#but when presented within the context of the game it’s still good | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

maple-the-awesome · 1 year ago

Text

Twilight's Calling ||

Pairing: Twilight x GN! Reader

Words: 2,544

Requested by anonymous: Heeey. First of I love your writing style! It’s just amazing! Cause twilight is my fav. could you maybe write something like xreader with him, for example they’re in a battle or smth? Only if it’s okay ofc! Thanks a lot and have a good day and week! best wishes :) Twilight may or may not be my favorite Link, too (TP was the first game I finished, so I'm a little bias, okay?). I've had this draft lying around unfinished for awhile, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to finish it. Here you go, hun 💜

Zelda Masterlist 🤎Fandom Masterlist

It's getting pretty late. 'Late' as in the sun has long set and the last time you saw any of the boys was about an hour ago when Time finally managed to herd the remaining stragglers out of the room, although he was being a bit hypocritical seeing as he still lingered in the doorway for a good minute himself afterwards (not that you dared comment on it).

Since their heavy footsteps had faded into silence - and aside from the innkeeper sometimes shuffling down the hall or a sudden 'pop' of the bedside candle - you've been left entirely alone with your thoughts as they dance on the very edge of sleep, but you refuse to lose balance. It's your shift. You promised to be a good lookout and it took a lot of convincing to even get the position, so you can't disappoint no matter how heavy the weight upon your eyelids or heart is.

You've always been well aware of the risks that would come with this mission and from traveling alongside nine heroes of legend; troublesome young men and boys who can definitely handle themselves in battle, however none immune to making possible mistakes. You expected one to occur at some point, yet never wanted the aftermath to be anything too serious.

Wild getting a decent scar on his forehead was a scare when it initially happened, but he was back on his feet within the hour - less than that actually, because if you remember correctly, his quick recovery had been controversial and resulted in quite a bit of bickering. The bottom line is that Wild bounced back with little to no trouble thanks in part to his thick skull. This is different. Twilight has yet to follow his protege's example and it's been hours.

You must admit you underestimated the situation at first due to a lack of context. It's not to say you didn't care about Wolfie when he got struck, however there's a notable difference between a wild 'pet' that occasionally trails your group and the very man you've grown to secretly admire over the months you've spent traveling together. If you had known then that they are one of the same, you would've likely shared a similar level of panic as the Champion, but instead you were left in the dark until Four finally explained Twilight's secret to you.

Even at that moment, although more worried, you figured everything would be okay. Wolfie or Twilight, a fairy should be able to do the trick to heal the worst of injuries, so one can imagine your heartbreak once learning that, for some odd reason, the state of his wounds haven't changed even under a fairy's sacred touch. That's when you truly became fearful, but you refused to show it outwardly - no more than whatever made itself present on your face, anyway.

Making a fuss won't aid Twilight's condition nor will it calm the concerns of your friends, so instead you had mostly stayed out of the way until Time announced everyone should get some rest. At that point, you made your presence known, quick to shoot your hand into the air while volunteering to take the first shift for watching over Twilight. Champion was the only one to fight you for it and honestly, you still aren't certain how you won the argument, but here you are, sitting quietly at Twilight's bedside while trying desperately to keep yourself from descending into madness as you fret over his well-being.

He's doing somewhat better after Hyrule's magic managed to stop most of the bleeding, however his wound remains deep without any further healing progress and his skin is drained into a pale, sickly color clear even through the dim glow of candle light. He looks like shit and you'd guess he feels like it, too, seeing as his face curls into a pained expression every now and again, a whispered groan leaving him whenever he slightly shifts his body (not that he moves that much).

It's gotten a bit chilly tonight, however all blankets in the room have been laid over him and you refuse to swoop as low as to steal comfort from a dying man, so you simply keep huddled to yourself, half praying the next shift will come sooner and half praying it won't because a stubbornness inside you is somehow convinced that the simple act of you being here will keep himsafe from death's hands.

You don't pay much attention to the quiet groan that comes from the bed, having already bitterly accepted that there's nothing that can ease whatever pain haunts Twilight during his nightmares, although you do lift your head when a hand shakes its way into view, barely able to carry itself to the edge of the covers where it collapses with a broken echo from its owner, "W...What time is it?"

You almost cry simply by the sight of Twilight's dull eyes staring up at you, half-lidded and only appearing bright if compared to the dark bags hiding underneath them, but you manage to hold back the tears for the sake of not scaring him.

"I-I'm not sure. After sunset," You answer slowly as to prevent any wobbling to your voice.

"And the others? Is every - everyone else okay?" Hylia, he sounds awful, his once handsome, accent-laced voice butchered by a hollow croak.

"Yeah...Yeah, we're all okay - and don't worry about the shadow. Wild managed to take it down - thanks to you tiring it out, I'd say. You sure gave that thing a run for its money there," You attempt to joke lamely. Although your laugh doesn't carry much life to it, Twilight's expression does soften a tad after the sound.

"...Good..." Is all he says before closing his eyes with a sigh through his nose. Meanwhile you fidget nervously, debating with yourself on whether you should let the conversation die off so that he can continue getting rest or keep him talking while he's able to. You sure do love hearing his voice, after all, no matter how broken it may be; it reminds you that someone as great as him is actually real and, after recent events, still alive.

In the midst of your depressed thoughts, you notice Twilight reach his hand out towards you again - or at least it looks like he's trying to. Really, he only has the strength to lift it palm-up slightly off the covers, yet you understand this movement's wordless request. Ever so gently, as if he's made of glass, you take his hand and sandwich it between both of yours. He's a bit too cold for your liking, a sharp contrast to his normally warm touch, not that you draw attention to that worrying detail.

"...Is there anything I can get you?"

He tries to shake his head, but loses will halfway through the action and instead chooses to simply let his head lull to the side towards you. From there he stares for a bit longer than he means to, his dazed brain struggling to process his thoughts at its usual speed.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Someone has to keep an eye on you," You allow a small smile, slowly reaching forward to help move his bangs away from his face, "We're all taking shifts throughout the night. I was just lucky enough to get the first."

Twilight hums, closing his eyes for a brief second when your fingers brush his forehead, "How'd you manage that?"

"Barely. For a second there, I thought I was gonna have to duel the Champion for it - had my hand on my sword and everything before he finally caved," Twilight makes a sound between a scoff and a laugh which makes your smile more genuine even if he does flinch in pain immediately afterwards, "The real question is how I won against Time...Actually, I wouldn't be that surprised if he's secretly standing outside the door as we speak."

A creak of old floorboards in the hallway makes your eyes dart to the door, almost expecting the man in question to walk in and call you out for your jokes, yet you calm that doesn't happen. Twilight brings your attention back to him by moving his thumb against your hand, "Don't tell 'em, but I'm glad it's you here. I like having ya' here with me..."

You press your lips, hoping it'll help you ignore the heat against your cheeks. That must be the first time Twilight has ever openly said he 'likes' anything related to you; you're certain you'd remember any other instances of such a milestone. It might not be the exact sentence you'd want him to use the word in, but it's a step in the right direction, so you'll take it.

"I like having you here with me, too, Twi...which is why I've officially decided that I'm too selfish to let you die on any of us. I don't care if I have to fist-fight Hylia for it; I'm not letting you get out of this journey so easily."

"That right?"

"I swear it on my life."

He chuckles weakly, although the sound is taken over by a fit of coughing. Promptly you pour a small glass of water using the pitcher kept on the bedside table before gently helping him sit up to take a careful sip.

It's insane for you to think that only a few weeks ago, you had been secretly watching him move hay bales at Time's place effortlessly. Now he lies here in bed struggling to hold a conversation, his muscles shaking horribly by the simply action of prompting himself up even slightly. Seeing him like this makes you feel awful, but you also consider yourself blessed to be the one taking care of him during a low point like this, ensuring that he's properly cared for and tended to almost like a spouse would.

"Seems like I'm starting to lose you, farm boy. You should relax and get some more sleep," He makes a face and seems prepared to argue, however he must not have been able to think of anything convincing to say - that or the aching in his bones has become too hard to ignore. Either way, instead of saying a word, Twilight nods droopily before inching his way back down against his soft pillow while you fix the blankets over him again.

"Look on the bright side: make it through this and you'll probably get special treatment from here on out. Get your bags carried for you, have whatever meals you're craving be made each night...If you hobble around a little I'm sure you could even get Time to fuss over you -"

" - And what about you?" Twilight quizzes and you can't tell if he's being serious or just teasing. It feels like the latter, yet the way he watches you while awaiting your reply makes you feel another way; soft and warm, but a tad anxious at the same time, "What can I get from you?"

You pretend to think, although in truth, you already know there wouldn't be any limitations for what you're willing to give. If he asked for the world right now, you'd figure out some way to gift wrap it for him...but that's too embarrassing to admit aloud, "...Depends on what you're thinking and if you can swing it the right way."

He hums, once again staring at you just long enough to make that anxious feeling really prominent. Is there something on your face that no one told you about earlier? Is he judging your messy hairdo that you had no time to fix since the battle? Did you sound too flirtatious in your answer? Maybe his injury has given him the ability to read minds, so now he knows just how desperate you are to earn his affections!

"...If I asked you to stay with me, would you?" Twilight whispers so quietly that you barely hear, yet you do.

"I, uh...Time will be here in an hour or so for his shift, but I won't go anywhere until then, okay?" Not even your poor excuse at smiling can save your stumbled words, yet you pray he doesn't look beyond either. He's loopy from such a stressful day, so it makes sense that he's have trouble properly wording questions. It also makes sense for him to be scared to be left alone - anyone would be in such a state. He doesn't have to worry, though; between you and the boys, someone will always be by his side throughout the night. You'd expect that knowledge to be a relief for him, however Twilight only frowns and looks away with a surprisingly depressed look in his eyes.

Fiddling nervously with your hands upon your lap, you ask carefully, "...Unless you're wanting me to watch over your for the whole night? In that case, I wouldn't mind staying if it would make you feel better. I'm sure the others would be fine with it if they could just check in here and there."

Twilight presses his lips, refusing to look directly at you. If you didn't know any better, you'd say that based on his continued reaction, you're still somehow missing the point of his question, yet no matter how much you rack your brain, you can't think of what else he would've possibly meant.

You were tempted to ask for more clarity, but Twilight speaks before you can, "...I'd like that."

"Yeah?"

He nods bashfully which melts your heart in a way you're sure would be shamefully clear if he were only looking in your direction.

"...Well, since you took one for the team -" Scooting your chair closer to the bed allows you to cross your arms over the mattress and rest your head on top of them. Desperately you try to ignore your nerves and the cute way Twilight curiously looks over at you, "- I'll stay for the night if you promise me one thing."

"Hmm?"

"Stay with me, too? Without you, I might just loose my mind. Don't tell anyone else, but you don't drive me nearly as insane as some of the other boys do," not in the same way at least.

The corner of Twilight's lips turn upwards, his hand taking it's time to move over yours. The second it makes contact, you take the chance to hold onto it, "...Sounds like a deal..."

You match his smile easily, "Get some sleep, Twi. I'll be right here when you wake up, so just focus on getting better for me, alright?"

He hums one last time, drifting off to sleep as commanded where he seems to be far more peaceful than earlier. As promised, you remain by his side until morning, eventually falling victim to quick naps yourself only disrupted whenever someone else sneaks into the room to see how things are going. You're certain you'll be tired tomorrow with an aching back after spending an entire night hunched over, but that's a small price to pay for someone like Twilight. It'll all be worth it to see him recover, granting you even more time to spend by his side through thick and thin.

#x reader #reader insert #legend of zelda x reader #legend of zelda #linked universe x reader #link x reader #linked universe #lu twilight x reader

344 notes · View notes

edeneow · 1 month ago

Text

CHAPTER 2: HUMANITY ✧ Michael Kaiser analysis!! thank you for all the support on the last chapter

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Please read the first chapter beforehand for more context, hope you enjoy ! 💙🩵

This chapter will explore how Kaiser changes as a person after escaping from his father and joining Bastard München. Also how his past self is present within his current self.

After joining Bastard München, Kaiser turns into a completely new person. This is because he escaped from his abusive household and simultaneously being an object of his fathers. To Kaiser, he gained life (the impossible), worth, and meaning and losing that gain of power would be equivalent to death.

Taking on his father’s philosophy:

After his first interaction with other people when taken to Bastard-where he rejects their goodwill-he’s already embodied what he considers “a target of malice”. He further enforces this by (prior to his first game played) planning to get “a dog that will submit to my malice,”.

This highlights how he feels the need to conquer others to become more human and how he’s resorting to an abusive power because that’s all he’s grown up with, and what his world and actions revolved around for so long. We also see how deep his father‘s words sunk into him when he refers to Ness as a “ good test subject”. He chooses to view people as objects and to project how he used to feel onto them to better understand how he can overpower them. He’s seeing the world through how he thinks his father saw it, in order to feel in control, to feel human, and to satisfy himself by finding comfort in that feeling. To Kaiser, he doesn’t see what he’s doing as meaningless cruelty-he labels it as human to make it more justifiable because it would hurt him to think that he was treated the way he was for no apparent reason. Trying to understand the real reason why his childhood was so horrible other than ‘this is just the way humans are’ is hurtful to him.

You can tell he’s trying more to fit into his father’s mindset through the digression from “a dog” to a “test subject” (an animal to an object). This could’ve been picked up from his father words that he’s “below even an animal”. At the shock of gaining life and humanity he becomes more desperate to keep it; when at first he thinks of other people like animals he degrades the term to “subjects”-he needs them to be as low as possible to feel secure on his throne.

Reborn:

This is the first rebirth of Kaiser: he went from what he considered to an object or a subject to an emperor. I think a clear mark of this change is his blue rose tattoo. In his childhood Kaiser was constantly told his filth then he was a piece of shit and good for nothing. He identified himself as an object due to this-but still had hoped for himself to gain life. I think could be related to his father hating everything about life, and especially Kaiser’s mother-but still keeping the blue rose that was a symbol of her.

They both had their signs of hope which contradicted the reasons they were suffering in that house of despair; and it centred around that blue rose.

The same hope the blue rose bought was present in Kaiser’s rebirth and was what connected his past self to his new self-it was a constant symbol of impossibility and aspiration, which he now channelled into a symbol of power, using malice to do so.

Thank you for reading ! Hope this made sense (*´꒳`*)

#blue lock #bluelock #michael kaiser #bllk #bllk analysis

24 notes · View notes

sea-grunks-dating-sim · 1 month ago

Note

(Part 2) What made you all want to go through with a full game?

(Find Part 1 to driftdrawsofficial 's questions here!)

🌊 Q2.) What made you all want to go through with a full game?

The demo was basically an interest check--the positive and overwhelming amount of feedback/pos helped me decide to go through with a full game (more context here!). From there, I invited mutuals who were interested in joining our team!

Here are some of their responses to your question! 💙

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

🌊 Vic (Lead)

For me, developing this game is my love letter to Gravity Falls. It's the first show I've ever watched where I genuinely loved every character because of how real and well-written they were--and you can feel the love and passion behind the show; the dedication and craft. Before Sailing with Stans, I worked on projects by myself--I rarely had anyone to bounce ideas off with or beta-read my work. Collaborating with a team, especially with writing, was very new to me. I didn't realize how much I would absolutely adore it!/gen. There's a sort of magic that happens when sharing ideas and creating something together that simply doesn't spark the way it does when developing something alone. It's also a way for me to give back to the Gravity Falls community that so kindly welcomed me in. This is one of the first times I've actually felt like a part of a fandom. And developing this game allows me to keep sharing the love for this show and for all those who enjoy it--to share my gratitude and adoration for a community that feels like home.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

🌊 Gondola (Artist)

Gravity Falls has been my favorite show since 2012, and thanks to TBOB, I had the chance to be MUCH more involved with the fandom than I was back then. I kept seeing so many cool projects coming out almost every month, and I wanted to participate in as many as I could!! When Vic asked me if I wanted to join the Sailing with Stans team, I started ascending lmao the demo was already so wonderful, of course I’d love to be a part of this! Plus I had never been personally asked to join a project before and I was just incredibly flattered hehe ;;;; The team is full of so many amazing and talented people! Talking and bouncing ideas of one another is so easy (which is huge for someone as shy as myself lol), so i knew i wanted to stay and draw as much as i can for the game!! :]

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

🌊 Dan (Writer)

I have been a fan of Gravity Falls since the day it first aired way back in 2012, but back then I didn’t consider myself to be an active part of the fandom. I was active on tumblr, but I didn't contribute to the community creatively and instead enjoyed it more individually within a small circle of friends. However, with the resurgence in popularity last year, the absolute explosion of fan works and projects has been such a positive force of creativity, I couldn’t help but want to be a part of it this time around. When Vic reached out to me to work on Sailing with Stans, I was very surprised, to say the least, and deeply flattered. Part of me is still in disbelief about it! It was also rather serendipitous as I was actually thinking about my own concept for a dating sim that had a similar vibe to SWS. Post-show setting, the player is non-human, SWS had all of the key elements I wanted to explore, so the invite to work on this project was more than I could have ever hoped for. This game has been a way to challenge myself with new skills, as writing both in the second person and in the present tense are both very new for me. I’m used to third-person, past tense prose, so it’s been immensely fulfilling getting the chance to expand my abilities as a writer while working on scenes. Additionally, both Vic and I are pretty new to Ren'py, so it’s been fun to talk about all the possibilities available to us while working within the limitations of the software, although admittedly I fear we are sometimes too ambitious for our own good, haha.

As we fleshed out the story's outline together, it felt like Vic and I were really on the same page with both the direction of the plot and the characterization of both Stan and Ford. Outside of private roleplay, I've never written collaboratively with someone before, and it’s certainly been many years since I’ve contributed to any fan-driven project. However, so far the mutual encouragement and shared passion for the series amongst the team has made the initial thought of participating in a group project like this again feel much less daunting. On the contrary, brainstorming, offering insight when editing, and exchanging feedback on each other’s works have been some of the most enjoyable aspects of working on the game. There is always clear communication on every change made to the game and with every bit of progress we make, I always feel as though all the different elements of the game are in sync every step of the way.

I’m determined to see Sailing With Stans all the way through to the end. Vic has been so easy to work with and is such a genuinely nice person that you'd be hard pressed to find a better team lead. Their endless positivity is infectious and it makes me want to repay their hard work as well as the hard work of the rest of the team by putting my best efforts forward as well. I look forward to working alongside them as we continue doing our best to make SWS into a game that people will love and that we can all be proud of.

Thank you to everyone who has played so far and we hope you will enjoy what we have in store for the next chapter.

#sws team qna #qna #sailing with stans #sea grunks dating sim #renpy visual novel

22 notes · View notes

starrysilvalley · 10 months ago

Text

Time for the secondary protagonist of this tale, Emmet! He may have a familiar face— if only he had the same understanding of himself. He occupies more of a Virgil/mentor archetype, and within the Pokémon games universe he would be the closest to a Professor role.

To emphasize again, this project takes place in distant future of the Pokémon in-game universe. The plotlines of previous games are all considered canon up until Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Anything past that is considered non-canon within the context of Spectrum. Emmet’s place in particular was based on the context of PLA and my own interpretations/theories on the subject of the twins when playing it (mostly answering questions like “where is Emmet”, “is he in present-day Unova or another time/place entirely”, “what happened to cause the separation”, etc.)

✨⭐️✨

Emmet is an amnesiac and fugitive against the New Unova League, as well as a surrogate father to Una. Despite being a verrry blunt and open book, Emmet remains a bit of a mystery. His earliest memory is waking up in the custody of the Pokémon League with nothing but his ratty coat and hat that just so happened to have his name stitched inside. Interregators told him he was found with illegal possessions (what type of possessions, he still doesn't know) and had been conspiring to eliminate the Champion. It was only through an intervention that he was able to escape with a mysterious little girl in tow. To this day, he still has no idea where he came from before his captivity or if he has any roots somewhere in New Unova. Although there will always remain the desire to know his true self, under the current circumstances, Emmet is focused more on his found family in Una and his business partner Fajra.

Due to his experiences, Emmet has a tendency to be more reserved… at least, sometimes. He is more mischievous than he first appears and typically uses this to his advantage when faced with more sketchy characters. He is very observant, but learned that his commentary can get him into trouble. It also may just be that he has become more restrained with his trickster side in order to show a good example to the young rascal in his charge. If he wants her to follow his safety guidelines, he should probably learn to follow them himself, right?

Emmet currently only has one Pokémon— a Neo Variant Liepard. If he had any other Pokémon prior to his amnesia, he has no way of knowing where they are or what they were. He acquired Liepard during his incarceration, but he’s never spoken on the specifics of how he acquired her. Regardless, their experiences together led to a strong comradery between them. Liepard is almost always out of her pokéball and flanking his side. For whatever reason, Emmet never pursued acquiring more Pokémon and seems to avoid Pokémon battles altogether. He’s never made it clear why this is the case. However, on the rare occasion where he and Liepard do battle, they are notoriously ruthless and almost perfectly in-sync. At the very least, he has shown to have a strong knowledge of battling, even if he doesn't seek it out.

I currently do not have as many sketches of Emmet as I do Una since I'm building Una from the ground u, and I struggle to find a design/style I like for him. This sketch of the pair and their Pokémon is one of my favorites.

My one other drawing I liked was an even chibi-er version of him (I don't usually draw in chibi style, but its proven to be the easiest to use), including some character notes from the time.

I've gone back and forth on a LOT of his character since I wanted to have his character explore a twist in the themes originally given to him by the creators. I know there are theories that Emmet is meant to embody truth while his brother embodies ideals, so its been an interesting challenge to work with this character in the dystopian context where truth is oppressed and often requires characters to abandon honesty. Its also difficult because Emmet is known for his optimism and I don't want to take that from him, even in a dystopian context. I believe his upbeat/mischievous nature helps him stand out from his brother, and quite frankly, I think even dystopian worlds could use some hope. I'm just more use to writing Ingo characters rather than Emmets. I'm hoping I can do this little guy justice :’)

#cyberpunk dystopia #dystopian #pokémon au #pokémon black and white #pokémon dystopian au #purrloin #unova #submas #subway boss emmet #kudari #subway bosses #liepard #una #Pokemon project spectrum #Spotify

60 notes · View notes

strangescaffold · 20 days ago

Text

celebrating the launch of Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 a.k.a. my contribution to Clown Alley

hi Tumblr, I wanted to make one of my first contributions to this blog something sincere while still capturing the genuine feral energy that occurred. so I’m going to tell you a brief story about one of my contributions to the game we’re launching today. to preface: we’re really hoping to share more in-depth, goofy little blogs like this one to give you insights into our development structure. hopefully that’s something you’re interested in, but if not, hang out because we also might post other stuff. you gotta give us that chance!! so to paint the picture - today, April 22nd, 2025, we launched Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 over at Strange Scaffold. it’s live on Steam, and (we hope) many people are going to play it over the next few weeks. maybe months. maybe it’ll sit on your wishlist for a bit until one of your friends is frantically checking Steam wishlists on December 24th and it shows up in your notifications!!

Anyway, I get tasked to make art assets for the studio sometimes! it's a lot of fun. they let me get my hands all over the podcast logo. they let me do the studio's launch logo for Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. they let me do whatever this was for Valentine's Day:

just so you know what we're working with here. so jump back to January. the team's working on different environments for the game. I'm lurking in the text channels for real-time updates, as one does when they're collecting programmer crumbs for content like a small Victorian child. I watched the following conversation unveil in what I'll present to you as an abridged version:

and like a golden retriever locked onto a squirrel passing me by as I sat leashed outside the Whole Foods waiting for my owner, I could only watch as I anticipated -

I was around.

I had no visual in my head for this. I truly let the spirits guide me. in the past, friends had critiqued my Photoshop shitposts for still "looking too good." That wasn't going to happen today. after falling down a hole for an hour -

the spirits had finished. I exported my canvas. I surveyed my delivered PNG and within it found no hubris to behold, merely a newfound sense of peace and acceptance.

and as I watched the resulting feedback trickle in -

"Suddenly, you can understand the full deal behind that hallway with stock images of clowns with added context."

— Charlie Kelly, checkpointgaming.net

I couldn't help but wonder if anyone would observe the finer details.

I like to think they will! happy matching :) — Christa @ Strange Scaffold

#indie games #game development #indie dev #clowns #gaming #strange scaffold #creepy redneck dinosaur mansion 3 #match-3 #comedy #horror games #dinosaurs #games industry

19 notes · View notes

homestuckreplay · 3 months ago

Text

100 Page Instant Retcon

(page 1258-1268; Snowman theories)

Clubs Deuce has a ‘hat full of bomb, a fist full of penis, and a head full of empty’ and a HEART FULL OF LOVE FOR CLOCKS. Never forget. Even when he is trying to be tough and scary.

Stitch is absolutely right about the C4, I checked it out and that stuff is explicitly designed as a ‘safety explosive’ that doesn’t detonate due to physical damage or heat, only by a shockwave emitted from within. To be honest Stitch’s surgical needle powers could probably do something there if he wanted. And considering Droog thinks Stitch is worth keeping alive and might be able to actively fight against Lord English, he might be one of the more powerful Felt members, maybe able to survive an explosion.

Page 1260 has a title drop! I really like ‘Don’t Bleed on the Suits’ as the intermission title, it hits the tone well and the double meaning of suits as playing cards and formal wear is on brand. Suits are already important to the younger two Egberts, and games are relevant in general, so the title is reflecting motifs from earlier acts which is cool. The line is also good in context because Droog and Stitch, with their mutual interest in clothing presentation and preparation, should absolutely go rogue and make their own gang.

Boxcars’ recurring Red Cheeks magazine (p.1221, 1262) seems like a reminder that the intermission is more ‘adult’ than the rest of Homestuck, with jokes about sex and depictions of graphic violence. I mean, as graphic as it can get given the simple shapes of the art, but we see bullet holes and pools of blood while fights in acts 1-3 just had characters get knocked out. And then we get the introduction of Snowman, which warrants the first flash page since the intermission’s opening and presents the hot noir femme fatale, who literally stops all the fighting and leaves everyone stupefied with her presence.

I’m really interested in what’s going on with Snowman as a character, but I don’t love the whole ‘women are Special and Different to so-called “regular people”’ and ‘it’s not okay to hit girls’ tropes this plays into, whether accidentally or otherwise. Comparing this to the ‘reveal’ that PM is a woman, where AR says it would be ‘quite a pity to blow up that tall attractive female’ (p.1107) and then blows her up anyway because the law is the law, I definitely think the intermission is consciously taking a different tone but in this particular case it becomes less interesting than the main story.

I understand the 8 ball symbolism, although it’s a BIG increase of scale to go from ‘this guy is slow’ and ‘this guy sees near future trails’ to ‘if you kill [Snowman] you destroy the universe’ (p.1268). Jumping between timelines is extremely powerful (gonna circle back to this in a minute), but I still wasn’t aware the existence of the universe itself was at stake. But if so, does this have something to do with Jade’s MAGIC 8 BALL?

‘You might consider smashing it, but you are a little superstitious about whatever ominous consequences that might have, even if the occult talisman in question is a cheap piece of garbage.’ (p.804)

I think destroying the universe is a pretty ominous consequence, personally. I don’t think Snowman is literally Jade’s 8 ball, but I think they have similar magic. And from the same page:

'You guess maybe it could be used as a reverse-prediction device, and always trust the opposite of what it says.' (p.804)

I think there’s a good chance Snowman is a double agent. Obviously she’s a chess piece and not a green man, and would have fought alongside the Midnight Crew within Sburb as they’re all from the ominous planet, but at some point defected. So she needs to stab Slick in the eye as she walks past to keep up appearances that she’s no longer working with him, and also as a general power play, because she was (is?) probably the true leader of the Midnight Crew (some sort of joker or wild card?) but we have already been told that 8 balls aren’t to be trusted, so her true allegiance could be to either gang, somebody else entirely, or only to herself, and she could be giving everyone different stories.

'The MAGIC CUE BALL on the other hand is said to make predictions with alarming precision and specificity. Unfortunately it lacks a portal on its surface that allows you to view the prediction.' (p.805)

And for what it’s worth, this could provide some clues about Lord English, who is surely the Felt’s cue ball, directing all of their moves. Based on this description, he has total knowledge of everything that happens in his domain (the whole universe?), shares this with nobody, and is both completely inscrutable and also hidden away, only communicating with members of the Felt (hence why Stitch needs to be locked away, and why Snowman wanted to become part of the Felt – he’s a very powerful person to have on side).

Anyway the crazy thing is, this whole Snowman scene only happened because Slick pulled Crowbar’s pin, and straight up undid everything that happened across the last hundred pages/twelve real time days. A great little time travel short story suddenly gone, with very little clarification on what, exactly, is different. I definitely think this will be undone by putting Crowbar’s pin back in a few minutes – but it is a reminder of how tenuous this story is and how these two gangs might be smart enough to carry out complex and effective temporal plots, but a single pin can make it all worthless. Feels like a power move from the author in some ways and a reminder to the reader that anything can happen, and also raises questions of which if any timeline is the ‘true’ one.

Also Snowman gets two lines of dialog in her flash! I barely noticed before, but this intermission is FILLED with dialog – it’s not presented in the chatlog format, it’s reported speech but quoted directly from ALL these characters. Which is interesting because WV, PM and AR don’t speak at all, but the chess people here definitely do. And out loud dialog has been so rare in the early acts – I think just Dave’s ‘Stop!’ (p.354) and Jade’s speech to her grandpa (p.919) – that it’s wild that I didn’t notice until now, and I’m interested to see if this change will carry over to Act 4, perhaps if/when John and Rose meet in person inside the Medium.

As a final side note, I noticed this Felt poster on Dave’s wall (p.312, 353) and it gives us a glimpse of missing member Cans, who is totally huge and jacked from the look of it.

#homestuck #reaction #my buddy runs a dnd campaign that i guest in every so often #got to bring him back last night and it is SUCH a blast to bring a character back after time apart #and hes a little different bc im a little different and also hes had adventures in the interim #anyway coming back to john egbert is gonna feel like that too #chrono

24 notes · View notes

toh-aus-coven · 8 months ago

Text

Philip's Story is an Adoption Story... Here's Why That Matters

A few disclaimers before we dive in...

Binary thinking is discouraged here; adoption and its themes are complicated and nuanced. Multiple truths can exist.

This is one perspective and this analysis comes from being in community with adopted/orphan people, research, and misc experience

"Adoption adjacent" includes adoptees/orphans/foster kids (these three groups often overlap in various ways that will be elaborated on)

Please engage with this post in good faith. I know non-adoptees can experience things listed in this post however, there is a different context that underlies the experience of those adopted/adjacent. And of course, I'm not trying to make generalizations either... It's just that the narrative is more complicated than a lot of people want to admit.

Sound good? Let's proceed. THIS POST IS GOING TO BE A BIT LONG!

At the core of Belos/Philip's story is an 'adoption' story. And it's all because of this particular line:

I know what you're thinking "But isn't being an orphan different from being adopted?" Yes, and within the media in particular, adoptee and orphan stories overlap heavily-- in fact, it's almost a circle (although due to his background and his time-period, he'd probably be taken in by someone given the boys' age of their arrival). It’s about the experience of parental separation which is what connects adoptee and adjacent people. So while Philip is not adopted, he is adoptee adjacent and that still matters. Concerning media and the way adopted/orphaned characters are portrayed, it's often presented in a very binary manner. Most people's knowledge of the subject comes from other people's perception of it rather than adopted/orphaned people themselves. And to a degree that makes sense... These stories are often ABOUT [adoptees/adjacent people ] without INCLUDING them. Adoption themes are incredibly pervasive throughout literature, TV/movies, video games, and other media. It's not inherently wrong to have an adoption-related storyline, plot, or character but most people don't do it in a way that is humanizing and avoids common pitfalls within the storytelling.

There's a quick impulse to call Philip 'evil' and 'irredeemable' without actually understanding his character... and when you view him through an 'adoptee-centered' lens his behavior makes a lot of sense. The fact the show treats this specific fact about the character as a plot device rather than something that could be explored is a tiny bit insulting. They only mention it in the exposition which kind of implies that this detail is meant to explain Philip's deep attachment to his brother. Which yes, it does and TOH leaves us hanging -- or actually they just tell us that this man is evil and call it a day.

Which leads me into one of the biggest pitfalls that the show uses for Philip-- he's framed as just evil. The trope of good/bad adoptee/adjacent character is a pretty common see -- even within the same piece of media. If we're going to use TOH we can look at King's character -- King, a young main protagonist who is the last living son of a god. King is young, cute, 'exceptional', has special abilities, etc (there are issues with King's portrayal as well but this post isn't about him). This is an issue because adoptees/adjacent people are more than a reductive good/bad label. Same with concepts such as 'gratitude' -- being grateful or not grateful when the real answer can be a lot more complex than that. It's a binary question that can be a complicated answer. We're the picture-perfect heroes or the irredeemable villains-- nothing in-between.

Taking this into consideration, when we look at Philip you start to see someone who's not 'evil'; you begin to see a man who is coping with separation trauma and abandonment issues. This is unfortunate to hear but research tells us that adoptees are 4x more at risk to 'self-exit', 2x at risk to have substance abuse issues, and generally more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders (obviously every individual is different but when talking about adoption many people tend to ignore these types of statistics in favor of more 'positive' ones). 'Negative' aspects that many adoptees/adjacent people experience or try to talk about are often dismissed or worse, they are gaslighted. When you look at Philip and his characterization you see these behaviors in a different light such as:

His attachment/abandonment issues (Caleb, this one doesn't need any elaboration; EDIT- gonna elaborate anyways lol). To be honest Philip shows a lot of symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. The hallmark of the disorder is a fear of abandonment — and BPD often stems from childhood trauma. Interestingly enough it’s not uncommon for adoptees (in particular women; there is a misogynistic component to this but i digress) to get a BPD diagnosis. And given that the show portrays Philip in a very stigmatizing way… you can see why this isn’t great…

Difficulty regulating his emotions ('the curse' seems to come out when he's emotionally escalated)

'Substance' use (the palismen; he seems physically reliant on them and they don't benefit him in any way besides sustaining his life. also, he looks like he's huffing something when he consumes one Side note: Some people think that Philip deserved to 'be cursed' (which is a side effect[?] of the consumption) since he “cursed himself”... super not great for adoptees/adjacent people we’re already a misunderstood group of people and it's not uncommon to get insulted or blamed when trying to have a nuanced discussion or share experiences.

His sense of self seems unstable... Most of his identity hinges on his brother, not himself (ex. being a witch hunter, the use of the gravesfield coat of arms for the emperor's sigil, the coat he wears, his name-- Philip Wittebane, etc)

There's a bunch of emotional stuff I would have to guess would be true but they'd more fall under theory or headcanon

It's not that he is 'evil' he is in pain and he is blamed for that. Obviously, he doesn't make productive choices and he does bear responsibility for the harm he caused and he is a creation of his environment. He had to hate to survive. This is where 'this and' can come into play... For many adoptees, we have feelings of not belonging -- even more so for transracial adoptees (those adopted/fostered into homes of a different race than their own). Many transracial adoptees are raised in environments that are racially / ethnically homogeneous (from their own race) so it can be harder to 'fit in' and it can also cause someone to have a complex relationship with their racial/ethnic background when one is essentially assimilated into a community that they stick out of.

edit: In mainstream society being adopted or 'orphans' is deemed to be a shameful thing, used as a comedy device, or through very rosed colored glasses... and there's a problem to highlight here: because adoptee/adjacent are often seen as source material for STORIES we often view their experiences through the lens of A STORY rather than someone's lived experience. It is easier to view a particular thing as a story for entertainment when for someone else it is reality. While Philip is a fictional character many aspects of his behavior are very real and deserve understanding and empathy for real adoptees/adjacent people. We deserve to be more than stories with black-and-white roles and deserve to be seen in color. As full complex people.

Here are some resources if you're interested in learning more about adoptee-centered adoption perspectives:

https://adoptionmosaic.com/resources

https://sidebysideproject.com/11-short-films

http://adopteereading.com/overview/

https://harlows-monkey.com/

https://adopteeconsciousness.com/

this tedtalk is good too: https://youtu.be/jL4lnvQ1wVU?si=HpYASjvvOXnY2faX

Edit: https://youtu.be/Rz3ME8K_zW4?si=CpEQarRbe8VAUqAR (this documentary just came out and you may hear a certain basilisk/gem featured!)

#i don't think i covered everything but this post is already pretty long and i got the big stuff out of the way...#this comes on the heels of the news out of Korea and China #lots to process #anyway Philip the goop man !#Caleb wittebane #the owl house #toh critical #fandom critical #emperor belos #adoptee voices

42 notes · View notes

cogglebee · 4 months ago

Text

Caroline Characterization

Some things for my Portal 2 Caroline, Caroline AU because I'm properly writing it right now :3 spoilers for portal 2 !! (forgive me this is mostly just a very long ramble about Caroline)

The first chapter is entirely from Caroline's perspective. From what we can tell with the voice lines and context within the game, Caroline is a generally kind, smart and well educated woman.

This is further supported in the Portal 2 Collectors Edition Guide (I sound like a nerd right now but bear with me, this is all important)

Page 323, "As Chell and GLaDOS press on, more and more of Caroline comes forward, making GLaDOS more human and caring like Caroline was." and Page 325, "Caroline cares, GLaDOS does not." However, in her last voice line that's included in the game, she's got a much different tone than before. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I assume she's grown tired, maybe even cynical. You don't work in a place like Aperture, especially not so closely with the CEO himself, and not remain a morally good person.

If we look back at the Portal 2 Guide, the timeline we can see at the bottom of Page 315, the specific wording is, "To implement the Genetic component, the essence of Caroline, Cave Johnson's trusted assistant, is infused into the existing OS to provide the basis for GLaDOS' thought processes."

I believe that this also means that GLaDOS' personality is based of Caroline's own, we see how she presents herself publicly, but what about privately? (Though to be fair, you could also make the point that Caroline's anger at being uploaded into GLaDOS also heavily impacted the base of GLaDOS' behavior. Especially since she only activated for the first time AFTER having Caroline infused/uploaded to her OS.)

I'm mostly rambling here, but my point is, I think Caroline to her core is a caring person. However, her time working in Aperture, being a scientist, as well as being a working woman around the 1950's, have all affected who she is now (or rather, 30-40 years later in the 1980-90's)

Caroline is cynical, she's tired of this. By the time Cave Johnson is dead, she knows her fate is sealed. My personal hc is that she keeping going to Aperture, keeps working and acting as CEO, because of her own stubborn pride. She knows she can't stop the GLaDOS project. The project was started 10 years before she was forced into GLaDOS.

She doesn't want this. That much is made clear in her scrapped voice lines, and can be inferred in the game (her interruption when Cave said he wanted Caroline to run the place if he died before they could upload him instead. Also during the core transfer when Wheatley asks if it will hurt, she says, "Oh it will, believe me, it will." as well as her general reaction during the core transfer. Her shouts of protest are horrifying with the context of Caroline.)

But what I was getting at fr !!! The first chapter is Caroline walking into the GLaDOS Chamber the night before she's supposed to be uploaded. She's resigned to her fate, but she is still angry. She is cynical, and believes this will all backfire on the scientists. The entire scene is morbid, it's like a funeral. She is mourning herself.

The entire AU is based off the song Evelyn Evelyn, so the rest of the fic has both Caroline and GLaDOS' perspectives. But the first chapter is more inspired by As the World Caves In. It's Caroline's first conversation with GLaDOS (even if one sided).

#portal 2 #portal au #cogs rambling again #caroline portal #glados portal #this is too long #I was fr just rambling #Caroline Caroline AU

15 notes · View notes

linklethehistorian · 3 months ago

Text

Linkle’s Fazbear Frights & Lore Insights #1: Into the Pit

[Read the general disclaimer and important notes for this series of articles here.]

[View the Masterlist of all completed articles here.]

[A link to my main YouTube channel, where I narrate these articles.]

Some Into the Pit specific notes:

First of all, I will be discussing the video game version of this story to a limited degree, since, as per ‘Frights Fiction’, it would be a video game that exists in-universe in the main FNAF canon as an adaption of the fictional horror story by the same name, and thus is equally important to examine when talking about potential lore relevancy. If you don’t want spoilers, save this post and come back later after you’ve experienced the game for yourself.

Secondly, I will (mostly) be dismissing any Easter eggs throughout the game version that do not have a crucial part in the story, since Frights Fiction would largely dictate that — unless they do not conflict with the main canon and would genuinely bring something of value to the table in terms of discussion — these merely exist because the game was made within the context of all of the various in-universe fictionalized stories. In other words, most of the Easter Eggs that exist out-of-universe are still just Easter Eggs in-universe, too.

And among all of those, there are two in particular that I do want to knock out of the running for very specific reasons, but since discussing individual Easter Eggs within the game would technically be considered spoilers, it will have to be saved for the actual main analysis section of the article, instead of being thrown out here.

Lastly, apart from where I feel it relevant, I will not be doing a deep-dive into the changes between the book and the game, either, since they are both fictional media within the FNAF universe, and thus the retcons and changes mostly have no value in the discussion of the lore or canon. If someone else wants to scream about how they feel the book was done dirty because of how much they got wrong in the game or something, I absolutely encourage you to go write your own article or make your own video! There are definitely a lot of not-insignificant changes between the two, so I can understand if someone was bothered by that. This post just isn’t about that.

…And I believe that will do it for the disclaimers and notes section. If you haven’t left already and you’re worried about spoilers for anything, this is your final warning to click off the post and come back later.

…We good? Alright, let’s dive into the main bulk of the article, then.

Overall Impressions

The Book:

I mean, I liked it. Because I wanted to go into it without any preconceived notions about the story, I had been waiting until after I finished playing the video game adaption to read this, and I’m glad that I did, it’s just… getting used to the formatting of the books was a bit…unusual, for me.

I had seen the comic version of Fetch prior to all of this, but I’d never read the actual story, so there was a lot I really didn’t know to expect with the Fazbear Frights books, in those regards? For example, the constant use of ‘said’ is definitely not to my particular writing style tastes, and there were several times when I thought denoting who the speaker was wasn’t necessary at all, but, thankfully, when you’re consuming it in the form of an audiobook (which I did), you can usually tune that sort of thing out and not notice it as much as you would if the words were staring you in the face all the time.

As for the story itself, yeah, I’d say I enjoyed it! Oswald, on the whole, is a very likable kid with sympathetic plights, his mom is cool, and his father seems like a good and surprisingly not one-dimensional character, for as little time as he’s actually present in the book; throughout the story, we get a pretty good feel for who his family is and how much they care for each other, in spite of the fact that the slow death of the town they live in has left them struggling, and some of the choices that were made in the aftermath were not exactly the best.

One thing I particularly appreciate is that no character feels out of place or unnecessary in the book version of the story, which, as I’ll get into in the next subsection, I unfortunately can’t really say about the game.

I admittedly do feel that having Oswald immediately find his father again with minimal trouble once he got back to the ballpit was a…bit of an anticlimactic thing to have happen, when I believe it had only been a day since he was kidnapped in the first place; however, I know that this opinion was partially influenced by the fact that the game adaption was my first foray into the story, and, in reality, the book actually makes phenomenally more sense for its choice and raises far less difficult-to-answer questions, so it probably just comes down to a matter of personal preference, in the end, in regards to this — especially when the two are so wildly different in so many other ways, as well.

I think, overall, I do like the book version the most, in terms of the story, but I appreciate more what new things the game brought to the table in terms of lore relevance (which I’ll discuss in the ‘lore relevancy’ section, obviously).

They’re both good in their own ways.

The Game:

I don’t have a lot to add here in terms of the characters or their personalities, since, for as many differences as the two renditions may have, a lot of this particular aspect of the story is the same.

The only character that I’d say somehow feels both slightly more irrelevant and slightly also too relevant in the game version is Dylan Cooper, the bully at Oswald’s school. This may just be me, but the reason that I say this is because they make quite a very big deal about the fact that Dylan finds Oswald at the dump on the second to last day of the game. Not only that, but during this scene, they have Dylan laugh and act very suspiciously, in an oddly menacing way — so much so that I thought for a moment that they were going to have him get directly involved with the main plot in some manner, which he really didn’t. I think it would’ve been better to just keep his role exactly the same as it was in the book, rather than adding more to him and playing it up in a way that lead one to think that something bigger was going to happen.

Furthermore, the lack of inclusion of any mention of Oswald’s best friend, Ben, removes some of the feeling behind why Oswald is so frustrated with his life situation and his Dad, which I think is a bit of a shame after reading the book.

On the plus side of characters and their development, though, the added ability to pick up the Dad’s items and view little stories about Oswald and his family is a really nice touch that I appreciated, and Oswald thinking in one of them about how much his Mom losing her husband would devastate her was absolutely heartbreaking.

As for some of the other changes the game made, I have very mixed feelings; although I did think it was cool to have the search for Oswald’s Dad extend for a few days and give us a longer glimpse into the past in doing so, it also raises many more questions in terms of a) why there were several additional kids that Oswald had to rescue, b) whether the kids in the Party Room at the beginning of the game were even dead in that version, because it was never properly addressed like it was in the book and thus left room for doubt, and c) the actions of Spring Bonnie (or the Yellow Thing™️, as it is called in the original story) throughout, which I could also get into, but I feel might warrant an entire mini-article itself. (If you’re interested in that, maybe drop me a comment or an ask and I’ll cover it sometime.)

Also, all the random Easter eggs are super cool, but I feel like anyone who somehow thinks the books and the games based on them are actual 1:1 events that happened, and not just in-universe books and games, are going to use tons of these to go wild with theories about retcons and all sorts of stuff that is just…clearly not the case, so…meh. I’m divided.

As for gameplay, it’s good! It’s the first FNAF game to have different difficulty settings at the start (except UCN), which is awesome, though I feel like quite honestly, it’s the easiest game of them all, as well. I have no difficulty whatsoever beating it on Frightening mode (the normal mode), and can barely tell the difference from Creepy (easy mode), which…I haven’t played the other modes yet, so I can’t comment on those completely, but I suspect I could easily beat the hardest one with minimal issue, to be honest.

Now, whether that’s a good thing or not is probably going to vary by personal opinion, but…I don’t know, for me, despite being an easy mode lover in most games, not having any level of tension while playing this game somehow just…made it feel very much not like FNAF for me, and not necessarily in the most positive of ways.

That isn’t to say I didn’t like the game, but, it did take a little bit of the essence of FNAF away, and…I feel like in horror games, you should not be able to feel like there is never any real tension involved while playing. Again, this is just personal opinion, but, that’s my stance, at least.

But! I think we all know that’s not really what you’re here to have me go on about, is it? You all want to hear about lore relevancy, so…let’s just get on with that.

Lore Relevancy

In what is an extremely ironic turn of events, despite this story — out of all of the four I’d listened to at the time of writing this, at least — having the most blatant connection to the game’s canon lore, I honestly think that this will probably be one of the books that I have the least to say about in terms of breaking that down and going over it, mostly because I feel that it being so heavily tied to a specific part of the canon we know a lot about from the games just….really makes it blatantly clear which parts we definitely can’t trust.

So, most importantly, I guess let’s start with some examples of the one advantage Into the Pit has over nearly every other book in the series that I’m aware of thus far: the things it tells us that we can know aren’t true.

The Lies and Half-truths

Funnily enough, the thing we know we can absolutely discard the most is any of the details of the murders that happened in 1985 — at least, in the way Into the Pit presents them.

In the book (and perhaps the game? The image isn’t clear enough to be sure), there are six victims — not to mention the game adding a whole potential four other children whom Spring Bonnie tried and failed to kill thanks to Oswald — but we know for a fact that, while William had six victims total when we’re including Charlie Emily, there were only the five at most who died inside the restaurant during that year. So can we trust the number of victims? No.

Can we trust the method they died in, then…? Also no; in both the book and its game adaption, we are painted a scene of families and kids running and screaming in terror from a monster that was mass nabbing and killing kids, but we know for a fact, from multiple canon games both old and new, that William lured the children into the back before killing them covertly, and was never actually seen doing it except in costume via cameras. Furthermore, this must have happened one by one and not all at once, contrary to what Into the Pit purports, as the order in which they died is brought up several times in the more recent canon games as being in some way worthy of mentioning — which it most definitely would not if their deaths only varied by a matter of seconds or minutes at best.

So what can we trust in and rely on about the MCI (Missing Children’s Incident) murders? Well, honestly, just that it takes place in 1985. That’s literally it. That’s all that’s definitely relevant to the canon of the main games from this story in any way, when it comes to the MCI itself.

Now, that’s not to say there’s nothing else in the story that’s of note at all, though; there’s actually a lot that I think is worth paying attention to and speculating on, it’s just that very little of it actually has to do with the crime that was committed, as most of that is, unsurprisingly, heavily played up, exaggerated, and sensationalized; after all, that’s the entire in-universe purpose of these books and games existing — to discredit and make light of the real events by turning bits and pieces of them into spooky fictional stories.

Before we get into what I think is of value, though, let’s just rule out two more things from the game version of Into the Pit that I think we need to firmly take off the table — namely, the toy airplane from the FNAF movie which is on a table in the room where Oswald’s Dad is being held captive, and the photo taken from the Silver Eyes trilogy of Henry beside a fully mascot-costumed William, which was placed in the shadows on the wall in the same area.

These are literally both just Easter Eggs referencing alternate universe stories with no relevancy to the lore, and I want to make that very clear before we begin to move forward.

How do I know this for certain? It’s very easy, actually.

With the airplane, there is literally no way that this has any implications on the lore, because Garret — the one whom the plane belonged to — was not one of William’s victims within the canon of the main games; he was William’s son, who died tragically from an accident that occurred during one of Michael’s pranks, and became the catalyst for everything that William did in FNAF in the first place.

And as for the photo, we already have a brand-new picture of William and Henry that is acknowledged and picked up by Oswald in-game, not to mention crucially recognized by Spring Bonnie himself and absolutely required for the true ending. And in this photo — both in black and white within the in-game and out-of-game trophies achieved when picking it up, and in color in the unused data — the two look entirely different from how that alternate universe portrays them, with Henry maintaining his design from the official Encyclopedia, and William possessing a (as far as I am aware) mostly new and unique design of his own. I apologize to anyone who actually likes the Silver Eyes trilogy’s designs for them, but seriously, there is just no reason to assume that we should trust something that is barely visible and placed on a random wall in shadows, over something that actually has plot relevance to the game itself and is required to get the true ending.

If William and Henry are being given a canon design for the main universe, it’s absolutely the new photo that we were shown, not some other old one tossed in as an Easter Egg.

Oh, and lastly, but definitely still very importantly, in the game version of Into the Pit, there’s also some implication that Oswald’s dad may very well have been the Freddy Bully, one of Michael’s friends, who participated in the prank that led to Garret’s death. Considering Oswald’s Dad’s unwillingness to talk about what happened in regards to Freddy’s in the book, and the fact that Help Wanted 2 strongly implies Cassie’s father is Bonnie Bully, this makes it very likely that we are now being given information in some form about Michael’s various former cohorts when he was a teenager, and how William seems to hold a grudge against all of them in some shape or form, and they frequently met bad fates.

Obviously, the events of the story couldn’t have played out as they did in the main canon, because of the numerous impossible discrepancies we’ve already discussed, but it does make me wonder if Oswald’s dad really did in some way meet a terrible fate or have a brush with William in some context, at some point in his life.

It’s a very interesting thing that I have seen the more recent FNAF games delving into, and it is something that I am very intrigued by.

The Truths and the Likely-Truths

So, we’ve talked about the lies, but what about the story do I think does have relevance to the lore of the main canon? What do I think the story is trying — or could be trying — to tell us?

Let’s begin.

The things I KNOW are True

Well, first of all, as I said before, that the MCI takes place in 1985. Within the FNAF fandom, dates of various important events are constantly being discussed and speculated upon to death, even when the answer seems blatantly obvious, so I absolutely believe that this was Scott stepping in and waving a hand in front of everyone’s face again in order to fully confirm that this was the year these victims died.

Secondly, and perhaps most excitingly for me personally, the plot-relevant photograph used to get the true ending has finally given us canon designs for the main game universe version of William and Henry, after ten years of them not technically having any fully confirmed physical appearances. It may not seem like much on the surface, but this really is a monumental milestone in FNAF, and I absolutely think it should be celebrated.

Both of those things are pretty on-the-nose, though. I don’t think anyone really needs convincing of those facts, and, if they do, me pointing out the obvious again probably isn’t going to be the big thing that convinces them, so…moving on, let’s see what else we can glean from or make note of in the story that we haven’t already discussed in a previous part of the post.

Well, we can definitely infer, looking at it from the perspective of Frights Fiction, that the IPs referenced in the books which are familiar to us must also exist within the main FNAF universe, since these stories are in-universe tales being made for and marketed to the people of that world. It’s not really a big or ground-breaking detail, but I do think it’s a pretty cool little side note to consider for those of us interested in the greater world-building of FNAF.

We can certainly confirm, if nothing else, that some of the posters and drawings shown in the game version of Into the Pit were real, since they were in some of the canon main games, too, but I think there might also be more to the value of the games’ visuals; obviously, this can’t be said with absolute certainty, and I encourage someone to correct me if I’m wrong on this particular subject, but I think we can reasonably come to the conclusion that the MCI took place in a building that likely looked a lot, if not exactly, like the 1985 version of the building we get to visit in the game version of Into the Pit, back in its heyday. I don’t usually want to put things I’m not 100% certain of in this section, but I think that it matches up pretty well enough with what we know of the place to say that this is a decently accurate depiction — probably, anyway, unless there’s something I’m forgetting about.

Furthermore, this story seems to provide just the tiniest bit more evidence that Foxy had already been temporarily retired in 1985 in preparation of making the failed Toy Foxy that became Mangle, for anyone who was still unclear if the Mangle toy in the FNAF 4 minigames’ Afton house was perhaps meant to be an allusion to the concept of Mangle existing long before 1987, since it’s mentioned in the Into the Pit game (I can’t recall if it was the same in the book) that he wasn’t in use and would be gone for awhile. Although I don’t think Mangle necessarily existed in animatronic form for very long prior to the murders in 1985, and to my knowledge it’s quite possible to choose to just interpret that the 1983 toy we see is just a concept version of it as such, there’s still no reason in particular to doubt that what Into the Pit shows us in regards to this is true, either, as it doesn’t conflict with any known information and rather stands in support of FNAF 4.

The way that Spring Bonnie goes unnoticed by everyone but Oswald in the story is….also interesting; I definitely feel that the intended “cause” of this that the book is playing off of is an illusion disc, and that, from an out-of-universe perspective, this is Scott once again drawing us back to this concept to remind us that it exists, especially since it seems highly likely based on FNAF 4 and UCN that the Nightmare Animatronics were, in fact, the FNAF 1 animatronics effected by illusion discs. (If you’re interested, I recommend checking out GiBi’s long FNAF video here.)

Having the privilege of having listened to a few stories already at the time of writing this, I can say that this is something that is present in at least one other story so far, too, even within the very same book. Just something to note, I suppose.

And then, lastly, we have the general…theme of wills and wishes that seems to keep popping up in most Fazbear Frights stories I’ve read.

I know it’s explicitly stated on the back of this volume that the theme of every main story in Into the Pit delves into exactly that — getting what you wish for, but maybe not in the way you actually imagined it being — but having read as much as I have at the point of re-writing this, I can absolutely say that it runs much deeper than just the one volume.

The concept of someone’s will being able to shape reality to some extent is such an underlying, intrinsic part of FNAF that it isn’t just Into the Pit or even the Fazbear Frights books as a whole that it permeates — it’s at least the Silver Eyes trilogy, too, with Henry’s pain and sorrow — and even later his anger — over Charlie’s death having the power to essentially bring her back to life in the form of a living doll, through his own tears. I’m not 100% clear yet on what it is that’s trying to be said here, but I know that something is being said, and I know that it’s important. I do have some theories on what that could be, but I’ll get to those another time. Just…bear that in mind for now.

For now, all that matters is that you understand that it is there. In this story, Oswald wished for something more interesting to happen, and oh boy, did it happen. The inclusion of it in this story may be a little subtle comparatively to some others, but it’s there; it’s supposed to be there.

I know that in his analyses of this volume, GiBi later states that he feels the stated “theme” of it was just tacked on at the last minute to tie these stories together, but believe me, it’s not. There’s an entire story at the beginning of the very next volume that proves that it’s not.

You just have to trust me on this for now. Keep it in mind. It’s important. It’s so important.

And, on one other but similar note, this particular entire book — including Into the Pit, To Be Beautiful, and Count the Ways — for reasons you’ll see going forward as we review each story, definitely also have a theme going on of “Feeling unlovable, unwanted, and like life is meaningless in its current state”…. This will come up eventually in a future post. I promise. Just bear it in mind for now.

The things I FEEL are True

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the absolute certainties, let’s get a little bit more into the still solid but nonetheless speculative, and the personal interpretations.

There aren’t many things I want to cover in this section today, because, as I’ve said, a lot of the things that Into the Pit talks about are very easily better slotted into the more definitive category, but, there are a few things that I do want to bring up, and some of them are still very important and meaningful — at least to me.

So, without further ado, here are some things that truly seem like they might have some connection to a canon event or phenomenon and could be useful information to take away regarding it:

Starting off with something I don’t personally subscribe to, but I do feel I would be remiss not to mention, for those who believe in the concept that Gregory is an advanced robot of Garret a la the Silver Eyes trilogy, this story does have some evidence maybe towards that idea?

In one of the Bad Endings in Into the Pit’s game adaption, Oswald appears to have been turned into an animatronic, yet still seems to retain his child form? Now, I’m not sure if that was just creative liberty or perhaps just symbolic of how Oswald thinks of himself, as one of the later Fazbear Frights stories also has a similarly described scene in which that is the case, and the boy is actually revealed to be fully transformed and trapped inside of a Freddy animatronic despite it, but either way, I think it’s certainly food for thought and is worth noting.

Again, I don’t personally subscribe to this theory at this time, but not subscribing to something isn’t a good reason to hide that evidence towards it may indeed arguably exist.

And now, saving the most in-depth and (to me) most interesting for last, I…kind of want to talk a little bit about potential parallels here. After listening to several stories by now, something that’s kind of stood out to me is the idea that a lot of these books could actually have something important to say about — or, even when not exactly about, at least possess a strong and important connection to — one of the Aftons or the Emilys.

Obviously, this is going to rely a lot on personal interpretation, and I know there are going to be a lot of people who disagree with me on this, but…to me, I think Into the Pit — and actually its entire book as a whole, minus the Stitchwraith — is actually sharing insight about Michael, and his relationship with his family and with himself.

I know there are plenty of people who probably think that if anyone’s a parallel to Oswald, it’s Garret, and if anyone’s a parallel to To Be Beautiful’s Sarah, it’s Elizabeth, but I couldn’t disagree more; there’s actually very little alike between these characters at all from how we know them in the game’s canon.

I’ll get into explaining my thoughts on To Be Beautiful later when the time comes to discuss that story, but as far as Oswald and game canon Garret, they only really have three common threads, and even then, that’s only if we dig super deep into things: he’s scared of a golden animatronic, he (in the case of Garret, thinks that he) saw something at the Pizzeria that was terrifying, and he has a bully that sometimes bothers him.

One of these connections, too, is also extremely surface-level: while we could at least make the argument that Garret likely thinking he saw a person being eaten by an animatronic when they were being put into a plush mascot costume and growing to fear Fredbear from it has at least some vague similarity to Oswald seeing the Yellow Thing™️ murdering kids and then fearing it, Oswald’s bully is less of an active tormentor in his life (especially in the book, which is the original version of the story), and more just a general, constant annoyance when he goes to school who has no real connection to the rest of his plight — unlike Michael, who is intrinsically connected to the plight that Garret had and what happened to him, and who was a very, very prominent presence in his life. It’s also important to note that, not only are bullies a common issue to come up for children, but in the FNAF series, so are the animatronics doing scary things and killing people, and the main antagonist in the series is famously a golden one, so it’s really not like this is some big smoking gun.

Meanwhile, let’s look at the parallels between Michael and Oswald in the actual main bulk of the plot itself, rather than random attributes:

While on the whole, Oswald does clearly love and care about his family, he and one particular family member frequently get into arguments and get on each other’s nerves because they are around each other constantly. They consistently misunderstand each other’s intentions at times, in ways that are quite detrimental to their view of each other, and this culminates one night into him deciding to play a cruel prank on that person and scare him, only for that prank to go horribly wrong, resulting in a golden animatronic taking that family member away from him (and, I might add, also a sustained head injury by said family member).

This is already literally the plot of FNAF 4, according to both it and multiple other games, and that’s not even taking into account the more controversial stance I personally take that the main night sections of FNAF 4 are actually William testing out his illusion disc technology on Michael by attaching illusion discs to his FNAF 1 style animatronics and setting them loose in the home a la The Twisted Ones (as supported by UCN), which we can connect again to Into the Pit and Oswald, as Oswald is, after his prank which ultimately took his family member from him, henceforth tormented by a version of Spring Bonnie that is extremely reminiscent of the nightmare animatronics, and has to set out on a journey throughout the rest of his story to right his wrong in whatever way he can, just as Michael dedicates the rest of his life to helping his lost brother and sister and the other lost spirits (which the game adaption of the book connects to further, by having Oswald save several children throughout many nights). It is also interesting to note that the game version choosing to make Oswald’s father one of Michael’s teenage friends also adds yet another connection to Michael and the incident that I suggest Oswald’s story parallels.

Also, Oswald has the exact toys in his room that Michael has in FNAF 4, if we are indeed to assume, as I do, that Michael is the protagonist of FNAF 4.

And not only that, I would also like to draw attention to one specific line Michael canonically wrote in the Security Logbook, when asked to list his favorite characters from movies, books, and television who showed bravery in the face of extreme obstacles, and talk about how he can relate their heroic journeys to his current experiences, he answers, “Clara, from The Immortal and the Restless, because everything about this place is crazy, and nobody seems to notice except me.” This is a direct parallel to how Oswald is stated to feel about his Dad and his current situation numerous times throughout the book, as he is told by everyone around him that everything is normal and no, there is no giant Yellow Rabbit around and his Dad isn’t missing; that is his Dad right there, even as he sees clearly that it is not.

A few people, including Gibi and…also myself, have noticed that a lot of Into the Pit’s dialogue — in the book version especially -- seems to be able to have a double meaning that could be interpreted as a metaphor about child abuse, or abuse in general, and how people can often appear one way in public, but end up entirely another as soon as they are alone with their victim, and no one else can see the monster they really are behind closed doors.

While I won’t delve into the specifics of that (you can check out Gibi’s video if you’re interested), I do want to speak on how that could symbolism of duality could also pertain to Michael and the life he had with his father. As I’ll get into in a bit (and talk about even further in a future article), Michael out of all of the Afton children did not have the best childhood to begin with, and while I want to make it very clear for reasons pertaining to my personal beliefs that I am not implying that child abuse ever necessarily happened at William’s hand prior to the Bite of ‘83, I do strongly believe that it happened afterward in some shape or form for Michael (which FNAF 4, Sister Location, AND Help Wanted all strongly support in their own ways), and I think that Into the Pit could, in its own way, be seen to be referencing it.

Just…hear me out here. Spring Bonnie taking over Oswald’s Dad’s life after kidnapping him cannot be a coincidence. I mean, just think about it. Sure, maybe Michael and his Dad had their disagreements and troubles prior to the Bite, but it wasn’t until after the Bite of ‘83 that Michael came to see his Dad in a whole new light, because that incident changed his Dad. It made him into something different. Something so twisted by grief and so mangled by resentment for what Michael did that he slowly but surely turned into a monster — a monster that he often became in public only when he was wearing the Spring Bonnie suit, yet a monster that no one else recognized as such. All they saw was William, the loving, grieving father and owner of Fredbear’s who only wanted to make children happy — not the killer who kidnapped and murdered children as Michael would one day find him out to be, and not the man who in one way or another tortured his teenage son for his foolish mistakes at home, as though he wasn’t already being tortured enough by the memory.

In the fictional books, Spring Bonnie may have been pretending to be Oswald’s Dad, but in the real canon FNAF universe, Spring Bonnie was Michael’s Dad, and whether Michael knew it or not for the longest time, he represented everything that was wrong and dark in William.

Okay, so…let’s say it is possible to interpret this as being an intentional parallel to the incident of the Bite of ‘83 and Michael, as I purport; what, then, could the story be trying to tell us about him? What is it trying to get people thinking about that we don’t already know?

Well, firstly, as I said, I believe that every story in this particular Frights book has a strong connection and relevancy to Michael, so I think that the blatant parallel to his situation existing in the opening tale was placed there on purpose to get your attention and get you thinking about all of it, but I do feel it’s also trying to say something about the incident, as well — about part of Michael’s motivation for escalating his pranking towards his brother to the point of the incident which accidentally caused Garret’s death, and a potential glimpse into his general state of mind at the time.

In the book, Oswald had been growing increasingly frustrated with his home situation in general — feeling bored, entirely ignored and abandoned and displaced, and that his father had essentially chosen their entire town and Oswald’s grandma over Oswald himself — when his now-long distance best friend contacted him to coincidentally tell him by contrast how well his own life was going. This led to Oswald and his father getting into a fight in the car on the way to Jeff’s pizza about how much the boy’s life sucked and implying how little he felt his Dad cared about him and his well-being by comparison to everyone else, and once Oswald had been dropped off, this argument was the final straw in making him decide that he was finally going to actually act out in order to force his father to finally, truly acknowledge, put effort in, and show care for him, by hiding in the ballpit and making his dad worry about where he was.

By figuring out the obvious parallels between Michael and Oswald, I feel that we can get a fairly clear and easy picture of what it would say about Michael:

Even if for something of opposite reasons, William and Oswald’s father both would have been very busy with their jobs — with Oswald’s Dad doing it because of their family’s financial troubles, and William doing it because…well, he was a co-owner and crucial worker and performer at a highly successful, award-winning, up-and-coming restaurant and that sort of job is just naturally demanding.

Combine this with the fact that it’s very clear based on the main games’ canonical lore that Michael was the least favored child of the Aftons in at least Williams’ eyes (no, the Silver Eyes’ lore does not count, as that is an alternate universe story, and, as I will later get into in the post about To Be Beautiful, Elizabeth being ‘unloved’ and/or borderline abused was very clearly not something that carries over from that universe into the games’ lore), and that the (accurately translated) UCN cutscenes very clearly imply that both Michael and Garret were equally suffering in their own ways, yet failed to recognize or turned a blind eye to each other’s pain and took out their frustration on each other in their own ways, and it becomes very clear that Michael’s feelings about his own Dad and his brother were likely the very same that Oswald felt about his Dad and the people around him.

From Oswald’s perspective, his Dad cared more about the town and the inconvenience his grandma would face at having to travel to the next town to visit if they moved than he cared about Oswald and how their current lifestyle was causing him to suffer.

From Michael’s perspective, his Dad cared more about his business (and the town by proxy, as they were the ones bringing in his success) and paying attention to and doting on his other two children than he cared about Michael and how forgotten and sidelined he felt as the oldest sibling.

And just like Oswald had a friend, Ben, from whom he heard about Ben’s ‘better’ life and parents, and whom he complained to about his own, Michael very clearly also had several friends to tell him about their potentially ‘better’ lives and more attentive parents, and whom he likely told about his troubles and how his younger siblings stole the spotlight from him, with Garret being the ‘worst’ culprit of them all, as not only did he prank him back and they got on each other’s nerves from time to time, but he was also William’s ‘favorite’ Afton child.

Putting two and two together, then, it’s fairly clear that the conclusion we come to is, while the two boys did prank each other and annoy each other already, each turning a blind eye to the other’s suffering, it was Michael’s feelings of being the unloved and forgotten child of the family that caused him to start acting out further, believing — like Oswald — that the only way to make his Dad remember he existed was by being a troublemaker (an “any attention is good attention” mindset) until William was finally forced to take notice of him.

That is what, at least according to my own understanding of the novel, I personally believe Into the Pit is trying to say, at least on a deeper level beyond the surface level non-conflicting information, like the year the MCI took place.

Taking it a step further with the William = Oswald’s Dad parallel, we could even say that in a way, Oswald’s Dad preferring in the book to refuse to acknowledge that their dead town was a lost cause and pack up and move on with his family is also a quite interesting and fitting metaphor for William’s later refusal to accept Garret’s death and move forward by focusing on the family and the children that he still had left…

It’s…an interesting thing to think about — how, like with Oswald’s Dad, perhaps if William had just accepted the loss of his son and turned to the family that he still had left, like accepting the dead town and taking the family that Oswald’s Dad had left away, perhaps William might have never done the things that he did; perhaps they might have lived a very happy life, all things considered — although, obviously each would have to grieve what was done.

Perhaps Michael might have found understanding and not have had to die the horrific death that he did just to feel that he had made up for his mistakes; perhaps Elizabeth would not have to have met her tragic end through her father’s own desperate desire to bring back a child that was already gone, and his failure to look after those that still remained. And, if you believe that Mrs. Afton died, perhaps he would still be with Mrs. Afton to this day, and, she would be alive and happy — or, at least, semi-happy with the family that she had created with him.

However, all that aside, I believe I myself have said all that I wanted to say on the story by now, so I will just leave you with all of these thoughts to ponder on your own time.

Thank you for reading, take care until next time, and I love you all. 💞

12 notes · View notes

pianokantzart · 1 year ago

Text

Movie Verse Super Paper Mario AU

Given how long my SPM comic has gotten, and the fact that it's about to become more obvious how much the story deviates from the original (particularly with DK filling the role of Bowser as a hero), I figured now would be a good time to put together a rough outline of the plot points in my AU.

This isn't required reading for my comic, this is just for everyone who wants some extra context and info about how my version of events differ from the original Super Paper Mario.

The story starts out with Mario and Luigi at home. Luigi is talking about how peaceful things have been lately, but unlike in SPM he has absolutely no desire to see this change.

Meanwhile, Mario is trying to pretend he isn't a little bored, and is quietly dropping suggestions that the two of them go off and explore some faraway kingdom to break up the monotony.

Suddenly, Toad bursts in in a panic, and The Mario Brothers are ushered to the castle as Toad hurriedly explains that Princess Peach has disappeared.

The three enter the crime scene: her bedroom shows signs of a brief struggle, but otherwise there is no clue to what might have happened except a letter that reads "If you wish to see the princess again, meet me within Bowser's castle" written in unfamiliar handwriting.

Despite this disappearance not matching Bowser's style at all, Toad and The Mario Brothers have little choice but to believe he has something to do with this. They decide to take the bait.

They enlist the help of Donkey Kong in the rescue mission, figuring it'd be best to have the extra muscle given how likely it is this is a trap (plus the karts are a more reliable form of transportation compared to the warp pipes.)

Despite the addition of a giant gorilla to the team, Mario & co. successfully sneak into Bowser's Castle undetected. The guards don't seem to be on particularly high alert. Stranger still, they can't find the princess anywhere.

When Bowser eventually discovers and confronts them, Mario explains the situation and presents the mysterious letter they found. Bowser is dumbfounded, but insists that whatever happened to Peach can wait until after he kills them.

Before things escalate any further, Count Bleck appears from a portal in sort of a rough recreation of this scene:

Bleck is pleased to see everyone gathered together, and presents the captive Princess "as promised."

Seeing this, Mario immediately leaps to attack the count despite Luigi's desperate plea for him to wait. Like in the game, this causes Mario to get knocked out. Soon after, everyone is sucked away into the dimensional portal except the unconscious Mario.

Mario awoken by Tippi, who– after brief introductions– teleports him away to meet Merlon so they can work together to stop Count Bleck with the help of The Light Prognosticus.

Mario isn't sure how he feels about the idea of prophecies... he doesn't really buy into the idea, despite how much he matches the physical description in the book... but if playing along means Tippi will help him stop Count Bleck and save everyone, he'll do it.

Meanwhile, everyone else awakens to find themselves at Peach and Bowser's wedding. Toad, Donkey Kong, and Luigi do their best to interfere as Nastasia hypnotizes Peach into saying "I Do." Ultimately, Mario's allies fail, and the marriage unleashes the chaos heart.

From there, things continue much like in the game, albeit with a few changes:

As described before, Bowser's role is filled by Donkey Kong. Bowser, in the meantime, aligns himself with Count Bleck to spare his own army from being brainwashed, biding his time until he can usurp the count and gain control of the chaos heart.

Toad is part of Mario’s group too. He isn't mentioned in the light or dark prognosticus, but he is determined to help out nonetheless (and actually does a pretty good job.)

Unlike in SPM, Luigi stays brainwashed the entire time. The first time Mr. L is defeated, Mario and his allies try to grapple him and drag him back to Flipside so Merlon can take a look at him, but Dimentio interfered and "rescued" Mr. L before they could manage it.

O'Chunks, Mimi, Dimentio, and Mr. L work together as a unit after failing their respective attempts to stop the heroes, leading to a couple of instances of all-out battle royale between Bleck's minions and Team Mario. Bleck's Minions, as dysfunctional as they are, don't succeed in stopping the heroes from obtaining any pure hearts despite their combined efforts.

The ending is where things really get switched up:

The main four, having gathered all the pure hearts, start heading to Castle Bleck to destroy the chaos heart.

In the frenzy of everyone preparing for the confrontation, Bowser... knowing that The Dark Prognosticus prophesied that The Man In Green would be the one to bring darkness to all... draws Mr. L away from the group and tries to kill him.

Dimentio, however, saves Mr. L, and working together they successfully incapacitate Bowser enough for Dimentio to send him back to his own dimension.

This rescue– plus the earlier rescue from the clutches of Mario– causes Mr. L to place misplaced faith in Dimentio.

Seeing this, Dimentio comes clean and asks Mr. L to join him in usurping The Count. He lies that Count Bleck has no intention of creating new worlds after destroying the old ones, and offers Mr. L a portion of his own power if he agrees to assist in making sure the universe goes on.

In my version of things, you have to agree to a partnership in order to get implanted with a floro sprout. It's sort of a contractual thing... one can't just plant something in your brain while you're unconscious.

At this point, Mr. L trusts him enough to tentatively agree to his terms and let him in. This is how Dimentio manages to get the sprout seed inside Mr. L's head.

Sure enough, after Mario, DK, Peach, and Toad defeat Count Bleck and his Minions... and just as Tippi begins to get through to the disheartened Blumiere... Dimentio and Mr. L swoop in to swipe the chaos heart and teleport away.

Mario, while rushing to grab his brother, is the only one who manages to get a glimpse of where they teleported to before both Mr. L and Dimentio disappear completely.

He keeps this information to himself as he and Count Bleck's forces hold a truce, tending to the wounded Nastasia and discussing what to do next.

During this meeting, Count Bleck finally answers the question that had been the minds of everyone on Team Mario: why brainwash Luigi? Count Bleck admits the prophecy in The Dark Prognosticus, explaining that he planned on using Luigi to destroy all worlds. What's more, he insists that if they really want to put an end to the chaos heart and the threat it poses, they will have to kill Luigi as well.

This sparks a heated debate. While everyone's shouting Mario says nothing, but silently slinks away from the group to catch up with Luigi and Dimentio on his own.

He knows that the two have merely gone into a chamber deeper within the castle. He knows where to look. If he can just get through to his brother, maybe he can be saved...

Which leads us right up to where my comic begins.

#long post #super paper mario #spm AU #mario movie #Super Mario Bros

115 notes · View notes

haibunnyy · 8 months ago

Text

This might be a hot take but…

I loved S7 of vld and I don’t get all the hate for S8. I see it a lot on here that people hate the later seasons or flat out refuse to watch S7-S8 and while everyone’s entitled to their opinions, honestly I don’t get it and hope now with VLD being taken off Netflix people give it a chance before it’s gone.

!Spoilers below!

Disclaimer S7 IS my favorite season. From the travel home where we see just how far the paladins have come with their relationships with each other from goofy moments like the game show episode to E6 the journey within, when they’re going crazy stranded in space and fighting with each other. “you ran away. Maybe you should’ve just stayed away” ugh the angst love it.

Then the second half of the season had so many solid moments where the cast finally got what they wanted, going home, seeing their families, proving the people who doubted them wrong (specifically Keith with this one tbh) but it’s nothing like how they expected. I thought the fight for earth arc was one of the most serious and emotional arcs of the show. Everyone willing to die for their home planet, the almost self-sacrifice moments, part where Lance closes his eyes ready to die and Keith’s calling out to him…sold.

Don’t get me wrong it’s far from perfect, I hear the criticism. We get the dreaded bury your gays drop this season with Adam (maybe that’s why they decided to kill off Allura, had to even it out /j )

Moving into S8, arguably not at good as S7 by a long shot but I still think it’s worth the watch. And I know I’m gonna lose people here but oh well it’s me and my delusions against the world.

Persssonaalllyyy I see a lot of the hate for this season comes from Allura and Lance getting together. And okay don’t shoot me here but I’ve noticed a lot of hate for Allura in general stems from this season and I am a Allura defender to the end. I’m gonna be honest in the rewatch I could see it, why people ship klance (they’re my OTP I get it), the rumors about if there was one more season it’d be canon, or how the staff even shipped them or how someone left the team or got fired and that’s why it’s not canon. I get it truuuussttt me I get it. But that’s just not what we got and in the context of what we did get, I honestly thought Lance’s and Allura’s relationship, as short lived as it was, was cute.

We see 7 seasons of Lance flirting with Allura, flirting with all these girls claiming to be a romantic and you now what? He is! He’s a good boyfriend! As much as he changed throughout the show he’s still “loverboy Lance” nervous to make the perfect date for the girl he likes, talking to his friends about it cause he’s feeling insecure taking out a literal princess, taking Allura to meet his family, and as much as I ship klance over allurance (and would have preferred for the two of them to go out instead) their date was CUTE okay sue me.

As for Allura, I get it, she did not like Lance AT ALL in the beginning seasons. So where did this come from? Poor choices in the writing room most likely BUT in the canon Allura has been strong willed the entire show, leading along side the BP, becoming a paladin herself, giving up her father to protect others, loosing the castle of lions and truly one of the last pieces of Altea, she looses so much and even when she finds out there’s Alteans alive, they hate her and believe she’s the bad guy. She’s been this selfless warrior princess who’s had to be selfless for 7 seasons, I think when presented the opportunity to be selfish and happy, she would take it. Shes tired, all her paladins got to go home to their families, got to return to their home planet. Shes lonely af, happy for them ofc but that shit gotta be depressing.

And again as much as I prefer Klance and Allura/ Romelle, for the canon I thought it made a lot of senses that she’d go out with Lance after he asks. I definitely see it as a “fuck it, why not” from her and she gained feelings throughout their relationship. Which irl I don’t recommend but in my eyes it humanized Allura. She made a lot of selfish choices this season from taking creature from the void to, agreeing to go out with Lance. But again I don’t even think it was out of character of her. I think it was bound to happen, after everything she’s been through, being selfless and perfect all the time she finally cracks. Plus it was nice seeing Allura have her “I’m just a girl” moment. Going shopping with Romelle and Pidge, having girl talks, trying to impress Lance’s family. It made her more relatable.

Another selling point for this season were the fight seasons Honestly I loved all the fight scenes in this season, the animation really popped off today. My fav was between Zethrid and the paladins. But does does loose a point here for Zethrid and Ezor being hinted as a wlw but never explicitly stated so boo to that.

We also have a lot of fun and rewarding moments with the paladins as well, like the clear day episode. We get to see Shiro actually have fun for once. Only took 8 seasons but hey. The moments between Pidge and her family were very wholesome and rewarding considering how much Pidge went through to get her family back together. Lance with his family was also cute. His little rant about why his sister shouldn’t go out with Keith was funny. The infamous sunset scene with Keith and Lance, would I have gone batshit insane if it was a love confession between the two? Oh absolutely but oh well. Hunk and Keith’s friendship was nice to see considering where they started with Hunk being the timid one and Keith being an emo loser. TLDR it was nice to see those finale happy times where we really see how far everyone has come before the ending.

As for the ending, maybe I’m just not creative enough to see a different route. But Honerva being the finale villain was one of my favorite choices for this ending. She’s been there literally the entire time just fucking shit up for the universe. Her motive to be in a reality where she can be with her husband and child? 👏 having villains just be evil for the fuck of it is great and all. But it reminded me a lot of the scarlet witch from marvel and she’s my all time favorite character in he MCU so maybe that’s why I liked Honerva so much. Fuck the universe if your family is on the line, am I right? It made her a great villain in my eyes and the polar opposite of allura who had to give up her family and her home for the sake of the universe.

Which is why Allura sacrificing herself to save the universe? Lowkey saw it coming since around season 5 and to me made total sense. She tried to be normal, to live on earth or on the atlas, but she’s a reliac of the past and she knows it. It goes back to the point I made of this girl is tired af. A chance to save to universe and be reunited with her parents even if it’s death, she’d do it. Season 8 she tried deviating from the role forced upon her as the selfless sacrificial lamb but she was doomed from the start. I deadass cried when she died and honestly I’m fine with her death as well. Everyone did what they were destined to do; if the paladins were destined to save the universe, she was destined to die for it.

Now to the post credits and post canon

Here’s where I say the hate is valid and deserved. Points lost fr with having Shiro marry an extra. I get it, they wanted the diversity points of saying YES Shiro is in fact gay but they were only allowed so much wiggle room/if they put it at the very end nothing can go wrong right? so they settled for that. Do I see the damage it does towards queer representation in media? Now I do but at the time when my little gay self watched that I was shocked they’d even show that much and took the breadcrumb piece of rep and ran with it. I told myself, “meh shiro deserves to live the quiet married life after all the shit he’s been there.” But it def should have been Adam.

As for everyone else, the journey’s over. The lions are gone, I thought it made sense that everyone went their separate ways but still maintained a friendship. That’s growing up, that’s adulthood. When I watched that at 17 I was annoyed that they didn’t stay together as a friend group but now at 23, I totally get it. They are still friends, they just got their own things going on so they only reunite when they can. If that’s not adult friendships idk what is.

Keith traveling with the blade helping others, great! Hunk and Shay being cooks and doing diplomacy shit, awesome! Pidge living her best life with her parents building up earth, love it! Did I like that the one Latino character ended up being a stereotype and living on a farm? No I did not.

I interrupted as Lance staying on earth and grieving Allura’s death. Which I can see happening but Lance deserved his own happy ending. I see Lance becoming an MFE pilot or joining the Atlas crew with his sister, something where he continues to pilot cause it’s all he’s ever wanted to do but still carrying that grief with him.

To finish this yap session off, my final thoughts are I think a lot of S8 hate comes from Allurance and the post credits. I think the hate for Allurance and Allura is unfair and some of it stems (from what I’ve noticed) from this misogynist/fetishizing tendacy to shit on the female characters who come between mlm ships in fandoms. So again, I am an Allura defender through and through.

As mentioned earlier, hate for the post credits, makes total sense. But I’d like to bring up a point I see rarely discussed in this discourse. I am not excusing the queer bating that happened or the blatant racial stereotype we got for Lance’s ending but I truly believe Voltron is a product of the times and essential for the evolution of queer rep in western animation. I could do an entirely separate post on this but I’ll sum it up as best as I can here. Queer representation in main stream western media was still new and touchy. And mlm representation was even fewer. I think the backlash is valid and was necessary for dreamworks/Netflix and any other companies to learn their lesson that gay people in cartoons is OKAY and should be normalized. that’s why following I think Vld was one of the many factors in a shift for openly queer couples in animation that we see in shows like She-ra.

So it sucked that we never got klance yeah but I never once thought Klance was gonna be canon. I wished for it but I figured the best we could hope for is some hints like how they ended Legend of Korra.

So besides from the effects it had on western media, as a fan I’ll still take the ending and even recommend it to people as is because of the art that came after. The fanart, the edits, the post-canon and fix-it fics I love reading time and time again. None of that would exist without that controversial ending. I don’t think I’d still be such a diehard fan to this day if it had ended any differently. My appreciation for this show and obsession stems from how invested I was in the controversies, rumors and hype every season. Like the whole pride month post on twitter, dear god what a mess but hopefully a word of warning now for creators thinking of queer baiting fans again.

It’s not perfect, there were a lot of fucks up along the way and at times, downright problematic but I will still always recommend people watch VLD all the way through. But hey maybe that’s just my way of wishing I had more people to talk about the ending with ¯\_ツ_/¯

#a Voltron rant #voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary disappointment #klance #allurance #keith x lance #allura vld #vld lance #vld keith

21 notes · View notes