#but other than that its still a very good show with a damn good visual aesthetic (and banger music too)

[therealcocoshady]

Kinktober - Day 6 - Sex Work

Kinktober 2024 Masterlist

A/N : For the "sex work" prompt of Kinktober 2024 I thought I'd mix it up with a request I received as well. Granted, it's playing on the words of the prompt rather than the actual theme but I hope you guys like it nonetheless ! ✨ Also, I did have a second idea, which I might end up doing too 😏

CW : Mention of sex work - Flirty texts - Mention of hook up

The studio was buzzing with energy as the podcast got underway. Marshall sat at the head of the table, wearing his usual hoodie and cap combo, arms crossed casually as he listened to the banter among the other rappers. One former D12 member had decided to launch a podcast and, when he was ask to be the first guest, he was happy to show up to support his friend. In the past years, he’d grown more and more picky when it came to doing interviews and appearances, but he was glad he did this, supporting his buddy and talking about hip-hop in general, instead of just him. It was much better than random journalists asking about his professional life. The conversation had flowed from the evolution of hip-hop to its biggest influencers, and now, they were moving into more contemporary topics—reviewing music videos from up-and-coming artists. 

He wasn’t sure what to expect when they cued up the next video for review. When the host dropped your name, though, his head perked up. You, the firecracker of a lyricist he had been « mentoring » for a while now. You weren’t to Shady Records, but you had worked together enough for him to respect your raw talent and commendable work ethic. He had been kind enough to offer some guidance and even some beats from his vault, and while you were still making your way in the industry, you had already built a reputation as an outspoken voice in the game. You had a good rapport, too. In private, you’d shared more than just a few laughs, and there was a mutual admiration that sometimes tiptoed into the realm of flirtation—compliments exchanged, gazes held a bit longer than necessary—but nothing too serious. It was always playful, a line neither of you had crossed. 

The host grinned, looking at Marshall. « So, this is Y/N’s latest track. It’s called ‘Sex Work’. You haven’t seen this one yet, have you? ».  He shook his head, a little curious but still cool. « Nah, she didn’t send it to me. ». His friend looked at him and let out a laugh. “You’re in for a surprise, then”.  The video started, and the beat dropped—a heavy bass line that immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. But it wasn’t just the music that made Marshall sit up a little straighter. The visuals hit hard. You were on-screen, dressed in bold, provocative outfits, your presence commanding the camera. The scenes shifted rapidly, moving through a series of sexually charged, daring shots. It was unlike anything you’d done before. 

You were playing with the very imagery that dominated so much of hip-hop—the kind of objectification women often faced. Except you were not the object here. She was the one in control, flipping the narrative. The lyrics hit just as hard as the visuals, each line razor-sharp, calling out the double standards in the industry, using clever wordplay ad metaphors that drew a parallel between the music industry and sex work, too. 

Marshall was caught off guard. The video was bold, even provocative. You were owning your sexuality in a way that was direct, unapologetic, and powerful. But then it hit him—some of the scenes were direct callbacks to his older videos. One shot mirrored the set of his “Superman” video, and in another, you were standing where one of his infamous adult actresses had stood, reclaiming that space. « Damn, » one of the other hosts on the podcast muttered, eyes wide. Marshall’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t say anything. Not yet. The lyrics kept going, and it became clear what you were doing—turning the tables on the misogynistic narratives you had been surrounded by as an up and coming female rapper. The video wasn’t just about sex appeal; it was a statement. You were deliberately playing with the same imagery that had been used to objectify women for decades, challenging it, and throwing it back in everyone’s faces. By the time the video ended, the room was dead silent for a moment. The host was the first to speak. « Marshall, man… what are you thinking? ».  He leaned back in his chair, taking a breath. He could feel the eyes on him, waiting for some kind of reaction, maybe even expecting. You weren’t playing by anyone’s rules and it was the type of attitude he respected, especially then someone pushed the pen that far.  « Well, first off, » he said, glancing around the room before locking eyes with the host, « she killed that ». The other guys laughed, but he wasn’t joking. « She’s always been fearless with her lyrics, » he continued, « but this? This is next level. She’s calling out the hypocrisy in the industry, and she’s doing it in a way that makes you pay attention. It’s bold as hell. » He paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. « I didn’t expect her to take shots at some of the imagery I’ve used in my older videos, but I respect it. She’s making a statement. She’s an artist, it’s what she should be doing. It’s what we do as emcees, you know ?  ». The others nodded, clearly impressed with his take. « So you’re not bothered by it? I mean, some of those scenes were pretty close to your old stuff ». 

« Nah, » he said, shaking his head. « If anything, I think it’s cool. That’s the kind of artist she is—smart, sharp, and always saying something with her work. Whether it’s a track about life or, you know… this ». He chuckled a little at the end, the edge of a smirk tugging at his lips. Truth be told, he hadn’t expected you to pull something this bold. Sure, you had always been outspoken, always ready to challenge the norms, but this? This was next-level boldness.  The conversation moved on to other topics, but Marshall’s mind lingered on your video. He knew it was going to blow up and, truth be told, he was curious to know where that was headed. 

The days following the release of your music video and Marshall’s appearance on the podcast were a whirlwind of noise. Social media was ablaze with debates, and hip-hop blogs pumped out articles almost hourly, all focused on one central question: Was Y/N dissing Eminem ? Marshall, sitting in the comfort of his home, scrolled through his phone, shaking his head at the ridiculous headlines. « Y/N’s Bold Move: Diss or Power Play Against Eminem?" or  "New Queen in Town? Is Y/N Coming for Eminem’s Throne? ».  Everyone had their own theory, and the conversation was only growing louder. What had started as you making a critique of misogyny  had snowballed into a supposed rivalry between you and Em—a narrative the media had hungrily latched onto. It wasn’t surprising to anyone, though. Of course it was going to make for good headlines and farm engagement rates, even though it was a shame to have it take away from the main topic.  Interviews, radio shows, podcasts—everyone was asking the same question: What did Eminem think ? 

Marshall had been ignoring the noise for as long as he could, figuring people would see the bigger picture. But the hype refused to die down. Paul’s phone blew up with texts and calls, from journalists looking for comments to fellow artists wondering if there was any beef brewing. His team’s inbox was flooded. He wasn’t surprised that you were stirring things up—you were unapologetically yourself, always—but the whole “diss” angle? That was ridiculous. A week after the video dropped, Marshall finally caved. He knew he had to address it, especially after hearing that some major podcasts were going to dive deeper into the so-called "feud." There was no way he’d let anyone twist this into something it wasn’t. It was sort of unlike him, but he was pissed off about lies being spread and people making headlines about an imaginary feud. He wouldn’t have cared to address it if it had been anyone else, but he actually liked and respected you. He also had enough self-awareness to know that, if he let the whole thing escalate, some people would take « his side » and turn on you. Frankly, he didn’t have the time or energy for some stupid quid pro quo situation and he deemed it best to address the topic. 

That morning, he agreed to hop on a Shade45 radio show that had been asking him for a statement for days. As the interview started, the host wasted no time jumping into the topic. « Alright, Boss, we’ve got to get straight to it, » the host said, his voice filled with anticipation. « Y/N. We’ve all seen the video. She’s been pretty outspoken, and a lot of people are taking her comments about the double standards in hip-hop and the scenes from your old videos as… well, a diss. What do you think? ». Marshall took a deep breath and leaned forward into the mic, choosing his words carefully but keeping his usual bluntness. « Look, » he started, « Y/N is not dissing me. She’s not coming for me or trying to take shots.  What she’s doing is making a statement. A damn good one, too. People keep saying she’s going too far or whatever, but this is the same stuff that I, and a lot of other artists, have done for years. She’s just flipping the script, and now, suddenly, people want to act like it’s a problem ».  The host nodded, but there was still an edge of curiosity. « So, you’re not offended by her recreating some of your visuals? Some people took it as her calling you out ».  Marshall smirked, shaking his head. « Nah, man. Y/N’s one of the most talented artists out there right now. She’s smart. She’s sharp. And she’s not afraid to say what’s on her mind, even if it makes people uncomfortable. That’s what makes her great. She’s doing exactly what artists are supposed to do—make people think, make people talk. It’s the same shit I have always done with my music. And if she’s calling out hypocrisy ? Good for her. I’ve been there. I know how that goes ». 

He leaned back again, more comfortable now. « You know, I’ve worked with her, produced a couple of tracks for her, and I’ve always been impressed by how real she keeps it. She’s not here to play by anyone’s rules. She’s doing what she wants, and I respect that. If you’re mad at her for being direct, maybe it’s because you don’t like what she’s saying ». The host paused for a moment, letting Em’s words settle. « So, to be clear—you fully support what she’s doing? ». « Yeah, » Marshall said without hesitation. « Y/N’s just getting started, and if people are mad now? They better buckle up, ‘cause she’s only going to keep pushing boundaries. She’s not afraid to call out the industry for its hypocrisy. And if anyone thinks she’s dissing me, they’re missing the point. She’s making space for herself, and she’s doing it her way. That’s what being an artist is all about ». The host grinned, seemingly satisfied with his take. « Well, there you have it, folks. Marshall’s got nothing but respect for Y/N. » Marshall chuckled, nodding. « Damn right. I’ll say this though : I’ve spent enough time with her to know that it’s more fun to be her friend than to be her enemy. So, anyone who’s been talking shit… Better be ready ». 

After the podcast dropped, the noise around the supposed « diss » started to die down. Marshall’s words carried weight, and now that he had set the record straight, the media was forced to pivot. Instead of focusing on a non-existent feud, the conversation shifted toward what you had always intended—your critique of double standards. Now that people didn’t worry about a possible feud, they seemed more disposed to focus on the subject matter and the narrative surrounding you quickly took a much more positive turn.  That evening, Marshall was sitting in his home studio, tweaking some beats when his phone buzzed on the table next to him. He glanced down and saw your name on the screen.

Y/N :  Thanks for having my back.

He stared at the text for a moment, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. He wasn’t surprised you’d reached out; after all,  you weren’t the type to let things go unacknowledged. He liked that about you. But he could tell by the simple message that you appreciated the support more than you’d probably say out loud. He picked up his phone and tapped out a reply.

Marshall : Always. Not that you needed it, though. 

He fully meant it when he said that you didn’t need his support. He knew for a fact that you’d clap back if needed. There was a brief pause before your next message popped up.

Y/N : Yeah, but you saying it shuts up a lot of people. 

He chuckled to himself, nodding as he read the words.

Marshall :  Let ‘em talk. You’re doing your thing. If they’re mad, that means you’re doing something right. 

Y/N :  Guess I learned from the best.

Marshall leaned back in his chair, looking at your message for a second before typing a final reply.

Marshall : Nah, you’re making your own lane. Keep killing it.

He put his phone down, guessing the conversation was probably over for the night. But even as he turned back to the track he was working on, he couldn’t help but feel a certain sense of pride. You were carving out your own space in the industry, no matter how many people tried to twist her message or pit you against him. In the short while he’d known you, he had seen you evolve as an artist and, since you’d never failed to share how much his music had shaped your artistry, he felt proud. 

Y/N : Also, I’m glad that you got what I did with the references to your video. It was an hommage, not a shot. 

Marshall grinned, running his thumb over the screen as he typed his reply.

Marshall : Oh, I know. But now I’m thinking, if it was an hommage, why didn’t you just ask me to be in it ?

The dots on the screen danced for a moment, and then your reply came through, as sharp as your lyrics.

Y/N : I was only hiring professionals. ;)

Marshall laughed out loud, shaking his head. He liked your quick wit, the way you never backed down from a little back-and-forth. If anyone else had thrown that line at him, he might’ve let it go. But not you.

Marshall : You don’t think I’m professional enough?

Y/N : In music ? Sure. Can’t speak for the rest, though. 

There was a pause as he crafted his next response, his smirk growing wider. He enjoyed it too much, couldn’t help himself. 

Marshall : If you want to find out just how professional I can get, all you gotta do is ask.

He sent the message, leaning back on his chair. He could practically feel the heat of your flirtation building through the screen. You didn’t take long to reply, as bold as ever.

Y/N : Oh, I’ll keep that in mind.

There was no more texting that night, but the tension lingered in the silence that followed. Your dynamic had always teetered on the edge of something more, something neither of them had fully explored. Both of you had always kept it on the safe side. The energy between them you felt charged in a way it hadn’t before, following these texts and he liked it. There was something irresistible about a beautiful woman who was also smart and bold. However, he chose not to let it get to his head, not wanting to be that guy. Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, you probably had enough of those, even though he wouldn’t mind showing you the extent of his bedroom skills. He meant it, though. All you had to do was ask. He had made a point to avoid getting involved with celebs and fellow artists but he’d gladly make an exception for you.

Weeks later, the two of you found yourself in New York for an awards show. The ceremony was everything you’d expect—long, loud, and full of celebrities. But Marshall wasn’t really focused on the stage. He hadn’t seen you yet, but he knew you were there. He’d heard your name more than once as people in the crowd gushed about you, your bold video, and the statement you’d made in the industry. Your viral video had made you gain tons of recognition and everyone was gushing about you, even the ones who had been quick to assume you were dissing him in a desperate clout-chasing attempt. After the show, as he headed back to his hotel room, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. 

Y/N :  Nice performance tonight. Very professional. The Bradford. Suite 1602. If your offer still stands.

Marshall stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the message. The directness of it sent a jolt through him. There wasn’t any question about what you were implying. The words lingered on his screen, bold and unflinching, just like you. For a moment, he just stood there, processing. Then, without a second thought, he found himself heading toward the exit of his hotel. There was no hesitation now. His heart picked up speed as he walked out into the night, flagged down a cab, and gave the driver the name of your hotel, not too far from his. The drive was short, but each second felt drawn out, like anticipation was pulling time apart. As the cab pulled up in front of The Bradford, Marshall stepped out, the city lights glowing faintly around him. He walked through the doors and headed straight to the elevator, heart pounding just a little harder with each passing floor. When he reached your floor, the quiet of the hallway contrasted sharply with the rush of energy coursing through him. He stopped in front of Suite 1602, staring at the number on the door for a moment before knocking, his mind running through the million ways this could go. The door opened slowly, and there you were, standing barefoot in a simple yet alluring outfit that somehow made his pulse race faster than anything you’d worn in that music video. Your eyes met his with the same fire he’d always admired, but now, it was mixed with something more, something unspoken between the two of you that had finally found its moment. « Wasn’t sure you’d actually show up, » you said, your voice low but teasing. Marshall smirked, stepping inside. « Told you all you had to do was ask ». You grinned back, eyes glinting as you shut the door behind him. « Well, I am asking ». 

If you liked this and want to support a struggling student, you can buy me a cup of coffee. ☕️

[guiltycorp]

Damn i really want to know tf happened in the writing room of arcane s2. Some of the downgrades were inevitable due to the show's corporate limitations (not being able to progress the class war story in a meaningful way, having to tie things back to league of legends in terms of making playable characters more appealing to well, play... rip Mel and Viktor in particular), sure. But i still feel like it's even worse than that? There are so many bad decisions that i couldn't even start listing them all... the characters, plot, pacing, themes, it's just such a mess? Even the dialogue writing, it feels much more mm Marvel at its worst i suppose. What i am most bothered by is probably just the straight up harmful messaging so um... Cycles of violence and abuse can be broken by individual decisions to become a better person! Got nothing to do with systemic oppression, living conditions, mental health issues, you can just conveniently ignore aaall the social context, live laugh love and then things get better automatically yep, oppressors famously stop oppressing you when you show them that you're harmless and won't put up a fight anymore. Literally three out of three suicidal characters dying to redeem themselves? Not even in a tragic/cathartic way but in a bittersweet 'they finally atoned for their mistakes' way? Groundbreaking lmao. Romantic relationship between Vi and Caitlyn including no communication about their biggest fight, just conveniently skipping to sex and getting back together - would have loved that if it was framed as the unhealthy fucked up thing that it is, skipping over Vi's hurt and her background to once again become a cop, her girlfriend's direct underling at that (!) due to her not having any other support systems... But nope that was our cute lesbian romance wrapped up, a good thing all around, not concerning at all. Jayce telling Viktor that what he 'always admired about him' was his disability and his deadly disease (??? from a character who spent the whole s1 and first act of s2 desperately trying to help Viktor find a cure? sure) and that those imperfections don't need fixing, just wtf truly. Magic bullshit was also weird, some implications of 'natural magic is ok, but achieving that power through other means corrupts you into a crazy robot bitch or just wilts your trees i guess', but tbh it was written in such a weird and inconsistent way that we can skip this one... Yeah actually a lot of things were just such a mess that I feel silly pointing to specific moments or lines I didn't like, I mean duh, it barely makes sense as a story at all... I am happy we have s1 which comparatively was a masterpiece, and i also really enjoyed s2 act1, i truly believed it would lead somewhere good at the time, my mind still kind of cuts off the story at that point when i think about it, that WAS the open ending of the show to me (is it possible that there were rewrites? targeting act 2 and 3? idk, wishful thinking perhaps). Despite my extremely negative feelings about this season's conclusion i remain glad that so many people appreciate the show regardless, it is clear that there was STILL a lot of love in the process of its creation (although i'd argue that even some of the visual aspects of the show suffered in quality, once again i have to wonder about behind the scenes mood of it all) and i get very upset when i see creatives online despairing over reception of their projects even when i'm absolutely in the disgruntled crowd hahaha... ...however yeah, this wasn't great In a world that increasingly grows more and more right-wing politically... we really needed something different i think.

[kruxton]

ok so ive gone through with the touchstarved demo (i forgot what backstory i chose 💔 not sure if this matters to what i'll be yapping about) and leander's route was the last one i did - went crazy about the other 4 too but i need to talk about HIM

this guy is FASCINATING. objectively fascinating. out of all the 5 characters this guy baffles me the most. token nice guy that is a bit... TOO nice, right? and so as ive done with the rest i take notes about interesting dialogues or scenes cause i like fleshing out the characters in my head completely, and this guy???? i wrote about him 10x more than the others. and i dont even like him as a romance option yet. he truly is just such a compelling character

warning for spoilers (?) of the demo

im just going to preface this with the fact that i have maybe only played a visual novel like once before this and that was YEARS ago. i dont know if im reading too much into it all and that everything's just a 'that's how it works in these games' thing or not so!!! there's that. AND i only just discovered this game a few days ago (on the same day they updated actually) so the fandom discussions r very new to me

so by the end of the demo you're given the option to follow one of the characters after the drink at the bar, and no matter who you choose you're going to end up talking about the other 4 as well. something different I noticed for leander's dialogue was that for every person you'd ask about, he would always ask what you thought about them first. every single one. none of the others did this, they would just speak their mind, but leander ALWAYS ASKED FIRST. and the two options you had were to say something positive or something negative about them

and depending on how you answered those questions, leander's response was STAGGERINGLY different. whenever you would choose a positive answer (eg: saying Ais was 'honest' instead of 'a jerk'), leander would go "yadda yadda sure but that guy's dangerous and not to be trusted" - essentially. im generalising to make my point but this was the vibes he let off. and his character would be all pissed and frowning, worried for the MC's safety, acting all protective and shit.

but then u turn around and redo the dialogue option, choosing the negative one instead, and without fail leander's reply would be 'haha yeah but he's not all that bad.' (again, generalising). even so far as to say he's seen mhin's 'soft spot' before, and saying the senobium was cruel for imprisoning vere (which, by the way is completely contradictory to what he would say if we chose 'I feel bad for him.' (positive option) - he literally says VERBATIM that vere 'should be caged'). and i can't help but feel like this must be on purpose. the devs HAD to have done this on purpose its too good of a character trait to just be some sort of writing flaw

and by character trait i mean his whole nice guy shtick. i think its all an act and he's a lying two faced bitch. yup.

a line i remember distinctly was him lightheartedly saying he was jealous and wanted to keep the MC all to himself, which im going back to now after playing through all the options in this scene and like. oh i GET him now.

this man gets jealous whenever the MC shows affection for literally any other character and bites back with something to incriminate said character in MC's eyes. but if the MC says something bad about anyone, he has to keep up his shtick and be the mediator again. the nice guy that gets along with everyone.

now that ive written this i realise that this might literally just be a Very Common Archetype that i just rarely indulge in, but I wanna finish this off with the fact that I still think his story and personality is easily my favourite, and being able to sort of decipher this part of his story through the mechanics of a visual novel with multiple routes is SO Fun. its like damn i wish i could do this in real life to see if people are lying to me or not

anyways the touchstarved demo is peak i cant wait for when the game releases YAYYYYY

[twipsai]

omega and silver fic is up! ill put the full thing under the cut yayyy

~

Days and weeks and months melted together, years going by as his body rusted and decayed, warping itself beyond repair as fewer and fewer people dared to enter the Flame Core, fewer caring to check in on them.

He wasn’t conscious for a large portion of it. How could he be? Why would he be? Any reason to stay present was gone.

So he sat. He waited. For what, he wasn’t sure.

…

And then.

And then one day.

One day, something new. The feeling of something stirring against his chest awoke him from a multi-decade slumber. It took minutes, maybe hours, for all of his systems to come back online. The ones remaining, anyway. Everything hit him like bullets— two lifeforms detected, tactile input detected, loss of ammunition, left shoulder joint disconnected, motor functions offline…

Everything buzzed faintly.

Finally, he could see again.

He shifted his cameras down to see…

“CHILD.”

The kid’s eyes flew open as he stumbled backwards from being curled up against his side. A scream erupted from the child’s body. Analysis showed he was a hedgehog, about six, not matching anyone stored within his database.

Though, there weren’t many people around who did, anymore.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Omega questioned, voice echoing unpleasantly against the cavern’s walls.

The child didn’t answer, his breathing picking up speed as his hands started to tremble. He fell to his knees, eyes wide and unblinkingly staring at Omega.

“I BELIEVE I MAY HAVE FRIGHTENED YOU. THIS WAS NOT MY INTENTION.”

It looked like the child couldn’t breathe, now, as if he was being strangled by an invisible force. He grasped a hand around his neck while tears rolled down his cheeks.

Somewhere in his data storage, something like a memory surfaced. It was an unfamiliar feeling.

At some point, someone he knew had something like this happen to them.

“INITIATING ‘COMFORT’ PROTOCOL.”

Through old, crackling speakers, a song started to play. Even with the terrible audio crunching, the piano still rang out as soft as ever. Slow notes drawled on. The lifeform behind him shifted. The child took about 3.49 seconds to visually indicate he had heard the music. His ears perked up and his terrified eyes softened. Over the course of six minutes and twenty-three seconds, the child’s heart rate decreased from 110 beats per minute to 100.

The first thing that tiny child squeaked out was, “Can you move?”

Omega responded after a moment to check. “NO.”

The child then slowly stood, inching forward on trembling legs to sit closer to the music. He leaned an ear to Omega’s chest where the sound crackled out from. He was way too warm for a tiny child, and if he wasn’t showing no other symptoms, Omega would have thought he was sick.

As the song steadily reached its conclusion, the child seemed about as relaxed as he was going to get.

“What is this?” he asked.

“GYMNOPEDIE NO. 1.”

The child looked up and squinted his eyes, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“IT’S A VERY OLD SONG FROM AN ESTIMATED 400 YEARS AGO.”

“A song? What’s a song?”

Omega was never very good at explaining the more… human aspects of life. The alive parts.

Others would be better suited to explain this.

He knew many that could’ve.

“A SONG IS TYPICALLY A COLLECTION OF NOTES PLAYED IN SUCCESSION TO CREATE A MELODY. WHY WERE YOU SLEEPING ON ME, CHILD?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I DO NOT CARE. YOU HAVE NOT ANSWERED MY QUESTION.”

The child’s grey quills flared out even more than they already had, and he fidgeted with the bandages around his wrists. “Your body is cold. It’s very warm here. I was just trying to cool off…”

“WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”

“I think it’s Silver.”

“YOU ARE NOT SURE?”

“No.”

“WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

“I’m trying to get to Crisis City.”

That was an unfamiliar location. Omega checked his residual memory, and cross referenced it with previous data he had archived. “THE RUINS OF SOLEANNA.”

“Um. Maybe?”

“THE HEART OF IBLIS. INQUIRY: WHY IS A TINY MEATBAG LIKE YOU MARCHING TO YOUR CERTAIN DEATH?”

Silver sat down in the place where his left arm should have been, under exposed wires sparking threateningly. This close, Omega could see the scabs on his knees, the blood soaking through the messily-wrapped bandages, the cuts littering his arms and legs, his calloused hands and feet— he could see the determination in his eyes as he folded his hands in his lap and furrowed his brows. “I'm going to defeat Iblis.”

If Omega could laugh, he would. “DOES NOT COMPUTE. SILVER THE HEDGEHOG: SMALL, MORTAL, POWERLESS. IBLIS: GIANT, IMMORTAL, POWERFUL. I ASK AGAIN; WHY IS A TINY MEATBAG LIKE YOU MARCHING TO YOUR DEATH?”

“Because I have to! I have powers no one else has, if there's something I can do, then I wanna help!”

“FURTHER DATA NEEDED. WHAT POWERS DO YOU POSSESS, CHILD?”

“Um, someone told me its called psy– psycho— um—”

“PSYCHOKINESIS.”

“Yes! Psychokinesis!”

There was no telling how powerful the child actually was. Omega knew better than to underestimate children at this point, when three had accompanied him on adventure after adventure before the flames had consumed the world.

They were children. Most of his companions were. 

His chest suddenly felt strange. Felt. He tried to run a diagnosis on his power core, only to find that it was still destroyed. Nothing had changed about his state. What made that feeling?

“Excuse me, uh… sir?”

“OMEGA.”

“Huh?”

“THAT IS MY NAME. E-123 OMEGA.”

“Oh. Well, your eyes are glowing.”

Strange. Someone once said that he was very expressive— he thought it was what she called “sarcasm”, but then went on to explain all the little things she noticed about him, and how he reacts to things. It seemed that, even with almost all of his functions offline, he was still finding ways to express himself.

“Omega?”

“WHAT.”

Silver looked up at him shyly. “Can I lean on you again? It’s very hot in here, and you’re very cool…”

“I LACK THE PROPER MOTOR FUNCTION TO STOP YOU.”

“That’s why I asked.”

A memory surfaced. Covered in rust and cobwebs and ash.

A very long time ago, he was carrying someone gently, as gently as he could. This person was tired— he had been through a lot that week. He could barely stand. So he carried him to his room quietly, trying his best not to tear the blankets he used to tuck him in. He must not have done a very good job at being quiet, because he woke up to a degree.

“Omega,” he mumbled, eyes still half-closed. “Don’t… don’t let anyone do anything to you. Even though you’re… you’re a robot… you should get to be your own person…”

He quietly took a step back. 

“YOUR MUMBLING IS INCOHERENT,” Omega replied. “TELL ME TOMORROW; I WILL STILL BE HERE.”

And he turned.

And left.

Silver, for one reason or another, was dragging up memories that he thought had been trapped in old storage. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t had a conversation with another person in over a hundred years. Maybe the long stretches of silence had a way of turning one into a poet.

“YES,” Omega finally replied, “YOU MAY LEAN ON ME.”

Silver crawled over his lap, smushing himself in between Omega’s in-tact arm and torso, forehead leaning against his upper arm. If Omega thought the child would listen, he would warn him about getting tetanus from his rusted fingers.

“I have a question now. Is that okay?”

“YES.”

“How old are you?”

“73,784.8 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE MY CREATION.”

“Uhhh… that’s a lot…”

Eggman didn’t program conversion to weeks, months, and years into his internal clock. Eventually it would stop counting up when it hit 999,999.999 days. It also meant that he had to mentally convert it himself. “APPROXIMATELY 200 YEARS.”

“Oh.”

…

The child looked up at him with impossibly large eyes.

“Oh! Were you around before Iblis was, Omega?!”

“YES—”

“Can you tell me about it?! Please! I’ve heard stories but— but not from someone who was there! You gotta tell me!”

Much to his dismay, Omega was finding this child amusing. And familiar. “WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW?”

“Um, um…” When he was in thought, Silver fidgeted with his poncho’s hem. “Tell me about the sky!”

“...THE SKY?”

“Yes!”

Omega hadn’t been outside for most of his lifespan— he had spent it in the Flame Core. But he did remember that— “IT WAS GIANT.”

A massive expanse that blanketed the entire earth. A constant in a chaotic life. No matter where you went, the sky followed.

“IT WOULD CHANGE COLOR. MANY COMPARED IT TO A PAINTING.”

The child looked up at him with wonder in his eyes, absorbing every syllable.

“IT WAS THE ONE THING IN LIFE THAT REMAINED.”

Absolute awe was written on Silver’s face. 

Omega could make a well-informed guess of what awaited him outside the cavern if he was ever fixed.

“Can you tell me about the people?”

“YOU ASK MANY QUESTIONS.”

“I haven’t gotten this many answers before.”

They were his companions. Teammates. Friends, though, that was pushing it a little, as one of them would say. After so long to think about it, to put his feelings into words, he came to the conclusion that he must have cared about them. They were almost all gone, now. Almost. But he could remember watching them from afar, completely captivated by how they moved. It was all just play to most of them. They would train against each other, race across continents, get takeout in the middle of a mission… Everything was just another day. They laughed in the face of danger. They stood tall. They cared.

Oh, how they cared.

“I BELIEVE THEY WERE NOT VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE PEOPLE OF THIS TIME.”

“No?”

“NO. THEY WERE ALL JUST PEOPLE. MUNDANE.”

Silver knitted his brows together in thought, then pointed past where Omega’s cameras could reach, behind the two of them. “Was he there?”

But he knew.

He knew.

Knew who he was pointing to.

“YES.”

“What’s his name?”

“SHADOW.”

“Why is he trapped in there?”

While Omega couldn’t see him in his position, he knew exactly how Shadow looked. Arms up and cuffed with giant metal rings, attached to a hexagonal cage that stretched over him in a diamond shape, glowing pink and white. The image was committed to his long-term memory.

Perhaps it was better he couldn’t turn to see.

“HUMANITY THOUGHT HE WAS THE CAUSE OF THE FLAMES OF DISASTER.”

Silver stood and walked behind him. The tingle of apprehensiveness of having his back turned to a sentient being was duller than he remembered. “Was he?”

“NO,” he could say for certain. “NO, HE WASN’T.”

“Then why did they do this to him?”

He could remember his claw gripping Shadow’s neck as he begged and pleaded for mercy. He remembered his body acting without his command as he unfeelingly attacked him. He remembered Shadow going limp on the floor, almost dead. He remembered watching as people crowded around him and quickly put him into stasis.

He remembered standing with him,

for centuries.

Maybe as an apology. Maybe because it was what he was built to do.

He remembered.

“HUMANITY FEARS WHAT THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND, CHILD.”

Quietly, Silver walked back to Omega’s side, leaning on him once again, and a little more curled up in his lap than he was before. “I know,” he said. “I know that.” 

Of course he did. Omega could have guessed that, especially in this world; this world that was dominated by terror. After all, Silver was here, alone, at six years old. Whatever reason he had for that couldn't be a pleasant one.

“YOU REMIND ME OF THE PEOPLE I FOUGHT ALONGSIDE BACK THEN.”

“Before Iblis?”

“YES.”

“I do?”

“YOU ARE MARCHING TO FACE IMPOSSIBLE ODDS. YET YOU REMAIN OPTIMISTIC. YOU STRIVE TO PROTECT A BROKEN WORLD THAT HURT YOU.”

Silver fidgeted with the hem of his poncho. His markings pulsed with light. “Even if the whole world was against me,” he whispered, “I'd still protect it.”

“I SEE. INQUIRY;”

“Mhm?”

“HOW CAN YOU FIGHT WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T WIN?”

For a long time, Silver stayed quiet.

He spoke slowly. “As long as I don't give up… there's hope.”

How optimistic. How cruel, for a child to say those words with a trembling voice. If Omega could, he'd weep. 

Then, he returned to his excited demeanor. “Hey, you know what? I could probably get Shadow out of there!”

“YOU COULD NOT.”

“I could try! If I could wake your friend up, then maybe—”

“CHILD.”

He stayed quiet.

“I MADE A VOW TO PROTECT THOSE I HELD DEAR.” He flickered some of the lights on his body on and off. “I BROKE THAT VOW ONCE. NOW, I WILL REMAIN HERE, BY HIS SIDE, UNTIL I AM GONE.”

Silver was practically curled up in his lap, forehead rested on his chest. His body temperature had dropped significantly since he had woken up. “Okay, then. Hey, I have another question.”

“ASK IT.”

“Can you make that ‘song’ again?”

How optimistic.

How cruel.

“YES. I CAN.”

The piano hummed through his broken speakers. It made ear-splitting popping noises occasionally, but Silver didn't seem to mind. He shifted so his ear was right above Omega’s internal speaker.

His companions would have liked Silver. It was obvious— maybe even Shadow would have. But they were separated by eons.

Omega only hoped the next time they met, it was for a kinder reason.

‘Hoped’...

Silver must have been rubbing off on him. 

[milgram-tournament]

MILGRAM Best Song Tournament, Round 1, Match 7 BACKDRAFT vs. IT'S NOT MY FAULT

Propaganda for both options under the cut!

Propaganda for BACKDRAFT:

"Backdraft may be a minute shorter than Bring It On, but it’s still over three minutes long, and it makes up for the lost minute with a complex form. The “Pressure! Pressure!” might be the only part that truly repeats.

At the beginning, Fuuta is showing off, acting cool. Then the music slows down as he ponders his verdict. Then the music picks up the pace again and gets more and more frantic as the consequences of his actions catch up to him.

See that structure in the three distinct verses that sound nothing like anything else in the song: cool, contemplative, and “oh no, what have I done”.

The “chorus” (burn burn!) never stays the same. You’ve got the “cool” first chorus. Then you have the muted second chorus as it sinks in that Fuuta’s victim was a middle-school girl, which leads into the tense final chorus (which is twice as long as the first) as the victim and Fuuta both burn.

The instrumental and the spoken-word from the beginning combine in the end, changing the mood of the stanza from confident and showy to panicked and desperate.

And the words… You can hear the wordplay in the last stanza, even if you don’t understand it.

Appreciate this chaotic masterpiece of a song."

---

- Fuuta being very cocky at first before realizing how fucked he is (it is kinda funny) - The use of spray cans and overall graffiti symbolism, it’s so good - The multiple eyes and people off camera showing how paranoid Fuuta has become, it’s really well done without being obvious - The name backdraft meaning when a fire deprived of oxygen gets a sudden influx of it. A kind of metaphor for what Fuuta did. Then it being shown through a spray can explosion, aaaa it’s really cool! - Fuuta’s overall look changing, being more realistic on how he actually looks contrasting Bring It On’s idealistic version of himself - Es at the end!! The only time Es shows up in a prisoner’s MV!!! And they looks so damn cool - Also the entire eye thing referencing the audience, he perceives us lmfao

---

"Back draft is incredible because it not only has great visual symbolism with the use of the spray cans but its visual symbolism shows a progression from ‘Bring it on’. In ‘Bring it on’ the channelling is glorious , fuuta is surrounded by people and fuuta idealised himself (taller , better teeth , better posture ect) , the people he cancelled were portrayed as these powerful rpg monsters but now in back now the channelling is portrayed as vandalism a crime as destructive , the ally is empty we only ever see others as hands or his victim fuuta is alone and fuuta is no longer idealising his appearance and his mind is now portraying his victim as a harmless cutesy drawing. This shows a change in how fuuta views his crime between T1 and T2. It wasn’t glorious, it wasn't justified , he was at fault. The fire being recontextsied as something out of control , all consuming and out of control which is the opposite of how it was portrayed in ‘Bring it on’ we really see how the vote has changed fuuta."

"There are so many things in the song that show a progression "

-“ deliciously scorched till your mouth waters” > “I don’t want any more”

-fuuta spray paints the camera hen as the end es spray paints him/the camera

-the pressure graffiti changing

"There’s so many interesting details like the applause towards the start of the song , the personality in the subtitles like them going from “Burn , burn!” To “burn , burn?” But the pressure’s punctuation mark stayed the same:   “pressure , pressure!” , the way FIRE is the only word in full caps till LIES. The thumbs down fuuta does during “the fights up here! Come up to the ring and face me!” Part which is like his T1 art , the way the lighting changes from green towards the start and becomes red by the end (stop go colours) , The way fuuta is constantly interacting with the camera , spray painting it twice and kicking it."

"Backdraft actually makes amazing use of the camera , things are often shown from the (camera)audience’s perspective rather than us seeing the events removed. We are there like we are the ones doing it/looking through the eyes of the person doing it. When fuuta/the others spray paint the graffiti of his victim and the ice gorilla it's from the audience’s perspective , we don’t see them do it, we see it like we are doing it. When the spraypaint can explodes it's like it’s exploding in our face and then when es spray paints fuuta at the end they are spray painting the camera(audience). "

"Backdraft makes the most references to the voting system and uses it well to make the audience re-examine if they really are any different. Aren’t we using little information and inferences to hold people accountable for crimes we have no stake in? Aren’t we causing unintended harm? Aren’t we judging them from the safety of our screens? "

"And on a more silly level"

-ARTHUR CONANT GOES SO HARD IN THE VOCALS!!!! COME ON LISTEN TO BURN BURN AND TELL ME THIS MAN ISN’T GIVING IT HIS ALL!

-cat mouth fuuta :3 how can you not love cat mouth fuuta?

-lowpolydog designed amazing graffiti 

Propaganda for IT'S NOT MY FAULT:

"It's Not My Fault is a beautiful song with a REALLY good song texture. Arisa Kori/Muu's voice is literally so amazing here, fitting perfectly with that confident and snarky appearance that Muu seems to want to give off. And just everything about it????? Muu did everything wrong free my girl- I love her bug design here, the pure drama of it and how she showcases Rei as a human in the bug world is so cool."

---

inmf!! have you heard the instrumental?! its just so good!!

the way rei turns the hourglass at the beginning!!! and it switches to when muu was at the top of the hierarchy!!!! that was such a cool detail!!!

BUG MUU IS LITERALLY SO CUTE. her smile at 1:19 🥺🥺

The way her voice drops at 1:30 and her 'KAWAISO NANO!!' at 1:51!!!

shes having so much fun while singing this weeeeeee

she's always pitiful!! shes always the drama queen 🥺🥺

please her getting the worst ratio while singing the 'im not guilty' song should alone be the reason she wins

---

"INMF is what got me into Milgram in the first place so of course I have to shill for it. I think its one of my favorite MVs Visually as the scenes set in the bug-web location are so visually striking. Muu and the rest of the bugs dark-purple skin and Muu's and neon pink hair stand out so much against it and it's so Pretty and Vibrant.

Storytelling wise INMF is amazing, it's a complete 180 of how Muu is seen in After Pain but not to the point where it feels like Muu is a totally different character. Muu is both a genuine victim and (in my opinion) a failgirl queen. She's trying her best to keep the image up but she is...NOT good at being a manipulative mastermind. And like After Pain before it, you can figure that out just through the visual and lyrical storytelling, that to some extent this is Still Also a Role Muu is Playing.

It's good! It's really good stuff! Muu is a character of cycles and After Pain and INMF work really well as a cyclical story about bullying. I think Muu should Win on having Good Storytelling and Fantastic Visuals and Being a Worst Girl. You should do it for all the girls in the world who are the Worst."

[st-just]

new follower here — what's your opinion on Arcane?

i saw your answer to the unpopular opinion poll, and interpreted it as a damning-by-absent-praise diss at the writing, which was very surprising to me because it's the first time i've seen a take on Arcane that wasn't unalloyed glaze

then, once i finally got around to watching the first two episodes, i came here to concede you were right, the visuals are stellar but the writing is competent if unimpressive, but i found your answer was more ambiguous than i'd remembered and i might've been reading too much into it.

so i searched your blog and discovered that you'd reblogged quite a lot of Arcane fanart over the years, thus my assumption that you were some kind of hater was looking very suspect indeed

anyway after that, the third episode grabbed me by the throat and the rest of the show only peaked higher, and i now think it's decidedly earned some of that praise

but i'm still curious what your take was

re:

Okay have now actually rewatched the first two acts of season 1 with friends over the weekend, so can give a more current answer.

So the writing isn't bad - it is, by the standards of American genre tv, really quite good! Some parts are better than others, don't poke at logistics too hard, but it all coheres, and (more importantly) the arc of every major character lands very well. It's just yeah, competent.

rNot a failure, but not really a selling point either. Whereas the animation, art direction, and use of sound really is just almost unbeaten. And the character animation and design specifically absolutely elevates the writing beyond what it would be on its own.

[pukei-pukei]

Spoiler-Free Wilds Review

I've played through the bulk of Wilds content available at launch and figured I'd share my thoughts on it here. My platform is Steam/PC. TLDR at the bottom!

Gameplay

The fights are great - which is good, considering that's the main point of the game! I can't recall a time I got really frustrated or bored during a hunt; hitboxes were good, movesets were fun (and often visually incredible), and the difficulty felt pretty reasonable. I didn't cart once in Low Rank and I cart rarely in High Rank, but I've been around the block with these games and I know what I'm doing. I can imagine Rey Dau and Arkveld are wiping the floor with new hunters.

I've only used Insect Glaive so far and I quite like this iteration of it. The wound breaking focus attack gets you all three Kinsect essences, which chains very well into the new flashy Super Spin attack that costs all Kinsect essences. I gotta say it feels bizarre to use charge attacks on IG, but I do love the Super Spin. (That's not what it's actually called but it's what I'm calling it.)

The Seikret is very cute and very convenient. Almost too convenient. I've been making an effort to learn the layout of the locales, but you can absolutely just have AutoBird take you everywhere and practically not interact with the environment at all. You gotta change the control scheme to manual though, trying to go anywhere with the default control type feels like trying to tame a wild horse. Horrible.

The Palico is also very good in this entry. Almost too good. From the start of the game they basically have every gadget from World equipped simultaneously, and upgrading to have things like Vigorwasp Revive or a damn mini airship is as easy as hunting one monster or catching a bug. They can even clear status ailments now!

The multiplayer mechanics are, uh... something. Once you're in a quest together it's the same as usual, though wound management can be a hassle sometimes. I need them and my teammates also need them and there's not that many to go around.

However, actually getting in the same session with friends is way more of a hassle than it needs to be. There's like three or four different ways to join each other and none of them are intuitive. Link party? Lobby? Environment link? Huh??? I miss the sessions from World, especially the fact you could just set it so your Steam friends can easily join but no one else can. The ability to add friends in the game is really nice, though, and I love the Online Singleplayer option. Finally! A PAUSE BUTTON!

Environments

The environments are one of the main selling points of the game and they definitely don't fall short. The locales are massive and spectacular with very unique takes on the classic Monster Hunter biomes. (The final locale is even more unique, but that's big spoiler territory.)

The seasons look incredible, but they don't seem to have much of an actual impact on hunts, honestly. They do absolutely have gameplay impacts, but not quite as much as I'd hoped. Mostly tweaks to the kinds of monsters and gathering nodes. Not sure what I'd change about them, though; maybe altering the map a bit for certain seasons, like having certain paths blocked off or opened up depending on the season.

I will say it's bizarre that they kept the tracks system from World, but just show you where every monster is on the map anyway. This entry is supposed to focus on hunting immersion, there's tracks implemented, but they kept the omniscient map from Rise? Huh?? I miss having to actually track stuff instead of the bird just Knowing.

Also you can catch critters but not put them anywhere. Why??

Story

Surprisingly for a MH game, the story is actually decent this time around. Nothing to write home about, this still isn't a story-centric game, but a few moments did hit me hard and I liked a lot of the characters. Its integration into the gameplay was a bit annoying at times with a lot of scripted sequences, but overall I enjoyed it.

The implications are wild(heh) for the series lore as a whole, though; the final boss is one of my new favorite monsters purely because of how monumental it is! If you know, you know. Even if you're not familiar with The Lore the cutscene before the fight is sick as hell. (I'm suspecting we got a Rise situation here where the real HR final boss is coming in a Title Update, though...)

I would die for Nata. He is my son

Technical

Everyone's probably heard of the beta origami monsters by now, and I'm very disappointed to say they remain in the full game. Granted, it's not on every hunt and then it's only for a minute or two before the models load in, but that's just one of a lot of pretty grievous graphical and performance issues.

It's not unplayable (for me) by any means, but there's stupidly long loading times. Even once I'm in a locale, everything (monsters, terrain, NPCs, etc.) often looks like a blurry polygonal mess while everything actually loads in. It can take like thirty seconds to load the map or a conversation with an NPC.

My computer (which is, admittedly, a laptop) is pretty good, I can consistently get 60fps on World with close to max graphics, but this is all happening with Wilds on low settings! Hopefully most of this will get fixed with later patches.

EDIT: I managed to cram the game onto my laptop's SSD and that seems to have fixed a lot of the graphics issues. Haven't played a ton with it on this drive yet but I'm optimistic.

TLDR

Must-play for any series fan, but has way more than its fair share of jank for the price. The story is decent, fights are awesome, and the difficulty is reasonable and fun for LR/HR. Designs for monsters and environments are incredible - when they load properly.

Definitely recommend, but if you're not set on playing it ASAP it's reasonable if you want to wait for performance patches and/or a sale.

[ganthritorchic]

Thoughts with some time away from the episodes

With such short seasons now, a show has little to no time to dawdle. I have had two episodes now and well, I continue to not be impressed with murderbot as a show.

I've been reading other's responses, articles to temper my own response and yeah.

All I can say, is that this looks like Murderbot. And that's about it, honestly.

It looks like someone skinned it and put it over their new frame and well... It's a poor fit.

Jurassic Park the book, and Jurassic Park the movie are pretty different and both are great parallel tellings of that story.

Howl's Moving Castle, same deal. Cowboy Bebop and Lockwood and Co were great adaptations of their originating material. Lockwood bc GREAT adaptation choices were made to make the change from book to show. Bebop is an intentional remix and they start right off the top making that clear to you through music and outright visual cues culminating in the end of the first episode making sure you understood that if you weren't just ignoring the blatant in your face of it all.

This LOOKS right. I would not have put a Skarsgard as MB but the acting is more or less fine. The casting is a strong point, where people aren't missing. All Systems Red doesn't feature a great many people (that matter) so all them of not being immediately present and the frankly shit choices regarding relationships and the weird normative treatment of queer relationships and how they actually work in canon was not unexpected but I still sure hate to fucking see it.

I've seen people talk about 'unreliable narration', and how now as a visual media we NEED to see more of the other characters and you are correct! Too bad it's done so shit here. You can make informed, intelligent choices for characters. IDC to see more of Gurathin and much of everything we have seen of him annoys the fuck out of me and I thought was unwarranted, but! It fits the fucking character and engineers in me the same annoyance I experienced the first time I read the book.

The writing and dialogue is either pretty good or incredibly shit, with no in between. Mostly shit.

Characters have been altered but not always in any great/better way. Changing Mensah so strongly right off the bat COULD work out, but here's the thing. MB had been on this bond for awhile. It knows and it's watching all the time, and while this is touched on and it's mostly just exposited at you.

OMG the expositing. Yes the book is fuckin narrated by our POV character but like... You have to do better or decide how you're going to do that. If we're going to have the voiceover All. The. Damn. Time.

Then the missing bits should be there. MB is always monitoring multiple inputs. Bc it is/was its job. I think an excellent way to do more showing instead of all the fuckin telling was missed there.

The book started perfect for a show/movie, in media res. And they picked this weak ass way to start, that completely undermined how Murderbot chose it's name. It's an incredibly weak choice story wise, boring been done before and this entrance was not a good take on it. Also, why origin story in this manner. Boring, not a new take on doing this. If you're going to do it, do it well. Why the stupid "oh I'm going to murder all of them hurr hurr" scene.

PresAux DO come from space!communism that is very different than what the corp rim is, but they're all scientists first and foremost and it's not to say they can't be hippie like, especially to corp rim society.... But this looks like bog standard hippie bullshit you can find anywhere and it's boring, bordering on feeling like that's being made fun of for some reason, in a story where it's very much the better place to be, if you're a human or construct. We do not know that yet and maybe that's the point...? But even then comedy or no, it feels mean for no reason. It detracts.

Same way any of the queer portions. Come on.... The canon lesbian(s--one missing role assigned to another) are now bi(?) which is fine... But now the canon lesbian couple now just HAD to have a dude involved? It feels slimy and in not in good way. I'm not feeling the way MB's gender is being handled--must titillate you with Ken Doll Skarsgard, and the uh... way Gurathin was using it/its in that conversation. There's something to be said about using your visual media to convey it got no genitals, and then it had no more cybernetic parts like it's very clearly explained in the book. Which, is going to make, if there is more, less impactful later on here.

It's not fair to judge it before I have it all in front of me and it's complete, but uh. It's missing some very foundational items or changed them for what appears to be weaker story telling choices, missed the point, or has really made it more difficult down the line for some of my very favorite story and emotional moments. It's not fair to say I don't feel the love for this story like I have felt in other adaptations... But part of that is found in attention to detail and I could have had a little more detail paid to or cared for. It's a fucking novella for Christ's sake to begin with, followed by more. Yes, you'll have to fill in some stuff in translation to visual but... Its pretty lean, you need to put that shit in or it collapses in on itself, hollow.

Like. It's fine if all you want out of it is hurr hurr comedy-ish awkwardness all the time, sure. Maybe it's just a rough start, the specificity of what this series seems to mean for many ppl being very hard to adapt, but damn I got enough stuff to pay attention to already and not enough attention already.

And all this comes across as, is yet more "content" to consume and forget. And I really really did not want that for this series.

[radiation]

Video games talk dont even mind me

Bro video games as a whole are so far behind movies in terms of storytelling and pacing that it’s kind of baffling. Which of course is obvious and makes sense for plenty of reasons but like, just think about it — watching movies a lot can’t help but train a certain muscle that gives you a strong instinct for structure. I find that people who watch movies very casually, without too much artistic consideration, and don’t really know the language associated with it are still very often irked by specific issues with a movie’s pacing, dialogue, etc and are relatively capable of putting it into words. Likewise, for many movies out there, regardless of your opinions on any specific directorial choices, you do feel as if the movie is essentially cohesive and creatives involved reasonably knew what they were doing and were acting very intentionally, and there weren’t any major oversights. This includes independent films as well. Meanwhile I think both players and developers much more commonly lack the instinct for narrative cohesion when it comes to video games. Definitely a fair amount of exceptions to this, but in general I find it’s difficult to find video games that are very narrative heavy & aspire to great artistic heights that don’t suffer from inherent structural problems, pedantic dialogue, tons of dead air, etc in a way that wouldn’t slide as easily in a movie. A lot these flaws certainly have to be due to the presence of gameplay elements and having to balance that with story when the two are almost always, at least in some small respect, inherently at odds. As for the inability for devs and players to pick up on / fix these flaws…is it because gameplay can distract from it and make up for it? With longer games that have runtimes closer to the experience of a television series, is there a similar reaction where if it’s long enough you will sit thru smaller, momentary issues because you enjoy the bigger picture? Yet games are a lot more engaging than a show as a audio, visual, and tactile experience, you can’t multitask and tune the information out as easily as with a boring episode of a show, so you’d think people would be more picky? But maybe because it’s so attention-demanding people are more immersed, and believe in the experience enough to more easily accept the story? Books demand the same kind of active attention to experience though, and the bar for story in books is a lot higher, so what gives? Well a lot of these have kind of obvious answers but still Interesting questions to ask that lead to Damn , That Is Still Crazy How Much This Shit Is In Its Infancy like sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy with how many writing issues are present in games, particularly in indie games that are Trying To Be Good At Writing that feel excessively obvious and yet I often struggle to find my sentiment mirrored by others. IDK. And back to movies the thing is I feel like if the same people trying to write these kind of games had pursued movies instead then they would’ve ended up making well structured movies that avoided all of these pitfalls. WHAT IS IT WITH GAMES? Well we know what it is with games and we could spend all day discussing a million more reasons this is the way it is but no matter what I think we should just be super conscientious of these pitfalls when making narrative focused games and aspire to a greater level of intentionality that is absolutely possible . Build that muscle by really understanding the quality of storytelling long-present in other mediums.Well the other issue with indie devs is that everyone believes they are totally breaking new ground story wise that they don’t take a step back, humble themselves a bit, and cross-reference what they’re doing with the tons of other stories that have already achieved similar things But thats a conversation for another day .

[hopeymchope]

Tribe Nine status update: Chapter 1 complete; Chapter 2 is NOT underway.

While the rest of the TooKyo Games/Kodaka/Post(?)-Danganronpa fandom is wrapped up in the demo and hype for The Hundred Line, I remain fixated on Tribe Nine. So this is more-or-less my follow-up to my first impressions post.

Despite its less-than-appealing roots as a mobile game with some gatcha elements, I'm still finding it to be quite good as a game in its own right. It doesn't flood you with a boring open world full of 20,000 objectives around every corner like some other gachas I've tried (Genshin Impact, Infinity Nikki), nor is it a glorified visual novel with just basic RPG combat added like other gachas I've quite enjoyed (Magia Record, Fate/Grand Order). Once you get past the tutorializing, Tribe Nine is an actual game with lots of legit gameplay exploration/combat routine—but there's still a lot of story pinning it down.

First off: The Steam version is finally playing smoothly! After a difficult process, I eventually got my Steam and IOS Tribe Nine accounts linked together. Now I can keep my progress rolling on my Steam Deck, and I MUCH prefer playing with button controls.

Perhaps most important to me is that I'm interested in the (goofily dark?/darkly goofy?) story. I've been compelled by the desire to take down the bizarre ruler of Shinagawa and its dominating ruleset—the evil "corporation" structure that lets the President and his twisted director execute whoever they want. I enjoyed driving that all the way to the climactic Danganronpa-style "baseball argument" thing.

Senju severely wrecks shop.

I'm currently NOT so compelled by the characters, honestly; they're likable enough and have great Komatsuzaki-style designs, but their characterizations are pretty damn thin so far. The ones who I'm attached to are either just excellent in a fight (Hyakuichitaro Senju), have a central personality quirk that's endearing (Tsuruko Semba), or I've gotten to know them better by having recently watching the anime (Kazuki Aoyama).

Speaking of the anime: "Q" in the game is Ojiro Otori from the show. Some might consider that to be pretty obvious, but I was a little slow to put it together, so I'm just laying it out there: Same voice actor, considers Kazuki his most important friend, supposedly "atoning for past sins," same hair and eye colors... yeah.

...did I mention that the soundtrack is excellent? Danganronpa's Masafumi Takada is in the house on this one. Very moody, cool, funky, atmospheric.

I've currently finished the story of Chapter 1/Shinagawa, and I want to move on to Chapter 2/Minato (which already has a good central hook/mystery driving me there), but I'm stuck grinding out achievements due to the arbitrary gatekeeping where you can't pass certain points without having enough "stamps" from Zero. Which fucking sucks.

For the record: Beyond the trio of characters that all players get for free (Yo Kuronaka, Tsuki Iroha, and Koishi Kohinata), I've also unlocked Roku Saigo, Yutaka Gotanda, Hyakuichitaro Senju, Santaro Mita, Minami Oi, and Tsuruko Semba.

The barrier to starting Chapter 2 has given me time to work on every single side quest in Shinagawa, at least. On that note...

Most Upsetting Side Quest: Forcing a bunch of homeless people with nowhere else to go to vacate the aquarium because some fish-obsessed idiot thinks he's going to re-open the business despite knowing jack shit. I definitely felt like the bad guy.

Why are they so intently after her???

Most "???" Side Quest: Repeatedly rescuing that one woman who keeps getting cornered and attacked by masked thugs who repeatedly assert that they don't know why ANYONE would take her side. It seems obvious that she's harboring a secret reason why she's always being harrassed, but by the current end of that quest line, it's not yet been explained. All we've done is beat up her harrassers without ever knowing why they're on her case. I assume this story thread will wind up continuing into Otami or popping up again elsewhere.

Something I want to know a lot more about is WHICH members from TooKyo Games were involved in this title. Who's writing, you know?

[pedrocomicreviews]

Absolute Green Lantern #1

"... I'm so scared."

This one isn't gonna be for everyone but god damn if it ain't for me.

Even with Absolute Martian Manhunter being the way it is, I think this is the most out-there rendition of a character's origin in the Absolute universe. The others have mostly been remixes of some fundamental aspects of these symbols in ways that lead us to somewhat recognizable, if different-feeling, versions of them.

So, yes, Superman didn't have the Kent growing up on the regular, but he's still saving the world in Superman-tangential ways. Martian Manhunter looks and feels very different, but groovy, weird visuals and interesting breaches of body-consciousness limits have always been a part of the character. This one, though, is the most different one so far, because this isn't even a superhero story at first.

Absolute Green Lantern is a cosmic horror story about eldritch aliens arriving on Earth.

it's difficult to talk about it because so much of this first issue, by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay, is setup and tone. We are introduced to three versions of Green Lanterns we know: Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Jo Mullein. This first issue recounts the effects of Hal's first experience with The Green Lantern, a massive green structure that has fallen on Earth and infected him with... something.

And, as a tone setter as opposed to a story kickstarter, it's maybe less interesting than its counterparts. Absolute Batman #1 was a fucking banger right away; explosive and hype and all the things the book has become well-known to be. Absolute Wonder Woman #1 told us who Diana was, what we needed to know about her, and what kind of things she is willing to do to protect others; all things we would come to repeat and elaborate on during the first arc.

Absolute Green Lantern, instead, establishes fear. Fear, dread and confusion-- it's two dozen pages of letting us know this is not what we think it's going to be, these characters may not work the way we assume, and the things they will be handling may not feel the way we may even want them to feel.

Personally I think that's fucking fascinating, and Al Ewing is the GOAT-- I adore his stories and I especially adore his Cosmic Marvel stuff from back in GOTG and X-Men: Red. But at the same time I'm a little concerned at how little I know about the premise, the characters and what we're actually going to do in this book, because it's monthly.

In my opinion, Ewing's had some issues with monthlies that take a while to click. S.W.O.R.D, Avengers Inc., even his creator-owned stuff like We Only Find Them When They're Dead-- these are amazing comics, some of which are my favorites from when they came out, but they also take a long time to show what they're about and where they're going. While a bi-weekly run is kinda prime time for that, when you have mysteries that take a full month to update for a few pages and you need to keep people enticed until next time... well, a lot of these books are also relatively short. It's a very difficult market for them nowadays, even when they're excellent.

I am not doomsaying this book at all: like I said in the intro, this is a book for me. This is by far my favorite remix of the Green Lantern character and formula. I really adore the idea that it's an eldritch weird alien thing as opposed to just Earth Cops In Space, and I can't wait to see what else this team has to offer. I'm just also worried that people will see a book that's kinda slow to start and that only gets really impressive near the last few pages and go "oh, I guess this one isn't as good as Wonder Woman."

So what I am saying is-- please read this! Please give Absolute Green Lantern a shot, I think it's going to be really good! Hopefully by #2 and not #5, but still.

[nihilnovisubsole]

phew! finally a weekend where i can set aside enough time to type up The Promised Endwalker Stream-of-Consciousness Post. i finished the base story... a month ago? but work has been busy, and i think tumblr benefits from me being quiet sometimes. anyway, what a ride. when you've been building up to the end of your arc for a decade, you want to hit it like an earthquake, and that's exactly what they did.

i think people love endwalker because it fires on all cylinders. it returns - in both story and vision - to the eorzea we love, and the dev team gets to show off everything they've learned. the dungeons and boss fights are dynamic and imaginative and colorful and bring the game's epic sense of scope to bear. the story callbacks are juicy. the music is orchestral again. we're back home, and we're saving the galaxy. what's better than this?

i love that we go to garlemald. i don't - i mean, you know, i don't like garlemald. i shouldn't have to qualify that. but it's hugely narratively satisfying to see the face of the enemy we've been fighting since the first few hours of ARR. you don't think about them when you're beating them up in castrum centri or ala mhigo. they're star wars bad guys. then you meet them on their own turf. you observe firsthand how they starve and cannibalize their own people to feed their obsession with state power and military strength. the wintry environment makes it seem all the more barren and desperate. my favorite part by far. i wish we'd spent more time there.

actually, on that note:

there is an argument that endwalker should've been two expacs. i've heard similar about stormblood - ala mhigo should've been the whole thing, and doma should've been either patch content or an expac of its own. the prevailing theory is that, after ARR, the devs are afraid of letting arcs run long. i can't speak to that, but i wouldn't have minded, that's for sure!

i won't pretend not to be biased. i've noted in many xiv posts that it hurries through its political plots to get to the magic stuff. i felt more conscious of it in heavensward and especially in stormblood. i made peace with it in endwalker. with dessert this good, who am i to complain? i can do small character drama on my own time. for now, the game wants royce to be a big damn shonen hero, and that can be fun, too.

speaking of characters, urianger and estinien have grown on me. this is the arc where, for me at least, the scions have congealed. they're all good, but with any large cast and custom player character, you tend to form the meatiest bonds with a few specific ones. i think royce appreciates urianger's cooler, more mature head. they're both so formal. he realizes she's someone he can confide in. i think she sees estinien as a gifted, but hotheaded whelp, which i find very funny. patience, child. stop sulking. do your breathing drills.

i love thancred's MGS sequence and in from the cold too. they're stressful, but i love that the team tried, you know what i mean? the fact that you can fight enemies in a pinch makes those duties way more bearable than some other games that experiment with stealth.

in from the cold as a whole, honestly. If You Know, You Know

all right, i can't avoid referencing spoilers anymore, sorry. there's a sense of classical tragedy to the whole elpis sequence. it's like watching macbeth or hamlet. you know how it's going to end, and you know you're powerless to stop it, but if they'd just made that different choice! but we had to leave eden. the warrior of light had to end up where they are to finish what elpis started. i don't do fate/destiny plots, but this? i'll take it.

i also knew what would happen going into ultima thule and still came away from it moved. it's strong writing. that's all there is to it. sure, the visuals are haunting, but the dialogue has to sell a gauntlet of difficult character moments, and it pulls it off. on the design side, there's some interesting intentional friction that forces you to linger in the zone and sit with its sense of despair. that part where you have to search the empty park for signs of life? oof

with the majority of the MSQ under my belt, i started sniffing around for what else there is to do ingame. i tried ninja. did terribly. i tried sage. did terribly too, but at least that gave me access to the healer role quests, which, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). the nier raids are gorgeous. i even did the controversial werlyt quests, and terncliff is so cute. i kind of wish we could have another story there!

what's next? i dunno! right now i'm burning through the hildibrand quests before i continue on with endwalker's patch story. the field operation stuff seems interesting to do after the MSQ, in a "hey, you saved the world, but we have more missions for you" way. i've also contracted Triple Triad Collector Disease, so that'll keep me busy for a long time.

all right. one last thing. Real Gamer Moments: i was in a mount-farming party recently, and i said that i sort of collected mounts, but only used the ishgardian chocobo. it's a roleplay thing - it's the chocobo royce took when she ran away from ishgard. one of the party members said "haurchefant would be proud of you." AUGH

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #12 - Trying to Stay Motivated.

Good timezone! I'm very sleepy.

March Progress

This month was spent organizing my outline. I broke it up by scene, each defined as a change in location. This proved helpful in several ways - first, it gave me an idea of how many backgrounds I needed, and second, it created a guideline on organizing my code.

This process also made me more aware of the "flow" of the story; it allowed me to notice how certain scenes didn't mesh well with each other. So once again, some narrative revisions were made. Extra progress!

From there, I did some rough storyboards. And I mean rough. Like barely coherent figures and scribbles. I'd show photos but they kinda suck. But hey, I just needed a visual guide and this was good enough.

It also felt strange storyboarding a VN where its inherent design is just... interchangeable sprites standing in front of interchangeable backgrounds. But oh well.

After all this, I calculated that I'd need to draw around... 20 bgs. What the fuck. Is this biting off more than I can chew? Probably. I'll try to cut that number down somehow.

April Goals

I've broken down my next steps into three categories: programming, setting design, and character design.

Programming: I want to revisit my old prototype (damn that was a year ago) and expand on it. Now that I have the outline broken down by scene, I'd like to translate it into RenPy, using placeholders for art and lines. Oh, and play with UI/choices/endings/etc. My main goal is to just get comfortable using RenPy cause as of right now, opening the program still makes me nervous.

Setting design: Most of the story takes place in a single room - a tiny workshop, operated by the LI. I'd like to flesh out what this place looks like, cause this will then influence the composition for all my illustrations.

Character design: I've settled on the design for the LI, but I want to create depth in all the side characters so that they can help bring life to the story. Yep.

Thanks for reading! It's been a rough few weeks lately. Without going into the details, I've been struggling with motivation and discipline so it feels weird to post these updates when I don't feel like I've made as much progress as I would've liked. But the dev progress is long and time marches on, so I have no choice but to keep on tinkering away or else this damn VN won't get made. At least I have these monthly updates to keep myself accountable, and I genuinely appreciate everyone who reads these dumb little posts.

I'll do my best to stay motivated. So have a good timezone, and hopefully I'll see you next month!

[alertarchitect]

So! A new Doom game got announced!

Here's the trailer for those interested, it will help with what I'm about to go into:

As a bit of a Retro Throwback Shooter Shitter myself, I have some Thoughts. Read on if you're interested.

So, first of all I like the premise of exploring the time the Doom Slayer spent fighting demons alongside the warriors of Argent D'Nur. It's a time period that was purposefully left pretty damn vague in Doom Eternal, and the Slayer's lore before waking up again wasn't even really talked about much - if at all - in Doom 2016 from what I remember, since they were trying to play it a little safe due to Doom 2016 being a soft reboot of a series that hadn't gotten a new game in 12 years at that point, with the last title (Doom 3 and its various editions that attempted to improve it a bit) being a pretty big departure that had a wealth of issues, such as it being a Doom game with one of the worst shotguns ever put into a shooter. So it's a cool idea to explore this time frame of the Doom Slayer's history, and possibly show the events leading to the Slayer's imprisonment in Hell before he was rediscovered and subsequently awoken by Samuel Hayden in Doom 2016, including the Makyrs' fall from grace.

Second, I'm actually kinda hyped to see id Software still working on making retro throwback shooters. I was worried they'd get shuttered and their IP sold off after Rage was such a flop back in 2011, and they didn't make anything after it for 5 years until Doom 2016 came out, so it's nice to see they've found their groove again - making some of the best examples of the retro throwback shooter subgenre. Doom 2016 started the BoomShoot Renaissance, and Doom Eternal is still one of the best examples of the genre, mechanically. They are masterclasses in using an old formula while keeping the level design and visuals fresh with modern game design principles that have improved a lot since the 90s, along with new game mechanics to keep the moment-to-moment gameplay feeling fresh as well (such as the weapon / stat upgrade systems, the movement abilities you get in Doom Eternal, etc.). Seeing them pushing that even further is a treat to behold, and I'm confident it's going to be a pretty damn fun game, as long as it doesn't get forced into being $70.

Final point, though, is a bit of a downer for me personally. Why in the fuck are they making a game in the Doom series that's going for a more medieval-ish feel, when the Quake franchise is right fucking there and begging for a better modern entry than goddamn Quake Champions?? Seriously, making a Quake game calling back to the first game in the franchise - with the Lovecraftian inspirations, the more medieval-ish setting, the unique monsters like the Shambler you didn't see much of past Quake 1 - would be a fucking money printer. But no, Microsoft wants them to play it safe so they can get a guaranteed blockbuster because Quake Champions hasn't done very well since it came out of early access in 2022, which is definitely a fault of the Quake franchise not having any consumer interest and 100% for sure not because Quake Champions pivoted into being a fucking hero shooter trying to emulate the feel of old arena shooter deathmatching!! It's not like a soft reboot wouldn't be sorely needed after the goddamn disaster of a story that was the Quake 4 campaign! It's not like a modern Quake game that actually relies on having a fun weapon sandbox instead of relying on taking your opponents off guard with fucking superpowers on cooldowns is something the fanbase they're trying to pander to would nut in our fucking pants over or anything!!!!

TL;DR: This game looks really good and fun, and I like to see id is still making banger games, but I'm actually kinda angry that they'd rather make a Doom game with medieval vibes rather than using that other fantastic retro shooter IP they own to make something that kind of vibe would actually fit into better.

[chaifootsteps]

The other day i was watching how people made fun of the Hazbin trailer and someone uploaded a clip from "Inside Every demon is a Rainbow" to say it was a downgrade and my jaw dropped when i saw that it was true, i always thoght that the "new" H.H had something that made it look worse than the pilot but i couldn't put my finger on it, and now i think i understand the reson.

So, these are the reasons why the new clip looks like a downgrade (in my opinion):

1)The Song.

No matter your opinion on Hazbin, we all agree that "Inside of every demon is a rainbow" is an iconic song. Its not a masterpiece, but it works really great to introduce the show. Maybe its nostalgia talking, but i love this song, i really like how it start slow but then goes into a fast catchy tune as Charlie is talking with enthusiasm about her proyect. The voice actress also is doing an amazing song because she sounds SO energetic and genuine, wich is clearly a sign of how much she loved that job. Its a cringe song, but in a "charming" and pure way, that is very unique and enjoyable when you turn off your brain a little.

Meanwhile, the new one sounds like a generic, forgetable, lifeless Disney song, the only difference is that it has curses and shit. Its like its trying to replicate the other one without understanding what made it so loved.

2) The damn camera movements

The pilot was fast moving, energetic and sometimes there were parts where you couldnt tell what was happening until you paused, but even so, it was easier to digest because the camera was still most of the time, it didnt need crazy movements. There was a million things happening on screen, but at leats the camera had slight movements so your eyes could at least know where your focus should be in (check out the "so all you cartoon porn addictions" part to see what im talking about).

The new one? It shakes and zooms like crazy every time a character takes a step and it makes it hard to the eyes to understand where the fuck they should be looking. Its not even funny, someone WILL get motion sickness.

3) The character designs

Im one of those people who didnt like most of the redesigns, now i understand why: because they dont fix ANY of the problems the original ones had: no less use of red, they still have a shit ton of unecesary details, they still have copypasted body types...

I would say some are WORSE.

Take Charlie, for example; she used to wear a light red shirt with black pants, she would blend a little bit in the background when interacting with it. Now she wears a bright red suit in bright red background and she gets lost EVEN MORE. The only thing they improved was her hairstyle.

4) The animation

Some people say that the animation is good and its just the editing that makes it look bad, but i disagree. Just take a look at the pilot and then the new clip, you will see a clear downgrade.

The old animation was so smooth and expressive, new one is choppy and is afraid of smearframes. Making characters with cartoony propotions look so stiff.

Its like those Sonic games when they used motion capture to animate Sonic and his friends. So they would be literal cartoons animals moving like realistic humans and it sucked.

4) The pilot was visually easier to "diggest" in general

I gotta say, while re-watching the clip of Inside of every demon, the only parts where it was hard to follow were when Charlie interacted with characters with exagerated designs and when she is rapping and there are a lot of fast scenes that ends before you have time to understand what you saw. The rest was just ok.

But in the new clip, it was 90% Charlie jumping around different backgrounds with a drunk camera man and in some part i paused to look at the wall cuz i felt like my eyes were gonna burn if i keep looking.

So thats it, there are some other reasons but these are the most important ones.

Sorry for writting too much, its such that im mad for what they did to a proyect i used to be obssesed with.

Anyway, hope Hazbin gets cancelled in the mid of the first season and the rest became lost media, have a good day 🩷

These are some great thoughts, Anon, thank you. New Hazbin doesn't have much appeal to outsiders, but it looks even worse when held up to the pilot.

"Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow" isn't the best song in the pilot, but it was an excellent song to introduce us to Charlie. It's not an easy one to sing either, but Charlie's singing VA nailed it.

[khiphop-discussions]

RAP:PUBLIC Ep.5 Part 1 Thoughts

The infamous Titanic episode of Rap:Public! Episode 5! I'm clearly not gonna finish this tonight but spoilers anyway.

We're starting off at the last 2 teams of the block breaker mission. 2 vs 3. Team Loopy vs Team Haon.

Loopy is such a good leader.

Haon too. He's a bit more relaxed.

Reddy volunteers to be up for elimination but I'd actually be more annoyed if I was one of the less experienced rappers because if I get voted into the deathmatch then It'll be harder to beat Reddy than similarly inexperienced rappers. Like, you're not actually saving anyone from being thrown in? And like I said last episode, throwing your best rappers into elimination just isn't smart. It's not in the best interest of them in the event you lose.

Oh shoot...is the deathmatch team vs team? I thought it was the 3 teammates face each other to see who leaves? Oh shit...maybe I misunderstood lol. If so I take the last part back lol

Loppy first let's see if Haon comes out. Damn, Loopy didn't even feel the need to take his hand out his pocket lol. Haon didn't come out but Yang Kyle did. Nice to finally see his rap. Nice! I like it.

I think...this is hard but Loopy got it. Loopy won it but respect for Kyle on my end!

Yunha is good but Loopy is better. Khan is enjoying the song but Shyboiitobii was like "he isn't from our block" pulled him back lol.

Yunha won. Idk if anyone left on block 2 can beat Haon. Even Yunha alone is pretty strong. Yunha touches shyboii. He turns away from the camera and pushes his hair back. He seemed upset (I could be misreading of course). Remember on ep.1 when he was upset Mason Home touched him? He seems like he has a thing about that even during the "game play" (valid of course, I bring this up because Yunha was clearly being playful but Shy still is allowed to not like that regardless of being for entertainment or play).

Anyway, nosun comes out and he's good. He beats Yunha. But like Punchnello said, I think they both deserved the win.

I like this verse from Nosun. Osun comes out and faces him. Osun's isn't fitting the beat as well as Nosun. He's talented but its not fitting. He goes up to Shy during his rap. Shy looks PISSED! Even Khan asked "Did it make your blood boil?" Tobi turned around for a bit but turned back around when khan asks. He smiles (very forced) and says "hmmm". Even Marv is like "why do people only attack him?" They must know/think that he's a hot head? Maybe they think he's weak or something? (Many people take shyness/quietness for weakness). Maybe they're trying to bait him thinking they can beat him? Idk.

Anyway, nosun won as expected. Next round, Nosun has so many nice lyrics haha. Dommiu is dope! She messes up a bit though. But even without Nosun was still a bit better. Maybe on a different beat she'd have won. Polodared votes for her (she really pretty and cute! But regardless she's talented) but it's 43 to 1.

They're showing so many shots of tobii flipping his hair back out of his face. Lol Rap:Public's visual!

Reddy goes up. He's good but Idk if the energy is there. It's obvious he's more experienced and stable. Nosun hugs him at the beginning and end. Very honored to be facing Reddy it seems. Reddy won. 27 to 17. Nosun hugs him again!

Seems Khan will go up next. Reddy shakes hands with him. Lots of respect to and from Reddy it seems. Khan has energy but it doesn't seem like people liked it. So he'll likely lose. He did.

Reddy's energy seems to keep increasing every round! Ga yeon comes out but I don't think she'll win. I like her style though. Reddy win.s.

Reddys raps keep getting increasingly better but I guess it makes sense since hes choosing the beat now. Shyboii comes out but puts his hood on. I don't think he'll win. But randomly putting the hood on gives "Ash turning his hat around before the pokemon battle" vibes. It looked really cool lol.

Reddy wins. Shyboii says he's disappointed in himself. yukon comes out to face reddy but messes up. Reddy wins.

Raf goes up. He rides the beat well. Really cool. Both did a more "cool" type of vibe. Raf was able to beat out Reddy. I don't think he can beat Haon though.

Bbulkup was doing strong when he came out but messed up seconds into his rap. He probably could have won without that.

Raf is different cause he can outcool everyone. Even when he's putting in a lot of effort he still comes of cool and laid back. Most people can only do one or the other. Idk about this onem everybody is saying Haon had a short verse. This one will be close. Actually nah, raf won by a lot.

James is good. He kinda sounds like Swings. I think he won. Block 2 celebrated too early. Yeah, James won so now 1v1

Wally is last. His is melodic so different from James. He fits the beat better tbh. I think Wally got it but it's CLOSE.

Xwally won it. So block 2 wins. That one was crazy though.

So all together block 2, 4, 6, and 7 won 10,000

The leaders have to tell them who they chose to do the deathmatch.

Fleeky Bang (block 1) chose: Goldbuuda, Kang Hyuk, Jeffrey White

Gamma (block 8) chose: Churry, Leo, Bizzy(Huh? Did he volunteer? I don't remember). He says he chose who he thought would do poorly the next round.

Haon (block 3) chose: James An, Yang Kyle, and Reddy.

JP (block 5): Hash Swan, Mckdaddy, Mason Home. Apparently, Mason Home told JP he wants to get eliminated. And yes, it seems like the deathmatch IS team vs team so Haon WAS smart to choose his strongest people. My bad I TOTALLY misunderstood the rule. I thought every team who lost would HAVE to eliminate 1 person based on who performs the worst. They face people on their SAME team to decide who leaves or stays. Oops.

They have to perform without music.

Haon seems like he's taking the deathmatch HARD! He's really upset.

They gave them suitcases to repack?...the stuff already in suitcases? I don't get it?

Anyway, it's 12 here now! I'm 1 hour in exactly. I'll pick this up soon but likely not tomorrow. We'll see!