/N broing around my lifespan increases by two days it’s jsut a really sweet brotp

OTP

i mean. if you’ve ever read ReuNite then you know i’m a sucker for isshushipping ghjkfhjgkdfd

nOTP

first of all: whatever the ship w him and Ghetsis is - fuckin nasty no thank you bye

second: i objectively know there is like. no difference between ferriswheelshipping and isshushipping besides just if you have a girl or a boy protag, but i generally don’t like the way N is written in ferriswheelshipping content for some reason?? also my gay little heart needs mlm rep bc i had really not a whole lot of that goin for me when i was a kid and first playing bw, so it just rubs me wrong

random headcanon

N, while he wasn’t allowed out of his room as a kid, was allowed to play with a lot of toys, as we see when we reach his room in the games. in addition to that, he was allowed to play with a lot of instruments to keep himself occupied and “out of my way,” as Ghetsis said, so N can play like 8 different instruments proficiently

generally he’s a very musical boy i’d imagine. he has a good sense of rhythm and timing because he reads sheet music like formulas. in particular, he likes to play flute, piano, violin, and sometimes he just likes to sing to himself

(although, he doesn’t sing very loudly, because if he got too loud as a kid, Ghetsis would get annoyed, and things go south from there)

unpopular opinion

idk if it’s unpopular, but i think N actually really cares about people’s opinions of him. he never received much (if any) praise nor validation from Ghetsis, and when he finally stepped into the world, he’s immediately seen as the villain if he’s working with Team Plasma. i think he’s very measured in his behavior after the events of bw1 because he doesn’t want to be hurt or hated

song i associate with them

The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us! - Sufjan Stevens

i get some vibes of this being a post bw N reflecting on and missing his hero - and also this is kinda my hc voice for him! it’s soft and gentle and, oddly, unfitting for a hero 

other random tidbit, i imagine Touya also has a really soft voice, and a bit of a stutter. N talks too fast, so they kinda bond over not talking “normally” early on in their journey

favorite picture of them

i got really attached to the white day art they drew of him hgkjdsghfkdg look at my boy

but also this one makes me cry in the club it’s soft and good

[verycharismaticdragon]

Character headcanons for N?

Thank you!

1: sexuality headcanon 

Bi/pan, but mostly really really demi. As an aside, I don’t think he ever had a reason to question his gender identity, but if he did he’d likely settle on he/them nonbinary.

2: otp 

BWprotag/N. I do prefer isshushipping since that was my playthrough, but ferris is technically the same ship so. Anyway they got so much of ‘two sides of the same coin’ / 'two halves of the same whole’ / 'found the missing part of themselves in each other’ dynamic it literally kills me. Like c'mon you can’t put two characters before my eyes and give them the light and darkness dichotomy and expect me not to ship them. I was not prepared for it, and I never could be, not to say the s word but soulmates…

on the less 'poetic cinema’ note, and because my brain likes to make me feel sad, I keep thinking about N just genuinely liking the protagonist but not having any framework to process the feeling, and his… insistence that the protagonist should become the opposing hero coming from that rather than any actual future vision or whatever. Like, hm I keep thinking about that person, obviously they must be my archnemesis. For an extra punch in the gut: have to wonder how much Ghetsis fed into that line of thinking, and whether or not he was the one to start it even.

Uh that got sad real fast, tl;dr N and protag are soulmates, moving on

3: brotp 

Listen N deserves to make so many friends… he deserves a big support network and a lot of people who like the same stuff as him and people who treat him like family and just people who enjoy to hang out with him! But just so I can finish typing this up today… I’ll pick one and give honorary mentions to others, if that’s okay.

So! N and Roark would make good friends and I won’t accept any different! N loves fossil pokemon (he has a bunch if you look at his teams) and has a knack for finding fossils, and coming to Sinnoh he would naturally gravitate towards Oreburgh museum (or Underground first, then museum) and therefore run into Roark, another fossil enthusiast. N also is interested in mechanics / engineering, so he probably would be curious about the mining equipment / process (especially once he makes sure no pokemon are hurt by it) and would love to hear about it from the person who is passionate about it. Basically… they are nerd friends :D it’s good for them both

I already mentioned N and Silver, and N and Gold is also very good, especially since my headcanon version of Gold actually has… quite a few similarities with N? They both trust pokemon more than people, for one. I think Gold would introduce N to Jasmine, and once they go past the initial 'introverts awkwardly waiting for each other to start a conversation’ phase they get along really well, especially when it comes to caring for pokemon. Then there’s Sabrina who has a bit of a similar experience with being different from childhood and people being scared of her abilities… 

And then of course there are his Unovan friends, like I’m absolutely sure Cheren considers him a friend and probably so does Bianca, and then there’s BW2 protagonist… aaaand I should go to the next question if I wanna go to sleep today, sorry ^^“

4: notp

I’ve been on the good side of fandom it seems because I hadn’t stumbled into any ships that made me wanna log off yet, but I just wanna announce publicly that I do not want to see N shipped with anyone Plasma or Plasma-adjacent ever in my life and I will scream and bite someone’s ankle if I do.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head 

He kinda wants to try changing things about his appearance to reflect his inner changes, but doesn’t feel confident enough to do so until after spending some time back at Unova and reuniting with BW protag. He starts out very small, like wearing jackets/cardigans over his regular clothes, mostly in shades of grey, but in a few years works his way up to bright colors. He still tends to stick with the same outfit for a while, and his taste in color schemes can be unconventional, but he’s much happier with himself as the result.

He also probably gets more stim jewelry because why wouldn’t he! He already wears like 4 stim toys on his body why would this absolute icon stop?

Also open question to everyone. N getting his ears pierced? And getting those long jingly earrings that sound great when you shake your head? y/n?

6: one way in which I relate to this character

I mean uh I still get the creeps when I think about that scene where Ghetsis tears into N because that was uh very recognizable… but let’s never speak of that again… 

Other than that I think our speech patterns are fairly similar! Like abandoning one train of thought for another so fast people talking to me get confused… Only have two answer modes: one-word and three-novels… Will stubbornly defend my point of view, possibly in the course of multiple arguments, possibly to the point of combat, then just go 'nah I thought about it and you were right. my bad’… 

Also to go back a bit: seeing N wearing all that stim jewelry made me realize that I, not entirely consciously, trained myself out of wearing stuff I could stim with and… I literally… don’t know what the heck did i do that for? So I’ve gone back to wearing it and it made me very happy and I’ve got N to thank for it, so.

7: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

Not exactly… about him but adjacent: i know ” oo maybe he’s actually… a pokemon :o “ thing comes from things like… some word of god stuff that called him 'a child of pokemon’ and that there are ways to support that theory with canon material but like… given how N is canonically a neurodivergent person (autistic-but-they-dont-actually-say-it-but-it-literally-couldnt-be-more-obvious), and the most visibly canonically neurodivergent character in pokemon (ok im not 100% sure about most but i think he is), arguing that he is actually an animal is…… like, people gotta understand how that’s… not a good look? like actually a very bad look? like. actually a bad thing? That can make someone uncomfortable and/or hurt?Like I wouldn’t call it a second hand embarrassment exactly just a sort of "uh how did this not cross your mind when you went to tackle that topic” feeling :|

8: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

I’m going with the cinnamon roll. He did his best okay? With the way his situation was he could’ve turned out so much worse but he didn’t and that’s gotta count for something.

[yn6k]

hi shine! i wanted to know your thoughts about the book of us: gravity album? any personal favorites? least favorites?

sorry this is so late! i wanted to take my time to answer it because i do have a lot of thoughtsTM hahaha more (like a LOT more) under the cut :) 

so on first listen of the album, or honestly even just from the album spoiler haha, my ears instantly focused in on cover and how to love! so i’ll probably have the most to say about those songs + time of our life since ive listened to them the most!!for me: love how its in compound meter! always love me a good 12/8 or 6/8 or whatever it is haha its felt in three basically lskj i dont have a lot to say about this song? i think the focus is more on the lyrics? but musically i cant really identify anything that really sticks out to me alkdj like typical poprock i really dont know what to say maybe theres more interesting things going on underneath that im terrible at picking out (like in the chord progressions) fav part is def the prechorus^^time of our life: its so weird talking about this now bc ive gotten so used to the song that lkj some of what im saying (like the changes i would have done) feels /wrong/ but ahaha still here are some of my thoughts^^ FIRST OF ALL WONPILS PIANO SOLO >>>>> i just really love listening to it and i think an underrated part of his solo is the i think synth drums underneath them and how it creates this driving motion for the song and so like even tho the song starts kind of bare we can go straight into that hype instrumental intro instead of like having only his solo be the intro and going straight into the more mellower verse or smth along those lines? hahaha i think on first listen the first thing that stood out to me was how the chorus sounded like an extension of the verse?  like the chorus wasnt very obvious and im not sure why in terms of like chord progression music theory, but in terms of instrumentation i think one of the reasons is because that driving quarter note drum thing we get in the chorus only resolves in the second half of the chorus instead of sometime in the first half of it. so it almost gives off this sense that we might be building up to something greater but we arent? really like all of this energy from the drums piling up for seemingly no reason and also the effect that it has on really accentuating the opening lines of the chorus dissipates imo the longer that drum rhythm plays out. like the whole “a page of beautiful youth” part that opens the chorus is mostly all quarter notes and i love how we have the quarter notes within the actual drum line to back that up but then two things after that happen: 1) we get i guess a reiteration of the opening melody in the chorus with the “let’s write it together” which i feel like having the drumming driving with those same quarter notes underneath it makes the intro of the chorus feel a bit less special and memorable? and 2) and after that line plays out, the melody becomes a bit more loose in in terms of its rhythm (the ‘i want to fill it with our memories’ part) the melody doesnt have those same impactful quarter notes anymore, but u still have the drum playing it so its kind of? like a why? at that point like i personally feel it takes away from the support it gives to the earlier melody that was obviously more driving quarter notes. i kind of wish that driving forward motion in the drumline was resolved within the third measure of the chorus with like a singular drum hit into the release (like going from here to something like here but with a drum hit in between as a transition or smth? hard to explain lks i actually had a made a video a while back kind of experimenting with the sound but idk how to upload it to here) but!! i am a fan of having those driving quarter notes coming out of the bridge i love the usage of it there and would not change a thing! i think it fits because we are actually building up to that release in the instrumental, it feels a lot different than the chorus which just feels like it drags on for a bit too long. but i would also would have liked if we had a bit of an instrumental pause or something like right after sungjin says ‘dont worry about a thing’ like after that ‘ma’ a brief pause or like even the omission of the downbeat that the drum is giving like /something/ missing before we get back into him singing ‘leave everything to me’ idk i feel like that change would have been interesting and way to build up tension again in a way?? anyways to circle back to my original point about the chorus feeling like an extension of the verse..i lowkey feel like maybe day6 felt that a bit too? laksdj and thats why we got that drum intermission bw the end of the prechorus and the start of the chorus but thats just a theory idk how true it is like honestly to me it felt slightly out of place and kind of a random transition? i dunno i could be wronghere are some misc. things not in too much detail since i think talking about one song has already gotten too long alksdj but sungjins part in the prechorus i think could have been sung a bit /gentler/ than his usual throaty approach for day6 songs idk. love the vocal layering in the chorus! maybe my headphones are terrible and maybe im biased (a bit of both or neither who knows) but laksdj i kinda wish youngks bass part was a tad bit louder he has some cool parts that often get overshadowed by the electric guitars + vocals i think (like here! the sound is so tiny in the studio i wish they had brought it out a bit more because when it is brought out it like here sounds gorgeous…that sound actually might be a bit overpowering actually haha but some happy balance bw those two). also totally random but i love the way jae says ‘한 페이지’ its just satisfying to listen to like he slurs the words a bit? whereas sungjin in his part is more staccato and lkj i think i prefer the legato connection of the words to the staccato one. also thank god they brought back the piano solo for the bridge laksjhow to love: SHE!! was a favorite/look out for since the album spoiler and she did not disappoint. wonpil said it was motown influenced? love that for them;; the chord progressions are funky and fun to listen out for! love how we get a bit of instrumental differences between the first and second reiteration of the first part of the verse?  (the introduction of this electric guitar kind of in ur left ear if ur wearing head phones thats not there initially but then also this part in the electric guitar in the right ear which isnt there also again in the first reiteration just to keep it different and not redundant! i love the prechorus, introduction of strings for chorus stellar (but im strings biased) but its just so fun to follow how its similar and different to the vocal melody also whats a day6 song without some sort of chanting! love how the rhythm in the melody follows the drum part into the chorus all three times that it happens! the bridge is funky love it haha and also just love how at the end they switch up the ‘cause im ready’ and have sungjin jae and wonpil each sing one of those and then have youngk end with the ‘ooooh’ i thought that was adorable. ok keeping it short thats all i’ll saywanna go back: not to be a svt stan but holiday is that you? hahah jkjk its just a similar genre its like holiday meets maroon 5 haha i actually enjoy a lot of the song the chord progressions in the verses are interesting but also the prechorus is really pretty sounding but lakjd i honestly wish the tempo was just a little bit faster in the chorus i feel like its dragging a bit its hard for me personally to stay engaged with the song because of the murky feeling i personally get from the chorus. also the transition into the second verse is kinda ?? idk ahahaha but yeah main thing is just i wish the tempo was even just the tiniest bit faster for the chorus specifically i feel like verses are fine but just the chorus could have afforded to been a bit faster…but maybe this is just a personal experience cover: this is my personal favorite from the album! musically i just love the sound of the chord progressions in the verses? also the chorus! she! the vocal melody how it goes down but then u hear that piano in the background go up *chefs kiss* art! and i love the changes in the instrumental they introduced for the second verse! they added the bass i believe as well as another electric guitar part that isnt that muted plucking thing that we got in the first verse! AND THEN THE BRIDGE!!!!!!! THAT!!! IS!! A!! BRIDGE!!!! its so stunning and incredibly climatic and beautifully executed!!! i believe thats the first time the drums proper actually come in can you believe it (there are percussion sounds before but i think its a tambourine + a shaker/maraca? essentially not the drumset);; the tension that just the introduction of drums really brings to the piece ahhh and also the chord progressions really take u for a ride the first time u hear it and u dont know what to expect;; and then we get out of the chorus with ‘because im weak and not cool’ as a deviance from the earlier lyrics of ‘my weak and not cool side’ then DRUMTRIPLET!!!!! LAST CHORUS!! MORE DRUM TRIPLETS!! so wonderful the pOWER really the whole song is a huge crescendo ?? kind of influenced by the fact that they keep layering instruments which i absolutely LOVE like its beautiful haha but then the last chorus is just the quickest decrescendo ever as a way to fade out from the song but now with all the instruments (love how the last line really like enforces its importance and lyrical difference from the earlier ‘in the end i was seen’ by having that drum just punch it into u with every hit of the bass drum haha) also like how its not a true circular ending (but it kinda is) like there are instrumental and lyrical differences from the start and the end one thing i kind of wished they experimented with was like maybe mixing up some members voices in the chorus? like i tried a youngpil one myself haha where wonpil sings this part, then youngk, wonpil, youngk (again i hve a video for this but idunno how to upload to this ask) but its not like the song to me suffered from having singular member choruses i just thought it might be kinda cool haha anywhos im biased i love this song and laksj didnt even go into the lyrics rip anyways moving onbest part: i think its really cute that they composed this to be specifically be enjoyed in concert! i really like the best paaaaaaaaa aaaart like that swoop they do and the layering of the vocals i also think its super cool how some of the instrumental drop out towards the end of the chorus but alskj another ‘wanna go back’ transition into the second verse are they experimenting with this transition or smth?? but it just feels like inserted bc they couldnt think of a better way to transition into second verse which?? just kind of awkward akjl idk but maybe they have a reason for it i dont know! but yeah haha again musically im not really sure what to say kinda like for me it just feels like standard pop rock which isnt a bad thing just a /thing/ ahaha 

[oppressiveliberator]

What are things Ghetsis likes to do in his spare time? Does he have anything in particular that he really enjoys doing that most wouldn’t know about? (Like. Knitting or some hobby type thing like that.)

Hobbies, huh. . . .

Ghetsis is a very goal-oriented person. Back when he was Plasma Boss and all, he wasn't really one for many hobbies--he certainly enjoyed doing things in his free time now and then, but by the time he'd adopted N, he was putting most of his free time into Plasma and advancing his goals and such.

But like I said, he did enjoy things now and then!

((snip snip unless you’re on mobile in which case as always I am sorry--maybe i should start putting these into multiple posts instead of singular big ones?  lmao

Also brief mentions of I think abuse, Pokémon abuse, torture??  i don’t think there was anything else triggering in there but i’m also too lazy to reread it lmao))

Ghetsis loves to read. He most enjoys nonfiction--true crime, history, religion, culture, Pokémon, human psychology, science, world news; Ghetsis really loves just about anything that can teach him something new. He's all about doing lots and lots of research, too, and he's actually well versed in old languages, too, especially old Unovan. He made a cypher for translating(and even taught Zinzolin how to read it a bit! In fact, Zinzolin is the one who has the Old Unovan linguistic work he's done atm because he can't let go of his boyfriend's old things) But he also likes a good fiction novel--crime, historic, alternate history, adventure, thriller, horror. . .he's picky about fantasy and science fiction and romance, but he'll read them now and then too.

While he's not really that into it, he does watch a lot of TV lately. He has days where he's pretty much immobile, so something he can just lie down and watch is nice to at least keep him from just sleeping all day. His taste in TV and movies is pretty similar to his taste in books. However, he's not much of a TV person and it's more something he just kind of accepts as what he 'has to' do nowadays. Sometimes he just. Doesn't have the energy to turn pages in a book. But entertainment is always better than boredom.

In his current state, Ghetsis doesn't really do much daydreaming or quiet contemplation, because ultimately it leads to a heavy slew of negative thoughts and emotions and makes him feel terrible. But in the past, he spent much of his time thinking about the world, plotting, planning. Lately if he does anything it's daydream or dissociate but. The latter isn't really, y'know, a hobby or something he really wants to do.

Music! Is one of his highest interests!! The Harmonia family is a very musical and artistic one, so he was surrounded by music and taught to sing and play instruments since he was in diapers. He doesn't think of himself as being able to play instruments nowadays. . .even though he still played now and then when he lost most usage of his arm, so long as it obviously didn't really require both hands or a need for both could be worked around. At present he's more into listening to music than anything--and his tastes are far more variant than you'd expect, as he's able to find some enjoyment in most any genre. He's started to sing more lately, too, although since his voice is often poor, he hates to do it and have to hear how terrible he sounds. But after Bede told him not to be discouraged over it and that some practice would surely restore his voice to its former glory, he's been singing to himself a bit more in an attempt to get his vocal chords back in decent condition.

(The unexpected part of this is when you find him singing old pop songs. . . . . . . .)

Ghetsis is, despite being antisocial as far as his personality/mindset/comfort levels, actually quite outgoing and enjoys people's company and talking to them, watching them. He loves social events and crowds and being around people--although he also hates it because, well, everyone is below him and the world around them is usually disgusting. But he quite likes company, especially from interesting and intelligent people, and he's playfully flirtatious too. While he prefers to do the talking and teaching, he's not against listening if somebody catches his attention and, again, Ghetsis has an insatiable desire for knowledge. Oh and socializing doesn't always have to be positive, either! He l o v e s to harass his protags. He likes to disturb people and make them afraid and uncomfortable and upset. He'd probably be an internet troll now and then if he bothered with internet socializing.

(Also, Ghetsis fucks to survive is a hedonist. So having people around means getting laid when he wants to. And how can he say no to being attended to and having his body worshipped and pleasured? To the power that comes with controlling someone else's pleasure, making their whole body respond with a mere touch, sometimes even less?)

As of late he also quite enjoys taking walks when he can--and while he's still beginning to accept it, he has started taking his wheelchair out(though, not in the regular world, only in the magic plane he’s hiding on) if he can't do his own walking and just enjoying the world outside. He. . .misses it.

He actually is very well travelled and he loves travelling, visiting new places, learning new things in person, going on expeditions and to archaeological sites and ruins and historic places. . .! Up until BW he travelled a good amount and enjoyed the bounties and interests his the world had to offer, practical or not. He likes himself a good time and experiences. Of course it lessened when he acquired his kids, especially N. And nowadays he hardly even leaves the house, let alone the region, though with the way his magic hideaway works(rather, doesn't work) he can wind up travelling by accident simply because it isn't stable enough not to move around.

And, of course there's magic. Ghetsis habitually draws little magic circles and things here and there, little spells to store magic or discourage nightmares or encourage remembering things. If he's idly tracing something on a table that's probably why. If he's idly tracing something on a person, that's probably why--in particular, he'd 'bless' N with safety when he went outside, or put magic on him that would ideally 'lock' his mind somewhat so he wasn't influenced by the outside world and had his plans ruined. Ghetsis does rituals every now and then(there used to be some cultish stuff in Team Plasma. . .maybe. . .but rituals aren't necessarily cultish, just like regularly done things) and magical cleanses, protection for his own spaces, charging the crystals and things he has around, and practices little bits of magic here and there just so he knows he can still do it. Now and then he tries to learn or develop new magic, but he's really not in the best condition for good magic usage. It certainly doesn't stop him but, y'know, tries to keep playing with fire to a minimum lest he burn his house down.

Of course, these are mostly things he does at present. . .with the strokes and the weakness in his body and the problems with his cognition and mind in general. . .his options are lessened in his opinion. His depression and lessened will to live make it hard for him to do even those things--let alone some of the things he used to do.

Sports are among the things he'd done in the past--namely basketball(just kinda happens when you're over 6ft tall.) He gave his old ball to N to teach him to play, but back then he could still play, one arm or not. Nowadays he has trouble even sitting up let along standing, running, and he's still accepting that he needs a wheelchair now and then when he can't get around so easily himself, so wheelchair basketball isn't something he'd even consider trying. Playing basketball? Tennis? Hell, any sport? He can't even consider it. He hates watching sports now. Whereas he used to love to do so because he could watch Unovan teams VS other regions and feel proud and cheer for Unova and so on, but now he can't stand it because it makes him think of how he used to be.

One of the things he did a lot up until the end of BWB2W2, was, of course, train his Pokémon, care for them, sometimes even play with them. They needed exercise and enrichment, and keeping them in fighting and killing shape was a high priority, both for enjoyment/entertainment and for the sake of having strong Pokémon. But now his Pokémon are all gone. . .and he resents all Pokémon for it and his hostility towards them all has increased. If anything at present, he takes even greater delight in hurting Pokémon than he had in the past.

Public speaking, debating, evangelizing, convincing people of Plasma's ways, giving and writing speeches was also a hobby he enjoyed. Usually, however, he winged his speeches, simply spoke from his cunning heart. Of course, if he tried to do something like that today. . .well, someone would call interpol and it'd be a whole thing. . .he does talk to himself a even more than he used to now, but it's not the same.

Punishing and teaching Plasma's members and anyone they decided to. . .host for a while, so they could learn the truths and come to know Team Plasma's might and perspective. . .being able to torment captives, seeing the hope leave somebody's eyes, god. He misses power. He misses victims. He misses taking out his frustrations on somebody locked in his dungeons, beating them and spitting on them and showing them how above them he was, torturing them--. . .expressing his power, he never really gets to do it anymore. . . . Harming others. . .even less. . .and what power, authority, strength does he have to at present anyways. . . . .

Training members of Plasma and their Pokémon, using the Pokémon they'd liberated for various behind the scenes work like building the castle, abusing people and Pokémon alike, really he found such bliss in it. Yes, it was something he kept quite quiet about or explained away until Neo Plasma--after all, nobody knew of his plans and intentions until he was defeated--but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy it.

Unexpected things. . .hm. he's pretty adventurous so I'm sure he's tried lots of things, but ultimately discarded them as things to do often for one reason or another. Knitting he can't see himself doing, one hand and all.

When N was younger, he actually took care of the human dolls and toys he gave him, since n mostly cared about the pokémon ones and was neglectful towards the human ones. Which was what was intended! But it irked Ghetsis's sense of perfectionism to see them all messed up, so he'd do their hair and dress them and so on just so they were in order and not a messy pile in the corner.

Ghetsis liked visiting dig sites and such, but he also enjoyed personally going on expeditions now and then too! He'd been planning one to the Abyssal Ruins for some time, but it never came to fruition. . . .

Since he was so well researched and did lots of discovering things himself, he’s written academic papers and things of that nature too.  Spreading his knowledge is always great.

Sciences piqued his interests sometimes, although that may not be a surprise. It's probably even less of a surprise that he was interested in experimentation on people and Pokémon--he was usually eager to let Colress do as he pleased as a result.

OH RIGHT ALSO! COLLECTING STUFF!! In particular things relating to or supposedly relating to legendary and mythical Pokémon and extinct ones too and history/legends and other unique things--stuff like feathers from legendary birds or orbs or gems said to strengthen or summon them and stuff like that. . .! He has a raw keystone, but he's not super aware of what it is since Mega Evos only really have recently come into common knowledge and he wasn’t in Kalos to learn about that in particular at the time, so he just thinks it's a cool kalosian rock with a strong life energy.

Tbh idk about any unexpected hobbies for him. . .tbf i also have like. No hobbies of my own. So this is kind of a hard question for me because doing things in your spare time??? I can't even bring myself to do things when o have to do them! Lmao.

He's abandoned a lot of his hobbies and interests. It kinda comes with being old and disabled and depressed and losing your will to live. He's feeling a bit better as of the start of the blog recent--so he's getting a bit active again, but. . .he's still not used to being "incapable" and it gets between him and doing anything for fun.

But hopefully this answer satisfied! And if not, if you're curious about anything in particular, send another ask my way!!

[the-real-tc]

Review: Ep. 1110—A Fine Balance

(Cross-posted on FB; additional comments here because I can.) I wasn't sure what I was going to see when Heartland returned to my screen in 2018. Tim's irritating attitude towards Altan in the opening minutes soured me immediately, which put me in a mind to dislike the rest of the episode. I was further set back by the Pollyanna-esque "Attila the magical horse will find Ty! Let's go traipsing off into the Mongolian desert with nothing else but these equines! Whee!". It made me realise I was turning into Tim, which didn't sit well with me, and made me even more grouchy about the way the episode seemed to be going. *Fortunately*, the second half of the episode was a lot more serious and great performances by everyone won me back. 

Yes, Attila the Magical Horse facilitated Ty and Bata's rescue after they were kidnapped and then "taught a lesson" by those dastardly poachers (one with a stereotypical diabolical British-like accent). But, see, Ty had a revelation of sorts. During his period of deep despair, with Bata pratically coughing up a lung, and the night turning dark and cold, Ty realised just how much his trek across the globe might cost him and his family, especially Baby Lyndy. She's so young, she'll never know him or even remember him if he croaks out there in Mongolia. It seems like... what is that thing called... Regret? Regret he chased after poachers in a foreign country instead of staying home with his wife and child? Is that what Ty was experiencing? I sure hope so. It seemed like he concluded that maybe he shouldn't have done the stupid thing he did to land him in that predicament. Good for you, Ty, for finally having that epiphany. NOW STAY HOME FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFE, got it?! Seriously, though. When Amy and Ty were reunited, I had real tears streaming down my face. Graham Wardle delivered beautifully in that scene as his character embraced and kissed his wife. Amber Marshall was equally impressive as you could just see the total relief flow through Amy at the sight of her husband, alive, and unharmed. Best scene of the entire episode. no question. On to Tim. Oh, Tim. Brash Tim. Bull-in-a-china-shop Tim. Foot-in-mouth-syndrome Tim. Irascible Tim. I could think of other things to call him, but this is supposed to be a family-friendly forum, so let's leave the descriptors at that. Anyway, Tim's got health problems and relationship problems, and he's not dealing with them well. Along comes quiet and unassuming Altan, the Mongolian shaman who keeps calling Tim "Manan". Tim thinks it's some kind of insult, until Altan has a chance to explain: Manan means "shadowed", which is how Altan sees Tim. Whoa. Shadowed? That sets Tim back on his heels a bit. After all, didn't that MRI of his brain reveal a shadow? How could this Mongolian stranger be so perceptive? Makes Tim more willing to listen when Altan doles out words of wisdom regarding balance in life, the yin and yang, shadow and light, and how Tim needs to learn to let the light in. In the end, Tim has to acknowledge Altan might be on to something, and accepts a talisman with the yin and yang on one side, and a falcon on the other... and didn't Tim just see a falcon earlier that morning where it's rare to see falcons? I do believe Tim is starting to see a light of his own. Not that there was ever any doubt Ty would get home safely, of course we were all relieved he did get back to Heartland in one piece, to be with his little girl again. Not only that, but Lyndy utters her first word: "Dada". Cute way to end the episode. I wasn’t terribly interested in the “B” plot, which was Georgie’s showjumping thing. Maybe I ought to have been, since I was a background extra that day, but... Truly, it was cool to see how that portion of the episode was edited, so I’m not complaining about that. For me, though, I’m just not all that excited about what’s happening in Georgie’s life. Alisha Newton is a terrific actress, and she always kills it as Georgie, but... her showjumping life and her relationships aren’t going to hold my attention. Not even concerned about the creepy paparazzo in the woods plot they have going. (Mind you, I’d be calling the police if that happened to my daughter/great-granddaughter, so I was a little puzzled by the lack of ire on Peter and Jack’s part. Yes, they showed concern, but I’d be like, “Call the cops, find this creep and no you’re not going out into the woods alone I don’t care how innocuous this might seem!” Maybe that’s part of my ambivalence?) Anyhow, Peter and Mitch’s little showdown over caring for Lyndy was amusing, Too bad Pete is still insecure about his place in the family, even after getting his family stone. I did laugh when Lyndy began crying in Mitch’s arms, anyway, after he tried to be like “Yeah, you like Uncle Mitch, dontcha? Not strangers like that Pete guy over there”, and Pete all smug-like, “Yeah, well... you’re not on the approved list of baby-sitters, so there! Gimmie back my niece!” (Seriously, though: Mitch isn’t on Amy and Ty’s list of approved baby-sitters?!) 

I have not seen the preview for 1111, so I’ll just have to wait for the trusty BW to post it. 

[artkaninchenbau]

Because I really want to figure out what we should expect to see during the rest of the second season of Overwatch’s animated shorts, I thought I should go back and really look at the shorts in Season 1 and try to find the overarching plot, themes and the points of each short; what is each short trying to do?

Here’s a read more because THIS GOT LONG AS BALLS I gotta spare y’all from this wall of text LMAO

The Cinematic Trailer    The point of this trailer is to simply establish the entire universe of Overwatch and get us an idea of what Overwatch itself is, why it existed, how it doesn’t exist anymore, and after Establishing Terrorism Part 1 (with a hint of the threats that would come /coughDoomfist) we know that maybe Overwatch isn’t entirely gone

Recall - Watchpoint: Gibraltar (& Horizon Lunar Colony)    Establishing Terrorism Part 2, we hear more about all the bad crap that’s going down that then leads to Winston sending out his Recall Message (the game’s opening video)

Alive - King’s Row    While Establishing Terrorism Part 3 is going on, this short establishes the Omnic Rights movement and some of the conflict going on

Dragons - Hanamura    It seems like Genji has recieved Winston’s Recall, and while he doesn’t state which side he has picked, it seems like he knows which it is. So he appears before Hanzo, telling him that he’s going to have to pick a side too, and implying that he doesn’t want to fight Hanzo again. Was Genji trying to invite Hanzo to join Overwatch?

Hero - Dorado    Establishes Los Muertos (aka Establishing Terrorism: The Honorable Mention) as well as truly showcases us the anti-Omnic violence and hatred; Alive showed it to us on a greater scale with important figures, but here we see it happen to a someone much smaller and more insignificant

The Last Bastion (Eichenwalde)    Lets be real, this short mainly existed to try and win some awards. It does establish that Omnics do have some level of sentience, that not all Omnics want to destroy humanity even if they were programmed to do so, and we got a good look at what a battlefield looked like during the Omnic Crisis, but really, it’s just a really pretty lovely short that exists to be just that. Really pretty. Not that I’m complaining. Also Bastion sets out on his grand adventure

Infiltration - Volkaya Industries    Establishing Terrorism Part 4, this time showing a bigger operation Talon was working on. At the same time we learn more about the still on-going conflict with the Omnics, about Volskaya‘s methods of dealing with said conflict and we learn about Sombra being up to something that could be against what Talon had been wanting to do

And with that all in mind, how would I summarize Season 1?

Season 1 is a prolouge. It’s about establishing the universe, the organizations in it, what they all stand for, what conflicts exists and what’s to come, probably the most important one being Winston’s Recall Message getting sent out.

So what has Season 2 been like so far? Mei and Reinhardt recieving said message, and answering to it.    Rise and Shine taught us more about Overwatch’s less battle-centric divisions, while Honor and Glory showed us more of the Omnic Crisis (in Germany), taught us about the Crusaders and how Overwatch used to invite people to join during that time. Plenty of content there for sure and I’m not even getting into the character development and progression here, but still, the main goals of these two shorts have been to show us Mei and Rein accepting the call (and telling us why they accepted).

It really shouldn’t be much of a stretch of imagination to assume that we might still get a few more shorts about some people recieving Winston’s call, and how they answer to it. But who?

Figuring out who is exactly why I paid attention to the maps that’ve been used as locations for shorts so far, because I think it’s safe to assume Blizzard doesn’t want to create art of new locations in this game if they’re not going to put in the game, the only exceptions we’ve seen so far have been the vague museum (which was just one big hall really) in the Cinematic Trailer and the forest near Eichenwalde in the Last Bastion.

So far we’ve seen seven different maps used directlly in shorts and I doubt these maps are going to get reused as locations, so the ones mentioned above along with Ecopoint: Antarctica and Eichenwalde probably won’t be seen again. Because the Black Forest and Castillo are visually very similar to some of the locations we’ve seen already too, I doubt they’re going to make any appearances either. Meanwhile because Junkertown and Numbani have starred in non-CGI shorts (The Plan, Doomfist Origin and Orisa Origin) those two should be safe to ignore too. Oh, and Blizzard World too, because why the hell would we see a short take place in Blizzard World??

So we have 9 maps left to choose from- Lijiang Tower, Ilios and Hollywood don’t really seem like maps that have super strong connections to any hero I don’t think these three are candidates, but the remaining ones are Chateau Guillard, Necropolis + Temple of Anubis, Nepal, Oasis and Route 66 and these maps do have strong connections to certain characters.

Now logically speaking if answering the recall is going to be the common theme during Season 2, we should only be seeing shorts about the former members of Overwatch and whether or not they’re going to answer the call, there being 11 playable members of Overwatch and four of whom we already know have answered. While I don’t think it’s likely... I’d love to see one of the shorts be about Genji both answering and while doing so, inviting Zenyatta.

My reasoning are that 1) Nepal hasn’t been featured in a short 2) it’s an important location for Zenyatta and Genji alike and 3) in Dragons Genji tried to approach Hanzo and lowkey expressed his wishes that Hanzo would join “the good guys”- if Genji would do that with his brother, then why not his Master too and 4) if Genji is answering to his recall, a short showing us why he will should be expected.

Like I can totally just picture in my head a short where Genji reminisences about how he met Zenyatta, how Zen changed his life for the better, how much Zen means to him and how that is why he’s willing to go help his old friends again. And while at it, why wouldn’t Genji invite Zenyatta to come with him? Like I’m sure this would make for a great short! And it’d help move a non-Overwatch affiliated character into the main story!!

...But as much as I want that it’d probably stick out weirdly if all the shorts were exclusively about OW affiliated characters and then Zenyatta just stars in one of them. Like god knows I want my Zen content but considdering how a certain Angela “Overwatch was shut down for a reason” Ziegler would probably be hesistant to answer her call and would probably need some convincing from a certain someone who she knows pretty well... yeah, is it true Michael Chu likes Gency? Good dear god, my Zen short concept would be so much better but I should probably expect the opposite instead because how else are they going to give us a Mercy-answers-the-recall short? And no, I have no idea where this could take place considdering there’s no map for this, unless the next map we get after Blizzard World will be like old OW HQ in Switzerland or something (but even if that map ends up happening, it shouldn’t be until June at earliest)

Speaking of “I have no idea what map this should take place on”, Tjorb should be getting the recall message too. Bastion is with him so I guess Bastion is getting the message too. But I have no idea where such a short should take place so I’m considdering this short unlikely to happen- unless Tjorb is taking his newly adopted child to Blizzard World like the BW teaser seemed to “suggest”. This has been a sidenote

Okay but all that aside, there’s four remaining former members of Overwatch with strong ties to certain map that haven’t been used yet.

Ana and Soldier and currently at Necropolis, while McCree and Reaper both have strong ties to Route 66.

So yeah, Ana and Soldier are both at Necropolis, so they (or, more like Soldier) could get the recall. Two birds with one stone, and hey! The Temple of Anubis is just there, so maaaaybe you could somehow shove Pharah in there somewhere too maybe IDK

Reaper appearenly found McCree back in Route 66, like. Put both of them on the same map, make them reminisences about stuff, get all nostalgic, leave them both thinking about the recall message (I mean obviously Reaper ain’t answering but since the message is being broadcasted on a special frequence he should know how to access it), maybe they could find one another and fight, IDK dude. In Masquerade Doomfist did accuse Reaper of going soft for not having killed Soldier, Ana or Winston yet, maybe bring that plotline back up- is Reaper being soft, if he found McCree listening to Winston’s recall all alone, for the sake of Talon Reaper should try to kill the guy before gets the chance to answer- but would he be able to? Would he reveal himself to McCree and try to convince him to join Talon instead of OW?

Now, we still have two maps that have characters tied to them and haven’t been used in a short yet- Oasis and Chateau Guillard

IDK what kind of a short you could do with just Oasis and Moira, but Chateau is bit interesting because so far... there’s no reason why this map needs to exist. It’s not an important location for the lore of OW, so why Widow’s old home needed to be turned into a map is beyond me ...unless Blizz is going to use it as a location for a short. And considdering how Widow’s dead husband used to be a member of Overwatch, who knows? Could we maybe see a short about how Widow was forced into becoming who she is, murdering Gérard and how she ended up in Talon?

That does sound far-fetched but to be fair, if Season 2 is anything like Season 1, we should see anywhere from 6-7 shorts, of which we already know two, and if any of my predictions are correct, we only have a small list of 3 potential shorts (Ana+Soldier, Reap+McCree, Genji+Mercy OR Zen), and that’s just five in total. There could still be 1-2 more shorts so a Widow short doesn’t seem too outrageous to me considdering they already have a location ready to use.

The only real thing going against a Widow short happening is... it doesn’t inherently have a purpose like other shorts would.

Season 1 was the prolouge season, all about establishing the world. Season 2 should be about the beginging of the hero’s journey, the call to adventure, how it appears to them, how they react to it and why they react the way they do. While OW members getting their call fits into that description, a Widow short really wouldn’t...

The remaining shorts could be about other stuff too tho. Why not give us some more info about what Sombra is up to, maybe give us a Symmetra short that ties into nothing, show us D.VA IDK

But I’ve made my prediction! Ana/Solder, Reaper/McCree and Genji+Someone shorts are something I’m totally expecting to see before we get to season 3.