#can you tell I love this DLC

[rosecandyart]

Alright, some time has passed. Side Order Pearl appreciation time.

I can't stress enough how much I missed Pearl and loved her in this DLC. This applies to Marina, too. I feel like I fell even harder for Pearl, I got reminded of all the qualities I love her for. Her impulsiveness, her supportiveness, her comedy, everything. Not to mention the adorable 2D art of her that I'm absolutely normal about (I'm not). I adored this DLC so much.

[epicfroggz]

Let me preface this that I mean zero pressure and all, bc you're sharing a gift with us!

...But do you have more ideas about the Age of Shadow? I saw that unique tag and was like "HOLY HELL!!!" in excitement bc your stuff has been phenomenal. I am chef-kissing.gif at you several times in appreciation!

Yes, and thank you so much!!! There will be a follow-up post on the subject of Messmer eating/absorbing Marika and what that entails, plus some points on what he would actually try to do as the new god.

Really showcasing how despite his scary demeanor, Messmer is a very warm and good person that trusts and cherishes those from different walks of life, from a cursed Albinauric to a literal Carian princess. The whole war criminal thing was a role he assumed for his mother’s sake, and he was a kinda shitty war criminal at that, by being terribly kind (in a disciplined way, he still punished folks when necessary) and by preserving the Hornsent’s culture in his funky library tower (at the behest of his closest knights, but it was still his decision all the same). That’s just some of them. His mother gave him one singular purpose in the LoS—total Hornsent destruction—yet he took the time and sincere effort to do so many other things despite that. All those things are the real Messmer, and now that he’s free of his mother’s seal and the LoS, he can finally put to action the plans he’s been stewing over for a century.

I don’t think he ever gave up, ever stopped thinking of how to make things better for his men and now his people, feeling all of their anger and despair so deeply and wholly. Which is why he seems so exhausted all the time. You wonderfully genuine, woefully empathetic, hopelessly selfless man, you…

But don’t forget the body horror. We’ll get to the body horror. :>

- Froggo

[ikeep-forgetting-mypass]

As much as I like matpat I am dreading when he plays ruin because this is just going to fuel his 'gregory is evil' stich which I HATE.

Like, maybe stop demonizing this 9 year old. I get it, he has committed many crimes, as he should, and destroyed the glamrocks, but they can be FIXED. THEY ARE ROBOTS. THEY CAN BE PUT TOGETHER AGAIN AND ARE EVEN STILL FUNCTIONAL EVEN AFTER BEING SHATTERED.

You know who can't be fixed if he loses an arm or an eye? GREGORY (because he isn't a robot because FUCK THAT) like???

He is a homeless kid, of course he's going to be a brutal little shit and prioritizes survival against morals, he is on the fucking streets, and the animatronics have been trying to kill him for an entire night, making him run all across the PizzaPlex. You know how fucking big that place is!?

Also, him betraying Cassie makes zero sense for multiple reasons,

1: He went through fucking hell for Freddy and he only knew him for 6 hours, like. He was willing to steal a car and live with him on the road in one ending, tries to save him in the Afton ending, carries his head around, and is shown to cry when he's disassembled, something he is only seen to do in the Bad Ending or when Freddy is ok.

HE LITERALLY COMMITS MANSLAUGHTER IN ONE ENDING FOR HIS ROBOT-DAD FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Even when Freddy is possessed by Peepaw William, instead of trying to dismantle him, he tries to save him instead, when if it was any other animatronic he wouldn't have hesitated to destroy them.

Because of what the cutouts in Roxy Raceway tell us, Gregory and Cassie have a close friendship, him being the only one to show up to her birthday and giving her a napkin to clean up her tears. When you see his missing posters, you can see Cassie is crying, and due to him being homeless, she probably made those posters herself.

(which i am sorely disappointed if no one has made an angsty thing yet c'mon guys)

(I HC them as siblings, but I guess steel wool said fuck you entropy)

So why, if he was willing to do all of that for Freddy, where it was a plot point for all of the endings, would he betray Cassie and try to kill her? It doesn't make sense to me, adding onto my other point:

2: At the end, as everyone predicted, the mimic was pretending to be Gregory this entire time. I don't know why exactly it was luring cassie, probably to kill her or something, but the mimic is a whole other rant because it brings the books explicitly and that means GGY could be canon which. Ugh.

Anyways, it's revealed again to everyone's predictions, that Gregory isn't in the PizzaPlex, which I think is a missed opportunity but that's just me. Cassie escapes the Mimic and 'gregory' says that she awakened it (Afton) and then the elevator falls.

I see people saying that Gregory killed her, but my question is how?

If he isn't anywhere in the PizzaPlex, and can only see the layout, how was he able to cut the elevator wires if not physically present? Did he teleport? Did he magically get into the mainframe and somehow break it down? No.

In conclusion, if there's an installment following this it better not have a villain Gregory or I swear to God steel wool I am able to forgive you for hello neighbor I will NOT forgive you for that

EDIT: just some more things I want to add because MatPat is playing ruin and I am fueled with dread and excitement.

I see people bringing up the books and the whole patient 46 or 42 or 420 or whichever the fuck, which is still do not get, but I don't understand most things in this franchise anyways so.

Even if the mimic and GGY are canon, I still firmly believe that gregory's actions (if he did do them) were manipulated by William/Glitchtrap, with him being mind-controlled like Vanessa. If your going to demonize him for that, then you would have to do the same thing for Vanessa, who has canonically killed enough children to fill out a newspaper as seen in the Bad Ending when it's revealed Gregory is homeless.

(I don't know how or when old willy put his hands on my boy's mind, but It is not because he is a robot because he isn't. the only reason Freddy say's he's broken is because of censorship.

(PS, please stop censoring horror franchises unless it's actually depicts idk SA, talking to you Megan Is Missing. The original line was that gregory cut himself while in the vents. you didn't need to censor that idqbnofq)

Also, for people saying that Gregory is sadistic for destroying and harvesting the animatronics....

I see your point, and I raise that he is a homeless child who probably just got out of mind-control and is now being chased around a massive mall bigger than a 10 Walmart's and Targets put together, trying to escape 3 (4 and 5 if you count sun & moon and a hell of a lot more counting the security bots and damn endos) eight to seven foot hunks of heavy metal and sharp teeth capable of and known for destroying security bots because of Pizza and Jealousy Issues (Roxy and Chica) another that's infamous for destroying fences, his own room and is rumored/thought to have destroyed another robot, and a security guard who, (in yet again deleted voice lines that should have been in the game god damnit steel wool) he saw change into a skipping bunny with a kitchen knife all trying to kill him with only one protector for 6-7 hours straight with barely a moment to breathe.

What do you expect? him to be all "I'm so sorry *cries* let's all be friends!!" NO. in a better world and in a better made game maybe we could have that, but in this world no. Maybe he's a little remorseful, but in the way you kill a bug kind of remorseful.

Also, again, homeless children who probably had to raise themselves aren't going to be the most morally aware children, of course he's going to worry about his and the one person/robot who took care of him in a while above the ones who are attempting to murder him.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

my greatest achievement in DA2 is maxing out Carver's friendship

and all it took was begrudgingly kissing a little templar ass in act 1 because Carver didn't want to plan a prison break if my Hawke got his ass arrested for being stupid.

[channie-binnie]

The way my fav songs from 2 months ago started like this and changed to this

[dipplinduo]

Because I think I'm funny, here's a helpful guide I made of our problematic fave at different points in the story

[superbellsubways]

been watching alot of videos on mario kart i love Mario kart i love all the rainbow roads and how silly some roster choices were in the past (ROB, Honey queen, wiggler) I have alot of good memories with both mkds and mk7 I literally bought mk8d again Just because tjey added mk7 rainbow road to the dlc (one of my favorites ever) its so pretty AUUUUUGHiLOVE MARIO KART!!!!!! FUN GAMES!!!!

[velvetjune]

one of my main takeaways from the alan wake games is that alan/alice/barry should exist and they all love each other so much.

[lanayrutower]

this keeps me up at night btw.

[angeltannis]

Finally started In Tanta We Trust and ngl it makes me a little nauseous that this world with SO much interesting and thought-out lore is most likely just gonna rot in IP hell forever because gamers are racist

[heloflor]

Ok so for about a good two-three months now I had a post in my drafts about how I realized I ship Powser, and long story short I started comparing Bowser to what I think to be how most villains in media interact with their damsel in distress if they express “love” for them. Issue is, I don’t have nearly enough knowledge/examples on this topic to know how truthful this comparison is, but said comparison is also the main thing tying this post together. So when thinking of ways to remove this element while still having all the same info in this post, I kind of came up short. Plus, I like the way the post is structured as is.

In other words, here’s the post as I originally wrote it, but be aware that the comparison is probably very flawed. Maybe there’s some truth to it, probably not. In any case, just focus on the Powser side of it, the villain comparison is just there for the structure. Enjoy! (long post ahead, a bit over 3k words)

So I recently realized that I really like Powser which I did NOT expect given I’m usually much more of a “friends to lovers” type of person, and trying to understand why I like it led me to think about how villains tend to be presented in their relationship with the “damsel in distress”, and it’s actually very interesting when you compare it to Bowser.

TL;DR: Unlike most villains who showcase sexual attraction (I think?), Bowser is shown to be romantically attracted to Peach. And while his actions are still very much shitty and should be seen as such, man is he adorable sometimes ! Plus, the way his feelings are shown to be genuine makes him look better than most villains, whose “love” for their victim is portrayed as """creepy lust""" by their medias.

(Obviously there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with sexual attraction. I’m talking in the context of medias that sometimes tend to vilify it, especially when it comes to the antagonists, hence the language used in this post.)

So the first thing that came in mind while thinking of other villains was Dis//ney’s Alad//din (the 90s/animated one) and how Jaf/ar treats Jasm/ine at the end of the movie, more specifically when he wishes for her to fall in love with him and she ends up pretending to be as a distraction.

Thing is, Jasm/ine doesn’t act like she’s in love with Jaf/ar, she acts like she’s thirsting for him, and the way Jaf/ar reacts shows that this is pretty much what he had in mind when saying he wants her to love him. This isn’t love, it’s lust.

Now, I can’t say I’m someone who watches a lot of movies, especially not live-actions ones, so take what I’m about to say with a huge grain of salt. Basically, I kinda feel like what we see in Alad/din is the norm when it comes to villain/victim relationships? Like you have those antagonists who want the damsel in distress to be horny for them, who don’t see those women as people and don’t give a shit about them, only keeping them to get what they want out of them and having no issue discarding them afterwards if they get bored with those poor girls.

Btw that’s not to say that every single villain who kidnaps someone wants to sleep with them. But when it comes to villains who claim to love their victim, there does seem to be at least some sexual tension here, or at least some uncomfortable touches.

And then there’s Bowser. To give a few examples of what he does:

- In that one 1986 anime movie thing, he gets very soft around Peach, gushing about how he’s in love with her and wants to marry her, trying to cheer her up when she’s sad, and let’s not forget that “it’s more of a bracelet, shows that my love is bigger” line with the ring.

- In the mainline “platformers” games, you have “Mario Sunshine” in which Bowser wants his son to have a mother, and “Mario Odyssey” in which he tries to marry Peach, going around the world gathering all the absolute best things for the wedding. There’s also the New Bros U intro with Bowser gently moving Peach’s chair, making sure she doesn’t get hurt by his attack, showing he doesn’t want to hurt her.

- Not sure exactly if this counts as this could be a form of objectification, but you know that cliché of villains getting that all-powerful thing they wanted and immediately betraying/discarding all the people they worked with and/or claimed to love? Well, in the Galaxy games, Bowser gets the power to create a whole new universe, and yet still takes the time to capture Peach, claiming in the first game that he wants her to rule along with him. Again, this could be a form of objectification, especially when looking at his dialogue in the intro of the second game, but it’s still interesting how Bowser doesn’t really fall on that trope, still having his army and Junior on top of Peach (btw the intro of Galaxy 2 is very funny on that front because Bowser literally has enormous powers and yet still makes a detour for Peach, thus causing Mario to be on his tail. Like, let her go dude, she’s not that into you. You got all the powers of the universe, who cares about that one specific woman when you could have literally anybody else?).

- In the first Paper Mario game, Bowser tells Peach that he would fulfill her wishes if she wants (as long as he likes them) and gushes in his diary about how he hopes Peach likes him. And in Thousand Years Doors, he keeps trying to look for her upon hearing she got kidnapped.

- In Super Paper Mario, he gets overjoyed about the wedding but still immediately shows worry for Peach when Nastasia uses her mind control on her, and in general Bowser spends the game clearly loving being able to call Peach his wife, and joins the team again in 7-2 out of concern for her safety. Same with 8-1 where for all he knows he’s about to die and yet his main concern is her safety, to the point where he's willing to ask Mario to protect her for him. His priority is not being with Peach, instead it's Peach being safe.

- In Color Splash, the first thing he does when first getting back to himself during the fight is ask if Mario brought Peach with him.

- In Origami King, he doesn’t want her to see him as a wet floor sign and later asks Olly if Peach is safe and comfortable, which as I’ve seen pointed out implies that him capturing Peach is mostly a forced vacation/sleepover until Mario arrives and she’s put on the spot for show.

(- In general Paper Bowser is a huge hopeless romantic, at least from what I’ve seen of him.)

- In Superstar Saga he helps Mario and Luigi reach the Bean Kingdom for Peach’s sake. Then in Bowser’s Inside Story his most beloved and protected memories are his memories of Peach + he makes saving her his priority towards the end. And in Dream Team, he hears a rumor that Peach might have gotten kidnaped and immediately flies all the way to Pi’illo Island to find her.

- You cannot convince me that his car in Mario 3D World wasn’t an attempt to impress Peach, given this is one of the only two games (three with Wonder) where you play as her and face against him. /hj

- In that one old comic people kept bringing up after the movie came out, Bowser spends a lot of time gushing about marrying Peach. Also despite Peach being very temperamental in this comic, I don’t think Bowser once tries to hurt her? Obviously you have the Magikoopa brainwashing her at the end which is fucked up but outside of that does Bowser ever get angry or menacing when it comes to her?

- In general, outside of the games where Peach is playable and the intro of Inside Story (which comes off as OOC for Bowser tbh, I get him being pissed off but him trying to burn Peach is just really off), do we ever get to see Bowser raise a hand on her and/or try to physically hurt her? Same for his anger, how often do we get to see him raise his voice on her? And no the sports and party games don’t count since everyone is doing the same thing to everyone else in those, and in the party games it'd be unfair if playing that one character led to Bowser going easy on the player.

Now I might be missing some more moments, especially since I’m far from the most knowledgeable on the sport/party games and some RPGs (slowly making my way through them), but there’s one thing that is very obvious: while most villains express sexual attraction for the damsel in distress, Bowser expresses romantic attraction.

Bowser genuinely cares for Peach. She’s one of his most precious memories. In Super Paper, he snaps out of the joy of getting married when Peach is getting brainwashed, showing how much he values her safety. He absolutely adores her and isn’t afraid to express it, especially Paper Bowser.

Those two instances (Inside story and Super Paper) especially really seem to lean into how much Bowser loves Peach. In Inside Story, the fact that she’s his most well-preserved memory shows just how much he values the little time he spends with her and how important she is to him, not as some pretty face but as a person he genuinely wants to create more memories with. And in Super Paper, Bleck is giving him the one thing he’s always wanted, and yet he still shows some reticence when Nastasia uses her mind control, making it look like Peach being safe and sound is more important to him than them being a couple. Idk, those two moments just really get to me when you think about it this way.

(Btw in Super Paper I adore that Peach hesitates to leave him in 8-1 because, while we know Peach is incredibly kind so of course she’d be worried for a teammate, for once it feels like Bowser actually earned it. He spends the whole game being caring towards Peach, and wouldn’t you know, being nice and respectful to someone actually makes them care for you! I swear the Powser potential from this game is unmatched!)

When most villains say “I want this woman to love me”, they usually mean “I want this woman to obey and submit to my every want”. When Bowser says “I want Peach to love me”, he means “I want to be able to wake up everyday by her side, make her smile and laugh and be happy, see her be a mother to my kid(s), learn more about her and spend as much time with her as I can”. Bowser isn’t trying to marry Peach because he wants to “own” her, he wants to marry her because he quite literally wants to spend the rest of his life by her side.

Now that’s not to say that Bowser doesn’t feel any form of sexual attraction. But since Mario is such a kids-friendly franchise, the focus is much more on his romantic feelings. Also, I'll admit, whether Bowser is in love with Peach or with the idea of Peach is up for debate.

I think that’s the main reason why so many people are quick to call Bowser sweet/adorable when seeing the way he talks about Peach. Because the thing is, Bowser is still being a complete asshole here. He’s constantly kidnapping her, putting her in a cage on several occasions, forced her to marry him like 6 different times, very often disregards her body autonomy by grabbing her (+ the kidnappings), terrorizes and sometimes even tortures/kills her people, and his phone pic in the parental controls video + the picture frames in Nintendo World make him look like a creep. Despite his feelings for her, there’s definitely a level of objectification here that should not be ignored.

Hell, I didn’t mention the 2023 movie on the list because I’d argue he was more obsessed rather than in love. Plus the scene where he proposes to her low-key feels like the very first time they meet, making his previous actions creepier (or at the very least they barely know each other, heck Peach didn’t even know Bowser likes her!). And he’s quick to use blackmail and violence against her, especially in the end. The wedding cake toppers also show he cares more about himself than Peach and sees her as an object rather than a person.

(I actually take back what I said in my movie reaction post about Bowser being like the one from Super Paper. He might be goofy when showing his softer side, which was what I was focused on when comparing the two, but he’s also clearly not as genuine and sweet as Paper Bowser. The way he mistreats his army and especially Kamek in the movie is also different from most games, most notably the RPGs since that’s when we see him interact with his people and he’s a relatively good king to them.)

Compare 2023 Movie Bowser to the 1986 movie in which he tries to get Peach involved in the wedding preparations, tries to cheer her up, never gets angry at her despite how much she’s resisting him and never once raises his hand on her. Even when she outsmarts him by making him shapeshift, he’s amused by her attempt. Literally the worse he does in this movie is grab her against her will on many occasions (and obviously the kidnaping and forced marriage, that goes without saying).

Going back on topic, despite Bowser being very much horrible in the way he approaches Peach, since every other villain out there is lusting after the woman they capture, making them appear creepy/predatory, Bowser comes off as an angel in comparison. He’s one of those rare cases of a villain who is truly sincere about his feelings for the woman he captures, and since we see other occasions of him being a sweetheart (with Junior) and a dumbass (the RPG series), he becomes an incredibly endearing character. So his feelings for Peach come off as adorable despite the bad elements because we’re aware he has a soft side so we know he’s truly sincere. Him being sometimes more of an antihero in the RPGs + his inclusion in sports games and the like probably also help seeing him in that good light.

(Also yes I’m very much aware that there’s a huge issue when it comes to how fandoms perceive female characters, and I will absolutely believe you if you tell me this is one of the reasons why you have people who talk shit about Peach so much all while defending Bowser’s actions, especially since his feelings for Peach are so rooted into his character. Oh and obviously you have the people horny for Bowser who love his softer/romantic side and value the moments where he displays this part of himself, that goes without saying.)

I’m especially surprised by the 1986 movie showing such a characterization of him, considering it came out 1-2 years after the very first Super Mario game (aka Bowser’s first appearance, at least I think?). Like imagine making a movie about those characters and going “hey you know the giant turtle monster we fight in this game? What if he was a huge lovable dork who just wanted some love in his life?”. Tbh I adore that choice.

Overall, it’s just interesting to see how Bowser differs from other villains on that front. It’s very interesting to see a villain who does pretty terrible things to a girl all the while being genuine in his feelings for her, idk it’s a very cool contrast. I also like how “true love” tends to be a motivation for the heroes, seen as something good, so it’s fun to see stories where villains have that very same motivation without it being “““twisted””” with lust. And yes I know that last point applies to many more antagonists than just Bowser, and not just for feelings like love.

And a bit off-topic but I also really like how you can easily explain Bowser’s behavior here (not justifying it tho!!!). In the Yoshi Island games, we see he was raised as a spoiled brat who was always given what he wanted, made worse by him being a monarch. We even still see some of that behavior in his adult self, for example when he gets angry and starts stomping his foot like a kid throwing a tantrum.

As a result of his upbringing, Bowser likely just doesn’t know how to take a no. He’s used to always get what he wants, and take it by force if necessary. So when Peach refuses him, he does just that, incapable of understanding why she doesn’t want him.

The 86 movie is actually an excellent example of this. In two scenes (the one with Peach outsmarting him and the ring dialogue) we see Bowser getting worked up when Peach is upset, showing he genuinely wants her to be happy. But at the same time he’s incapable of realizing that he’s the reason why she’s so upset and the one thing he should do is let her go. The ring scene especially shows it very well. When Peach throws the ring and starts crying because she doesn’t want to get married, Bowser thinks she’s upset due to the ring being too big and immediately tries to soothe her by promising to get a better ring. Again, it’s kinda crazy how this movie was made when Bowser only existed for a single year and yet they already made him genuinely in love with Peach.

I’d also add that Bowser seems to have a pretty high opinion of himself, thinking he’s awesome and shit (or maybe he’s overcompensating, that seems like a possibility). As a result, it’s possible that his mentality on the situation is “Well I’m in love with her so surely she must love me! How could she not?”, making it even harder for him to comprehend why she doesn’t love him.

Again, it doesn’t justify his actions in the slightest but it’s still interesting how you can somewhat understand why he’s like this.

And as to why I ship Powser, honestly I still have no idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think it has to do with the storytelling potential of a unrequited love/it’s complicated/they have history situation in regards to their roles as monarchs, especially in the case of Peach whose character is brimming with untapped potential. I actually like to describe their relationship as “I hate the effect you have on my life but I couldn’t imagine a life without you in it” or “Our kingdoms are enemies for a good reason but if anything happened to you I’d rush in to save you without hesitation”. It's just that idea of them being ex-lovers who had a bad falling out and how Peach still cares about him to an extent and how their lives constantly intertwine with villains trying to take over their kingdoms + Bowser's kidnappings.

And since we’re talking Powser and since wondering whether they know each other or not in the movie got me to question how we can tell they know each other in the games: the best way I could describe their relationship in the games is familiar/”comfortable”, like you have the way Peach tries to convince Bowser to join the group in Super Paper, the way she talks about him in general in the Mario and Luigi games, or stuff like most cutscenes in Odyssey where she never seems afraid of Bowser.

I’ve also seen that Switch Tennis game with the evil racket and how Peach is the one who tries to get through to Bowser when he steals it, straight up saying “listen to me” which makes it seem like she knows she’s the one person who could get him to stop, or you have the first Rabbids game where she comments on how “Junior is sometimes even worse than his father”, plus the way she looks like a mother about to reprimand her child in the cutscene where Jr learns Bowser is coming home (which I find hilarious; lady that’s not your kid, I thought we’d been through this already in Sunshine!). Oh and CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE WAY SHE’S LOOKING AT HIM IN (spoilers in link) THAT CUTSCENE FROM THE NEW RABBIDS 2 DLC!!!

I don’t know how to fully explain but, looking at these kinds of interactions, you can tell that the two of them know each other, and to an extent Peach knows that Bowser won’t hurt her, hence why she’s not afraid to oppose him. It’s pretty funny actually how in the games Peach tends to be exasperated by Bowser more than anything else. Like he’s not a menace, just a weekly annoyance. And again, when you compare it to the movie where there’s only hostility and awkwardness between them, you do get the impression that they’re two complete strangers meeting for the first time. The fact Movie Peach had no idea about his feelings for her doesn’t help either. Then again, about the hostility, Peach in the games is much sweeter so maybe she shows a nicer side to Bowser because that’s just who she is.

[tsuchinokoroyale]

More like rad-b-gone lol

[cacophonylily]

I regret befriending Merrill. Girl, leave that creepy eluvian alone.

[daxite]

i genuinely don't understand how so many people misinterpret or are straight-up completely wrong about multiple things in dead money

[fiomeras]

I love that the rainworld community made their own complex sign language for non vc multiplayer. all from just a single button, its so amazing and so inline with the game's intricacy with its already simple yet complex movement, ai, world, and now even a user made slugcat sign language aoughhhhhhh i love rainworld

[returntotheground]

when will people stop paying for anything sims 4 like they just came out and basically said that since sims players are stupid enough to buy every shitty little expansion/game/stuff/whatever pack they're gonna just keep making those instead of sims 5

like. they're gonna keep beating this dead horse until it stops spitting out money!! stop putting money in the horse!