#but my overall point is sv is doing pretty well

[moondal514]

ngl i get confused every time i see an sv fan call svsss a small fandom cuz like yes compared to the giants that are mdzs and tgcf svsss is teeny tiny but it’s also much much larger than a good portion of other fandoms i’m a part of so to me it doesn’t really feel right to call it small either 😂

[adobe-outdesign]

Might i request some elephant 'mons reviews ? So Donphan/Panphy and Copperajah/Cufant, let's keep great tusk for whenever there's official art.

(The official artwork has actually come out while I was waiting to backlog through to this ask, so I think I'm going to look the Phanpy line and the Donphan paradoxes into one big review as that makes the most sense. If anyone still wants to hear my thoughts on the Cufant line, just let me know.)

Phanpy is pretty cute, just a nice blue elephant with a few bright red accents. At this stage, it doesn't have much of a concept, but the colors alone make it stand out a little despite it otherwise being pretty unremarkable.

I have to say though, there is a bit of a weird disconnect between it and Donphan. There really aren't any visual elements that the two have in common (I guess the red patch on the trunk looks a bit like Donphan's treads?), the faces and general moods are different, and the colors couldn't be further apart (Phanpy's being oversaturated and Donphan's having almost no color). It really feels like they took two unrelated elephant designs and then slapped 'em together into one line.

I do feel like this could be an easy fix. Phanpy could easily have the same "chains" on the legs (make them look like kneepads or something that connects to the tire theme), give it like two more patches on the face to mimic Donphan's trunk, and maybe make it a slightly lighter blue while making Donphan more of a blue with maybe a spot or two of red accents. It's not that either are bad as-is; they just aren't as coherent of a line as they could potentially be.

Line aside, Donphan is pretty neat. An elephant is one thing, but making an elephant that rolls up into a tire is another thing entirely. The execution of this concept is also nice; the tire patterning feels natural, you can tell how it rolls up just by looking at it, and the various animations of it rolling are pretty slick as well.

My only nitpick is that the ears stick straight out and that throws the tire shape a little—I wouldn't have minded them being floppier like Phanpy's. I also wouldn't minded a bit more color in the design, though it might just be Phanpy's oversaturation speaking there.

Overall, the line feels a bit disconnected, but both Pokemon are nicely designed and Donphan in particular has a great concept and a great execution.

Great Tusk is actually pretty intimidating; it's hard to describe, but it's pretty eerie turning a corner in SV and being suddenly greeted by the titan version of this thing slowly moving around a corner. This effect is furthered by exaggerating some of Donphan's elements, such as the much larger tusks, squinting yellow eyes, and wicked-looking mouth.

Visually, I kind of prefer it over original Donphan a bit, even though original Donphan is perfectly good as well. The colors on this one are particularly nice—purple and pink give it just the right amount of "pop" while not making it look overly garish (and ironically, the pink kind of ties into Phanpy's red accents despite Great Tusk not evolving from Phanpy).

I guess you could argue that the back spikes, color, and tusks kind of detract from the "tire" concept, but then again, I'd argue that's the point—Iron Treads is the one that really leans into the tire thing, while Great Tusk is more leaning into a woolly mammoth side, what with the added fur. It's a nice way to justify both designs, as each design leans into a different "half" of Donphan.

I don't like Iron Treads as much as either Donphan or Great Tusk, but I can give it points right off the bat for at least being Different than Donphan instead of just a robotic version of the same design. I know that's not much, but it's more than the other future Paradoxes try to do at least. The bright red paneling on the treads in particular really gives it a unique element, and helps draw attention to the smoother, more conveyor-belt like shape.

However, something about it is just a little off. I think it's the head, which looks laughably tiny compared to the body; not helped by it lacking a neck. Donphan doesn't have much of a head either, but it at least gives the impression of it having a tiny bit of a head and a much larger face than this thing's LEDs would suggest. I also find the "ears" a bit odd (why are they on the middle of the torso?) and the tusks feel pretty pointless on this version, to the point where I'd almost say they should've just been dropped. Right idea, but it could've been a little stronger.

(Also, side note: Shoutout to Iron Treads here for being one of the only future Paradox 'mons whose typing actually makes sense.)

As a whole, Phanpy is cute and simple, albiet without much of a through line to its evo. Donphan has a solid concept and design, Great Tusk does what Donphan is doing but really makes it stand out, and Iron Treads at least stands out from the other future Paradoxes, even if it could've been stronger. Overall, some good elephants.

[sazorak]

Every Game I Played in 2023, Ranked

I debated moving this list to Cohost (after all these years, the Tumblr text post interface still makes me want to punch a wall) but whatever, here we are! Keeping it relatively short this year.

A lot of the games I played aren't going to be on this list because I don't have much new to say about them (MTG, Dwarf Fortress, Strive, etc), but for those that I do, here's the games I played this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

SD Gundam Battle Alliance - 2022 - Steam - ★★★

I really wanted to like this- you know I like me some Gundam- but the experience is simultaneously too thin, too grindy, and bereft of stakes. There's nothing like "oh no we have to preserve the Gundam metaverse from hackers ruining the archived story!" to make me go to sleep.

There's something about the progression system of every "hey, gotta catch 'em all!"-ish Gundam games that is designed exclusively for people who either played these games in the early 00s, or people with addictive personalities. There's been little in the way of evolution. Yeah, the gameplay here is different as a sort of Action RPG, but this is far more Dynasty Warriors than it is say Armored Core.

Just not for me!

... Where's my new Super Robot Wars at damn it?

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC - 2023 - Switch - ★★★★

I talked last year about how I mostly liked this game in spite of its many, many issues. The DLC mostly plays to SV's strengths: fun plot and characters, improved open world catching system from Sword/Shield. They also run considerably better, due to a year of opportunity to make things more stable and address bugs.

That said: It doesn't address any of the other issues that have always been there. Open world exploration becomes kind of pointless when you have the ability to invalidate any level geometry. There is such a thing as too much mobility, believe it or not, when you can just jump over everything. At the same time, the ways cutscenes work is soooo slowwwww, to the point that getting through them to the "action" can be quite tedious.

This DLC also continues the unfortunate thing that drives me nuts about all these DLC, that the level scaling is just awful. It basically assumes you have done literally nothing since finishing Scarlet Violet, and not engaged at all with the post game. Which hey, works out for Lil Timmy who is experiencing this DLC in-line with the base game or only after beating it (since it does dynamically scale for earlier progression), but it makes the whole thing kind of a rote exercise for those who actually played the game more than that?

I realize this is multiple decades now of me barking that hey, it'd be nice if Pokemon didn't exclusively try to appeal to 5 year olds, which is definitely a lost cause at this point. We don't even get stuff like Battle Towers or Frontiers anymore really. Ah well!

8. Street Fighter 6 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★

Ok, here's the thing: Street Fighter 6 is overall a very good game, lots of care and polish, but I got a few bones to pick with it.

1. I kind of hate its input buffer. Just drives me nuts, particularly with how it handles supers and specials with overlapping inputs.

2. World Tour while is neat, the progression of it is so goddamn grindy and miserable. So much HP for enemies as you go on, and you don't have access to a fighter's full skill set even at the very end due to how special "slots" work.

3. The cast feels too safe. I like the new additions a lot, and in general the old chars have been rendered quite well, but there's just not a lot of innovation going on. The system mechanics are quite good, but it's the thing where no one on the cast really calls out to me. Personal taste thing.

Marvel's Spider-Man - 2022 - Steam - ★★★★

I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say about The Spider-Man Experience beyond hey: that's a pretty good Spider-Man. I think the DLC was obnoxious as shit, and a number of the decisions tied to box-checking-completionist stuff were mean for someone like me who has the stupid brain that thinks it's important to do Everything no matter how tedious it is, but overall: a good Spider-Man. Some of the villain stuff felt pretty weak though.

7. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A great remake! They trimmed down some areas a fair but, but none of them particularly egregious (some of them, particularly a last act boss being removed, was quite appreciated), and the mechanical additions are fun.

Does it invalidate the old version? I dunno, maybe?

6. We Love Katamari Re:Roll - 2023 - Steam / Switch - ★★★★★

Hey, you know what's also a very good game? We Love Katamari. Not much new to say beyond hey: the name is accurate, and you should buy and play it. I liked it enough to buy it twice on two platforms, which is silly but it gave me the excuse to play more Katamari so quite understandable.

A thing that does annoy me about the game is them reusing certain models from the other Katamari Remake, even when they were deliberately replaced in We Love Katamari and are even called out as different in the item descriptions despite not being so. Arrgh. It doesn't really matter, but I got the dumb brain for that kind of thing.

5. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A fighting game that I enjoyed years past now has actually good netcode! The mechanical additions have been very nice, and I've been enjoying myself grinding away for my meager gains. It's also funny having skipped all the base game's DLC and coming in now, since it's like this release just added 20 more chars I'd otherwise not engaged with before.

A ton of polish has made this a fantastic package across the board, so many smart decisions and little details. I'm sure for GranBlue gacha fans it's probably incredible as something that pays tribute as well.

… but see, my main annoyance with the game mostly ties to being unable to stand the source material it pulls from. It's not enough to diminish my positive feelings for the game, but none the less: man, everything about the lore and characters themselves just does NOTHING for me. This is nothing particularly unique to GranBlue itself even, it's pretty in line with how I feel about every gacha title that exists to roll out chars and appeal to as many niches as possible without real forward movement or actual story, but hey here we are.

Looking forward to that 2B.

4. Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A game I admittedly haven't completed yet (I got up to a certain kidnapping in the last act and had to set it aside due to stuff repeatedly coming up for the past couple months) but still: this is a very good tactical RPG. I enjoy the writing, characters, and gameplay quite a lot. A ton of polish went into this.

I don't think I have much to say about it that hasn't been said by others, especially with all the Discourse that has circled it for months-to-years now across Early Access into release.

If there's one thing that does kind of annoy me about the game design, it's the way the player characters are handled. You have the option during character creator to create a character with a number of character-build-y backgrounds, or use their pre-built characters that have existing stories. This choice is lose-lose.

A fully custom character is blank, unimportant. There's nothing special about them beyond their affinity with a certain orb and being Protagonist Man. Their background doesn't really matter, even as you express your personality. You have nothing behind you that meaningfully comes up or affects the story (no Gorion, etc) beyond your role in the conflict. In other words, there's not a lot of reason for you to exist except as a cypher for the named characters.

Playing one of the named characters also sucks, because you lose those the writing for those characters. If I'm stuck aping Karlach, I have no Karlach in my party. You barely even get voice acting once you choose to play those characters either. You effectively end up with less writing and characterization, which kind of sucks! Yes, you do get your backgrounds being looped in and mattering more, which is indeed something, but not enough.

There is secretly a third option that, the more I think about it, is the correct one, they just don't tell you it. You can choose your character background to be tied to the Dark Urge, which results in a lot unique interactions, gives your character an actual background and comes up, etc. They don't outright make this the main option presumably because it comes with a lot of baggage (which, yeah, it does), but it seems completely worth it by comparison to just flitting through the story as either a ghost or the phantom of a real character.

3. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Remastered - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Play Ghost Trick.

2. Armored Core VI - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

From Software continues to not miss. Fantastic game, some of the most satisfying mecha combat I've played. Story is great; it's still your usual "oops we're not explaining much other than in medias res or by circumstantial details" that From Soft has continued to double down on, but I really enjoy that stuff so hey. I 100%'d this game, got all the endings etc. Great stuff.

Really want some proper DLC so I can do even more, though.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Let's face it: this wasn't going to end any other way. Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time, and this is basically just more of that, remixed and remastered into a Second Quest that builds on the first one.

Something I kept thinking about while playing is that while there is volumetrically more to do, more things happening, more mechanics, etc etc, the different approach it takes in terms of focus and approach doesn't make it necessarily a "strictly better" version of Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild was deliberately spare, quiet, and minimalist. Like the name says, its about the quiet wilderness, a poignant world that you explore. Tears of the Kingdom drops much of that, in many ways turning into a kooky madcap version of BOTW. You don't spent nearly as much time smelling the roses and taking in the scenery, as you're often too busy blasting by using any number of the new movement abilities or combat tools or literal flying machines you can now Nuts and Bolts together.

It's a deliberate escalation, one that in my opinion requires the preceding part to work. They add together into one complete singular experience, rather than pulling against each other. That's awesome, exactly what I wanted. Now I get to have two favorite games of all time that are secretly just one-and-the-same.

Some minor thoughts:

1. Lots of great writing and characterization, built up well on BOTW there.

2. It's kind of funny how much it goes out of the way to avoid talking much about BOTW in case someone plays this game first.

3. The last of a Master mode this time around is kind of a bummer but oh well!

4. The vehicle crafting system and everything about it, including the way it plays into the existing physics system is fucking insane. Absolutely incredible game design. Bonkers.

I'm really curious how the hell they're going to follow these games up. Going back to square-0 from this formula- one that is so built up and diverse, seems like it'd be impossible to me. What the hell could you do? Looking forward to finding out.

[kafus]

okay now that that nightmare is over (ticketmaster) i finished the main story of the teal mask DLC! this was my team by the end :]

i take a lot of pictures while playing here's my voyeuristic shots of these bastards and also me taking the W against all of them with carmine

and of course i caught ogerpon!! i absolutely fucking love this cutie i can't believe SV has not one, but TWO friendly legendaries you form a bond with over the course of the game now. this DLC plot was leagues better than SWSH's in that regard. it wasn't over in an hour and i actually felt a connection with the little guy. or well girl they're 100% femaleASJDKASD

anyways my more in depth thoughts... i already talked about this some in my prior post but i love kitakami! i love the geography and the culture and i feel like this small "region" got to be more fleshed out because of the smaller scope which is great. overall i have mostly positive things to say! i did not like carmine at first but i ended up warming up to her a lot by the end and enjoying her as a character, i loved the presentation of kitakami's history and traditions, and i haven't played much of it but the ogre oustin minigame was fun on the first go at least LOL

that being said i have a lot more complicated feelings about kieran specifically

i thought that maybe when we apologized to each other earlier on all would be well but then he just... kept getting the short end of the stick. i mean i'm glad that the game let me verbally apologize to him but i think it's fucked up that after all of that, no comfort was offered to this child and his feelings kept getting shrugged off. i felt bad defeating him at the end, i mean yeah i'm not gonna tell ogerpon no to staying with me if she likes me and wants to go with me, but the fact that we weren't able to have a conversation with kieran about it?? yeah he runs back home and tries to be alone but i feel like at that point it would be meaningful to try and go talk to him and make amends. tell him he's a good trainer and just has to keep working. idk

maybe i'm just too empathetic to younger characters but it just really sucked and i was kinda miffed with like. them implying that kieran might be a villain in the next DLC or something, like dude i'd be pretty pissed too if my sister and only friend were treating me like garbage (at some point their grandfather chastises carmen and she literally says "it's not like i hit him" like dude THAT'S your bar for mistreatment?) and lying to me and then even after all of that i still couldn't achieve something i've been dreaming about since childhood. like dude must be fucking shattered. why do we have to portray him as "evil" idk, i just really hope in the next DLC there is a proper resolution to all of this because i feel terrible for him and he deserves better. is he perfect? no. does he deserve some level of consequence for some of his actions? yeah. but man throw the kid a bone good lord

anyways i'm not actually opposed to kieran doing some fucked up shit or losing his cool, i'm reserving being pissed for if there is no proper resolution to this story or if he isn't redeemed by the end of the next DLC LOL

but yeah DLC was very good despite my complicated feelings on one of the main characters, certainly much better than SWSH's, i am going to do the side question with Camera Woman i forget her name atm and complete the dex soon

[wholesome-cryptid]

i probably should post some stuff related to my Grimsley headcannons and as i have spent way too much time fleshing these headcannons out with my partner so obviously shout out to @plushegutzz for helping me with these

So starting off, i seem to headcannon Grimsley as a lot older than most people. although i do tend to write him roughly when Aloan Grimsley would be happening so maybe it has something to do with that i don't know. also i tend to just make headcannons based on what i think is fun so apologies if any of this goes against canon or is ooc.

Anyway my thoughts and stuff related to Grimsley's family.

Most of Grimsley's family growing up was pretty shitty as implied by his master's dialogue. but i have an oc by the name of Garry who is his fraternal twin brother.

Grimsley and his brother got along pretty well growing up not including the occasional rich kid bickering. although their family would usually try and pent the brothers against eachother and overall where just manipulative assholes.

Some point during the twins young adult years their family ended up loosing all their money and the two brothers ended up handling the stress of it all quite differently. with Garry already focused on college and such he tried his best to channel his stress into that. while Grimsley fell into Gambling and other things he shouldn't have gotten involved in.

Anyway without making this Grimsley headcannon post even more oc heavy than it already is. Garry ended up moving to Paldea after college and has two kids being Giacomo and Poppy both from SV obviously.

Grimsley is a bit of a hot mess (i say obsessed with him) but does try his best to be a good uncle to his nephew and niece trying his best to impress them and come off as cool.

i have a lot of Grimsley thoughts though so feel free to ask questions and such!

[artikgato]

2023 Retrospective - November & December

And here we are once again at the end of the year. I'm queueing this to post on December 31st but I'm actually making this post on December 22nd so if anything significant happens between then and December 31st it may or may not be in the final post. Anyway!

November: I. was. BUSYYYYYYYY

The weekend after the AWA/SC Comicon gauntlet, I drove up to Newport News, Virginia to attend Nekocon with the Carolina Manga Library! Just like last year, it was a nice chill con. I was very graciously allowed to stay in the hotel room on Sunday night and check out Monday morning, so...

I did Virginia Things again! I started out at Bluebird Gap Farm, where I got to pet sheep and goats again, see a bunch of ducks and geese, and overall had a great time. I love Bluebird Gap

I went to the Virginia Zoo again, and that was a great time too! I didn't get to see the buffalo again, but I DID get to get up close and personal with their goats this year. And I got emotional over frogs, as I usually do when zoos have a reptile/amphibian exhibit.

I found a local used CD shop and got a STACK of CDs, many of which I'd actually been hunting for for a while

On November 8th I went to a special dubbed screening of the Adventure 02 movie. After how Kizuna went I was prepared to have my emotions torn out and stomped on but surprisingly it was just kind of... a 02 movie. Nothing huge happened, nobody died.

The weekend after Nekocon, I vended at Mythic Con, a local con here in Charlotte more focused on tabletop and board games. I did surprisingly well, just like with ConCarolinas back in June!

I did, however, ditch the con on the Sunday to go to the Carolina Renaissance Faire with a couple of Columbia friends. It was fun! They've streamlined parking and while it was crowded, it wasn't unmanageable. At this point, the Tortuga Twins (all three of them) and the guys from the joust are like old friends to me, not in a parasocial way but in a "oh hey, I know that guy! Kind of!" way.

The weekend after THAT I attended my final con of the year and it was a DISASTER. I had my reservations about it since it was a one day Sunday con seemingly more focused on comics, and the group running it is running a bunch of other one day pop up events in the southeast. I didn't even make my table cost back. It was terrible. I think I'll pretend Mythic Con was my last one of the year...

Gaza

December:

HBomberman plagiarism video

I had a surprising 5 days off in a row, so Lauren bought me plane tickets and I went to visit her up in St. Paul Minnesota! It was my first time flying solo and only my third time flying, period. I hate airports. But St. Paul was great! We went to the Mall of America for day one, and then a local zoo, cat café, and some other shops on day two. It had snowed overnight, so I got the full winter in Minnesota experience and I LOVE THE COLD. I really do need to move up north. It was 70 degrees when I got back to Charlotte.

I started playing Baldur's Gate 3 on my steam deck!

I actually for real finished Practice Makes Perfect. All 40 chapters.

The second DLC for Pokémon SV dropped, so I played through The Teal Mask in preparation and then marathoned the Blueberry Academy DLC as soon as I could on launch night. I downloaded the update and started streaming at 8:30pm on Wednesday night and streamed until around 5am, took a nap, and got back to it at 1pm on Thursday, finishing up that evening. Teal Mask was fine, pretty basic story. Blueberry Academy was... a disappointment. Just what I was expecting, to be honest.

[nijiiropokemame]

ok I’m already slowing down on my violet playthrough (I was slowing down after like 4 days) so I want to get my thoughts out now before more time passes.

Overall reaction: I really like this game.

I haven’t played every pokemon game, but this’s...my sixth core series? seventh if you count Arceus. And this game makes a case for counting Arceus, since that was the testing ground for a lot that went into SV.

The 3D areas in SWSH did make me come back to that game more than I would have expected, since I was just so-so on the main game. Then Legends: Arceus came along and blew all that out of the water. I loved the mechanics in Arceus. I loved initiating battles by throwing out a mon, I loved running for my goddamn life from a level 60 giant Stantler, and I especially loved being able to bean critters in the back of the head with pokeballs without having to engage them in battle.

Obvs SV didn’t have the battle-less catch mechanic, but Let’s Go mode is some of the most fun I’ve had with a pokemon game mechanic ever. I actually avoided the Team Star bases for a while bcs I thought it’d just be, y’know, take down the Team Rocket base version 9.0, but once I did and it forced me to use Let’s Go, the whole game really opened up for me. I’d been having a little more fun stopping my critical path to catch and breed some eevees, but nothing beat the first experience of starting at the top of the snowy mountain and bowling my ceruledge down the slope into oncoming hordes of ice-mon.

As much as I feel the sandwich making is a poor sequel to the curry making in SWSH, I think the picnic mechanic is a great evolution of the “spend time with your mon” screen. I was a little overwhelmed when I saw how many ingredients were available, and more so when I saw that they all had powers, but...it’s actually not that scary, and it’s still a more-fun-than-not minigame. I’ve had mixed success with egg power, but boy howdy when I wanted to farm sinisteas to get more armor to evolve more charcadets, the ghost-appearance power made a huge difference. The play ball mechanic is a good idea, I just wish my character could...y’know actually kick the ball. Instead of awkwardly clip through it and occasionally vaguely influence its direction. But it’s still so fun to see my trainer with their pokemon, I’m really happy with this direction.

So, as to new pokemon, this is the installment that made me realize something: when I first got back into Pokemon games in 2018, I was very much of the mind that animal- and plant-like pokemon were not just best, but sort of the point of the game. With this game I realized that I’ve completely turned around on that, and why. Pokemon have much more in common with the idea of like, yokai or spirits or similar mythic beings, except what if those but they’re everywhere all the time in plain sight. Some are deeply affiliated with nature, some are much more closely connected with mankind, which is why mon that look like manmade objects make sense. And, in the same vein, so do anthropomorphic mon.

All this is to say goddamn do I love armarouge and ceruledge. And tinkatuff (yeah I like tinkatuff more than tinkaton...but I still love my girl). And I don’t think I laughed at anything in the game harder than when my sprigatito evolved and was immediately bipedal, but then floragato ended up being another of my favorite new designs (its evolution not as much...that makes two mid-volutions that I like most, which is very unusual). But yeah the armored exclusives shot way up on my list of favs of all time, christ they are cool. I was immediately drawn to armarouge but I’m playing violet, and I didn’t really see the point of starting a scarlet playthrough until I’ve beaten this. I’m ready to challenge the league tho, so maybe I’ll do that and leave the end of the other two plots til the next game.

Yeah, so the diverging paths. They work pretty well! Limiting the usage of your -raidon til you hit a few early goals is pretty smart. I think challenging the gyms in any order worked out really well. The Team Star assault is a slog mostly because the cutscenes are unskippable, man do I not care about that plot, but again the base assault is really fun, and an old-fashioned battle at the end is not bad. The most fun is coming across a titan pokemon in the wild though; I wish cutscenes didn’t play as you approached, at least once I managed to glimpse one in the distance first and said out loud “what is that!?” (it the klawf if I recall), it really captured that Breath of the Wild “stumble upon a thing and then investigate it” feeling.

Oh yeah how could I have not yet talked about the bike. This game is obviously very slow, transitions to different modes like from overworld to battle take forever, and at a couple of points it completely glitched out and kicked me out. Fortunately enough things trigger saves that this wasn’t really a problem. So taking that into account, the fact that miraidon is an absolute joy to use is even more amazing. It handles so smooth, and skidding and changing directions is so cool. I just got the glide ability and I like how it’s implemented. It’s no paraglider from Breath of the Wild, but it still makes descent more seamless and fun. I do wish you could go faster, but I get there are limitations on how much they could design the world with a turbocharged player in mind. The faster you can go, the more they have to think about how much open space to let you have, and if all that open space will make it hard to get from one place to another if you don’t want to spend a bunch of time traversing it with your bike. Anyway this was a feature they obviously spent a lot of time on and it shows. Arceus had the one thing were you could seamless transition from land to water and back, but you still had to select climbing or flying (or...the bear. I never used the bear), and having one mon that just goes feels so much better.

Well, I guess that’s it! This right now ranks as my third favorite game, after my beloved Ultra Moon and then Arceus, both of which had stronger stories imo, and even if pokemon stories are simple I tend to prefer story-centric games. But after a rocky start to this game where it just seemed to be slow and glitchy, it really has a lot to offer by itself, and makes me very excited for new mainline pokemon games in a way I haven’t been in a while!

[alteridolriley]

Logan Theory

((Okay after tumblr DELETED this post, I guess I’ll try doing this again.))

Something that I've been reading a lot in some discussion posts about Logan and that "he's not ignored-- he's been so important to Thomas and the others and he's been thanked and stuff why is he so mad?"

I think I can clear that up for you. But let’s review a few things:

So Logan has been the definitive mediator throughout most of the previous episodes. He was the stage director for CYBG where he was thoroughly listened to; LVP was all about Thomas learning to listen to both of his most dramatic and loud sides aka Logan and Roman and how they can work together; LNTAO is a bit of a setback for Logan but it is his understanding of how the song fit into the conversation, as well as the puppets, that caused Thomas to have his eventual epiphany about his issue going into the episode; in EP Logan is the overall narrator, explaining how all these things that Virgil finds embarrassing were actually very needed in his overall development as a child and a teenager.

SVS has a very important Logan scene that does point towards my whole point:

Logan is quick to say that it isn’t working out. This is presumably obvious by the audience. Thomas is always scatterbrained, late to things, and obviously not looking at the calendar Logan has made considering the only thing on the calendar for April 13th is the callback and not the wedding. If Thomas had been listening to Logan on a normal basis, he would’ve known that but when it’s revealed, even Thomas himself seems a bit surprised immediately jumping to that Janus is lying and must have tampered with it. The rest of the episode goes on and Logan is given the benched seat but still has his opinions put out there for everyone as Patton calls on him a time or two.

DWIT is where Logan shines. He constantly puts Remus in his place throughout the episode also while proving the point that logic is the only way to work through intrusive thoughts, and that Remus is necessary to some extent. This is also an episode that I think Logan thinks was a turning point in his relationship with Thomas. Thomas sincerely thanks him directly and calls him cool. Logan is not used to that emotional kind of sincerity from Thomas directly and I think it affected him in a way that made him proud of the work he does, more than he would normally be. Logan now realizes that maybe Thomas will listen to him a bit more.

And by listening to him, he means allowing him to serve his true function. Logan, as logic and basically organizer of all of Thomas’s mental notes, likes diligently planning things and keeping order to Thomas’s life to help him live the best life he possibly can. Logan thinks now will be the time that Thomas actually chooses Logan to be the lead side in his life. Maybe for the first time.

Logan had already been pushed to the side once when Thomas decided he wanted to quit his education to become a Vine Creator/Youtube Personality. Roman became center stage but with so much pressure on Internet Celebs, Patton and Virgil also became pretty important. Logan was last on the priority list and as a side, his wants for Thomas have been last on the totem pole so to speak. So now that Thomas has seen how cool Logan is, Logan believes he can finally get some organization and stuff done in Thomas’s life and finally be listened to for what he wants, not just what he can give.

But then, POF happens. Logan is once again pushed out of the conversation and the more important things are emotionally driven, which focuses again on Patton and Roman, with a bit of Janus included. Logan also takes offense to the fact that nobody noticed he was missing and leaves after he done doing what he always does, bringing reason to the situation at hand. I mean, that’s all he’s good for right? He can’t help Thomas in any other way apparently. All of his other attempts have failed so why bother sticking around and hoping Thomas listens to him?

Then we fall on WTIT, Logan looks so happy upon first showing up to Thomas when he wakes up. We learn later that 5am Thomas made a lot of promises to Logan about getting lots of chores and things done today. Logan is happy because Thomas is gonna listen to him and we all know how Logan feels when deadlines are met and projects get completed.

But then Remus comes into play because Thomas is distracted by Nico not responding to his text messages from 4am. Logically, most people are asleep at that time of night so worrying about someone not answering around then would be kind of silly. Logan doesn’t seem to know about Nico not responding or at least he hasn’t noticed directly what’s troubling Thomas. We know he sees everything Thomas does to an extent because of a previous episode (“Have you seen the Office bloopers?” “Yes I have seen them 15 times because I am a part of you!”) so it makes sense to assume that Logan should know about the messages.

Remus is able to keep distracting Thomas because he’s so focused on why Nico hasn’t responded to his message yet and in this way, he’s able to keep Thomas from doing what Logan wants him to do. Over and over and over again. He’s unable to eat, he’s unable to do the dishes, he’s unable to clean up the litter everywhere—Logan increasingly gets more frustrated at the fact that Remus won’t leave them alone so maybe Thomas can get something done. However, Logan is going against his own logic here.

If we call back to DWIT, Logan explicitly says:

And yet, that’s what Logan is doing here. He’s trying to stop Remus instead of finding out what the real problem is. In an attempt to finally get Thomas to listen to him and do what he wants, he’s ignoring Thomas’s actual problem: the messages from Nico.

Also something very important in this scene here when Logan is trying to get Remus to stop or just listen to him:

Thomas is looking at his phone again and we’ve gone from sad that Nico is ignoring him to anger. His eyebrow furrow in frustration and his nose twitches like his breathing has gotten faster. Then it snaps back to Logan who finally snaps:

“STOP IGNORING ME!”

The thing is, I think Logan says this without realizing exactly what he’s saying or what he’s feeling at the moment because while some of his feelings are his own, some of them are Thomas’s feelings at Nico for, as far as Thomas knows, ignoring his text messages. As seen here:

He really was taken aback by how angry he really is. Because Orange is clearly affecting him here, but I think he was using Logan to affect Thomas too.

We know that Thomas doesn’t normally get mad at anything within canon; he’s pretty passive and usually let’s things roll off his shoulders. But today, the fact that his house is a mess, he can’t seem to get anything done, Nico ignoring him, and the constant intrusive thoughts that just won’t go away and keep messing with him… it’s become too much. He actually was about to explode, which is what happened to Logan. It only didn’t happen to Thomas because Nico called him just before so crisis averted in that regard.

Remus is pleased to finally see some emotion out of Logan and responds with: “But who do you really want to scream that at?” as he sinks out, seemingly referencing the fact that Logan is upset with Thomas constantly pushing his needs as a side away.

Nico then invites Thomas out and of course Thomas immediately accepts which Logan is surprised at which basically confirms he did not know about Thomas’s Nico problems that had been bothering him all day. The conversation downstairs is the culmination of Thomas and Logan’s relationship. Thomas throws on some clothes to leave and Logan asks him about his needs, the plans they had made that day. Thomas says he will get to it eventually and even makes a joke about tomorrow Thomas or whatever before blurting out: “This is just really important.”

That is an image of a side who realizes that to Thomas, his needs are not important. What’s more important is something else… again.

As he sinks out, Logan hugs his planner. That is what is important to him, but it was made pretty clear that just because it’s important to him doesn’t mean it’s important to Thomas.

In the end card, Logan spends most of it with his arms closed tightly around his body, as if holding onto himself in the same way he did his planner. He also seems rather quiet—he speaks but his words aren’t full of that proud tone he usually carries. It’s soft and weak, or rather timid. He is happy for Thomas but he’s also upset.

The way I see it is that while Thomas and the other sides do take advice and learn from Logan all the time on his knowledge, that’s different than actually listening. Logan’s needs as a side, his organizational and planning work, is ignored all the time. Let’s put it into a different perspective.

Let’s say you had a friend. They are so important to you and you all hang out together all the time. However, the friend begins to focus on something else more and you begin to drift apart. You don’t really understand this new thing your friend loves but you continue to help them anytime something goes wrong with this new endeavor, because you love them. They come back to you time and time again for more help and while you don’t mind helping them, it would be nice if they could do something you enjoy too instead of it always being about them. You don’t say this, but it’s something you feel inside. Then one day, your friend calls you. They’ve planned all day around spending time with you! You make plans and you’re so excited for them to come over and hang out. But as you begin to do something, their phone pings. They apologize but have to respond. It’s for that other focus. You understand but it keeps happening and eventually they’re called away from hanging out with you. Neither of you have really done anything that day because of the constant distractions taking your friend’s attention away from you. At this point, you’re upset and say “but I had a whole day plan of things for us to do.” “And we will, I promise. Maybe next week. This is just really important, okay?” The friend points to the phone and then excuses themself and leaves your house.

That is the situation with Logan and Thomas.

Getting complemented for your knowledge and smarts, and getting thanks for helping in situations is great and all, but meaningful reciprocation of that same time and energy from the other party means so much and if you keep giving and giving, eventually you have nothing more to give. You feel used and useless.

Tl;dr: Logan wants a more meaningful relationship with Thomas where not only can he teach Thomas things, but also make life better for Thomas but Thomas keeps pushing Logan away in that aspect, claiming that things are just more important than what Logan needs as a side.

(This is 2000 words… I’m gonna go think about something else for a bit LOLOL)

Also note this:

Thomas is standing in front of the letter O. O for ORANGE MAYBE HMMMMMMM /jk i honestly don’t know but I find it funny out of all the letters in the words, he’s standing in front of the only O. 

[heartsoulrocknroll]

Cedar Point was as great as I had hoped it would be. I was able to ride every coaster in the park, except Dragster, of course.

1) Steel Vengeance - 4 rides (including 3 night rides).  This coaster changed my life. The airtime is unlike almost anything else. Never have I been flung out of my seat on a first drop like I was on SV's incredible 90-degree first drop in the back car, and never have I been out of my seat so frequently on a coaster. That famous outerbanked hill is amazing. The inversions are top tier. I love those RMC zero-g rolls with all my heart. Every element delivers. It is such a long ride, and not a second of it is wasted. And night rides on this thing? Mind-blowing. It is truly a perfect ride. So glad I was fortunate enough to get a back car ride and two other rides close to the back.

2) Maverick -- 3 rides (including 1 night ride). A close second to SV, and I would fault no one for liking it more than SV. The 95-degree drop is awesome, and the fact that it is only 100 feet is completely irrelevant. I love the way you fly over the top off that launch hill. I am in love with those quick, snappy turns, which are very reminiscent of the incredible I-305. The inversions are great and add some variety to a ride that would still be excellent without them. The second launch through the tunnel rocks so hard, especially at night when you can’t see anything. Imagine if that heartline roll wasn’t removed -- I can only dream. Anyone who says Maverick is overrated is just trying to be different. (PS: I also got a back row ride on Maverick.)

3) Magnum XL-200 -- 2 rides (including 1 night ride). I'm doing it. I'm ranking Magnum above Millennium Force. The lift hill lasts approximately 25 years, so there is plenty of time for a great view of Lake Erie. Magnum is perhaps the roughest steel coaster I have ever ridden, but that just adds to the intensity for me. That pretzel-shaped turn is insane, and I love it. The airtime hills are kind of painful, but also kind of amazing. And boy, I especially love the airtime hills inside the tunnels. 

4) Millennium Force -- 2 rides (including 1 night ride). I really enjoyed the height and speed of this coaster, as well as the incredible view from the lift hill. The first drop is great. The turn after the first drop is pretty intense and is probably the highlight of the ride. I did gray out on that turn during one of my rides. There are a few decent moments of airtime. This coaster is a lot of fun, but I was disappointed by the overall experience after riding the far superior Intamin giga, I-305. I was hoping for impressive airtime or intensity in this ride, and I didn’t really get either of those things in any remarkable way.

5) Raptor -- 1 ride (night ride). Raptor is a great coaster, but I have to say that, based on my ride on Raptor, Afterburn blows it out of the water. I love the vertical loop, the zero g-roll, and the corkscrews -- all great elements. But a cobra roll is always going to be inferior to a batwing, which is just another reason why Afterburn is better. My ride on Raptor was underwhelming and sluggish, without the forcefulness that I love in a B&M invert, which made the spiral before the mid-course brakes and even the helix at the end seem a bit like pointless meandering. However, I do have to emphasize that I only got to ride Raptor once and that this ride took place during the coldest point of the whole trip -- this is my greatest disappointment of the trip. I think another ride could easily make me see this coaster as excellent instead of just great. 

6) GateKeeper -- 2 rides (including 1 night ride). After riding Wild Eagle, I doubted how good a B&M wing coaster could truly be, but GateKeeper has changed my mind. This coaster is beautifully smooth, and I love the wingover drop, the hangtime, and the near-miss elements. I do hate those restraints though.

7) Rougarou -- 1 ride. This coaster is underrated. The layout leaves a little to be desired, but I always love a vertical loop, and I also enjoy the dive loop and the corkscrew. The ride has some decent force to it as well, which makes even the meandering turns fun in my opinion. And it certainly is not "rough" or "rattly."

8) Valravn -- 1 ride. This is a solid coaster, but it has taught me that I am probably just not a big dive coaster fan. I like the dive elements, but that's about all there is to the ride experience. The rest of the ride is fairly unremarkable.

8) Blue Streak -- 1 ride. This classic wooden coaster is so smooth for its age. It is not as good as Thunder Road was, and it has very little real airtime to speak of. But it is still a fun ride.

10) Corkscrew -- 1 ride. This is a fun, classic Arrow looper. I don’t have the same complaints about roughness that a lot of people have -- that aspect of the ride was fine. But the coaster’s age shows, as it is clearly less impressive than the four-year-younger Carolina Cyclone. It is really just too short to enjoy. I wish there was more to the layout.

11) Gemini -- 1 ride. Gemini may not be as rough as Magnum, but it is certainly rough in a less enjoyable way. I liked the racing aspect of the ride. I think I needed another ride to really appreciate this coaster, but it was only open on Saturday when the park was insanely busy.

12) Iron Dragon -- 1 ride. This is a family coaster that doesn’t really do much. The first half is a snooze-fest. The second half is slightly more fun. There isn’t much more to say.

13) Cedar Creek Mine Ride -- 1 ride. Just a mine train that isn’t as fun as Carolina Goldrusher. Again, not much else to say.

[dukeofonions]

The Problem With Asides

Before I get into anything I want to clarify that this is not going to be a criticism of the two Asides episodes we’ve gotten so far. This is a critique of the concept of Sanders Asides as a separate series from the original Sanders Sides. A second note I want to make is that this is, just as all my other posts are, a personal opinion. This is not meant to be an attack on anyone, just a general criticism from a confused writer and viewer of the show. 

And final disclaimer: A lot of what I’m going to say is based on information that I no longer have available. It’ll mostly be me recalling things I heard and if I at any point get something wrong please feel free to let me know. 

That being said, let’s get into this, shall we? 

(Fair warning this post is very long hence why I’ve divided it into parts so feel free to read then come back as you wish)

Part One: The Concept of Asides

Some time ago last year, I believe shortly after Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts came out, was when the idea for Sanders Asides was first announced. The basic concept of it being shorter, more lighthearted videos focusing on the Sides outside of the main storyline. This format would allow them to give us more Sides content in between the long waits for the main series since those episodes were beginning to take more time to produce. 

Of course, everyone was eager for more Sides, so the majority of people were excited. Not only that but due to the main series tackling heavier themes, the episodes were becoming more angsty with less time for the characters to just relax and goof off with each other. The idea of having episodes reminiscent of the low stakes, sillier, happier content of season one was a welcome break from the more complex episodes and would be a nice return to form for the series. 

We were also informed that these episodes would be much simpler than their main series counterparts and wouldn’t disrupt the work being done on Sanders Sides, which meant we didn’t have to worry about long gaps between the main story episodes, right? 

(Another disclaimer: I am perfectly aware of the main reason why we were not given as much content last year and am not blaming Thomas or the team for doing what was necessary to keep themselves safe and hope they continue to do so as this continues into the new year)

Jump to November 22, 2019, where we got our first official episode of Sanders Asides, roughly five months after DWIT came out. Which, for this fandom, was record time to get more content and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they were able to get this out. Though at the same time, I wondered why it took five months to make what was meant to be a short, simple episode. 

So imagine my surprise when I went to watch the episode and saw it was nearly 20 minutes long. Which, okay, isn’t that bad when you compare it to the lengths of the more recent Sanders Sides episodes. But at the time, I was under the impression that the Asides would be, well, much shorter. The longest I expected would be maybe 15 minutes, but you know what? It’s the first episode and it has been a while since we’ve had Sides content, so maybe they wanted to give us a little extra due to the long wait. 

I started the episode and at first, I was overjoyed when I saw the first shot of all the Sides sitting in the living room in their onesies about to have a movie night. This was exactly what I’d been hoping to see from this series! It’s pretty much a staple thing in the fandom for the Sides to have movie nights together, and now it was happening in canon! 

At the moment, I had high hopes for this series and was filled with joy. 

Then that hope and joy were immediately crushed when I realized this was yet just another Virgil-centric angst episode. In fact, this entire episode was, well, exactly like a regular Sanders Sides episode. Sure, there were some jokes here and there, but the tone of the episode was no lighter than the last Sanders Sides episode. If anything DWIT felt lighter in comparison to this one. 

Which leads me to ask, what the heck happened? 

Part Two: Literally the Same Show

At this point in time, we’ve only had two episodes of Asides. Usually, I try to hold off my judgment of a series until I’ve had at least one other episode to see if my original criticisms still stand. 

To be fair, I did think Flirting With Social Anxiety was a step in the right direction. More comedy, a lighter tone, yes. Perfect. But again, just like with Are There Healthy Distractions? This episode quickly dove right back into the angst pool, and just like ATHD it was a pretty long episode, clocking in at almost 25 minutes. 

Not only that but again, both FWSA and ATHD don’t feel any different from the episodes we’ve been getting in Sanders Sides. 

1. They’re just as angsty.

2. Roughly the same length as Sanders Sides episodes.

3. Take about just as long to produce.

4. Contain a lesson to be learned. 

Which, okay, you can have lessons in lighter shows too, but we’re already getting that in Sanders Sides and Sanders Asides was described as, well, being less plot heavy. Yet so far both episodes are still tied in with the main plot. 

ATHD deals with the aftermath of DWIT, not directly but it’s pretty obvious that the whole thing with Virgil’s reveal at the end of that episode is being addressed in the background. Which, kind of takes away the impact of that ending, but I’ll get to that later. 

Then FWSA takes place after Putting Others First and again, is dealing with things from that episode in the background. Again though, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It makes sense to see the characters dealing with things from past events.

So why is it a problem here? Because, again, Sanders Asides is meant to be a separate series, and all the subtext brought on from the episodes in Sanders Sides makes the plots in these two episodes confusing. 

For example, I was perplexed during my first watch of FWSA because I couldn’t understand why the focus of the conflict was lying. I didn’t understand why Virgil and Roman came to the conclusion that Thomas’ reason for being unable to approach Nico was because he was lying to himself, when both the title of the episode and what we were shown points more to, well, social anxiety being the problem. 

(Quick note: One could argue that this was done purposefully to have Virgil putting the blame on Janus since he doesn’t like him and wouldn’t want to admit that he was the one responsible, but this series has had a bad habit of favoring Virgil in the past so until we get more answers I’m gonna leave this on the backburner) 

It didn’t help that I had no idea when this episode was meant to take place in the timeline, and I originally thought it could take place a bit after season two since Roman and Virgil seemed to be doing better, but more on them later.

All of this bugged me until I found out that FWSA takes place after POF, and after watching the live stream that followed and getting some more context, the lying thing made a bit more sense, but the fact that I was as confused as I was just caused more frustration to build up. And I wasn’t the only one who got thrown off by the “Lying is wrong” message of FWSA so I had to ask again, why was this episode a Sanders Asides when apparently, you need information from the last Sanders Sides episode in order to understand it?

So you’re telling me, that the second episode in what is supposed to be a separate series that isn’t meant to be a part of the main plot, is now integral to the plot of the main story you’re telling in what is, as you have said, a separate show? How does that make any sense? 

Okay, one could argue that Thomas getting a love interest doesn’t really fit with the current storyline that’s going on in Sanders Sides, and that is a fair point. The problem with that is, FWSA takes place right after Putting Others First. 

You all remember what happened at the end of that episode, right?

Part Three: Intrusive Plots

At this point we’ve all become rather accustomed to the long waits in between videos, it’s nothing new to us, and for the most part they haven’t done anything to harm the current plot of Sanders Sides. Sure, the length of time between videos can cause people to lose interest, but for the most part the tone of the last three episodes of Sanders Sides hasn’t differed much and the story flow is still going along smoothly. 

Let’s start with Selfishness vs Selflessness, which is the episode that sets up the big climax for season two. It’s still got its jokes and funny moments, but the overall tone is far more serious than previous episodes have been. This carries on into DWIT where Thomas has been so stressed out lately that he’s begun to have trouble with his intrusive thoughts. 

Virgil even gives a pretty good summary of Thomas’ current mental state: “He recently realized he’s a bigger liar than he thought he was, he doesn’t understand himself, he’s committed to skipping a big callback, and he’s sleep-deprived. So yeah, he feels like a piece of dirt who has no control over his life.”

And all that was a direct result of the ending of SVS, despite DWIT not being the direct follow up to that episode the two are still intertwined. Remember that for later.

DWIT ends with the long awaited reveal of Virgil having been a “Dark Side.” Even though the majority of the fandom had figured it out by as early as Can Lying Be Good? That didn’t take away from the emotional gut punch that this scene was and it’s one of my favorite moments from the series. I may have to make a whole post breaking that scene down but what matters is that this scene was a turning point for Virgil’s character.

We’ve seen him trying to hide the truth from Thomas ever since Janus and Remus started popping up, and there were close calls with both of them nearly revealing it themselves and continuously dropping hints to Thomas. Only for Virgil to admit it to Thomas himself, and leave before Thomas can even say a word. 

We don’t know for sure how Thomas is feeling in this moment, but it’s clear he’s been shaken by this. He doesn’t really have a lot of time to process it before he remembers to acknowledge the audience and close out the video. 

This comes up again once we finally get to the monster of an episode that is POF, the follow up to SVS that everyone had been waiting over a year for. Right away we see that Patton and Roman will be at the forefront of this discussion with Logan popping up every now and then, but who doesn’t show up in this episode despite having played a role in SVS? 

Virgil. 

He’s nowhere to be seen and his absence is definitely felt. Why wouldn’t he be part of this discussion? He was there in SVS and had a lot to say on the matter, he was even part of the decision to choose the wedding over the callback! So why wasn’t he there? 

Well, just look at the ending of DWIT and there’s your answer. Of course he isn’t about to show his face after that. Not when Thomas is already under so much stress already and he isn’t sure how Thomas will react to seeing him-

*insert random voice whispering off to the side*

 Wait, Virgil has seen Thomas since DWIT? When? 

*whispers continue*

Oh, right, they interacted in Sanders Asides. How did that go again? 

*whispers explain*

Huh? Thomas said he’s cool with Virgil despite revealing that he’s been hiding something from him this whole time? That “something” being the fact that Virgil was once considered part of the others that were currently making Thomas’ life miserable?

*whispers confirm*

Really? They’re both okay with each other now? Well, good for them. 

So wait, then why didn’t Virgil show up in POF? He was there during the first discussion and honestly he’d have more of a reason to show up than Logan who wasn’t really present at all in SVS. 

*whispers explain* 

He just wasn’t need there? Hm, alright. Guess that makes sense… 

Well okay, Virgil and Thomas are on good terms once POF rolls around, Virgil isn’t present during the conversation because he isn’t needed and I suppose his presence would make things worse. Especially once Janus revealed himself, he wouldn’t allow him to get a word in. Even though Janus could probably silence him but I digress. 

Fast forward towards the ending of POF, remember when I said to remember how SVS and DWIT were connected? Well DWIT is just as important to POF, acting as a bit of bridge between to the two episodes. 

Janus brings up Remus (both directly and indirectly) twice in this episode.

First here:

 Notice how Roman’s breakdown is already being foreshadowed here, the camera focusing on him while “Logan” says this isn’t an accident. 

The second time Remus is brought up is at the very end after Janus has revealed his name:

“Oh, Roman thank God you don’t have a mustache. Otherwise between you and Remus, I wouldn’t know who the evil twin is.” 

(No I am not posting screenshots of this scene I already got emotional over the last one)

As we saw at the end of DWIT, Roman does not have a good relationship with is brother. So much so that when Thomas refers to Remus as such, Roman creates a different analogy that compares Remus to a mirror, reflecting everything Roman doesn’t want to be. 

Roman desperately wants to distance himself from Remus, not wanting anything to do with him. We’ve only gotten a glimpse of just how far this loathing goes, and part of that comes from Roman finally breaking down after being told by Janus that if it wasn’t for a mustache there’d be no difference between him and Remus.

This shook Roman more than anything else in the show has so far, moreso than him being the one to decide that Thomas should give up the callback. He was the one that pushed Thomas to make that decision, believing it was the noble thing to do, only for it to only make Thomas feel worse and then be told by Janus that his “noble sacrifice” was all for nothing. 

Janus, the one who had been supporting Roman throughout SVS, buttering him up and encouraging him to go after his dream, told him that his sacrifice was worthless. Then to top it all off Janus admits what he did and brushes it off as a joke. He doesn’t apologize to Roman, leaving him in the dust, then when Roman responds by laughing at his name he’s shot down even lower. 

And when he looks to Thomas and Patton for help, for answers, anything.

They stay silent.

Patton tries to reassure him, telling Roman that they love him, but he doesn’t believe it. He sinks out, and that’s the last we see of him.

Selfishness vs Selflessness, Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts, and Putting Others First are three of the biggest (and dare I say most important) episodes in the series. The three almost act like a trilogy, with POF leading to something bigger, the season finale. Which will be culmination of all three of these episodes. 

We’ll be seeing Virgil’s reaction to Janus having been accepted by Patton and facing his own past as a “Dark Side.” Then we’ll find out what has become of Roman after he disappeared at the end of POF, and how it now affects his relationship with Thomas.

*whispers return and begin to whisper*

I’m sorry what?

*whispers repeat*

Virgil already knows about Janus getting somewhat accepted? Well okay I guess he would, wish we could have seen his reaction to that but oh well, no big deal. At least we got the Roman and Thomas confrontation to look forward to. 

*whispers whisper*

Roman has already interacted with Thomas since POF? When?!

*whisper* 

In FWSA? Oh yeah, how did that go again? It was super awkward right? Since Roman doesn’t really trust that Thomas loves or values him?

*whisperly whisper*

They get along just fine as if nothing happened? 

*whispersty*

It looks like he might still be upset with him since he’s being a bit passive aggressive? 

*whisper* 

Can’t really tell because the three are too busy trying to talk to a cute guy at the mall? 

Okay, I guess that all makes sense… 

Looks like Roman and Virgil still aren’t on the best terms with Thomas but are able to push that aside to help him talk to this handsome stranger, and hey, it worked! Thomas now has a boyfriend! Just look at Roman and Virgil at the end, they’re both so happy with Thomas! 

Looks like now they can focus on this new chapter in their life and leave the events of POF behind them. I mean, now that Roman and Virgil seem pretty cool with Thomas it would just feel weird to suddenly have them angry with him again, wouldn’t it?

Part Four: The Problem

Sanders Asides was originally described as being a series separate from the main storyline of Sanders Sides. Promising us shorter, less complicated episodes to give us a little something in between the longer, heavier episodes in Sanders Sides. This was a great idea that ended up falling apart the moment it began. 

When I was going through SVS, DWIT, and POF I mentioned that the three of them felt like a trilogy. All three of them link together to tell one bigger story, and on their own they get the job done. They set up the season finale perfectly to the point where you have an idea of what to expect and what to look forward to. 

The main things being the aftermath of Virgil’s reveal and Roman’s breakdown, which would most likely cultivate in them teaming up against Janus. This would also involve Virgil coming to terms with his past and Roman having to face Remus. 

Of course, none of this has been officially confirmed, but given everything we’ve seen up to this point it just makes sense. 

The story for season two is nearly complete, all we’re missing is the conclusion. 

Then Sanders Asides showed up and threw everything off course. What was supposed to be its own thing crept into a story that was already (for all we knew) set up and being put into place. 

We were told that the Asides wouldn’t do anything to disrupt the flow of Sanders Sides, yet it’s been confirmed that there will be one or two more episodes of Asides before we get the season finale. 

Why? Why are these episodes necessary when everything was set to move forward after POF? If these episodes are that important that they absolutely have to be made before the finale then why are they simply not part of the main series? 

You could say “Well they’re not directly tied to the main plot, that’s why.” But need I remind you that Asides as a concept was just intriduced after DWIT came out? These episodes were written specifcally for Asides, which unless I’m wrong means that they were just added into the main story with no planning whatsoever. 

FWSA honestly feels like it should have been the start of season three, something that should have waited to be introduced after season two wrapped up because it’s just too much. 

We already have so much to unpack from SVS, DWIT, and POF now we also have a new love interest on top of that? 

Virgil and Thomas’ resolution doesn’t even feel all that special because it wasn’t talked about directly between them. Thomas was indirectly letting Virgil know they were still okay, so what does that leave for us? All that build up about Virgil being a “Dark Side” only for it to be brushed over like it was nothing, and this happened in an Asides episode, not even in the main series. 

It also makes Virgil’s absence in POF confusing when they had already set up the perfect reason for him to be absent in DWIT, but according to the first episode of ATHD Virgil and Thomas are okay with each other. Sure, Virgil being there might have made things worse but at that point everyone was making things worse. 

We no longer have a confrontation between Thomas and Roman to look forward to because in FWSA we see them interacting as normal. Even the passive agressiveness isn’t anything new to Roman and really, it all just sounds super petty which he had been known to behave like that even when nothing is seriously wrong. Not only that Roman is overjoyed at the end, having finally gotten something he desperately wanted, the happy ending he deserved.

All that’s left for him is to fave his feelings towards Remus, but what would even happen there?

The problem with Asides isn’t the quality of the episodes, FWSA is actually one of my favorite episodes. The problem with Asides is that the team is taking what should have been something small and turning it into a far too elaborate for what its original purpose was: To give us more lighthearted content to enjoy in between the waits for the heavier episodes.

Instead it just feels like they’re adding onto something that really didn’t need adding on to, creating more work for themselves when it just isn’t necessary, and that worries me.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, it’s hard for me to make all these judgments when no one has any idea what the finale is going to be like. And usually, the team is able to excede my expectations and create something amazing. 

But with all these new Asides episodes that feel like they’re just being crammed in at the last second, it makes me wonder how the rest of the series will go if they continue down this road. 

Season two started September 1st, 2017, it is now January 3rd, 2021. Throughout season two the production of episodes became more elaborate, and there have been complications that arose from trying to make these videos as a result that sent production screeching to a halt. And on top of that, these Sanders Asides have been added to create even more work for Thomas and the team.

I don’t understand why they’d do this to themselves when it’s already become more difficult than ever to make videos in general, not just Sanders Sides. 

We were offered something simple that would have satisfied everyone during the difficult times, only to be given something that honestly, wasn’t even needed. I do appreciate Thomas trying to get us more content, but I don’t think he or the team realizes just how content we’d all be with just a five minute video of the characters we love just doing something as simple as hanging out and having fun, especially with how dark things have become all around us. 

We don’t always have to be watching these characters struggle, sometimes we just need to see them be genuinely happy.

(Thanks to everyone who took time to read this monster of a post, I did not mean for it to get this long but it’s been dwelling on my mind for a while and I wanted to make sure I got out everything I wanted to say. Again, this is all just a personal opinions and you are not obligated to agree with me. If you have an objecting opinion I would not mind hearing it but please keep any discussions civil.)

[izzyfandoms]

Right if you’re seeing this then I guess I finally managed to successfully put down all my thoughts on how I think the finale two-parter is gonna go! Yay!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately lmao

(Edit: adding a Keep Reading cos this is LONG)

SO SVS2 ended pretty badly didn’t it. Yeah, Janus got accepted, but Roman is pretty clearly not doing great because of that - and quite understandably too

Janus treated him pretty badly in SVS1, manipulating him whilst simultaneously giving everyone the impression that going to the callback (following Thomas’s dreams, aka listening to Roman) was a bad thing. Now, did he do that deliberately? No, I don’t think so - I doubt Janus realised that his whole strategy in SVS1 just made everyone else more anti-callback, and I also doubt that he realised how much that hurt Roman

Just look at Janus’s behaviour in SVS2! He thoughtlessly admits that his flattery before was false (saying that he no longer needs to flatter him) - something that probably really hurt someone with such low self esteem like Roman. Like no wonder he lashed out, I’d be pretty upset too if I were in his shoes

And when Roman describes Janus’s behaviour in SVS1, Janus calls it a funny prank, likely not realising that that’s what Roman was referring to

(I’ve talked about this before, but watching Roman’s expressions when he reacts to Janus thoughtlessly saying these things is heartbreaking)

So, here we see that Janus treated Roman pretty badly in SVS1 - using him so he could get Thomas to do what he wanted - and then admitting to it in SVS2 like it was nothing

And I’m not saying this to be anti Janus, not at all, I love the guy! I’m just pointing it out to highlight one of - if not the - biggest flaw he has:

His selfishness and how self-centred he is

Now this probably comes pretty naturally to Janus, given his role, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to improve. Black and white morality comes naturally to Patton, and he still needs to wok on and is currently working on that. Being aggressive comes naturally to Virgil, but we’ve already seen him work on that

I don’t think he noticed how much his behaviour hurt Roman, and you can see that in SVS2 as he doesn’t seem to understand (or often notice) just how upset he was, and he didn’t seem to realise that what he did was wrong. He talked so casually about these things, and not in a smug way, but like it meant nothing - because that’s what it meant to him, so he doesn’t notice how it affects Roman

Janus doesn’t just do this with Roman either, you can see him basically doing this with Logan too, just without such an obvious reaction

He actively excludes Logan from things all the time - he silenced him in CLBG, he replaced and then excluded him in SVS1, and then replaced him again in SVS2

Logan above all else just wants to be listened to - by Thomas and by the other sides - and Janus is too focused on getting Thomas to listen to him then he is on how his behaviour hurts others. He doesn’t seem to think about how Logan just wants to be listened to too

Now Im sure you’re wondering how this is all relevent to the season finale two parter, which I already said that this post is about

Basically, I think that this is what the season finale two parter will be about

I think that Roman is going to continue opposing Janus, and that he’s going to turn to Virgil to assist him in doing so - as Virgil likely will, as he gets along well with Roman now and does not get along with Janus

(A lot of people seem to think that Roman’s going to go full dark side because of all this, and that that’s what the finale will be about, but I completely disagree. Mostly because from what we’ve seen so far that seems literally impossible. Sides are sorted into ‘light sides’ and 'dark sides’ by Thomas alone, it’s not a choice - Roman can’t just become a dark side because he feels like it

Virgil is only a light side because Thomas accepted him - which is part of the reason why I dislike how some people villainise him for leaving the dark sides. He decided to duck out, he didn’t decide to be accepted or to become a 'light side’. Choosing to befriend the light sides and choosing to duck out isn’t something I’d consider a betrayal

If the sides themselves decided who is 'light’ and who is 'dark’ then Janus at the very least probably never would’ve been a dark side. It’s not a real classification, because it’s purely based on how Thomas views his different traits)

I think that Roman and Virgil are going to confront Janus (with Thomas and Patton likely also present) and try to convince Thomas that he shouldn’t have been accepted. They’ll bring up the behaviour in SVS - perhaps even bringing up how the outcome was Janus’s fault, something you’ll know I firmly believe if you’ve been following me since before SVS2 - and we’ll probably also find out more details about Janus and Virgil’s history

(Janus probably felt betrayed when Virgil turned light side, despite how (as I said) it wasn’t entirely his choice, nor was it a bad thing as it benefitted Thomas greatly. Janus probably had a more self-centred view than he should’ve, but Virgil was probably less than sympathetic to Janus’s perspective and lashed out. That’s just some general speculating though, I’m really not sure and I’m quite excited to find out more about their history)

Janus will finally actually realise how his behaviour hurts people - or I guess the other sides, as they’re not people. He’ll probably get defensive at first, but I think he’ll realise and try to improve by the end of the finale

Hopefully lol - if not then I guess we won’t have the happiest ending to season 2

But this is not the only thing I think will happen in the finale, oh no

Because we’re missing two very important characters here - two characters who have probably been the most impacted by Janus’s behaviour, more than anyone else

Remus and the orange dark side

(This is honestly the main reason why I disagree with the fandom’s popular view of the dark sides as a family similar to the light sides. Because Janus was the one actively hiding Remus up until DWIT, and still is the one actively hiding Orange. He seems to have a lot of control over it, too, as he was able to reveal himself and seemed to Choose to reveal Remus in DWIT when it suited him

Hiding the dark sides seems to have been less Thomas’s choice than the dark side/light side split - this is something the sides involved seem to have actual control over

That doesn’t seem like a family dynamic to me - one hiding the other two from Thomas, someone who is basically Everything to the sides - and if it was/is one it doesn’t seem like the healthiest

Again, I’m not trying to villainise Janus here either. This was his job - he did it because he thought it was best for Thomas - and it’s a lot more complicated than Janus just locking the two of them away out of cruelty. He isn’t the sole side to blame, though he was the actual action of hiding them. Remus (despite the fact that he seems to desire attention more than anything else, the one thing Janus deprived him of) doesn’t seem to hold much of a grudge - though most of this I believe is due to Remus as a character. He isn’t really the grudge-holding type, though I really doubt he likes Janus much

Virgil talking about how Remus “used to really unsettle” him, and Remus describing DWIT as “just like old times” seems to support this in my opinion. They don’t seem to have ever been close, so I doubt the dark sides as a whole were/are close

I believe the dark sides were split between Virgil and Janus (the two dark sides with control - Virgil being allowed out, and Janus being in control of hiding himself and the other two), and Remus and Orange (the two hidden))

Anyway I’m rambling a little lol

BASICALLY, I think that Roman and Virgil are going to confront Janus, and that nearer to the end of it (either when the tension is at its highest, or when the characters are starting to come to some kind of agreement) Remus and Orange are going to pop up and bring themselves into it

I think this partly because this is very relevent to them, but also because I firmly believe that Orange will be introduced by the end of the season so they can have a new intro with all the sides in season 3

I think that throughout these two part episodes Patton will probably be mostly on Janus’s side, and that Logan will probably be the most neutral party, though his side of things (being repeatedly excluded by Janus) will probably be brought up by either Roman or Virgil

Most likely Virgil

So overall this will be about Janus and his self-centredness and how it’s harmed the other sides, and Thomas finally properly confronting how perhaps suppressing multiple different traits of himself were a bad thing

Aaaand that’s about it! Sorry that this got really rambly lol, I just have a lot of thoughts and wanted to fit them in

I love Janus - he’s one of my favourites, probably The Favourite side rn honestly, and I adore overanalysing him

Please don’t start discourse in the reblogs/comments, though debates and sharing your own thoughts on the matter are always welcome! Pls don’t bring any unsymp sides stuff into this either, as that makes me pretty uncomfortable

[rpk-16]

Was gonna post this yesterday, whoops. Ended this theater off really well, although it’s not letting me see my actual ranks right now?? But 1.202 mil total points and 35558 boss points put me just 25 or so below top 100 on the last day for boss ranking. Next time. I’m serious about doing it. Overall score is too much of a crapshoot with the voting. 

Top three are my final theater combat teams for this round, I’m willing to bet they’ll look similar next time. Top team was built around killing the minotaur comps, they could do it no damage if I could ever get the timing right, and I can only reset fights so many times before my emulator crashes. Taunt fairy also means they were my default team vs gladiators (NTW targeting to hit the gunners) and the patroller, who would buckle like it was made of toothpicks once its shield went down. I’d use them to kill the recce center too, since it was easier to prevent the cerys from getting shots off at the start and AT4 deals with the adds pretty much 100% of the time. 

The second team was my sin against meta, my crime against all guides and recommendations (before PL ranking), the crowd control RF comp. It’d work stupidly well on a defensive node (thanks calico) but instead only works above expectations in theater. Twin fairy stalled out strikers just long enough for KSVK to start blasting. With 2B support they took no damage. For contrast, STAR/Val mod/Python/HS2k/Ump45 would often still take damage with shield fairy up and mortar support (no grenade?? you say, but Val’s 100% accuracy is just as devastating to the brutes imo). They’d fight the dinergate pack with an ATW support just fine, and could kill the strelet packs, gundams, and uhlans easy. KSVK is the new hip doll.

Third team was built specifically to kill the pyxis turrets. They served no other purpose. AA12 as a high-scoring SG (although her speq would have wrecked... everything, actually), Sat8 and HS2k to prevent as much damage as possible, grape for score and because she insta-kills the turrets with her skill, and berry for charging grape faster and for score. Thing is, I bet the top boss scoring people skipped having a team for this and gambled on no turrets. I wouldn’t do that for total score (ouch), but it’d certainly pump up the numbers. I could have thrown in dolls to improve score more like PA-15 and Viking mod.

The other three were just for scoring (and score they did.) Team 1 was over 3k CE alone, and 4 was just a few points shy (a couple more post-115 levels, an oath, nagant’s speq... all would have bumped it up and over I think.) Why does Jill give so many damn points? It is a mystery. Anyway, for next time the plan is max level mods (the *sobs* grind...), a couple more upgraded speqs, Viking, KSVK, and SV-98 to MOD3, fairies from 4 to 5 star, 5* beach fairy (and maybe combo or zodiac if I’m lucky), more skills at 10 (because weirdly enough that does play into score). I dunno what other HG/RFs we’re getting, but leveling them as well. Less to do than I thought, really. 

[rpgmgames]

February’s Featured Game: Ressurflection

DEVELOPER(S): charlottezxz ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Fantasy, Cartoon, RPG WARNINGS: Paranoia, fear and tension, mild swearing and blood. SUMMARY: Ressurflection is a Fantasy/cartoon RPG set in the fictional universe of the Arbvar and taking center stage primarily at the coastal city of ‘Horizon Bluff’. Its story and game play are heavily character driven, with its narrative divided into two parallels told both within and outside the mirror itself. Ressurflection’s core themes draw from our inevitability of fearing death, and that at some point or another, we all must accept it, and to treasure what’s really important in the time that we have.

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *charlottezxz: Hiya this is Charlotte, lead game developer for Ressurflection! I’m some silly, overactive drawing monkey who works a lot with Narrow on Ressurflection! I’m always sketching and conceptualizing monster bois, taking a lot of inspiration from various games, primarily monster hunter! I’ve had avid interest in the Indie scene for a while now and a lot of the great friends I've made have been due to it and a lot of my recent favorite games have come from it! I would have had Narrow say a few things here but he’s hiding in a corner somewhere!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *charlottezxz: Ressurflection started out as what can be described as two separate stories. Myself and Narrow wrote our own stories and every so often we swapped over ideas or combined them together with each other. One day I said to ourselves ‘You know what? This could work quite well as a game rather than just a story’ so eventually Ressurflection was conceived, around the idea of a mythical mirror capable ‘Ressurflection’ the title of the game. We’ve gone through quite a few iterations of the story before it came to its current form and to be honest if we even showed or compared them side by side they’d be pretty unrecognizable as the same thing except for certain characters, locations and the mirror itself to identify its primordial form having any kind of ancestral relevance to how it is today. As for what Ressurflection is about, I think our synopsis can get that across quite nicely! ‘Horizon Bluff has always annually held its ‘Legend of the Wyvern Glass’ festivities. The Wyvern glass was a long lost mythical mirror, once fabled for its power of ‘Ressurflection’ and coveted by a kingdom now all but gone. That is quick to change however with the arrival of the Roulette Runner’s circus to the coastal city of Horizon Bluff. Trouble is soon to set in motion not just the kingdom’s sudden reappearance but the entrapment of one of their own acrobats within the mirror silver. Yet things are soon to worsen...with the spread of a purple ‘corruption’ across the city and the fact that our most unfortunate trouper is far from alone within the mirror, finding himself at the mercy of its ‘Mirror Maiden’. > The apparent all powerful manipulator of its realm…’

How long have you been working on your project? *charlottezxz: Conceptually we have been working on it for 4 years which is hard to even fathom, however that’s more tinkering around the idea for the story and conceiving it as we learnt the engine. The blog itself is hitting its 4th birthday in February! Ressuflection’s development went on as i attended university, so its always been a side lined hobby of ours.Steam says 108 days worth of hours in the engine and most of the game progress other than concepts has been done in 2019. So I could say 4 years for the ideas/stories and concepts and a year of that for actual game making!

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *charlottezxz: We each have our own inspirations, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 9, Xenoblade Chronicles, Monster hunter and many older PSX titles such as Medievil, Tomba and Heart of darkness are great influences and inspirations to me personally. The dark, dangerous environments of Heart of darkness contrasted by some innocent characters, the monster designs in capcom’s franchise and the storytelling and themes with a cinematic approach to cut scenes found in some of FF9, Xenoblade and Lost odyssey, a lost game stuck in the recess of the xbox 360. There are many more but these spring to mind first and foremost. Narrow himself draws inspiration from games such as Earthbound, the Persona series and FF10!

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *charlottezxz: We started the project in VX ace to begin with, until MV released. It was in Ace that I experimented learning RPG maker and in the early days of MV too. Although before Ressurflection’s time i also dabbled a bit in XP. MV seemed more in line for what we wanted, as i really wanted to try animating beyond SV sheets and do more, with Java being a bit more flexible and the scope of it being able to allow dragon bones later. However it hasn’t been without its hiccups! Part of that is the sheer amount of time you underestimate games and certain elements to take in their development. That and everything that comes with it, streamlining, trimming the fat...in the past week alone i spent days optimizing pictures, sounds and music in the game to cut down the staggering file sizes they were. So far they have retained their form without being as costly on the MB! Since I do the vast majority of the game development myself, everything takes a lot longer to develop. You underestimate all the little things to consider and that you may need later. By the end of development, I hope to have the vast majority of the game consist of custom assets and be able to truly call it something that is ours. Though that path is long ahead we won’t stray too far from it.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *charlottezxz: The game itself has always been a story-driven RPG at its heart, although certain game mechanics have been scaled down or developed further from puzzles to battle flow. As mentioned previously, the story has changed considerably which changed the direction of the overall narrative and gameplay as a whole. Certain characters and scenarios have been culled completely too. At its start the story wasn’t as heartfelt nor was the scope of the story all that big - Oh and the game had a time limit, a bit like Majora’s Mask! But it is a lot more meaningful now and we hope that you will enjoy it when the time comes.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *charlottezxz: It has been just myself and Narrow for the majority of the development but we reached a point where we wanted to reach out to find a musician for our game. We eventually came across Geoff who has done the majority of our music up until recently. However we have had friends help and contribute along the way such as Harry helping sprite some NPCs for me, Bart helping formulate and do some math balancing, Vaijack has also contributed to music making him our second musical boi and more on the way, our preliminary demo testers( it would take a little to list them all) and more peeps i’ll be sure to credit!

What is the best part of developing a game? *charlottezxz: For me it has to be conceptualising all the little ideas we have and bringing them all into being. This is especially so for any monster and character bois! I spend a lot of time visualizing and planning the design of areas, locales and creatures. Would this thing live here? Why would it be this way? If this is a historical town wouldn’t it have x and x? Then when we ultimately put it together, and all the pieces of the puzzle line into place and then you can just...experience, the final thing, that for me is the best part in developing our game for me.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *charlottezxz: I learn best by doing, so more often than not I just dive into things, including the engine blind and tussle around with it. It’s a silly way of doing it, but I've often found myself learning more that way than following tutorials. Although in any game I've played, RPG maker or not, i do like to ponder and deconstruct scenes within them. The Witch's house, Pocket Mirror, Dreaming Mary, Mad fathers and Ib are all wonderful games that are great to learn from, dissect and understand what makes and made them tick. This applies across any game I've played or intend to play! I look at game making as one giant puzzle with lots of intricate little details that need to be solved, it’s more fun and engaging that way!

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *charlottezxz: There’s some characters I like a great deal, but i can’t talk about as it would be spoilers to the plot, that and it’s hard to pick any overall favorites. Charm comes across as a fun character to write for as she’s quite witty and sarcastic, the kind of dialogue that comes a bit too naturally to me. She’s a budding magical prodigy of the circus under the tutelage of Jerine. She bigs herself up a lot but isn’t quite ready to deal with the problems of the adult world just yet, as much as she strives to get into it. Then there’s the likes of Ashley as well, she’s the loudest circus member and a close friend to Zakai, its ringmaster. She’s a super hard working down to earth country girl who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and jump into the thick of things. Honestly I love all the cast, but there’s those two for now!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *charlottezxz: I would say ideally we should have had all our ducks in a row before we dove into development. My development style is very messy, especially since when we started development we had a lot of learning ahead of us. That combined with focusing on a lot of coursework and real life things meant I often forgot how we made things for consistency. This has improved considerably since i started getting more organised now, keeping lists and things tabbed for reference. My desk has bits of paper kept with it with information I need to retain. I forget far too many things for my own good, but now I'm taking better count measures! I would advise anyone to keep tabs of important information about your game such as consistent sprite style sizes, resolution size, x and y positions of certain things and important variables and switches.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *charlottezxz: There’s a few ideas bounced about to do side stories for some of the cast of characters in the circus, such as before they became one and the origins of how certain members joined the circus essentially the ‘First Stringers’ and ‘Second stringers’, these being those that joined afterwards. These would be great to do as small little episodes added onto the game post development, but currently they are just ideas and won’t be given too much thought until the game is either done or close to fruition.

What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game? *charlottezxz: My most hopeful thought is for people to enjoy the game and have as much fun and interest in it as myself and Narrow have had in creating it. It’s the kind of game we want to make and hope that the characters and story chime with people enough for people to see the journey through to its end! It’s a big scope of a project but i have endless enthusiasm for it, no matter how long it takes it will get out there at some point!

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *charlottezxz: That the games story and overall feel doesn’t quite hit the right notes, it's always a little back concern. From a technical perspective I would say that the game might have some oversighted bugs or critical crashes that slip under the radar or not run as smoothly on other PCs on release. We will do our best to optimise the game as much as possible for MV and squash those pesky bugs during testing, but it is on our minds often as a niggling fear.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *charlottezxz: Gut everything from the base project that you know you most definitely will not be needing and give all your files smart tags and naming conventions. It would be great if MV allowed for sub folders, but it does not so naming your files smartly is key to finding what you need. Any of these files you know you will use often in certain ways, make them common events and call for those in events and cut scenes. This saves you mass editing them later. With naming conventions this could be Actor_1_Hurt or Chapter_1_NPC. Anything you want at the top of the list name it with _ to begin with. The bigger our project gets, the more important this has become for us and we hope it serves other inspiring devs well all the same.

Question from last month's featured dev @rojisroomrpg: How do you keep yourself happy and healthy when making your game? *charlottezxz: I’m normally a happy-go-lucky person, so I'm rarely not happy when working on Ressurflection. It's the happy little hobby I devote most of my spare time to. However, recently i would say my hands, wrists and neck have been hurting from spending a little too much time drawing assets and pieces for the game. Taking more breaks and spreading that time with other activities in between has helped to ease that pain and i would like to advise any dev to do so for their own health, including always having one or two bottles of juice, water or whatever beverage always at hand to sip at as you dev away!

We mods would like to thank charlottezxz for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Ressurflection if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[coolcoolkerberos]

Rating Side’s Playlists: Janus

Aka I say Vibes 30 times, these aren’t in order

- Come Little Children by Erutan

Disney villain vibes

Evil motherly song, guiding through the dark

“It must be this way” MY FUCKING FEELINGS

Haunting, I love it

7/10, get’s kinda repetitive

- You’re a Cad by the bird and a bee

Oh boy I’ve been hearing this one is about Virgil

First lyric screams “betrayal”

JAZZ VIBES YESSSSSS

A sort of ‘they’ll see through your lies’

“I should be better, but I’m worse” JANUS MISSES VIRGIL MY HEART

“You’re reckless with my heart, still I wait by the fire, I won’t ever get smart”

10/10 I added it to my playlist

- Denial by the Vaccines

Oooo dark vibes

“I know the world is in your hands” Janus calling out someone’s power?

“Please do my turn the light out, oh I don’t think the conversations over” Major SvS Redux vibes

Chill beats

The song is like someone speaking from your head and saying you’re denying your head from information

“I know where you want to go, oh I do, but do you?”

9/10, meaningful

- Mandy Goes To Med School by the Dresden Dolls

OOOOO MORE JAZZ VIBES

I love the piano in this song

I don’t even know what this song is about, I just think it’s neat

Her voice gets a bit annoying but then it gets good

“I’ve been dying to find out the hard way” idk but this lyric SLAPS

“I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it” (KILLER PIANO ENTERS)

8/10 to my playlist thing song goes

- Razzle Dazzle from Chicago

I’ve never listened to Chicago so here we go

Janus loves Jazz TM

“How can they see with sequence in their eyes?” ooooo

“Razzle Dazzle them and they’ll beg ya for more”

why does this seem like Janus telling Virgil he’s tricking everyone else with a friendly disguise?

I’m pretty sure this song is about prostitution

I know this song is supposed to be about disguising bland things with stupid amounts of show, but it gives off the vibe Janus is horny

6/10 just because I thought the song was SUPER repetitive

- Into the Unknown by the Blasting Company

I see over the garden wall (but I never watched it)

Same vibes as Come Little Children

“All that is lost is revealed” OOOO

Singer has rich voice I love it

7/10 I wanted more

- Don’t Tell Mama from Cabaret

Why do I get poor unfortunate souls vibes?

Song about lying about where you are (What Janus thinks Virgil is thinking?)

“I'm breaking every promise that I gave her, so won't you kindly do a girl a great big favor?” Major betrayal vibes

Lying to eachother is a big theme in this song

9/10 TO MY PLAYLIST YOU GO

- It Seemed The Better Way by Leonard Cohen

Again: evil vibes

DEEP VOICES

“Sounded like the truth, seemed the better way. Sounded like tha truth, but it’s not the truth today.” DAMN

This is more on the lying side of Janus

Violins are GOD TIER

7/10 I love the OoooOOOoooo-ing

- Talking at the Same Time by Tom Waits

Jazz Boys Assemble

Subtle trumpets, good beat

Again: MAJOR SvS REDUX VIBES

Kind of silent drunk ranting vibes

“You got to build your nest high enough to ride out the flood”

8/10 voice is annoying at points but it works well

- Anywhere by the Scarring Party

MORE JAZZ!!!! (Kind of Hadestown vibes)

I can’t understand the singer but it’s fun

Lots of dramas and flair

5/10 I couldn’t understand, but the music slapped

- Change by Lana Del Rey

I’ve never listened to a single Lana Del Rey song so this will be fun

Angst-y

“I’ve been thinking it’s just someone else’s job to care, but who am I? To try?” JANUS STOP BREAKING MY HEART

“Change is a powerful thing, I feel a coming in me.”

Janus would most likely try learning this song on piano

ABSOLUTELY HEARTBREAKING HOLY SHIT

9/10 Haunting, and I love it

- As Far as I Can See by Phantogram

Jazz/Techo? Hell yeah.

I really can’t tell if my phone is glitching of if it’s this song

“As far as I can see, nobody loves me. As far as I can tell, nobody loves you either.” OOP

“As far as I can see, nobody’s listening. As far as I can tell, nobody’s listening to me” SvS VIBES

7/10 confusing but catchy

- I Put a Spell On You by Nina Simone

afsgafafsha JANUS IS A HOCAS POCUS FAN

Jazz Vibes, I love her voice

“You know I can’t stand it, you’re running around” VIRGIL ANGST

6/10 I NEED MORE

- All the Good Girls Go to Hell by Billie Ellish

Fun Fact: I thought Billie was a male white 33 year old country singer until I heard this song a couple of months ago

“Once you get inside em, got friends but can’t invite em.” JANUS AND REMUS BEING CAST AWAY BY EVERY OTHER SIDE

“When the water starts to rise, and heaven’s out of sight, she’ll want the devil on her team” SvS REDUX VIBESSSSSS

“You’re cover up, is caving in, man is such a fool why are we saving him? Poisioning themselves now. Begging for our help? Wow.” I JUST ASDFGHJKL

10/10 I love this song for Janus, and I just love this song in general

- Evil Night Together by Jill Tracy

Man Janus just loves those jazz songs

Evil voices? We love it

“Let sway away the hours, let’s spend an evil night together” Janus, I just- I- why is he horny

“Who’s gonna make you a hero? Who’s gonna blow you away?” BETRAYAL VIBES

I just LOVE HOW THE MUSIC BUILDS TENSION

7/10 gets repetitive at the end, but I love this song

- Bladk Hole Sun from Scott Brandlee’s Post Modern Jukebox

Oooo is this jazz or classical

It’s jazz

Her voice is so beautiful

“Black Hole Sun, won’t you come, and wash away the rain?”

More major keys then other songs

INSTRAMENTAL SLAPS

10/10 I have no criticisms

- When the Chips are Down from Hadestown

Asdfashdhahesksksk I KNEW HADESTOWN WOULD BE HERE

Very different from the broadway version in voices, but I think it works for Janus

PIANO BREAK (jams)

“Aim for the heart, shoot to kill, if you don’t do it then the other one will” VIRGIL

“The first shall be first, and the last shall be last. Cast your eyes to heaven: you get a knife in the BACK”

8/10 I love this song but the voices don’t do it for me

- Devil in the Details by Bright Eyes

The voice? SLAPS

“Now you have your cake, don’t hesitate. Come on just do it.”

“There’s no backing out. This is gonna be reality, you can never dream it down.” DAMN

The strings? SLAPS

Angst TM

The guitar? SLAPS

“If there’s still time to turn around, I’m going too” SvS REDUX!!! VIBES!!!

Another 10/10

- Criminal by Fiona Apple

Evil jazzzzzzzz

“When a girl will break a boy just because she can”

Her voice is amazing, and it works well with the tone

“I got a lot to loose, and I’m betting high, so I’m begging you.” SvS vibes!!! (Not redux tho)

I really think Thomas, Joan, and Tayln knew what the fuck they were doing with this song and causing chaos with the Janus and Virgil shippers (yes they exist)

7/10 the ending wanted to be a fade out but it didn’t really work

- Trust in Me from the Jungle Book

Oh Jesus

Ooo opening just BURSTS through the door

Scarlett Johansson didn’t have to go this smooth but she did and I love her for it

MORE EVIL JAZZ

I like this take on the song, gives it more evil mom energy

10/10 I just- amazing

And that’s the end, Janus’ playlist overall is a 8/10

[lizord-lord]

(I AM!!! NOT DEAD!!! I STILL!!! WRITE!! Or at least I like to think I do. I got stuck on multiple parts of this chapter, and just buckled down and finished it last night, and it ended up being the longest chapter yet, not to mention entirely fucking over my outline. Hopefully more updates will come sooner, but given..everything about me, don’t count on it. But I am SUPER excited to bring you this chapter, so enjoy!! And thank you to @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2​ for beta reading/ feeding my tiny gremlin ego.)

Ships: Royality

Word count: 6,585

Summary: Patton’s always believed there’s more the the world than meets the eye. Or at least-meets others’ eyes..his own have always seen glimpses of shimmer in the bushes, colors in the breeze, movement in the shadows.It was only distant hope-until a day of exploration in the woods led him to become acquainted with a pair of Fae twins. They call themselves Truth and Lies… But does he really know which is which?

Warnings: brief body image issues, sympathetic deceit

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Will O’ The Wisp, Chapter Three

I say you intrigue me, bright as you are

Work was torture. Not because Patton disliked his job-far from it, he enjoyed watching people splash color onto cups and plates and little figurines.  And even working at the kiln wasn’t too bad-though hot, but it was summer in Florida, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. He was pretty used to the heat at this point. It being summer, of course, there were more customers, which meant more hectic days, but this specific establishment was run by a very nice lady named Via who believed in the workplace being a friendly environment for all involved. And her wife Esther always brought donuts on Wednesdays, so there was that too. Even if Patton had stopped partaking lately. So overall, it was a pretty nice job. 

No, Patton’s suffering was not at all employment-based, but rather, patience-based. How was he supposed to just stand around doing normal person work when he, Patton, just a few hours ago, had met faeries?? It was taking all of his self-control to not bounce on his toes and begin to gush on about that magnificent experience to every one of his coworkers and the customers to boot!

Luckily, he managed not to. Roman might share his joy when they both got home, but the general populous wouldn’t, and Patton knew that they wouldn’t, and furthermore he did not want all his work friends thinking he was crazy. Heck, half of them already thought he was for refusing Esther’s donuts! Okay, maybe that wasn’t quite the same thing. 

Nevertheless, by some very human miracle, he managed to make it through the day with only the occasional comment about how he had more energy than normal. Which was fine. He managed to be his usual outgoing self without too much suspicious activity up until clock-out, where he ditched his uniform as quickly as possible and hopped on his brand new baby pink bike with so much gusto that he very nearly fell flat on his face. In fact he likely would have, had Elliot not also decided to bike to work today. They caught him just in time, tugging him back to his feet by the shoulders. In an effort to play off his near-death (okay, maybe not quite that bad) Patton laughed, but he was sure that between his face and hair, he looked entirely the same color.

“Thanks,” he said, slightly breathless. Elliot rolled their eyes, but there was a fond smile on their face. “Yeah, no problem Patt. Pretty sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want you faceplanting into the pavement.” “Oh for sure- if you hadn’t been there I would have been Splatt-on!”

Patton beamed as Elliot sighed.

“Take it back, you can perish on the floor for all I care.” “Aw, C’mon, it’s not that-” “Nope.” They held up a hand, face deadpan. Patton only giggled. “I am not letting you get a combo in there. How’s the new place?” “Oh!” Puns forgotten (much to the very sun’s relief) Patton brightened, brushing a few stray curls out of his eyes.

“It’s lovely! Even moving in was a blast, it’s just so...homey, y’know? Like something out of a storybook. And the woods! There’s this forest out back you see, and it has the most beautiful little stream, and the trees are huge, and- oh gosh you won’t believe this-”

He caught himself just in time. No! Bad Patton! God, was his mouth really that big? He just couldn’t wait, he’d had this massive revelation bottled up inside all day, and he’d almost been that careless? “What?” “Oh-” thinking quickly, Patton swung his leg back up onto his bike and made a bit of show of being careful to buy himself another two seconds. “I found this strawberry patch! Yeah, maybe I’ll pick some and Ro and I can make strawberry shortcake this weekend!”

Phew. Elliot tilted their head, clearly interested, but didn’t add anything until Patton was done putting on his helmet. “Sounds like a fun time. I won’t keep you any longer- I’ve been late to too many shifts already, now you get back to your man!” They laughed good-naturedly and gave a small wave as they headed inside the shop, and Patton grinned back over his shoulder before taking off down the road.

                                                           *

“Oh there you are my sunlight, my world is golden and warm again!” Patton laughed at his boyfriend’s dramatic, but routine greeting. And on par with that routine, he shut the door, dropped his keys in the little dish that they had put on the windowsill nest to the door, and let Roman sweep him into his strong arms, giggling as they kissed with way more passion necessary for people who had only been apart for about eight hours. If there was any perk to not have or be visiting Virgil constantly, it was that he wasn’t there to loudly call them gross and chuck a pillow, stuffed animal, blanket, comic book, magazine, tissue box, or on one occasion of extreme sleep-deprivation, his cat SV- at their faces.

They separated eventually, both giggling, and Roman set Patton down with a slight “oof.”

“Roman you won’t believe what I saw in the woods today!! Faeries Roman, I met real faeries!!”

The words spilled out of Patton’s mouth before anything else-even a hello, nearly squealing the last words in his pure excitement. 

He felt Roman’s hands go still in his, a look of pure shock spreading over his boyfriend’s face. An expression that soon morphed from shock to disbelief, then hope, and then an excitement so strong that Patton was sure that, if they were cartoon characters, his eyes would have turned into stars. Patton laughed, and then Roman laughed, and they gripped each other’s hands tight- and before long they were dancing like children in a little ring, laughing and squealing, because faeries were real and they lived in their backyard!!!

“Tell me everything!!” Roman exclaimed breathlessly once they had finally run out of energy and stopped the gleeful dance, and Patton nodded wildly, grinning so hard it hurt his cheeks as he dragged Roman to the couch, bouncing on the white cushion in his poorly-contained joy.

“Okay so- after you left I hung around a bit, and then I got bored, so I headed out to the woods y’know? It wasn’t really as fun without you at first, so I ended up back by that tree we saw last time. Beautiful tree, I think it looked even prettier in the morning! Oh- but anyway I think I fell asleep for a bit- and then I was hearing these voices, so I stood up and turned around- and when I did- faeries!!”

“How many?” Roman asked eagerly, his eyes sparkling, “How big were they? Did they have wings? Were they butterfly wings or like- insect wings? Or petals? What were they like?” Patton shook his head quickly, but the smile never left his face. “No, no wings- they were actually your height I think, maybe taller? But they were beautiful Roman, the way they moved- they were like dancers, or acrobats..it was amazing. But they talked to me, and we introduced ourselves- I’ll tell Virgil not to worry, I didn’t give my full name- but they’re called Truth and Lies, and they’re brothers! Well, sorta..they’re cursed you see- well, I think- Truth can only tell the truth and Lies can only lie, so they talk a little weird, and sometimes it’s just wind? Anyway- they said I could see them again tomorrow!!”

And just like that, Roman deflated.

“...I have a shift tomorrow..” he moaned, sparkle fading from his eyes like a puppy who had just had its favorite treat thrown in the trash. “Oh. Well-” Patton quickly squeezed his hands, worry flashing over his face- oh dear, in his excitement he’d forgotten, “Don’t worry- if they’re okay with meeting up tomorrow I’m sure they’ll be okay with showing up on Friday, right?”

“..right.” 

“I’ll tell them you want to meet them okay? They’re really friendly, I’m sure they’ll be okay with it! Plus, who wouldn’t want to meet such a charming prince?” Smiling, Patton leaned in to nuzzle Roman’s nose, which caused his boyfriend to let out a high-pitched squeal. And then a bout of giggles, which Patton soon found himself mirroring as Roman’s hands cupped his round cheeks and he began to pepper kisses over every single freckle. And then finally, his mouth landed on Patton’s, and the kisses turned from feather-light and playful to slow and sweet. By the time they separated, the immediate concern had been forgotten, and somehow Patton had ended up on Roman’s lap. Neither of them minded this, however. 

In fact, for a few minutes they just sat there in the light of the sun streaming through the window, with Roman’s arms slung around Patton’s middle- until Roman’s stomach rumbled.

“So….Chinese tonight, Rosebud?” he suggested- then pouted when Patton frowned and firmly shook his head. It wasn’t dinnertime quite yet, but Patton was hungry too, and with their slightly uncoordinated work schedules, he and Roman often ended up eating early, so food was something to be thinking about. However, despite his enjoyment for Chinese takeout, a more disciplined part of Patton’s brain rejected the suggestion.

“No, we had pizza last night Ro- and I made waffles this morning! We should get something healthier, at least make something ourselves?”

“Oh, alright, fine,” Roman sighed, though he was milking the disappointment a bit. “How about...enchiladas?”

Patton smiled conspiratorially at that, then rose from the couch and turned, trading out the expression for his most over-the-top stern look, placing his hands on his hips to really sell the bit. “Are you going to going to spill the sauce all over the counter and then draw a dog with it instead of cleaning it up again, young man?” “Nooooo?” Roman laughed, putting on his best “innocent face”, which made him laugh, and then Patton laughed, and Roman jumped up from the couch and took Patton’s hand, tugging him towards the kitchen. “I promise, no enchilada sauce masterpieces on the counter!”

The enchiladas went without incident (well, except for Patton dropping a bowl on the floor, but nothing was spilled and nothing broke, so it was fine) and soon the couple was seated together at the table, happily eating. It was well into the evening now, and Roman had been recounting work stories. Mostly bitching about this one lady who had come in with her seven-year-old son (which was fine as long as he didn’t break anything) and upon Roman coming up to her to ask if she was finding everything she needed, glared at him, covered her son’s eyes, and backed out of the store as if he was some ghoul asking if he could eat her child’s heart rather than a store employee just doing his job. Patton was listening intently and offering his full support in the rant, and Roman had just started to list all the other times people had been horrified to see a man in makeup working at a beauty store- when the doorbell rang.

That was odd. They weren’t expecting anyone, Virgil wasn’t the type to show up out of the blue and for that matter- neither were most of their friends. It could be the mailman, but that was unlikely, so that really didn’t leave much. Then again, after this morning, the oddness of the doorbell ringing when no one was expected seemed like nothing. Nevertheless, Patton quickly pushed back his chair and stood, Roman following, and opened the door.

Before them stood a friendly-looking man in perhaps his late thirties or early forties, with pinkish-purple hair and a tan sweater. He looked a tad surprised that they’d answered the door, but waved, then held out a hand to shake.

“Heyo! So you’re our guests for the summer, hm? Nice to meet you, I’m Emile Picani.”

“Oh!” This must be one of their neighbors. Patton took his hand and shook it, then offered a large smile and stepped back slightly.

“Sorry, we weren’t really expecting any visitors- I’m Patton Sanders, and this-” “Roman Prince, delighted to make your acquaintance.”  Patton rolled his eyes playfully at the little bow his boyfriend offered their neighbor before taking his hand and shaking it firmly.

“My boyfriend,” Patton finished with a sigh, slightly relieved at the way Emile laughed at said boyfriend’s antics. “Why don’t you come in?”

“Oh no, I just wanted to say hello, I shouldn’t be intruding-” “Nonsense!” Roman proclaimed. “We were just finishing up dinner, and it’s always good to get to know your neighbors, right?” “Well..if you’re alright with it, I suppose.” 

He stepped inside and Roman closed the door behind him. Patton quickly excused himself to clean up their dinner dishes, and before long they were all seated in the little living room area, Roman and Patton together on the couch and Emile in a white wicker rocking chair.

“So where are you two coming from?” Emile asked.

“Oh, not far,” Roman replied. “I’ve been around, but my family moved to Portsmount city when I was sixteen, and dear Patton has lived there all his life.” “That’s right! I’d always really wanted to see some country, so we figured rather than renting a place together we could try somewhere a little more rural for the summer and..y’know, see how we liked it!” “Aww, how sweet,” chuckled Emile “Though I wouldn’t call our little spot of town country really.” “Well it’s pretty close to me!”

“Fair. Suppose I’m kind of the same myself in a way- I’ve lived here all my life. Makes the commute a bit of a pain, but the view is worth it.” “You have?” Roman asked, leaning forward a bit with interest. “Got any stories to tell?”

He was grinning slightly, and Emile laughed again, though it was a bit high-pitched.

“Oh, plenty, but if I recounted all of them we’d be here all night. Maybe I can humor you another time?” “Of course,” Patton replied. “Plus, most of them aren’t really the town’s, if that’s what you’re after. Dare I say it’s not really too eventful a place, but it’s pretty darn homey.”

“Seems that way..” Patton’s voice trailed off almost dreamily, but his eyes sparkled- not an eventful place? He’d never heard anything less true.

“So what do you two do?”

“Well I, am an actor!” Roman proclaimed, puffing out his chest slightly, “But in between shows I’m just a Sephora cast member for now.” “An actor? My my, that’s wonderful! Though I can’t say I’m surprised, you definitely have the attitude.” Roman beamed at the compliment, while Emile turned his sights on Patton. “And what about you?” “Oh, I work at Color Me Mine.” “Color Me Mine?” he tilted his head, confused, “Can’t say I’ve heard of that place.” Patton just waved a hand, unbothered. Most people didn’t know where he worked. “It’s a shop where people can come and paint their own ceramics- bowls, plates, figurines-that sort of thing.” “Creative types then?” “Mhm!” Emile pushed his glasses up his nose. “Well our little spot is going to be lucky to have you then! I’m a therapist myself. Shame I can’t have my office out here, I think a natural environment can really help clear the mind and make sessions easier. But it’s obviously too far.”

“You can say that again,” Roman snorted. “Our friend Virgil still lives in the city and most of his texts so far have been asking if we’re dead. I’m only half-certain that he’s joking…” “I’m sure we’ll get him out here for a visit sooner or later,” Patton assured.   

“Sounds like you’ve got a mom friend experiencing empty nest syndrome,” Emile joked, and they all laughed.

“Virge means well, he’s just a bit uh..” Patton rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, Ro and I can be a bit crazy when left alone, he’s normally kinda a voice of reason for us.” “Ah, I see.”

“Speaking of friends,” Patton began, eager to keep the conversation flowing- he liked Emile, wanted to keep speaking with him. “Have you got any around here?” Emile let out a chuckle, shaking his head. “No, not around here. There aren’t really too many people here anyway- not on the edge of the country at least. Most of the people I know live up in Vaybury proper.” 

Vaybury was the actual town they were staying in- well, technically. Houses trickled off once you got out of the main area of town, and the house Roman and Patton were staying in was on Becker Street, pretty much the last real street before you hit real country, and there were only about six or seven houses on it. Some of them weren’t even occupied. So what Emile said made sense, though it disappointed Patton somewhat.

Their chatting continued for another ten minutes or so, pleasantries and enjoyable-if shallow, small talk, before Emile announced he was grateful for their hospitality and happy to make their acquaintance, but he should be getting back home. But of course, Patton being Patton and Emile seeming to have similar traits of good-natured talkativeness, they had ended up continuing the conversation with Emile leaning by the doorway. Roman had just finished up telling the story of all the hoops they’d had to jump through to even be able to see this place, and Patton picked up right when he finished with their first impressions.

“You can see why we picked this place,” Patton laughed, gesturing to the rosebud wallpaper. It was very 1950s, but when Roman saw it he had picked Patton up and teased him about how he was all over the house already- and Patton had giggled and blushed as pink as the little flowers themselves. But he didn’t reiterate that part to Emile, it seemed a bit too personal. “It’s just beautiful, and the view is gorgeous- I know it seems a bit silly but it was kind of the home I always pictured living in as a child..” he ducked his head slightly, brushing vermillion curls from his eyes, but their neighbor smiled along with him.

“You can see why I just had to insist,” Roman said with a large smile, wrapping his arms around Patton’s middle and making him squeak, “My dear sunlight was shining like his namesake when we finally got here- not to mention on our walk in the woods! Though I doubt I was much better,” he chuckled, “That forest is just magical, is it not? I swear I was certain we’d come across Rapunzel’s tower any minute!” But Emile frowned at that statement.

“You...went into the woods? For how long?” “Oh, only an hour or so,” Roman responded, waving a hand, “At least when I was there anyway-Patton was telling me all about his adventure this morning as soon as I got home!”

“You went alone into the forest?” 

Patton nodded- and for a moment he was afraid Emile would be angry- or that there was some terrible danger there that the fey hadn’t warned him of..but Emile only looked concerned. He sighed, pushing horn-rimmed glasses up his nose. “I...wouldn’t do that if I were you. The fringes are usually fine, but the deeper you go- well, there are wild boar in there. Not a good place for visitors, or locals for that matter.” He shook his head and placed one hand on the door frame, stepping out into the evening sun.

Roman and Patton shared a glance, and after a moment Patton stepped out of his boyfriend’s arms and offered the concerned man a small smile.

“We’ll keep that in mind- thank you. And it was great meeting you!” “You too,” Emile replied, giving them one last friendly nod, before he stepped down the path and Patton closed the door behind him.

They stood in those positions, staring at the door, until Roman voiced what was going through both of their heads. “...Do you think he knows?” “I...I don’t know.” Patton’s voice was quiet, his gaze cast to the floor. “He could.” “Perhaps you could ask them tomorrow?” “Oh- yeah, I can.” 

There was a moment of silence. “I’m sure it’s nothing though,” Patton assured. But only the air would relax at the words, because though both of them nodded, neither of them would really take the comment to heart.

                                                             *

It rained the next morning. Not a light drizzle either, but the heavy summer rain- Patton left the house swaddled in a bright blue raincoat, his hands shoved in his pockets. It felt better once he got into the woods, but the branches would often bow under the weight of the rainwater and dump hundreds of drops down onto is head. Despite his hood, by the time Patton reached the clearing the fey had appeared in, his red curls were plastered to his face and his glasses were completely fogged over.

He honestly wasn’t sure if Truth and Lies would appear today, with this weather...but he wasn’t going to assume anything. The massive oak that stood proud in the center of the clearing, to Patton’s relief, was tall, dense, and wide enough that it didn’t seem to be showering the ground with droplets, so Patton found a relatively dry root to perch on and pushed back his hood, shaking the water from his hair like a puppy.

He unzipped the raincoat too, just enough so that he could use the hem of his faded pink shirt to clean away the moisture from his glasses and slip them back on- and then jolted backwards in shock, smacking his head against the trunk of the oak and letting out a yelp of pain, for there were the two faeries, hanging from a branch by their knees and twisted together like a butterfly’s cocoon, both pairs of eyes staring straight at him.

“Oh, Patton!” 

With his eyes closed, he couldn’t be sure as to whose petal-soft fingertips lifted up his chin before sliding around to feel among his wet curls for any sort of bump on the back of his head, but judging by the silky tone, it was Lies. “We don’t offer any apologies for startling you so..that looked comfortable.” Definitely Lies. Patton opened his eyes, still seeing flecks of sparkle at the edge of his vision- ow, that was going to swell most likely- to see the green fey only inches from his face, with Truth just a little farther away, his hands placed on the root right next to Patton’s right thigh and leaning  over his shoulder. Instantly, Patton’s cheeks flushed, and he let out another squeak, this time one of embarrassment. 

“No! No it’s okay, just a little bump- clumsy me really, not your fault, it happens all the time!” “Are you certain?” Patton’s nodded vigorously, and to his relief the two moved back a bit, sitting down on a raised root opposite him. Not that he minded their presence, it just...it surprised him, and despite his friendly nature having such fantastical creatures only inches from his nose- it just- it was scary! Not because he was scared of them, of course, it just...it felt like they were looking right through him.

“Well...that’s good. We almost thought you wouldn’t come. What with the rain and all. I find most humans prefer not to go out in such weather.” “Oh- I wouldn’t miss it!” Patton quickly exclaimed, “I mean, sure the rain’s kind of a pain, but that’s why I have a coat!” “That’s good,” Truth smiled, “We’re glad you’re here.”

“Of course- what was I going to do, watch TV instead of meeting with faeries?” The notion was ridiculous- Patton laughed, and the two fey added their musical giggling to the mix of sound. Patton felt a spark of pride for getting them to laugh.

“True, true, but you must remember that of course not everyone is willing to accept our existence.”

“Right.” Patton..he felt bad for those people. Those who refused to accept there might be childlike wonders in the world..maybe he got called immature or gullible for his willingness to accept the fantastical- but that was fine. Their loss.

“So..Patton.” He was jolted out of his musings by Lies’s smooth voice, and looked up, to see the green fey tapping his glimmering cheek.

“What do you think of that tour?” “Tour? Oh-OH!” Patton flushed, embarrassed at his absentmindedness, “Of the woods?” “No.” “Um...well, I don’t really think I should. Don’t want to lose track of time, y’know?” They just blinked.

Patton shifted on the damp root, suddenly self conscious, and looking for a subject change- when he remembered the conversations of the previous evening.

“Nevermind- actually, I kind of wanted to ask you two something?” “Of course,” replied Truth, leaning forward a smidge as both tilted their heads. Patton brushed a hand through his wet curls, trying to push them back into something that made him look a little less like a drowned poodle.

“Well..Roman really wants to meet you, but he couldn’t actually come today- but he’s free on Friday...so if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I was kind of hoping maybe we could meet then too? So he could meet you?” The words came out in a bit of a rush, and when Patton looked up almost sheepishly, he was met with the sight of the two fey sharing another one of their odd looks. 

“That sounds terrible Patton..” Lies said with a smile, after a moment of that silent discussion, “Was that all?” “Ye- no! No, there was actually one other thing..” bringing up Emile felt..more invasive. But he’d promised Roman he’d ask..and he was horribly curious himself.

“Our..new neighbor came over last night. He’s really nice- but it kind of ended on a..not-so-good note. He warned us to stay out of the woods.” “Well of course, none of the humans who’ve settled here find themselves afraid of the forest,” Lies dismissed, waving a hand and leaning onto Truth’s shoulder. Judging by the blue fey’s expression (hard to read as it was) he didn’t seem to think this anything important either. “...Well yeah- but you know, we were just a little worried that he knew something- you don’t know an Emile, do you?” He felt a bit bad, possibly giving out part of someone else’s name..but it’s not like he could just describe him right? They had to have seen so many people.

“Emile?” Truth frowned, tapping his delicate fingers on Lies’s knee, “No, I don’t remember any human by that name in recent years..” “I definitely remember him.”

Patton felt his shoulders relax slightly- and a laugh escaped his throat. “Of course- I knew it was probably silly, but I just wanted to check.” “Of course, cautiousness pays off well.”

“You sound like Virgil,” Patton chuckled. Well, Virgil would have phrased it more like “People can call you paranoid, but they won’t be laughing when you’re stocked for the apocalypse and they aren't.”

He missed Virgil..

“Well then Virgil must be immensely intelligent,” Lies commented, holding out one hand in front of his face, observing his nails- and Patton almost frowned. Lies’s odd opposite-speak was a bit hard to adjust to, true, but Patton caught on quick- and he swore the fey had just called his friend stupid! “Hey, he’s n-” But Patton was cut off by the sound of Lies’s laughter as Truth, his face pinched with offense, pushed the green fey off of the root and onto the slightly muddy grass. Lies let out a shriek, his laughter turning to something of disgust as he leapt to his feet and quickly brushed the mud from leaflike skin. And Patton suddenly felt immensely silly for jumping to conclusions, as he realized that Lies was in fact, taunting his brother. But he also didn’t really blame himself- years of going to bat for his friend had conditioned him to be very protective. And that was a good thing!

He found himself muffling a giggle with one hand, then almost jumped as he suddenly felt a body press against his side. Quickly turning his head, he realized that Lies had slid onto the root next to him instead of his brother, and wrapped his arms around Patton’s left arm, tucking in close. It sent Patton’s cheeks absolutely ablaze, his laughter dying in his throat (along with any other sounds he might consider trying to make) but the fey didn’t even seem to notice, instead flashing a wide smirk at Truth.

“Well, if you’re going to be that way, maybe I’ll just make sure to share this one..” “As if you wouldn’t have been caught in your own web centuries ago without me,” Truth sniffed. “Well excuse me for refusing to have any fun at all..” Lies drawled, letting go of Patton’s arm only to drape himself over his lap, slinging one slender arm around Patton’s shoulders to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. Warm tingles spread down his spine, and Patton shivered. He almost felt like he couldn’t move, or speak. He didn’t want to disturb the delicate scene.

“Now who’s groping the poor thing?” “Hm? What do you mean?”

It was then Patton realized that the two were indeed aware that he was still there- and probably even his reactions to their actions..which made him hide his hands in his face in order to cover up a blush that probably made every freckle on his face stand out like seeds in a watermelon. “No-it’s um-” god he couldn’t even get a word out “fiNE it’s fine I don’t really mind.” Lies laughed- and leaned up to press a delicate kiss to Patton’s temple before sliding off his lap. Patton went absolutely rigid, and by the time his thoughts calmed down he realized the green fey had perched himself back on the branch over Truth’s head, dangling one arm and one leg over like it was a perfectly soft sofa and not a cylinder of wet, rough bark.

“Now now Patton, remember, obvious lies aren’t my job.”

He had the feeling he was supposed to laugh at that, but as he was currently engrossed in trying to function like an actual person who wasn’t a tomato in a raincoat and could speak words, it was a bit difficult.

“I apologize for him…” Truth sighed, brushing a droplet of water off of one of the cobalt spots on his cheek.

“No- no, it’s really fine I mean it,” Patton managed to get out, though he did end the sentence with a very awkward high-pitched giggle that he would rather have avoided. He kicked his legs a little in an effort to distract himself.

“Hm...you said your “boyfriend” couldn’t accompany you today- why is that?” “Oh, he has work. His shift is a lot earlier than mine,” Patton explained quickly, grateful for a subject change. He received no answer immediately, but did notice Truth tilt his head thoughtfully, and heard Lies let out a scoff from his place languishing on the branch. “Work. I didn’t think humans would have gotten over such a notion by now, of course I suppose it wasn’t vital a time ago..but now you seem to do it just for boredom!”

...Patton couldn’t honestly argue too much there. He might be an optimistic soul who, while having a very strict moral compass, didn’t like to dwell too much on the terrible things about the world he couldn’t do anything about as a single person, but you couldn’t live around Virgil without being fully educated as to the sins of capitalism and the emptiness of what most people were brainwashed to believe was “necessary” work in order to earn the basic right to live.

“Yeah..it’s a..thing.”

“What does he do anyway? You’ve all gotten past farming right?” Truth asked a bit boredly, tracing a pattern on the root with his finger. Patton pursed his lips, trying to figure out how to explain it all.

“Well...I mean no, a lot of people still farm since we need food, but thanks to technology most people have other jobs. Roman um...well he works at Sephora, which is a store that sells makeup, which is like- facepaint! Yeah, humans paint colors on their face to make themselves look different.” “Oh how despicable!” Lies exclaimed- a little to Patton’s surprise, considering the...well not disinterest, he wouldn’t call it that, but general..detachment, that the two fey had expressed so far. “What?” “Oh, it’s just so awful to hear you’re finally taking some enjoyment in your little lives,” Lies said with a smile- and Patton felt his own lips curl up too, the faerie almost seemed to glow when he grinned, despite the cloudy sky and tree shading the three of them. “Humans in the past were just so interesting, not scared of their own shadows and not a single hour of the day spent working!” ….Honestly, Patton could...see that. He wouldn’t want to live a few hundred years ago, even if it was some alternate universe where there wasn’t any of the admittedly awful social norms..he’d feel trapped. Trapped in one role, in one or two places, with little ability to know what else was out there or meet new and interesting people unless he dedicated decades to traveling. He wouldn’t quite call the humans of the past “scared of their own shadows” as opposed to “superstitious” but here he was talking to a pair of faeries so...that assumption could be wrong. In fact it probably was. Goodness, he was still having revelations!

“....tton?” “Huh?” Patton’s head snapped up in surprise- and immediately felt something soft against the back of his skull. He quickly realized it was Truth’s’ hand, and then came the embarrassing realization that he had almost bashed his head into the tree again. His cheeks flushed, also because he had just realized he had gotten lost in thought while being spoken to. “Oh-thanks..” “Of course, we wouldn’t want you to hurt your head again.” “Are you alright?” “Of course!” Patton scooted forward, a bit away from the tree that the back of his head seemed so very fond of at the moment. “Sorry, I just..got a little lost in thought there. Again. How very..root of me!” He giggled, tapping the twisting root he and Truth were sitting on, and felt a little bit of pride in his chest as he noticed Lies’s lips quirk up again. “I wouldn’t say that’s a clever bit of word play.” “You think so?” “Of course not.” “..Gee, thanks..” Patton dipped his head a little, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Normally people just laughed (or groaned, but oftentimes it was really the same thing with puns) not acknowledge the little joke. “You’re a real sap, aren’t you Lies?” And there were the reactions he was used to- a musical laugh from Lies, and an agonized groan from Truth. “Please don’t encourage him…” “Come now Truth, his jokes aren’t darling..when will you learn to humor people?” “When doing so doesn’t result in being subjected to terribly constructed wordplay,” Truth responded flatly. “Plus, flattery is your job.” “Oh yes, and that’s why you’re the favorite.” “Excuse me?” “Face it, no one knows I’m the better seedling.” “It is likely they only say that so you don’t throw a tantrum.” Lies gasped, a look of exaggerated hurt flashing over his pointed face as he drew his hands to his chest protectively- and in that moment, the two of them so much resembled Virgil and Roman- one responding to goads with dry wit, the other teasing but reacting with “horror” when the words were turned back on him, that Patton was unable to stop himself from bursting into laughter. “..Pardon?” “It’s- oh, it’s-” Patton let out another bout of laughter at seeing the expression crossing the face of the two faeries, and by the time he stopped, his face was still glowing with mirth.

“You just- you argue just like Virgil and Roman!” “...We do?” Truth’s voice was...actually surprised. And a little confused. It was the first time in the hours he’d spent with them that Patton was actually certain that he knew what was going on in the fey’s head. “Yes! They bicker just like brothers sometimes, it’s adorable!” He got no response. Truth and Lies simply glanced at each other, but Patton was too full of glee to feel embarrassed at the silence. “..Say, do you think we’ll ever meet this Virgil?” asked Truth, and Patton briskly answered. “I’d like you to- but it probably won’t happen. I mean, he lives in the city, and it’s about an hour away when there isn’t traffic..and Virge really doesn’t like driving in traffic. So if he does visit it won’t be often- and…” his smile dropped, “Well, no offense, but Virgil isn’t really..well, he probably wouldn’t feel too comfortable around you two.” “...I see.”

Lies’ response felt..wrong, to Patton. But thankfully, he was saved from delving further into that awkward topic by the sound of Night Owl. Not the actual bird of course, though it was dim out due to the rain it was still late morning, there wouldn’t be any owls about- but the sound of the alarm Patton had set to remind him when he had to start heading home to get to work on time.

“What was that?”

“Just my alarm,” Patton responded, pulling his phone out of his pocket and turning off the alarm, sliding off the root and onto the damp grass. He noticed the way Truth and Lies leaned towards him and the phone- no doubt curious, but as much as he’d like to explain, he really had to get going. Especially considering that he might get lost on the way back.

“...An alarm,” Truth repeated, and Patton nodded.

“Yeah, it’s a noise I set to play so I remember to do certain things- like, I need to go right now, for my job.”

“Oh, must you?” Asked Lies, with a tone of voice that could only be described as a whine as he slid from the branch and wrapped his arms around Patton’s waist- which made him squeak as his face was pressed into the faerie’s chest.

“Can’t you stay just a little longer?”

“....No, I’m sorry, I really have to go,” Patton insisted, very gently squirming out of the fey’s grip and ignoring his pout. “But I’ll see you on Friday, right?”

“Right,” Lies sighed, and Patton heard the soft sound of feet touching down onto grass, turning to see Truth had stood from the root, and was smiling gently.

“Right. And we are so looking forward to meeting your partner.”

He placed a kiss on Patton’s forehead- and though Patton did not squeak this time, he did blush and giggle. He turned, zipped up his raincoat and pulled his hood up over his damp hair, still smiling.

“Goodbye!”

“Goodbye,” the fey chorused, but when Patton turned back around to wave, they were gone.

Well, that seemed to be their way. So he waved anyway at the empty glade and turned around, marching off through the woods and savoring the smell of damp leaves and wood.

Tags: @patton-croc-agenda @why-things-go-boom @tawnyevergreen @jynxlovesluck @towersandmyrtles @notveryglittery @per-seph-o-nee @definitely-a-plant @starryfirefliesbloggo @karmels-stuff @impatentpending @the-parentheticals @chinesewaffles2 @whatwashernameagain @em-be-lievable @theincediblesulk @xx-fandom-potato-xx

(If you enjoyed, please reblog!)

[when-day-met-the-knight]

Ahhhahahahhh,,,

So after scrolling down Tumblr for about an hour imma make my own lil "contribution" on how I see the Sides/Sanders Sides as a whole bc my heart hurts when I read certain theories.

Okay beginning with any of the sides being a destructive influence; I see a lot of posts with Patton, being the destructive influence in Thomas and how he may end up being the "antagonist" in the coming episodes but allow me to spread a more unpopular headcanon that I don't think he will.

I know that he's been kinda iffy towards Deceit and Remus but I think its just cause of who he is. He's Thomas' morality, encompassing his sense of right and wrong. Its stated that Thomas had a religious upbringing; of course lying was taught to be wrong. And with Remus, intrusive thoughts, though common, are alarming, so I'm not surprised he reacted the way he did.

Which was the whole point of the episodes, I know. But just taking a step back towards Patton's character, it doesn't feel right for him to go as far as to "banish" the other dark sides.

Like Virgil, Roman and Logan, he grows with every episode. He realizes his mistakes. Especially the line towards the end of DWIT, "I didn't realize what an impossible standard I'd been setting." It makes me believe that Patton will learn to be more open towards the other sides, just like he was with Virgil. Its just a bit harder now because these sides specifically go against what he represents (but he'll learn that that's okay. Like Roman did with Virgil.)

Deceit's another example. After CLBG, I liked to antagonize him. He just seemed like such a villain to me with the evil laugh, music, seemingly malicious intent. He was a character I loved to hate.

But after SvS, I've come to absolutely adore him. I feel like he's just so much more than a liar, he's like Thomas' self preservation. I agreed with the points he made and I ended up siding with him despite initially siding with Patton.

He's hilarious (to me), sassy, witty, just overall a really amazing character. Yet I'm not much of a fan of "sympathetic" Deceit, haha. I definitely don't see him as the big bad Disney villain but I don't see him as a friend to the sides either. Especially not with Virgil.

Its pretty obvious that the two have a past but the way I've seen other people describe it is either angsty or hilarious. I'm meeting on a middle ground.

Of course Virgil left the Dark Sides for something more serious than stolen headphones but I don't think its cause they hurt him. He's obviously not scared of Deceit. Maybe a little intimidated, but not scared. Especially because he was able to talk to and even snap back at him. Deceit makes him more irritated than scared. And yes, Remus unsettled him, but be honest who wouldn't be unsettled by Remus.

I just think Deceit used to convince Virgil that lying was good for Thomas. Or something like that. It ended up in heightening him to the point where he actually stifled Thomas, or was able to make his presence "known" to him or something ("Why am I only seeing him now?") so he left.

I could be totally wrong about everything I've said so far. But that's just how I see it. There could be a big build up where the dark sides are all revealed and they COULD out Patton as the one who divided them as Light/Dark in the first place. However I don't think it'll end with everyone siding against Patton and Patton becoming a said "dark side".

In DWIT, when Logan asks Virgil what's wrong with Thomas, Virgil mentions a contributing factor to Thomas' distress is the fact that he missed the callback. There's a cut to Patton making a face like a realization (29:35) and I read somewhere that Joan mentioned there being a continuation?? Ish? Kinda vid to SvS (I can't say for sure, I read it somewhere either here or on YouTube). But my point is that that scene could lead to Patton learning to be more accepting.

I'm going to be honest, I don't like the "unsympathetic ____" tags bc I personally don't like antagonizing any of the sides. In the end, they all want what's best for Thomas (idk about Remus someone pls help that smelly boi-).

Logan was alright with Thomas skipping the wedding (and losing two friends in the process) so that he could do better on his work. Virgil gets worked up about lying and intrusive thoughts because they may end up hurting Thomas in the long run. Roman used to dislike Virgil because he stifled his creativity. Why is this different from Patton believing that lying is wrong due to the way Thomas was raised? Or Deceit wanting to lie so that Thomas could achieve something he really wanted? Its not. I don't think any of the sides are objectively bad, because they want what's best for Thomas.

So if it came down to it, of course I believe that Patton would be willing to compromise. Logan, I feel, would play a huge part in this cause he's become the voice of reason. He helped calm both Patton and Virgil and is the most unbiased side. Patton listens to him as well. If it came down to it, Logan would play a huge part in calming the Light/Dark Sides down, particularly because he could help them reach a compromise. (Sorry, sorry, Logan's lowkey becoming my favorite).

In the end of it all, maybe all sides just learn to coexist. Have the good with the bad and the rhyme with the reason. Cause that's the lesson, I feel, Thomas and co. have been trying to teach.

Again, if anyone read this and was offended or something, sorry. I'm not saying you're not allowed to antagonize a character or like something I dislike or theorize what you want but this is just what I think. (There's other stuff but that's like it's own separate post,,)

Okay. Rant-ish thing, over.