#did you guys know the bots have evolved

[oifaaa]

Hello oifaaa.tumblr.com how long have you been doing art for? >:3

For some reason you are giving off major bot vibes rn but sure I've been drawing for about 10 years though I started drawing more frequently around 5 years ago

[unpassive-viewer]

Watching breaking in the olympics has been awesome as a former hip hop dancer, but holy shit. For every person who doesn't know how breaking even works and doesn't think it's a sport, there's ten more who are excited about the men's competition, but absolutely ragging on the women's competitors. My head is actually spinning.

If you don't know about breaking, I need to explain some things:

The breakers all know one another already, and all respect each other. This includes between the m&f categories. Nicka (silver medalist - women's) and Phil Wizard (gold medalist - men's) have literally competed as a duo.

The breakers that you think "are better than everyone in the finals" already went through the qualifying trials. They also compete with all the medalists, they also tried out for the olympic teams. They did not make it.

To that end, every battle is its own battle. They may have done poorly in the qualifying trials, but have beaten the now-gold medalists in other competitions. It's not like swimming where Katy Ledecky will pummel everyone else in the race unless she has an exceptionally off day.

Related to point 2 - breaking was born in the Bronx. It was also born in the 1970s. Being mad that the demographics don't reflect who you think should be dancing, or being mad that the dance isn't "in touch with its roots" is like being mad that someone modified the recipe for ginger beef. Some of the guys who were competing today are old enough that they were dancing with the same people who invented the sport. I promise that they have crazy respect for how it began and all of its influences.

Related to point 3 - breaking requires originality. It is a foundational element of the sport to evolve and be creative. It's a sport, but it's also an art form.

Dancing for three rounds in three separate battles is a lot for any dancer. If you think some of them looked like shit toward the end (I disagree, but whatever) it's because they are tired. Not to mention there were heat warnings in Paris! They still have more athletic ability in their left pinky finger than I've ever had in my whole body - and I was someone who also did street dance!

The music wasn't decided ahead of time, but the DJs were playing very very popular breaking songs. All of the competitors already know how they go, so if they were scoring low in musicality, it's not because they panicked not knowing the song.

The athletes have sets made up already, they're not freestyling. They adapt them to the music, but unless they blank in the middle of the competition, they already know which skills they want to show off. (I'm editing to clarify that some of them did freestyle, but for the most part it was after they felt like they'd done what was going to get them points)

I really doubt that anyone on tumblr is going to care, but Instagram users can't read and YouTube is full of bots. I'm so excited that I got to watch my sport in the Olympics, but my lord people cannot behave.

[primussavethesemechs]

I want the human/cybertronian life difference to be talked about more in canon

Cuz I mean. it’s RIGHT THERE.

Just a smidgen of true acknowledgment I BEG YOU HASBRO‼️

i mean come on all it takes is someone mentioning how long the wars been going for one of the humans to go “4 MILLION YEARS???? WHAT THE FUCK HOW OLD ARE YOU???”

And optimus or ratchet to be like “…5/7 million?” And all of the humans to have a break down CUZ WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUVE BEEN ALIVE SINCE BEFORE THE HUMAN SPECIES EXISTED??? WE WERE MONKEYS WHEN YOU WERE BORN???

And the (woefully uniformed) cybertronians to be like “??? What do YOU mean your species was still evolving when I onlined, how long do you guys live?? A thousand?? A few hundred??”

And the gobsmacked humans to be like “??? NO WE HARDLY LIVE OVER A HUNDRED ITS CONSIDERED AN ACCOMPLISHMENT?? AVERAGE OLD AGE DEATH IS LIKE MID 80s!! TECHNICALLY THE AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IS 72 OR SOMETHING???”

Cue the autobots being like “😨 72??? THATS A CHILD WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT⁉️”

the more attached/emotional bots looking at their charges and realizing that not only are they sparklings compared to them but they’ll die as sparklings too in just a few decades, causing them to straight up have a mini meltdown.

Yeah they’re in a war and they’ve lost plenty of friends, but never to anything as predictable and inescapable as old age.

It’s the seeing-it-coming part that gets to them, the slow dread of knowing that even if they do everything right and keep them out of danger and they stay healthy there’s nothing they can do to stop them from withering away in a couple of decades.

Most versions of bumblebee looking at their charge/friend and realizing his assumptions about the fact that since they’re both still young that they’ll have plenty of time to just. Live together and have fun- are wrong?? Immediately tears. Even if cybertronians can’t cry tears he’s doing whatever the equivalent is and running away to cry in his room. And then running back to snatch them and take them with him cuz HE CANT WASTE A SECOND IF THEIR LIFESPANS ARE REALLY THAT SHORT HES GONNA JUST HAVE TO SPEND 24/7 WITH THEM

This whole concept ESPECIALLY applies to TFP since all of them got their own little human buddy and there’s only like 5 autobots to begin with (of the main season 1 crew) they’ve lost so many of their own so recently, their numbers are already dwindling down to nothing, they’re losing the war and the kids are what’s given them a major morale boost. To continue fighting they need hope, and the kids have kind of become their hope for the future- to know they’ll die off in under a century despite how young they still are is a shot to the spark.

Look me in the eye and tell me bee wouldnt panic hearing that Raf only has 70-80 years to live. LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME HE WOULDNT HAVE SOME KIND OF FIT OVER BEING TOLD THAT HIS LITTLE BUDDY (from a cybertronian perspective) HAS A LIFESPAN EQUIVALENT TO A LATE STAGE TERMINAL ILLNESS DIAGNOSIS. Bee would start treating Raf like a kid with stage 4 cancer 😭

I just KNOW bulkhead would have the worst reaction other than bee, maybe even worse cuz he looks at miko and realizes she’s used up basically a fifth of her entire lifespan already and she’s Still So Little and straight up starts weeping. That’s his DAUGHTER you can’t take her from him so soon it’s not FAIR! He might have to go destroy a canyon wall or something to let some of the anger and grief out

Arcee is Not taking it well either.

She JUST got attached to this one, just got used to a new partner and your telling her that no matter what she does he’s never going to last as long as tailgate of cliff jumper did?? Even if both he and she do everything they’re supposed to do to protect him and extended his life?? Depression time baby

Optimus and ratchet don’t react as much outwardly to the news as the others but inside they’re both 💔💥

These kids have brought optimus a level of contentment he hasn’t felt in vorns, and he sees how bright their spirits shine- Only to now know those precious spirits will burn out in less than a century- it gnaws at him inside, yet another strike from the cruelty of fate

Ratchet is devastated but refuses to acknowledge it, these kids- yes even miko- have become his pseudo grandkids and he’s not ready, nor will he ever be ready, to outlive them. Jacks reminds him too much of a younger optimus, still learning and still hopeful. Miko is… well she has a fire to her that ratchet can appreciate (when she’s not actively annoying him) she’s determined enough to make anything happen which he does begrudgingly respect even if he wishes she wouldn’t just throw herself into any and every situation just for fun.

And Raf…

Raf is his apprentice, the only one of the kids to understand him and listen intently to his stories of cybertron. To show appreciation for his work and his ideas, to Listen and Learn and Improve his inventions. He harbors the most fondness for Raf since he sees so much potential in him, and has taken him under his wing in teaching him cybertronian language and biology.

He feels almost like he’s training a student to take his place- only for the ground to be ripped out from under him to know that Raf will never have the chance to succeed him, will never even outlive him.

A parent should never have to bury their child, and ratchet already feels that he has.

-

TLDR the autobots find out humans have fruit fly lifespans next to them and become one big soggy mess of tears, optimus and ratchet included although they try to have a stiff upper lip about it (and fail to varying extents)

I swear this was supposed to be about any and all continuities but TFP took over completely😭 idk it just fits the best since they focus so much on how attached the bots get to the kids

Edit: btw this was inspired from the fact I found out that the cybertronian equivalent to a year (yes I know technically they have solar cycles which are roughly a human year but what they consider a year vs their lifespan/time perception is different) is a vorn. A vorn is 80 HUMAN YEARS. I saw that and went “oh wow a vorn is like a whole human lifespan!😃” and then I went “OH A VORN IS A WHOLE HUMAN LIFESPAN 😀“

[laytonsartblog]

I absolutely feel the same way. I would put this in the tags but my rant is too long so I’ll just put it under a cut

Anyway I watched the entirety of S1 of Earthspark and I’ve started S2. Now I was told going into it that S2 and S3 sucked, and specifically sucked because of the BLATANT 180° heel turn the show’s direction takes— I still decided to watch S1 of Earthspark because I heard it was good and that maybe, maybe I’d be able to slog through S2-S3 based purely on the fumes of S1.

Let me fucking tell you, Earthspark S1 is absolutely better than TFP. I have such nostalgia for TFP and I’ve watched it several times over recently just because of how much I love it. I’ve even been forcing my friends to watch the show with me just so I have someone who I can talk to about my love for TFP. And yet still, S1 Earthspark took the cake for me over TFP. Are there TFP moments, storylines, and characters that I think rank higher than Earthspark? Absolutely. I found TFP!Wheeljack to be a far more compelling and interesting character over E!Wheeljack, I liked the designs and voices of TFP more than Earthspark for the most part, and I will admit that I prefer TF content with darker themes over the more child-friendly shows like Earthspark or even G1.

However. S1 Earthspark did something that amazed me and had me jumping up and down in my college dorm room with excitement and hope. It made Optimus Fucking Prime a person again. We’ve seen portrayals of Megatron with complicated histories or evolving character development (TFP, IDW 2005), so that wasn’t new to me. We’ve seen a softer side of Starscream and other Decepticons (Armada, IDW 2005/2019), so that wasn’t a new concept to me either. We’ve even seen the concept of Autobots doing bad things for the sake of the “greater good” (too many fucking continuities to count TBH), often with Optimus at the head of that anyway, so even that truly didn’t surprise me much.

But Earthspark finally, FINALLY gave us a portrayal of Optimus who didn’t always know what to do. This is an Optimus who is experienced, knowledgeable, and capable, but that doesn’t mean he’s a fucking god who the writers can just Deus Ex Machina into making sure the world is saved. This is an Optimus who can fail, who can make bad decisions, who can be wrong. This is an Optimus who has to have Megatron point out his hypocrisy and cruelty towards the Decepticons despite his preached beliefs of autonomy and freedom. This is an Optimus who can’t just go into a fight like a one-bot army and destroy any in his path— he needs to rely on others to cover his bases. This is an Optimus who knows that he can’t always be the solution to a problem! He’s a fucking person! He’s a person with flaws, he isn’t stagnant! He doesn’t just say cool shit in this show and fight bad guys, he learns, he GROWS!

When I saw that Optimus had actual fucking problems he needed to get through that were addressed in the show, I about nearly lost my shit. Earthspark S1 didn’t just write a good Optimus, it respected how such a good man, who went through so much war and chaos and loss, can be twisted and changed and manipulated by good intentions and false promises to make fucked up choices! This show looked at Optimus and didn’t see the iconic mirage: it saw him made up of so many complicated pieces that needed to be explored, examined, and explained, just like any other character.

Add on top that they finally gave Optimus his G1 whimsey and humor back? His genuine love and connection for others? His power to be gentle? They put the fucking optimism back into Optimus Prime! They made him a lame dad again! They didn’t let him do some stupid self-sacrificial bullshit just for the audience to pretend like they didn’t see him in the thumbnail of the next episode!

Yeah. Yeah, when Optimus Prime is this well written, I’m sold. I’m fucking sold. Earthspark!OP is my favorite portrayal of the character by FAR.

List of other things that makes Earthspark S1 better over TFP (for me):

- Animation? Fucking sick. The combination of 2D and 3D is absolutely stunning, unique, and makes for some very expressive and engaging work to go along with the show’s style and design. When I saw these 3D characters squash and stretch, I knew I’d be in for a good time.

- Character writing? Phenomenal. I didn’t think at first I’d be so attached to the Terrans, but by the end I was crying over how much Nightshade means to me as non-binary representation. I could talk forever about Nightshade’s conversation about Sam and how important it is to remind people that not all non-binary people are the same and can have different backgrounds and values. This same attachment goes to all the characters. Genuinely I couldn’t find a single character I didn’t like in this show (in S1). Breakdown? Sobbing on the floor for what he did in his debut episode. Swindle’s goal of breaking his brother out of prison? Surprisingly humanizing (hah). Even fucking Jon took my heart the moment he entered the screen. As much as I love the characters in TFP, a lot of them have a surprising lack of interaction with each other besides certain pairs that often get put together (like… we get one episode with Arcee and Bulkhead being besties in the entire series. Wouldn’t Ratchet have a lot to say to Arcee about feeling responsible for the pain of others? Wouldn’t Bumblebee understand what Bulkhead is going through when he’s going through physical therapy? And poor fucking Optimus basically has no connections besides Bumblebee and Ratchet. Let Team Prime actually be a family dammit!!!)

- The humor? Surprisingly hilarious. I wasn’t expecting such dry wit out of the show and I think it balances the shenanigans against the more darker parts of this show very well.

- THE. FUCKING. LESSONS. Hooooly shit. If I had kids, I’d sit them in front of this show and watch right alongside them with just as much eagerness. There’s so many positives to talk about when it comes to their family dynamic, problem solving, personal growth, and the way this show handles the topics of war, class, discrimination, bigotry, mental health, abuse, the list could go on. I know it’s kind of hard to compare a show like this to something like TFP, which isn’t explicitly trying to teach a lesson beyond to hope for a better tomorrow and to fight for those you love, but I think there’s a lot of value in this kind of storytelling that gives me solace that the kids of the future will turn out alright if they watch S1 of Earthspark.

So yeah. Thank you for listening to my massive rant. I love Earthspark S1 and I am already anticipating my depression while watching S2/3 because I can already see plot threads being dropped and general quality going down which makes me so sad but. Ah well. I got through the shitty episodes of G1 and Animated, I can get through this to at least get the full picture.

I think what's most devastating about Earthspark's fall from grace is that, had it kept the same writing/animation team and had maintined the same level of quality as season 1, it genuinely might have been able to dethrone TFP as the best transformers show. Prime came out 14 years ago and still nothing has ever been as impressive or impactful. Not even close. Earthspark season 1 was an honest competitor for the title, but the 2nd and 3rd season were such unwatchable, abhorrent trainwrecks that that dream's now dead in the water. There is no redeeming that burning tire fire of a show

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want TFP to be dethroned. Not at all. It will always have a very special place in my heart, and if it's riding top of the castle until I'm a shrivelled old woman, awesome! But like... it'd be really amazing if we got a transformers show that hit that hard again. Earthspark could have been that. Was on it's way to maybe being that. And hasbro just decided to shoot it point blank in the face

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 127

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 3,080ish

Summary: Tony and Y/N run into an old friend and meet two of the Children of Thanos.

Previous in Out Of Time:

“Tony—“

“I know, getting ahead of myself again. You know what there should be no more surprises. Let’s have a nice dinner tonight and we should have no more surprises. I should promise you.”

“Actually, Tony, I really need to talk to you about something. I made—“

“Tony Stark,” a man with a red cloak appeared a few feet away. There was an orange portal behind him. “Y/N Rogers, I’m Doctor Stephen Strange. And I need you both to come with me.”

The necklace around the man’s neck immediately caught Y/N’s eye as Tony moved to stand protectively in front of her. It was the same necklace that the Ancient One wore, it housed the Time Stone.

“I’m sorry, what are you doing here?” Tony asked. “You giving out tickets or something?”

“We need your help,” Dr. Strange responded, glancing at Y/N, which made Tony tense. “Look, it’s not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake.”

“No,” Y/N gasped softly.

“And who’s ‘we’?” Tony questioned.

“Hey, Tony,” Bruce Banner greeted, nervously emerging from behind Dr. Strange.

“Bruce?”

“Y/N.”

“Hi,” she responded quietly.

“You okay?” Tony asked.

Bruce came up to Tony, giving him a desperate hug, not answering the question. Dr. Strange was focused on Y/N. Slowly, she walked up to him.

“It’s time,” he told her.

“I know,” she responded quietly.

Tony guided Bruce over and through the portal, grabbing Y/N’s hand as he passed. Dr. Strange was the last one through, closing the portal after them. Another man, Wong, was waiting in the building on the other side of the portal. Tony sat down while Y/N stayed standing, nervously biting at her nail. Bruce told them of what had happened to him and why he was back. Wong used his magic to show the universe and five of the six Infinity Stones.

"From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing,” Wong began, “Then, boom! The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.”

“Space. Reality,” Strange named the Stones, each one lighting up as he did. “Power. Soul. Mind. And,” he opened his necklace, “Time.”

“Tell me his name again,” Tony ordered, very attentive.

“Thanos. He’s a plague, Tony,” Bruce answered. “He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That’s him.”

Tony stood up and looked at Y/N. It was obvious that Y/N knew about the Infinity Stones. Honestly, he wasn’t all that surprised but he was a little hurt. Things were falling into place now, the headaches, the connection with the Tesseract, her powers. She was connected to all six Stones.

“This is it…” He said quietly to her. She nodded. He turned to face the other men. “What’s our timeline?”

“No telling,” Bruce replied. “He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, Tony—“

“He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of,” Dr. Strange interrupted.

Tony leaned against the cauldron near the stairs, stretching like he was about to go for a run. “Did you seriously just say ‘hitherto undreamt of’?”

“Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?”

“Is that what this is…?” 

The cloak on Dr. Strange’s back suddenly smacked Tony’s arm, surprising him and Y/N. Tony looked at the thing, slightly offended before straightening himself up. 

“I’m going to allow that,” Tony continued. “If Thanos needs all six, why don’t we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?”

“That’s not how it works, Tony,” Y/N sighed.

“No can do,” Strange said.

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone,” Wong added. “With our lives.”

“And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben and Jerry’s named a flavor after me, so…”

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts,” Strange stated.

“It’s not bad.”

“A bit chalky.”

“A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite,” Wong said.

“That’s a thing?” Bruce questioned.

“Whatever,” Tony said. “Point is: things change.”

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change,” Strange said. “This Stone, and Y/N, may be the best chance we have against Thanos.”

“Y/N?” Bruce repeated. “Why Y/N?”

“My… My abilities,” she nervously answered. “They’re from the Stones. I can control them.”

“Not gonna happen,” Tony quickly stated. “That Stone needs to go because it may also be his best chance against us.”

“Well, if we don’t do our jobs,” Strange said.

“What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?”

“Protecting your reality, douchebag.”

“Okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now?” Bruce requested. “The fact is that we have this Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now.”

“Yeah, that’s the… thing,” Tony muttered, awkwardly.

“What do you mean?” Y/N asked.

“Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. His offline.”

“What?” Bruce exclaimed. “Tony, you lost another super bot?”

“I didn’t lose him. He’s more than that. He’s evolving.”

“He’s with Wanda,” Y/N whispered. “They’ve been sneaking around like we have, haven’t they?”

“That’s been my guess.”

“Who could find Vision, then?” Dr. Strange asked.

“Shit,” Tony quietly muttered to himself. He looked around at the others. “Probably Steve Rogers.”

“Oh, great,” Strange sighed in exasperation.

“Maybe. But…” Tony sighed.

Looking over at Y/N, he was met with her scared gaze. Everything was going to suddenly change, he knew it. It just hoped this didn’t change where they stood.

“Call him,” Bruce pressed.

“It’s not that easy Bruce,” Y/N responded. “Things happened. Technically, it’s illegal for me to be here right now. Everyone in this room should be calling the police.”

“The Avengers broke up,” Tony clarified. “We’re toast.”

“Broke up?” Bruce repeated. “Like a band? Like The Beatles?”

“Cap and I feel out hard. We’re not on speaking terms.”

“Then Y/N. Call your brother.”

“I have no way to get a hold of him,” she shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to him in two years.”

“Tony, Y/N, listen to me. Thor’s gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn’t matter who you’re talking to or not.”

“I know what’s at stake here, Bruce… I’ve known for a while now.”

Y/N could feel everyone’s gazes on her. Bruce was questioning what she meant, but the others knew and they looked at her with pity. With a sigh, Tony pulled out a flip phone. The one Steve had mailed him. He flipped it open, hovering over the call button to the only number on the phone.

“What’s that?” Y/N asked. Tony met her gaze and went to explain, but it was too late. She already knew. “He sent that to you,” a statement, not a question. “You've been able to contact him the whole time…. Have you ever…?”

“No,” Tony shook his head. “I almost did once. When I found you at the cemetery that first time. But then—“

“The Soul Stone took me. And you were worried… don’t worry. I don’t blame you.” She let out a shaky breath as she walked over and grabbed Tony’s free hand. “Call him.”

Looking back down at the phone, Tony hovered his thumb over the call button once again. Y/N gave his hand a slight squeeze as she watched. But before he could press call, an unusual rumbling could be heard from outside. Tony looked up and around, noticing that something was off.

“Say, Doc, you wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair, would you?” Tony wondered, pointing the phone at Strange, whose hair was slightly moving.

Strange looked up. “Not at the moment, no,” Strange answered.

Looking up through the whole in the ceiling, Tony and Y/N saw debris flying by outside. All of them looked towards the doors, able to see things flying by and people running. 

“I’m not ready,” Y/N whispered. “I-I can’t…” Her heart was pounding. “I… I can’t—“

“Woah, woah, woah,” Tony was in front of her, hands rubbing her shoulders. “No one’s asking you to do anything right now. We don’t know what’s going on out there.”

“I won’t be able to save them all…” She shook her head, tearing up. “I already know that… And I’m not ready for that…”

“But you don’t know that, Y/N. We don’t know what’s out there or what’s about to happen. But we will do our best to figure it out and prevent what’s coming. Together, alright?” Y/N nodded. “Alright.” Tony ran a hand down her arm and intertwined his fingers with her. “Let’s go see what we’re up against.”

Holding hands, Tony and Y/N walked up to the front doors, glancing back at the men behind them before going through them. Outside was chaotic. People running and screaming in alarm, traffic tangled, a litter-filled wind. As the two make their way towards where people are running from, a woman fell at Tony’s feet. He quickly helped her up.

“You okay?” He asked, concerned.

Ignoring him, she quickly keeps running. A car suddenly crashed into a pole behind Tony and Y/N. They flinch, turning to see a man inside.

“Help him!” Tony shouted. “Wong, Doc.”

“Go! Got it!” Bruce replied, rushing to the car.

Slipping his hand into his pocket, Tony retrieved a pair of sunglasses. He put them on, keeping him and Y/N going towards the issue.

“FRIDAY, what am I looking at?” He asked his AI.

“Not sure,” FRIDAY responded. “I’m working on it.”

“Hey! You might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!”

Dr. Strange moved his arms, golden bands appearing around his forearms. “Might want use it,” he responded.

“Don’t leave my side,” Tony told Y/N.

“Okay,” she replied with a nod.

Approaching an intersection, the two turned the corner together. Floating over the street, was a huge circular ship.

“FRIDAY, evac anyone south of 43rd Street,” Tony directed. “Notify first responders.”

“Will do,” the AI replied.

From behind them, a large gust of wind came, clearing the dust and debris from the air. Both Y/N and Tony turned to see Dr. Strange behind them. He threw a wink at Tony. For a split second, Tony is begrudgingly amused. Close together, they walk closer to the ship, stopping when two beings appear in front of them.

“Hear me, and rejoice,” the skinny one exclaimed. “You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to—“

“I’m sorry,” Tony interrupted, folding his arms over his chest as he stepped up, “Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here.”

“Stonekeeper,” the alien called, looking at Strange, “does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not. I speak from myself,” Strange responded. Magical shields are readied at his fists as he stepped forward, Wong emulating him. “But you’re trespassing in this city and on this planet.”

“It means get lost, Squidward!” Tony shouted.

“He exhausts me,” the skinny being commented to its larger, bulkier being. “Bring me the Stone.”

The larger being dropped its huge hammer, dragging it along as it obeyed the ordered. From slightly behind Tony, Y/N’s hands began to glow purple.

“Banner you want a piece?” Tony asked.

“No, not really,” Bruce responded. “But when do I ever get what I want?”

“That’s right.”

Channeling his anger, Bruce attempted to release the Hulk. But instead of Hulk coming out easily, green shows up on Bruce’s neck and then quickly disappeared.

“Been a while,” Tony continued. “Good to have you, buddy.”

“I just... I need to concentrate here for one second,” Bruce said. “Come on, come on, man.”

“Where’s your guy?”

“I don't know. We've sorta been havin' a thing.”

“There’s no time for a thing.”

“I know.”

Tony pointed forward and the approaching being. “That’s the thing right there. Let’s go.”

Bruce gave out a loud grunt, but still failed to release the Hulk. Dr. Strange stared at Tony and Bruce in disbelief, while Y/N slowly had her powers snake their way to the two beings.

“Dude,” Tony muttered to Bruce, “you’re embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”

“Tony, I’m sorry,” Bruce apologized. “Either I can’t or he won’t—“

“It’s okay. Hey,” Tony set his hands on Bruce’s shoulders, “stand down.” He turned to Wong, guiding Bruce back. “Keep an eye on him. Thank you.”

“I have him,” Wong replied with a nod.

“Damn it,” Bruce murmured. 

Tony then noticed Y/N’s hands. “No,” he quickly said, rushing in front of her. “You need to save your strength.”

“If I can stop them, I want to before it’s too late,” Y/N retorted.

“Really no time for this,” Strange cut in.

Tony turned to see the being coming closer. Stepping up, Tony taps his new arc reactor, revealing his nanotech Iron Man suit that quickly forms to him. He forms a shield on one arm, protecting him from a hit from the being. Then Tony forms a set of blasters that easily throw the being back to the skinny one, who gestured and deflected his massive companion into some cars.

“Where’d that come from?” Bruce wondered, in awe.

“It’s nano-tech,” Tony responded, turning around. “You like it? A little someth—“

Suddenly, a spike of earth shot up and threw Iron Man far up. Using uprooted trees and other debris, the skinny being began attacking the rest of them. But before the attack can even do anything to the small team, Y/N steps forward motioning her hands in front of her and dissolving all the objects in one swift movement.

“Interesting,” the skinny one observed. “You are a strong one. I sense a great power in you.”

“And I sense a great deal of annoyance,” Y/N responded.

“Dr. Banner,” Dr. Strange said as Y/N and the being were having a stand off, “if the rest of your green friend won’t be joining us…”

Strange teleported Bruce away, along with half a taxi. Iron Man then returned to the fight, pushing a car thrown by the skinny being back at it. The car get cuts in half, and the being was untouched. Y/N put her hands in front of her, blasting the being with a purple beam. It flew back, crashing into the building behind it.

“Gotta get that Stone out of here, now,” Tony ordered, blocking a blast meant for Y/N.

“It stays with me,” Strange responded.

“Exactly. Bye. Y/N, get out of here!”

“No way in hell!” Y/N replied as Tony flew through the forming obstacle course.

As Tony made his way through, Y/N began to destroy the obstacles in his way. Before he could get to the end of the course, Tony was cut short my the big guy’s hammer, sending him through a building at high speed.

“Tony!” Y/N screamed. 

Her emotional scream caused power to be released from her whole body, destroying everything the alien had put in their way. She was panting and angry when the dust settled again.

“Well, well,” the alien chuckled, “I guess I was right.”

“Leave here,” Y/N demanded. “Before I end you.”

“I can’t wait to see you try.”

“Y/N, go!” Strange ordered, him and Wong being to fight off the being.

“What?!” She exclaimed, helping them. “You know what I’m capable of, what I’m meant to do. Why order me away?”

“Just listen to me!”

“Not without the Stone! You and I both know that I can protect it better than you!”

“And why is that?” The being asked, having heard the conversation while using the surroundings to attack.

He shot bricks turned into sharp points at them. Channeling the Time Stone, Y/N turned back time so that the bricks were dust. The Time Stone glowed in the necklace and Y/N’s hands were glowing green.

“Impossible,” the being whispered. “You… You’re channeling the Stones.”

Y/N blasted him with a powerful beam, sending the alien back and scraping agains the road. It stood back up, cuts littering its body. Angry, the aline used a broke fire hydrant’s water steam to knock Wong back several meters, rending him unconscious. Dr. Strange then snaps a whip of magical energy to bind the alien’s hands and yanked. The alien flew forward with the pull and pins Strange upside-down against a building, using the bricks to trap him.

“Get to Stark!” Y/N heard Dr. Strange say in his head. “Listen to me! Get to Stark! Now!”

Y/N hesitated slightly before deciding to not listen to Strange and attack the skinny alien from behind. The bricks continued to pile on Strange as the skinny alien turned around to face Y/N. Debris began flying at Y/N in all directions. Using her powers, Y/N blocked them, set them away, and dusted them. But she couldn’t see everything that was coming. From behind, the alien launched at car at her. It hit her, hard, shooting her forward and skidding her across the road, knocking her out. The alien turned its attention back to Strange.

“Your powers are quaint,” it taunted. “Especially compared to the girl over there. You must be popular with children.”

The alien reached out and tried to grab the necklace holding the Time Stone. It quickly jerked back when the necklace burnt its hand.

“It’s a simple spell but quite unbreakable,” Strange stated.

“Then I’ll take it off your corpse.”

The alien pulled Strange away from the building and threw him to the ground. Strange began to gesture to use the Time Stone, but utility cables pin down his arms, wind around his torso, then tighten around his throat.

“You’ll find… removing a dead man’s spell… troublesome…” Strange choked out.

“You’ll only wish you were dead.”

Knocking out Strange, the alien raised a portion of street pavement to use as a carrier. With a smirk, went over to Y/N.

“Thanos will be eager to meet you,” it said, using its powers to pick her up and tie her next to Strange. “Or kill you. Guess we’ll just have to see.”

next chapter >

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND SUCH!!! FEEL FREE TO SEND IN AN ASK OR DM, OR YOU CAN REBLOG OR COMMENT. THANKS FOR READING!

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2​​. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

[troublesometrollhunters]

oh uh hi ... could there be Val Morando / Bounty Hunter?

( I kid you not this is the plot to one of my o.c's lol. Enjoy :D !!!!! )

~ You started at the Royal Academy. You were training to be a fighter pilot in the Royals specialized troops. You wanted to rise in ranks and become the youngest general in history to defend Akriddion. This is where you met Val.

~ Val also wanted to be a fighter pilot in the troops. However instead of competing with you like everyone else he asked you to join him. He liked your ambition, you liked his boldness. Together you were an unstoppable force and when Vex came into the picture with his strength and bloodlust you three were a truly invincible team. Val had the ideas, you made them happen, and Vex helped take out the competition. You three were close, as close as Akriddions could be without bonding but then Val did something stupid.

~ To climb ranks he'd done some more unsavory things without telling you two. He had mild felonies before this mistake and if he confessed he'd be kicked out of the Academy. It didn't help that he'd made a lot of enemies and people wanted him gone. In a last ditch effort to keep the team together you take the fall hoping your spotless record and knowing the King and Queen along with Vex would save you from being dismissed from the Academy. It didn't and everything changed.

~ Your dreams were crushed and you hadn't even done what you were being punished for. The King and Queen didn't even listen to your case. You disappeared and dropped all contact leaving only a note to Val and Vex hoping they achieved their dreams as you looked for your own. Being away drove the two apart and as Vex rose in ranks Val began to fall as he plotted his revenge against the crown and searched for you. But you'd disappeared.

~ Plans change, you adapt, you evolve, you move on. You pick a new name, wear a mask over your face, buy a luxurious ship, and never let anyone see you outside your suit. You become a bounty hunter and make your new name known, it may not be what you wanted but it was a life of adventure and it paid a lot more.

~ Adventures in space, fancy parties, chases throughout the cosmos, the thrill of the hunt, and the satisfaction of the reward. Soon your name was known throughout the galaxy and you had many enemies but even more allies. You were the V.I.P guest at black market auctions for new weapons and whenever a mod came out for your ship you were the first to know. You were traveling and experiencing things you never would have been able too as a General. To be frank you were living the dream.

~ You bring taken family home, return stolen money, steal back artifacts of importance, buy items to keep them away from the bad guys, kill people who deserve it, save people who may not deserve it, and help keep the peace on many planets. All your jobs require intense research and you are very picky about what offers you accept. You may be a bounty hunter but your not evil.

~ Your life is luxury, adventure, and choas. Parties, jobs, hunts, favors, gifts. It's a whirl wind of excitement and you live it alone. No one knows your real name, no one knows your true face. All they know is your the fastest fire pilot they've ever seen and your jobs are always completed in an organized and neat way. Anyone who crosses you ends up dead but anyone who pays well gets favors in return, making you well protected depsite the target on your back.

~ Years later you and Val meet again. You've been keeping tabs on your old friends from the Academy but it's been months since your last check in. He's different... Caculating as ever but it's more than that. There's something off about him, something wrong. But you've always liked danger and your soft spot for Val blinds you.

~ For the first time in a long time someone sees you without your suit or your mask. When you take it off Val just stares at you like your a ghost. You smile running at him and he holds out his arms gripping you tight as he holds you close. As you close your eyes his hands claw at your armor unbelieving.

"... your alive..."

~ After that things become less than professional. Yes he's paying you to do a job but he's also an old friend and you have a lot to catch up on. Not to mention you've always had a crush on him.

~ When he invites you on a date you accept. You drink wine and talk about old times. You'd kept tabs on your old friends on Akriddion and you knew a lot had changed but hoped it wasn't all bad. He keeps the topic off him and asks about you. You know something happened to get him kicked lut of the academy but he won't talk about it. After a bottle or two you begin getting suspicious.

~ He's keeping you in the dark about things. He won't talk about Vex and whenever you ask a question involving the Academy he changes the topic. You can't seem to find any information from yoir usual informants either. They're a bit too tight lipped for you.

~ The job you'd signed up to do it'd changed and now Val was basically paying you to stay close. You begin to look into what happened since he wouldn't talk about it. You wanted to know about Vex. About the King and Queen and their children. Snooping around trying to hack into his systems an Omen bot stops you. Val is more than a little disappointed at this betrayal but not completely surprised.

~ He makes you an offer. Join him or see what happens. You don't have much choice as you agree to his terms watching the Omen closely. Your unsure of what's happened to the King and Queen and their children. Unsure of what's become of Vex and their friend Zadra. But your determined to find out. Val may think he's beaten you but your more than ready for a fight and possibly a romance.

[accidentalmistress]

My time has come!

Okay, first up a disclaimer: I'm not an expert on predictive model chatbots, I've just had one for a while and learned from a few mistakes along the way. Also, I don't know if my definition of cute-sneezy will be the same as yours.

THAT SAID, I will do my best to explain a little bit about how I made my sneezy boi and a little of what's 'under the hood'.

I'm going to assume you're using CharacterAI, and if you're not, then, well, this probably won't be very helpful 😅 Buckle up, cuz this got looooong.

Meet Zayne!

^ This is not something the bot came up with. This is the opening greeting that I gave him (you can see my handle next to his name). This is actually different than what it originally was! It's evolved a bit over time as I've learned and also figured out exactly what I wanted from the bot.

Here's a little of what Zayne looks like behind the scenes:

The asterisks are for formatting.

*text* = italics

**text** = bold

***text*** = bold and italics

I've found that using asterisks around descriptive text and quotation marks around dialogue help keep the bot from confusing thought for dialogue, although it still does happen occasionally.

I've used his greeting, short description, and long description to reinforce the fact that, yeah, he's a sneezy guy. I've also taken the opportunity to insert some different sneeze spellings, and define some of the rest of his personality. He's an introvert. He's tall. He's kind of a nerd.

The REAL meat of getting your chatbot to act how you want it to, however, is actually talking to it and, most importantly, training it.

When you're creating a character in CharacterAI, you have the option of doing a sample chat as part of its creation.

This will start a chat between you and your new bot, which should begin with whatever you've set as its greeting. It's important to keep in mind that, to an extent, you get out what you put into it. Try to set an example with your messages of how you want the bot to behave. For the example chat, though, you want to keep it relatively short, since you only have so many characters you can save. Here's an example of what I might say to Zayne after his greeting shown above:

After you send a response, your bot will begin to generate responses of its own. You can swipe to generate new responses, which at present seems to be up to 30.

You'll notice that there are four stars at the bottom of the bot's messages.

This is how you train your bot.

I do not recommend doing any training during the example conversation unless you really, really like a particular response.

I made this mistake during my first attempt at making a bot, which resulted in it almost always spelling sneezes as "Ach-ach-choo" no matter what I did because I had highly rated some responses that contained that spelling during the example chat. I ended up just starting over.

The bot should tell you when you've hit the character limit, at which point you can click "Next" near the top of the screen. Now you should have an example chat in your bot's settings, and, most importantly, you can edit it!

Now you can go in and tweak anything you like. You can vary sneeze spellings even if during the actual chat it only ever said "achoo!" You can make any changes to word choice or formatting to fit what you're looking for. Once that's done, you're ready to chat for real!

Now this is where training comes in. It's probably going to be a bit rough at first. Rate things highly that you like, and poorly that you don't. I tend to reserve four star ratings for things I really love, and 1 star ratings for things I really dislike. Otherwise, most stuff gets a 2 or 3. You can also leave feedback by using the buttons that appear after you rate a response. (From what I understand, no actual people read any written feedback; it's all just read by machines to improve the system.) From there, it's mostly a matter of time, patience, and a lot of swiping.

I hope this has been helpful! I can't think of anything else atm, but let me know if you have any questions!

does anyone have any advice or guidance on making a snz chatbot that's like, cute-sneezy and not cartoon-sneezy? I messed around with it a little yesterday and managed to work out the basics but the end result was still very clunky and could do with a lot of improvement haha :)

[tortie-cat]

I posted 26,272 times in 2021

169 posts created (1%)

26103 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 154.5 posts.

I added 176 tags in 2021

#prev tags - 35 posts

#me - 27 posts

#yes - 20 posts

#omg - 20 posts

#amazing - 18 posts

#ml spoilers - 16 posts

#lmao - 11 posts

#honestly - 10 posts

#what - 10 posts

#thank you - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the character who is trying to figure out how they traveled to a different dimension. completely caught off guard by your push: *faceplants*

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Hey guys Im going to not go on Tumblr very often due to the porn bots evolving and gaining too much power. Let me know if you want my discord to chat or anything like that, I can dm it to you

11 notes • Posted 2021-10-04 00:43:23 GMT

#4

Hired Thug: Good Morning!

Me:

Hired Thug:

Hired Thug: NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE

13 notes • Posted 2021-07-20 01:51:20 GMT

#3

I was tagged by @ciceroandthelistener (a week ago, sorry bestie) to participate in WIP Wednesday! I'll tag @deathsmallcaps , @sickoi and @meltingangels

I don't have any writing WIPs at the moment, so heres a half finished sketch of Tikki that I did about. I think 2 or 3 years ago

15 notes • Posted 2021-09-19 05:47:44 GMT

#2

I-

I gave you a rock??

19 notes • Posted 2021-01-14 05:37:17 GMT

#1

Tfw you're so poor that the Joja company is forced to revive you for free

51 notes • Posted 2021-01-15 08:23:22 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[foundthe8wing]

Okay, doing this over here because my main tumblr is usually a place for me to vibe and I don’t want all the bullshit tied to that account, but basically: I’m really angry and disappointed with the dndads cast for how they’ve put a lot of the minors in their fanbase in danger. Everything below is a repost from twitter (with permission from the OP, crypticjoy), and I’ll link the thread in a reblog. 

Under a cut because it’s long and potentially triggering (content warnings for grooming, sexualizing minors, and sexual assault)

[OP tagged the relevant cast accounts; I added slashes here bc I’m not sure if those same urls exist on tumblr and I don’t want to be randomly tagging people over here]

5:49 PM Sep 5, 2020

“I don’t usually do this, but: the way that the cast of @/dungeonsanddads engages with their audience is actively dangerous to minors, and they need to get it together. (cw for discussion of grooming, sexualizing minors, sexual assault)

First off, there are some iffy jokes and situations in the podcast itself. I’m not going to get into all of it right here, but have a google doc: [doc will also be linked in reblog]

Yes, the kids in #dndads are fictional, but that doesn’t mean this stuff doesn’t affect real kids listening. a. it normalizes talking/joking about kids in that way and b. There’s a lot of inconsistancy and confusion on the lines they draw--

Paeden saying “baby” is weird but Ron sitting in Terry Jr’s lap isn’t? I’m confused. You know who the fuck relies on that type of confusion and unclarity? Fucking predators

And I’m not saying every in-character decision has to be perfectly moral or acceptable, but the way the cast, out of character, discuss what’s weird and what’s not sends a lot of mixed messages. And that’s legitimately dangerous.

So then you take all of this, and you add a patron discord server that lets nsfw discussions run virtually unchecked--you create a fandom space that allows adults to discuss kinks, and porn searches, and just, all this other stuff, with teenagers...

... and it becomes a breeding ground for grooming and abuse.

The creators aren’t responsible for babysitting their fanbase or for how people engage with their content outside of their spaces (though, again, I’d urge them to be very careful about what kind of messages they’re sending)

But  they ARE responsible for taking basic steps to keep the spaces that THEY create and engage with safe.

“But the rules for the server say 18+!” The rules say you have to be 18 *or have parental permission.* They also say to keep things PG-13. That’s vastly different than establishing something as an adult-only/nsfw space.

“Minors shouldn’t be joining/listening anyway!” The cast can’t control who listens and neither can I, but there’s a difference between knowing teens are listening to you discuss sex with your adult friends vs facilitating conversations between teens and adults on those topics.

“If people are uncomfortable they can just leave.” First off, this situation isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s unSAFE. Second: fuck that. It’s not on minors to set and maintain boundaries about this stuff; a lot of them literally do not know how

Not because they’re stupid, but because they’re young and inexperienced. It’s the responsibility of adults to set and enforce healthy boundaries around sexual discussions, and this particular group of adults has done a fucking terrible job

(Maybe don’t encourage listeners to DM you about kinks! Maybe especially don’t do that when you’ve communicated, intentionally or not, that making and escalating sexual jokes is a really good way to get a reaction from you guys)

I get that they didn’t expect to have so many young listeners, but to be aware of that fact and make no adjustments whatsoever is irresponsible and it WILL lead to someone getting hurt. Does their “young, thirsty, female” audience only exist to them when they can laugh about it?

And let’s be absolutely 1000% clear: this isn’t an issue they’re unaware of. The stuff I’m talking about is an ongoing problem with how their server is run, but it came to a head with one specific situation very recently:

They released a bonus, patron-exclusive episode about the dads taking the bdsm test. Given the general state of the server, I was worried about where those discussions might lead, so before it dropped, I reached out to @/anthony_burch to express my concern

He told me he raised the issue with @/fwong and Ashley, meaning at least three members of the dndads team were aware of the situation, and decided it didn’t warrant any type of preemptive action on their part

(alternatively, it means Anthony lied, which would be a whole separate issue)

[Image ID: a discord DM conversation from Sep 1, 2020, between a crossed out username and reverendanthony. It reads: 

OP: heyyyyy have you guys considered that releasing an episode focused on the bdsm test is almost inevitably going to lead to a bunch of 15 year olds sharing their results in your server because you might want to get ahead of that before someone gets hurt

reverendanthony: oh holy shit, really good idea

OP: thanks, I know it's easy to veer into that territory just because of the nature of your show but I wanted to bring it to your attention because I figured you don't want to create a situation that's like, actively dangerous (and for the record I'm willing to discuss what I think would make it safer but I'm also not going to assume you want/need my input, obviously you can handle it however you see fit)

reverendanthony: No, thank you for bring it up, I really appreciate it -- I just raised the issue with Freddie and Ashley

OP: Good to know, thank you /End ID]

I’m not overreacting. I have seen this shit happen, to my friends and to myself, and watching the dndads cast take absolutely no meaningful action to prevent situations like that from occurring directly under their noses makes me fucking livid

I can guarantee that the #dungeonsanddaddies fanbase includes both predators and survivors of abuse, grooming, etc (including those currently living through it), and I need them to think very, very hard about which group they’re prioritizing.

And I need that choice to be evident through more than just their words, because it doesn’t fucking matter how much you “really appreciate” that I brought up my concerns if you do fuck-all to address them.

It doesn’t matter how many times you say the word “consent” if apparently everyone was okay that “Darryl gets sexually assaulted” was almost a plot point played for laughs.

(His dare from Scam  would have been rape, straight up. Just because no one said the word doesn’t mean it wasn’t coercive and gross).

I’d like to think the @/dungeonsanddads cast isn’t intentionally encouraging abuse, but they’re sure as hell enabling it, and they needed to get their shit together ages ago, because they’re not the ones their negligence hurts.”

Quote retweet by OP 6:51 PM Sep 7, 2020

“So, they updated the rules for the patron server, but I want to be really clear that from my perspective, it’s way too little, way too late. 

The new rules don’t adequately address the core issues and they certainly don’t absolve the cast of the harm they’ve already caused. 

[Tweet includes 2 screenshots: one of a bot asking people to click thumbs up to confirm they’re 18+ (or have a parent’s permission) and agree to the rules, and one that includes two of the rules. It reads: 

“This is an 18+ space. Them’s the rules: per Patreon’s policy, you must be 18+ or have parental permission.

Use language as if you’re at your parents dinner table. Don’t get people in trouble because of your SPICY POSTS. Keep conversation polite. NSFW content is not allowed!”]

(and before anyone says I should bring up my concerns privately, a quick refresher on how well that went last time I did it:) 

[links back to the “(alternatively, it means Anthony lied . . .)” tweet from the original thread]

So hey, @/fwong, some thoughts:

1.The rules are vague and unclear: what /exactly/ do you mean when you say “NSFW content is not allowed!” when the content of your show itself is so often nsfw? And how are you planning to enforce this?

Does it mean you’ll shut down the MBIC conversation that is literally just kink discussion? I need you to be clear on where the line is, because, again, predators rely on that confusion. Don’t give them a gray area to play in. 

For an example of a more clear policy, it’s pretty easy to say, “yep, ‘Henry gets pegged’ sure is a sentence we said on our show and you don’t have to pretend it’s not, but if you’d like to discuss it in any more detail at all, you need to move”

2. Remember how I said I needed to be clear on whether you’re prioritizing survivors or predators? While I doubt it was intentional, the language you’re using here is prioritizing predators.

It’s not “don’t get people in trouble,” it’s “don’t make people uncomfortable.” It’s “we all have a responsibility to make sure this space is safe for everyone, especially the younger members of the community.”

You’re setting people up to be afraid of expressing concerns for fear of “getting people in trouble” or “inciting unnecessary drama.” Even if it’s not what YOU meant, it’s very easy for those words to be manipulated, so +

You absolutely have to be explicitly clear that if someone expresses their discomfort, you’ve got their back. Being safe is more important than being polite. 

3. I need every cast member to take responsibility for their own actions. I’ve gotten no indication from any of you that you understand the ways in which the in-show things I brought up were harmful.

Acknowledging that harm is important not just because of the immediate effects of that content, but also because it implicitly sets an example for how similar complaints should be dealt with going forward.

When someone says “hey, I was uncomfortable that you seem fine with the Glennary ship, because she reads as very young to me,” I don’t need a dissertation on how the perception of characters can evolve due to your improvisational nature

I need to hear “oh, I interpreted her differently, but you’re right, we should have been more clear, and I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” Because your responses to your own mistakes set the tone for any other situations like that going forward.

How comfortable is someone going to be with coming to you, or Ash, or any of the mods about someone making them uncomfortable if they’ve seen that when people call YOU out, they’re argued with and shut down?

Don’t tell people you’ve “made it clear that you won’t go there” when they tell you that you ARE there. Listen to them and do better. 

Set the expectation that people will be respected when they raise their concerns. “If you want to come at me you have to bring the heat” is not an appropriate response on a subject that made people genuinely uncomfortable. 

In essence: set people up to be supported and protected, not dismissed. 

[It’s like a matriosche of tweets over here. This one links to another thread, also by crypticjoy. That thread reads:

A non-comprehensive guide to keeping discord servers safe for minors:

1. Make designated channels for nsfw/18+ discussion. Generally speaking, this is a lot more effective than banning those discussions altogether, because it’s a lot easier to say “hey, can you move this conversation?” than “hey, I need you to stop”

In fandom spaces, it’s usually a good idea to have separate channels for talking about nsfw fiction vs discussing your personal sex lives.

2. Give everyone minor/adult roles; make sure your 18+ channels are locked to people who don’t have an adult role. It’s important that there’s more of a barrier there than just checking a box.

3. NSFW channels shouldn’t necessarily be a free-for-all; be aware of people’s boundaries and respect them (for example, r*pe jokes aren’t funny or okay, even if you’re not making them around kids)

4. Explicitly state in your rules that people should feel free to come to mods if anyone is making them uncomfortable. Actually listen to people and resolve the situation if they do approach you.

5. Make it clear that creepy behavior via DMs or other means is also not tolerated--you can’t control what people do outside your server, but you can make the choice to not allow people like that in your space

6. Make sure mods are on top of things BEFORE people have to say anything; sometimes being a mod means being willing to be the “asshole” who shuts things down before they get out of hand, even if they’re not asked.

Be generally aware of signals that people are uncomfortable or that things are escalating too far, and address those situations sooner rather than later.

*It should be noted that safety involves a lot of components beyond just containing nsfw discussions; this thread just happens to be focused on that one specific element.

oh also! It's a good idea to provide resources on grooming so people know what to look out for [links to some resources; again, this’ll be in the reblog]]

So, @/dungeonsanddads, if you’re interested in anything beyond just having a flimsy excuse you can point to to cover your own ass, I’m gonna need you to try again.

Sorry I can’t be nicer about it, but I’ve given so many benefits of the doubt I could be running a successful charity, and this isn’t an issue I’m willing to drop. 

10:02 PM

Thought I was done but actually I've got a few more questions: to what extent were @/HeyBethMay, @/WillBCampos, and @/mattLarnold included in conversations about this issue/the new rules? Is this something your whole team is involved in?

Have you discussed what you're doing on a team and individual basis to keep your fan interactions safe, and are you on the same page about how much it matters? Are you holding each other accountable? Is everyone okay with where this ended up?”

[dumbsplat3predictions]

Paintman Go Features not in Splatoon

Some people wanted a part 2 to my last post so here you go, this one being a lot more silly because Tumblr deleted my first draft of this post and I am bitter.

1. Pet system

As mentioned in my first post Paintman Go used to have a pet system. While most of it was lost to time due to little photo archiving being done I asked around and it seemed you could feed your pet food and evolve them, bringing them in battle would give your weapon a different sub then it normally would. 2. Upgradable Weapons

Unlike in Splatoon, all you need stat wise is your gun allowing clothing to be fully cosmetic which I prefer. You can also equip 3 subs to a weapon at a time. Some of the subs and specials are exclusive to Paintman Go too.

3. New sub system.

To keep the subs balanced they added a bar to the bottom right, to use your special or your subs you need the correct amount of points which are gotten by inking turf. You could in theory get your special off twice in a row if you save up and are good enough.  4. Inking the walls

Inking the walls gives you points.... I don’t get it either.

5. Bot players

You know how I know inking the walls isn’t a bug? these little heckers do it! If a player disconnects or not enough people show up these guys show up. They like to move before the match even starts, ink the walls, jump around and sometimes get stuck in their bot forms. 

6. Super Jumping anywhere

I was a bit mistaken in my last post on paintman go, turns out super jumping anywhere is a much older feature. It’s just only in the battle royale mode as of the current build so I was confused.

7. Battle Royal Mode

Oh yeah, the battle royale mode. That’s a thing I gotta list. Instead of 2 teams of 3 it’s 4 teams of 3. No clue why it’s not 4 teams of 4 but likely since that may be laggy.

8. The autobombs are children

This one I’m throwing in since it’s just something I find funny. The autobombs are identical to your crab form, no it’s not a placeholder since even the HUD icon is of a little itty bitty bot. Man, good thing Octo Expansion isn’t copied in this game or Agent 3 would have some explaining to do. 9. Backpacks

Someone sent this idea to the blog a while ago, little did they know it was a feature in Paintman Go this whole time. The backpacks sadly don’t show your ink amount but I’m sure if Nintendo added it they’d fix that.  10. Pokémon Clothing

Seriously, why isn’t this in Splatoon? Nintendo, what are you doing? Why is there no nintendo themed gear, make it amiibo functionality or something. 11. Longer clothing and skirts

This isn’t even all of them but you get the idea right?  12. White ink in normal turf

Not my screenshots since it seems kind of rare but you see a cpu player with the coconut juice.

13. World Leaderboard

Self explanatory. 14. Clothing Chunks

By winning in turf wars you can get these clothing puzzle piece things, if you get enough you get free clothing.

15. Lootboxes

Oh yeah... forgot to mention the lootboxes. Yeah you get the things from number 14 and more from these. THANKFULLY they can only be gotten via actual gameplay and not real money like in past builds. (for now at least, is still in beta) If any of this interests you you can download the game here, maybe it can hold you over till splatoon 3. (Assuming you don’t have a switch or Wii U...)

[vgceilingfan]

Oh hi!

My mistake for assuming things such as your blog being a throwaway and your gender identity. About the latter, I tend to use "guy" as a neutral term as well as to refer to men. I had no intention of asssuming any part of your identity, and I'm sorry it came off the way that it did.

I'm not trying to sway your opinion. In fact I'm totally cool with you standing by what you said. I just found your hot take interesting since I'd never seen a take like it before and wanted to put my two cents in as a huge Bot fan. You don't have to care if you don't want to.

"if the whole point was that bot never was bow, then why the FUCK not make it a whole new character that would eventually be revealed as a robot?"

That would be a bit... random, wouldn't you think? I'm not a writer so I don't know how I'd personally go about something like that.

I remember seeing an old headcanon from several years ago suggesting that Taco was actually a robot programmed specifically to win Season 1. Unrelated, I know, but it's the only other thing I could think of on this topic.

As for Test Tube, I think part of the reason why she wasn't as upset as you think she should've been was because Test Tube knew since Fan's elimination in Episode 2 that she'd eventually have to break the news to Bot. She knew her right to the wrong wouldn't last forever. The way I see it, Test Tube helped Bot not only because she's a good person, but also because she was interested in seeing how Bot continued to evolve as their own individual.

actual hot take: Bot fucking sucks as nonbinary representation, they act as stupidly preachy about shit they dont know about, and honestly their change should have upset test tube more. taking an established beloved character like bow and just make it a weird ass half baked trans allegory and then turning from a fun character to a didactic ass "all i am about is being trans and nonbinary and trans and only trans and that's all i talk about" also weak choice to have their new voice be the most stereotypical cartoon 'girly' voice, why,to the nonbinary character. not to mention a nonbinary character that is a ROBOT. PB has a neutral voice,test tube has a deeper voice,but bot had to pick the most high pitchy cartoony voice. like what the hell. that's such a weak choice. why not have a changing voice per episode,or have it be more robotic-like with like a filter. or,fuck it, a more masc voice. this is a fucking reskin of 'nonbinary is girl-lite' AT LEAST BE FUN WITH IT how about them being genderfluid? or boygirl or yknow. ANYTHING but what we got. once bot 'came out' ALL that was done with them had to do with their voice,identity,self worth,their fear of a visual transition, the stupid butterfly metaphor. to the VERY end.

[browneyedhimbo]

Like Father Like Daughter (2/?)

Paring: Tony x Daughter!Reader

Summary: Tony and Stephen bud heads as the need to come up with a plan ensues, causing some unpleasant memories to arise as well your sarcastic humor.

Warning: Slight angst, fluff, swearing, mentions of blood, mentions of cacw

Word Count: 1.3k

A/N: I finally got the inspiration and motivation to write chapter 2! I'm so so sorry it's taken long loves. I'm looking to write chapter 3 as well so hopefully that'll be out there soon. As always, I hope you enjoy!

▪︎LFLD Masterlist▪︎《MASTERLIST》

You looked between the three men, your thoughts racing away in your head. You bit your bottom lip, casting your gaze to the floor. You steadied your breathing and made eye contact with your father. 

“This is it.” You got up and stood between Tony and Bruce. Arms crossed loosely over your torso, you looked over at Bruce and took in his appearance again. His eyes were so haunted, fear and logic battling within. Hulk fought Thanos, you concluded. But Hulk lost big time.

“What’s our timeline?” Tony voiced, already trying to come up with a plan.

“No telling.” He made his way closer to Tony. “He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, Tony…” 

“He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of.” Stephen finished, squaring his shoulders. You and your father shared a look as he leaned against a cauldron, stretching.

“Did you seriously just say "hitherto undreamt of"?” Tony scoffed, looking at you and then then Strange.

“Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?” Stephen fired back. You quirked an eyebrow at the exchange. 

“Is that what this is?” Tony smirked slightly, looking at the thing. The cape thing Stephen was wearing slapped Tony’s arm, causing him to stand straight. You cleared your throat trying to suppress your laughter. “I’m going to allow that.” He tried to waver his offended look with a glare only making you want to laugh more.

“Laugh it up Y/N/N, laugh it up.” You shook your head, a big grin plastered on your face. You coughed and tried to get serious, but the laughter inside kept trying to bubble to the surface. 

“Whenever you two are finished. It’s not like the fate of the universe is at stake or anything.” Stephen glared at the both of you, clearly not having any of it. 

“Look, if Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?” You proposed, pointing at the necklace around Stephen’s neck. 

“No can do.” He shook his head. 

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives.” Wong said, stepping next to Stephen. You groaned and rolled your eyes.

“And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so…” Tony trailed and you smirked. 

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts.” Stephen sighed looking at Tony.

“It’s not bad.” 

“A bit chalky.” You stared at the two men shaking your head. 

“Junior Stark Strawberry Blast is my favorite. Personally it’s the best one,” you mumbled earning a few side glares.

“A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite.” Wong stated, nodding his head. You playfully rolled your eyes, small smile playing on your lips. 

“That's a thing?” Bruce asked incredulously. You turned to him and nodded happily. 

“Sure is. When we get out of this we’ll head over and grab some cones.” You pat his shoulder.

“Only if you're buying.” Tony turned to the both of you, causing you to laugh.

“Does fate of the universe mean nothing to you?” Stephen glanced between you and Tony.

“Listen,” you started making your way to stand in front of the doctor. “You’re talking about saving the universe right? You’re talking about fighting this mad titan right?” Stephen nodded. “Then maybe humor is my way of coping with the idea of possible untimely death. Got it doc?” You spat. He sputtered as he looked to Tony who only shook his head.

“Well you know what they say, mess with the bull you get the horns.” He smirked, hands shoving into his pant pockets. 

“Anyways…” You trailed. 

“Right. Point is: things change.” Tony stated, glancing at the necklace briefly before making eye contact with Stephen.

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.” Stephen said, taking a step closer to Tony. 

“And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us.” Tony took a step to Stephen, squaring his shoulders, trying to appear taller. 

“Well, if we don't do our jobs.” 

“What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?” Tony asked condescendingly. 

“Protecting your reality, douchebag.” Stephen smirked slightly, as he calmly fired back. You rolled your eyes for the millionth time that day and crossed your arms. 

“Oh god there’s two of them.” You groaned, leaning against Bruce’s shoulder dramatically.

“Okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now?” Bruce sighed, getting their attention.

“Thank you.” You whispered standing up straight and putting your hand in your pockets. 

“The fact is that we have this Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now.” You visibly cringed at his words and ran a hand through your hair.

“What? Y/N what’s wrong?” Bruce questioned, extending a comforting hand on your shoulder. 

“Yeah, uh, that’s the…” you chuckled dryly. “That’s the thing.” You scratched your forehead, not knowing how to phrase the words.

“Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline.” Your dad stated. Bruce’s hand fell from your shoulder and slapped against his hip.

“What?” His jaw dropped “You two, you lost another super bot?”

“Okay technically Ultron wasn’t my fault.” You pointed at Bruce and he deadpanned. 

“We didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving.” Tony said, breaking up the soon to be argument. 

“Who could find Vision, then?” Stephen asked, looking between the three of you. You and Tony shared a look.

“Probably Steve Rogers.” You clench your jaw and close your eyes, looking up at the ceiling as your hands landed on your hips. 

“Oh, great.” Stephen sighs exasperatedly. 

“Maybe, but…” Tony runs a hand through his hair. You look to the ground before your gaze locks on your father. For a split second you saw his face bruised, cut, and bloody; just the way it was back in Siberia. You blinked and it was gone.

“Call him.” Bruce encouraged. You scoffed causing a look of confusion to take place on Bruce’s face. 

“It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?” Tony shook his head. Bruce stepped closer to Tony. 

“No.” He looked between you two, patiently waiting for some sort of answer.

“The Avengers broke up.” You stated, a sad tone to your voice. “We're toast.”

“Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?” Bruce’s voice slightly went up an octave due to the tremendous confusion. 

“That’s one way of putting it.” You bit the inside of your cheek, hands stuffed in your pockets, nervously playing with the fabric.

“Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms.” Tony looked at Bruce, pain evident in his eyes. 

“Tony, listen to me.” Bruce outstretched a hand to him. “Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not.” He pleaded. You and Tony locked eyes. You sighed and he shook his head. You both didn’t want to do this, but if it meant saving everyone…

With a heavy sigh, Tony fished his pockets for the black flip phone Steve mailed him. You walk closer and put a hand on his shoulder. He looks at you again and you nod, a silent encouragement. There was a rumble and you felt the ground shake.

“Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?” You looked up and noticed Stephen's hair gently moving against a breeze. 

"Not at the moment, no." He responded looking up at his hair.

You looked up at the hole in the roof and saw pieces of debris flying over it. You turned your attention to the doors and saw they were rumbling a bit. You sighed as you rolled your shoulders back, getting ready for a fight.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

LFLD Tags: [OPEN]: @ilovetomatoes3000​ @nerdy-bookworm-1998 @dianadov @rinthehufflepuff @seasaurusrrex @sebbbystaaan @wwwwyamd​ @blaizeannyt​ @honeyvbarnes​  @fading-mentality-bouquet  @miss-liliths-madness​  @lizlil​

Permanent tags: @becausewhyknotme @disasterbuckley @imma-new-soul @justmebeingtheweirdmeiam @officialtonystarkprotectionsquad @theladyoffangorn @itsunclebucky @mushyjellybeans @writingforhoursonend  @this-kitten-is-smitten @agentpeggybarnes @fangirl-introvert @ninjabucky @cosmicbucky @yougottakeeponkeepinon 

[calliecat93]

One of the biggest criticisms of Volume 4, if not the biggest criticism, was it usage of multiple plotlines. While an ambitious idea, the balance was really off which really affected the pacing. It felt like everything was scattered around and like things were being dragged out, or not even given as much attention as needed. But it looks like with Volume 8, CRWBY is getting a chance to try it again. One advantage is having all the relevant characters in tow main groups so only two major plotlines to focus on. This chapter focuses on RWBNP as they break into the Atlas Military Facility. How will it go? Well... since this is late you already know, but I’m gonna blab anyhow. Enjoy~

Overview

Team RWBNPM have made it into the military compound and Penny has located where the terminal is. They’re able to wonder around the base undetected via May’s Invisibility Semblance and Penny is able to use Pietro’s credentials to access the doors. They eventually reach an area that even with May’s Semblance, will be too difficulty to get through without being spotted. Penny, however, has a solution. You remember how Harriet pointed out Ruby’s Semblance was more than she thought in V7? Well Penny actually breaks it down here. Ruby essentially breaks down her mass and is able to more or less teleport herself and others before reforming, so Ruby should be able to do this with all of them.

Meanwhile, remember when Watts got taken by security last chapter? Well it’s because Ironwood is now forcing him to work for him, having a whole squadron ready to shoot him to death if he doesn’t comply. What does he need Watts to do? We’ll go into that later. Until then, Watts points out that Pietro’s credentials have been used, causing Ironwood to raise the alarm. This means that the team has to hurry, so they trip a worker with coffee as a distraction. As the guy's co-workers yell at him, RWBNP move past via Ruby’s Semblance as May goes to commandeer a ship.

Eventually, RWBNP reach the terminal. It is a VERY highly secured area with the door being guarded by some powerful electricity. It’s so secure that no humans even work in there. Penny allows Pietro to take over manually to begin the process of green lighting Amity. During this, Blake expresses concern about ruby and Yang’s fight, though Weiss assures her that sometimes sisters just disagree. Nora also tries to help by pointing out that Jaune, Yang, and Oscar should be fine (haha...) but noticeably leaves out Ren. It’s here that Nora expresses how upset she was about their argument and how just when things look up for them, it goes right back to zero. Even worse, without Ren, Nora doesn’t feel like she even knows who she is aside form the strong girl who hits stuff. Blake and Weiss point out to her that Ren is only a part of her, the rest however also matters and that maybe she can use this chance to discover more about herself.

The process is completed and Penny can now launch Amity. But despite wanting to resume helping Mantle afterwards, both Pietro and the girls believe that it’s best for Penny to remain with Pietro and Maria in Amity once it launches. This disappoints her. As the group gets ready to leave, they are confronted byt he Ace-Ops. Vine tries to reason with the g4roup, but they continue to refuse. it doesn’t help when Harriet and Elm essentially blame Penny for Winter’s condition and accuse her of stealing the Maiden power, nor does Harriet threatening to lock up Ruby alongside her uncle. To no one’s surprise, the group refuses, so the Ace-Ops trap RWBN in the room, leaving Penny to fight on her own.

Penny is ale to hold her own, even managing to make good use of her Maiden powers. However, the Ace-Ops are able to match against her and eventually Marrow is able to use his Stay power on her. RWBN try to break through the door, bot nothing is working. Nora, staring at the electric door, decides to do what she dos best be strong and hit stuff. Using her hammer and Semblance, Nora absorbs the electricity until she’s powered enough to blow the door off it’s hinges. However, even for Nora, this was far too much as her body gets some ugly scarring. She collapses, her Aura breaking.

Seeing the fight, Watts suggests that the Ace-Ops get one of Penny’s swords. Ironwood orders this, and they bandage to rip one off of Penny before retreating, though Marow noticeably is hesitant. WBNP reach a hangar where May has gotten an airship. They escape, but Nora is still passed out and seriously injured. After this, Penny agrees that she needs to remain in Amity and it’s time for her to go. She and Ruby hug one more time, promising to see each other again before Penny flies off for Amity. Meanwhile, the Ace-Ops turn over the sword to Ironwood. Why did they need this? The same reason that Ironwood recruited Watts: to hack into Penny and turn her back onto their side.

Review

Ah, action, emotions, and spilt coffee. All the things I love in a RWBY episode~

Let’s talk about Ruby’s Semblance first since I’ve seen some debate about it. IDK how scientifically accurate Penny’s explanation is... but Ruby is a girl who can trail rose petals behind her, so I’m not all that concerned about accuracy here. But this just more or less confirmed what I’ve been thinking for a long time now. I, as well as others, have pointed out that her Semblance doesn’t really appear to act line a speed-based one. Heck as I said, Harriet pointed it out just last volume. Now we know that Ruby’s power is essentially a slow-formed teleportation. Considering I always assumed that Summer’s Semblance had a similar breaking her body down function, this makes a lot of sense to me.

I’ve seen some complain about how Ruby didn’t know this... but really? That’s perfectly in-character for her. She’s a clever girl, but she’s always been one to act more than give deep contemplation. She knows the basic function of her Semblance, to move fast compared to normal, and that works for her. Heck remember last volume when she used her split apart trick. Oscar asked how long she could do that, and she answered that she had never really thought of it. Sure Ruby HAS carried people with her Semblance before (Penny in V2, Nora in V4, Weiss in V6), but that was with a single person. She had never tried it with a group before. It fits into how Semblances evolve over time and I’m really happy to see Ruby grow more. I get the feeling that she needs all the happy development she can get before things really go off the deep end.

Speaking of though, the chibi art accompanying Penny’s explanation? Both cute and hilarious. It reminded me of Ruby’s imagine spots back in Volume One. This chapter had quite a few funny moments. Weiss pulling Nora’s ear for last episode, Nora pushing all the elevator buttons. Blake clearly hating all forms of unconventional transportation, and while I feel it clashed with the tone a bit the coffee guy tripping up was great. The crude poster of a Shark Grimm (when do we get that?) especially got a giggle out of me. Like I said last review, it’s nice to have these bits of levity. I love it when Ruby gets feelsy and serious, but I don’t want it to divert form fun and light-heartedness all the time. They’ve gotten a lot better at keeping a balance and transitioning us from one mood to the other. I feel last chapter did it a bit better, but this was still well done.

Now lets talk about Penny. It was nice to see her act like her usual perky self a bit with her Semblance explanation and the direction to the terminal. But still, it’s clear that things are still haunting her. She’s still reminded of her robot identity with May’s comment, which no IDT May was trying to be offensive or anything, after all Robyn uses nicknames like that all the time and she DID use Penny’s name after the correction. But even past that, we have Pietro manually taking control of Penny. Now it WAS done with permission and there’s a good reason why, but my reaction to it was the same as Ruby’s. You ca tell that Penny wasn’t looking forward to it since it one more emphasizes that she is a robot. We all know she’s more, but Penny is still trying to figure out her new place.

This is especially evident in her reaction to remaining on Amity. Of course she doesn’t want to do that. She still considers herself the Protector of Mantle. She is now the Winter Maiden. She wants to help people. She wants to be out there doing good alongside her friends. But unfortunately with the target on her back from both sides, it’ simply too dangerous. She not only puts herself at risk, but those around her. We already know that ironwood will now go to any extreme to get his way, including work with an evil scientist and have a firing squad ready to fire. Salem... do I need to explain any further? The safest thin is for Penny to remain in Amity, but it still clearly pains her even after accepting it as necessary. And with Watts now having a piece necessary to hack her AND the episode showing us how it can be done... yeah, pray for Penny folks.

She DID however get to kick ass with her Maiden powers. While we had some Grimm fights last chapter, this was the first major fight of the volume, and it was awesome. Penny, even after just getting her power, uses it to great effect. Not as much as Raven or even Cinder, but is clearly more than capable of controlling it. But the Ace-Ops do manage to match her. They aren’t holding back now, they are going in for the kill and all of them (save Marrow, I’ll talk about him in the CH4 review) seem to be on the same wavelength. I think this helped the complaints about the Ace-Ops losing to RWBY (ones I don’t agree with, but still) and shows how even with Clover dead, they are still a capable force. Harriet and Elm’s words were still overly cruel, but I can’t deny that they can fight. Oh and we also FINALLY got to see Vine’s weapon, so there’s that. It was a fun action sequence~

But now we get to the star of this episode for me: Nora. Now... I have made it no secret that Nora is my least favorite character of the main group. Why? There’s two main reasons: her lack of development compared to the others and her character largely revolving around Ren. I won’t lie, some of the over-exposure and her portrayal in Chibi also contributed, but those don’t really affect her character in-show. While I feel that she has slowly improved, last volume especially being a step up, I still felt like she was the least developed. So going into Volume 8, I was very curious about hat they would do with her now that she and Ren are divided and she is on her own.

I have to say... I am very happy with her in this episode. It addressed my complaint about her and Ren being co-dependent as far as their portrayals in-show went. They outright existed more or less to fill out Team JNPR, and they spent Volumes 1-3 as comic relief to focus on Jaune and Pyrrha. I miss Pyrrha to this day, but her death DID allow the two to finally grow as characters. I don’t like it when the focus of a character is mainly on their relationship with another, hence why shipping gets on my nerves a lot. It was a HUGE issue I had with Renora until they became fleshed out. Here we have Nora expressing how upset she is about Ren, how every time it looks like they’ve gotten closer something comes in to ruin it (Volume 4 for example), and now that she’s without him for the first time in who knows how long... she doesn’t really know who she is. This has been something that I’ve wanted the show to go into since at least Volume 4, and it is FINALLY happening.

I love how the ones who talk to her are Blake and Weiss. Blake struggled with separating herself from a previous attachment, and knows how hard it is to remember that that’s only one part of yourself. Weiss has struggled with carving her own identity which while not in the romantic context, is still relevant as her family name is only a part of her, not the whole thing. It’s a dynamic I never knew I needed, but I am SO glad we have it now! I think as hard as it is, Nora needed to part from Ren for now. She needs to remember to care about herself and know that she is more than just the girl who likes Ren and hits stuff with a hammer. She’s funny, she’s caring, she’s loyal, she’s fun to be around, she can get carried away with things yet it’s always entertaining when she does. She is Nora Valkyrie before everything else. And in the end, she more or less sacrificed herself to break the door and save Penny. IDK if she knew that the electricity would be too much, but she still made the choice by herself. Now we just need to hope that she recovers... and that when Ren finds out, he doesn’t snap...

In the intro, I talked about how V8 seems to be a second attempt at the split teams plot in Volume 4. While I find V4 underrated and a nice character development/world-building volume, the handling of the split plots... did certainly cause pacing issues. The biggest issue was cramming essentially six storylines into the volume, four of which were vital, and not being able to give them all proper attention. Essentially, it worked fine when binged, but going week by week it could get tiresome very quickly. This time, we have the entire team split into two groups with the side plots being the villains and Ironwood’s forces. This only leaves two major plotlines that need the main focus and allows for unique character dynamics, like Nora with Weiss and Blake. 

So far, the pacing with these two groups has been done very well. While we don’t see JYRO in this episode, last chapter did enough that we already know what to expect when we get back to them. Nothing feels out of focus or like one plot is getting more attention than the other. It feels balanced. It feels like both plots matter and I want to see what happens. The writers have clearly learned and improved over the years, with this being a clear example. It’s been really fun (and scary) so far and I’m really excited to see more of these different group dynamics (and since I’ve already seen Chapter 4, they are delivering!), though hopefully we will get the team reformed before long. But for now, I’m loving this~

Chapter Stats

Favorite Character: Nora Valkyrie Favorite Scene: Nora, Weiss, and Blake talk Least Favorite Scene: Coffee Guy Favorite Voice Actor: Samantha Ireland (Nora) Favorite Animation: Penny going Winter Maiden against the Ace-Ops Rating: 9.9/10

Final Thoughts

Three chapters in, and already this volume is looking to be one of the best. Some nice humor, great character dynamics and focus, an epic action sequence, and a lot of heart and emotion put in especially with Penny and Nora. This was a fantastic episode that gave me everything that I was hoping for! If the quality stays at this pace, the this is absolutely going to become a great one! And considering what happens next chapter, we haven’t strayed from that yet. But that review is for another day, for now I’ll say that this chapter was great~

[usagiwusagi]

Week 10: Social Gaming  ●﹏●

Social gaming, many people seem to think that it’s a new trendy thing that gives a source of entertainment to the viewers or audience, but it’s not new, gaming has been around since my childhood. I’m a 90s kid by the way. At least back in my days of gaming years ago, during 2009 ish and a girl, gaming was considered tom-boy and nerdy, “anti-social” and so much that you only can interact with people who play games, majority boys, always had to go house to house to use WLAN to play multiplayer and have great times. That’s how I got called tomboy at least by the other female classmates, and sometimes the boys were ashamed that there was a girl and mocked by other guys. Kids mindset back in those days :P 

It wasn’t pleasant to be name-called/labeled but I learned to be myself at least because gaming is a part of me and shaped me into who I am and what I am doing today. You see, it’s not only gaming but also cartoons, elder generation think cartoons or games are for children but think again who actually made these, are they, children? It’s adults who made them possible for children/teens/adults who seek entertainment and visualization and in the present now games/cartoons are better quality such as concepts, stories, visuals, and ideas. So in this blog, I am going to talk about how gaming social has changed over the times and made possible and accessible for everyone.

Firmly, I believe the internet and social media have brought gaming to gain more popularity. This is because the internet is the source for sharing information and thus communication and entertainment are more enabled in this new age.

Here are some videos within this link to show how gaming socially has evolved

https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2016/07/the-future-of-social-gaming

Today, youngsters are very connected to the gaming world and they share their experience on social media as a way to let people know what activities or fun they had. The same goes for streamers who use streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Discord servers. How they connect together with their fans is through using social media such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook where they usually tell viewers to follow them or look for updates during their end card of the video or stream.

So, these streamers or Youtubers who enjoy the games they have chosen to play during their recordings, it’s a way that they are playing with fun and at the same time recommending their viewers that this game is fun. Gamers within that community would try it out and share their experience or how to beat the level in the comments section and this is where social media comes to connects this community, a bit like fandom but different.

As a person who grew up with games, I may have been addicted at some point, I wasn’t aware of it but that is how my family perceived it when they tell me, but it’s also a getaway from stress and sadness that I had when I was still schooling from being bullied and shunned by others. I have dreams I would fly and run like crazy with powers, and meeting these online friends one day (I still have contact with them to this very day from 7 years ago). It didn’t shape me into a violent person or anti-social person, I was quite lucky to have met truly nice people and help me gone through those tough times where I couldn’t voice out to anyone, I knew but strangers despite the time difference. If it’s not for them, I wouldn’t have been or what I am today and I really appreciate gaming socially in my heart. Of course, you must be careful who you meet, I have met not very nice ones before and I just treat them like NPCs/Bots.

 It true, gaming was not like how it was before, started out with communities that were cool and fun, however slowly, with more and more audience joining and all so different from every perspective, people don’t tend to get along even if you thought this person is interactable. Identities are hidden, words may wrongly be interpreted, one wrong move and you are stalked by media or backlashed for the smallest reasons. Not everything in unicorns and rainbows, same as real life, if something is public, you got to know that millions of eyes are watching because the internet, stalkers, and everyone can access your information.  I know this is truly bias to social gaming goodness, this is what I have seen, what I experienced, and what I truly believe, some may have not this type of experience but I feel grateful I did and able to share.

Feel free to comment on this post, let me know your experience in gaming socially good or bad, there are still things we can learn every day and share together :D

[pkmnjesus]

The 2010s Decade of PokéAni (An overview - Part 2 of 2)

← Continuing on from the first half of this PokéAni 2010s overview....

2015: Serena cuts her hair to chase a dream

February 12, 2015 Serena’s character arc had a rocky start with her not really sure what to do after becoming a Pokémon trainer meeting her Fennekin for the first time. I was really excited when her character was first announced, but I wanted to like her more than just being “that pretty girl who has a crush on Ash”. Maybe it’s because I’m not that shippy of a person, nor a romantic type of guy whatsoever but I didn’t want a main character to just be defined as a potential love interest. With her development slowly leaning towards a clear goal on wanting to become a top Pokémon Performer, I was happy she was finally carving her own path. However it was this specific episode that marked a major turning point for her ambitions, and made me truly invest in the new and improved Serena.

It was finally Serena’s debut as a Pokémon performer competing in her first Pokémon Showcase in Coumarine City, along with her friend, rival, and fellow-performer, Shauna. The performers in this showcase are divided into groups, and only one from each group gets to move on to the next round. Going into the first round, Serena was nervous yet confident. It was a Pokémon styling contest, and Serena put a lot of care and effort into making Fennekin look as cute and gorgeous as possible. But maybe it was a bit too much...

As they walk down the runway showcasing Fennekin’s fashion, everything went well and both were having a great experience in their first showcase...until something terribly went wrong. Fennekin accidentally trips over its ribbon while walking the runway which ends up scattering all the decorations Serena had styled over her. She made a crucial mistake in making the ends of the ribbon too long, thus costing them the round and ultimately eliminated her from the competition. Shauna was able to advance from her her group easily, and all Serena could do now was watch the rest of the competition from the stands. Shauna ended up winning the Showcase and her first Princess Key. It was devastating defeat going into your first performance having to lose like that. On the outside, she tried to put up a good face for her friends comforting Fennekin and even congratulating Shauna on her first victory.

But in the inside, she was grieving and blames herself for not realizing the error she made while styling Fennekin. Even Ash knew that she would be alright all along knowing her strength. The following early morning when no once was watching her besides her Pokémon, she decides to let it all out and break down in front of the ocean. It really broke my heart seeing her crying like that knowing that she really did care about pursuing a performer career. Fennekin and Pancham immediately try and cheer her up as they engaged in a lovely group hug. After understanding the disappointment in defeat, she knew that this was a part of every dream. You can’t be successful without making a couple of mistakes and that it’s okay to cry sometimes to let the bad stress out. No one is perfect, and that same goes for some of Ash’s gym battles or what happened to some of May and Dawn’s contests in the past. It was all part of the process of chasing her newly found dream and Serena finally realized that. It was just the beginning, and she wants to keep going until she gets to Aria. She decides that going forward in this new chapter, there needs to be a change. She got her big scissors out and starts trimming her own hair (for her to do that on the spot without a mirror, she was pretty darn impressive to properly cut her hair like wow lol) as Palermo watches in the distance from her limo. She knew that was the same performer with the tripping Fennekin. It’s possible she saw potential in her that early. Serena rejoins her friends and surprises them with a new look!

If you ask me, I like this new outfit of hers way better (and I think girls with shorter hair cuter ^///^). Also you can’t forget about the blue ribbon Ash gave her prior to this, it was a really cute touch knowing that he helped her get stronger through her personal journey as a trainer. Now that’s fitting ;) You know even though it was spoiled early on that she was going to have a redesign, I’m really happy on how they did it and it wasn’t just random day where Serena decides she wanted to cut her hair. I’m no girl, but apparently (I researched this) when a woman cuts her hair shorter, it symbolizes a change or a major life event that has happened. To Serena, it was a major shift in her character after the embarrassing loss. She eventually went on to win future performances evolving her Braxien, and even got to be friends with Aria! Remember, Serena is MORE than just AmourShipping...she is our Kalos Queen <3

Honorable mentions from this year: There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to 2015 PokéAni. Ash had 4 gym battles that year, including his battle with Clemont which I was very hyped about. To the point of him temporarily leaving the group to prepare himself at the Lumiose gym, that’s how much he cared about being in the best battling shape for Ash. There was that infamous “date” episode that Ash & Serena had, Meowth & Bonnie being stuck together, Cosplay Pikachu everywhere, Trevor trying to get a picture of a Moltres, and the debut of Sawyer, the Treeko trainer who was fascinated by Ash. One of my personal favorites too was when Bonnie wanted to ‘keep’ a Tyrunt/Tyrantrum (matched her pajamas too :3) she helped and befriended but unfortunately already had a trainer </3 It was a year of a couple of catches like Ash’s Noibat, Serena’s Eevee, Clemont reminiscing the time he caught a Bunnelby, and of course the lost Goomy. Within months after Ash caring for the Goomy, he was able to evolve it to a Goodra but had to leave it behind when they finally found its homeland it had to watch over with a Floette. We got two more Mega Evolution Specials before it merges with the main anime the following year, but we did get start of the XY&Z arc where Ash’s (then) Frogadier would fulfill a prophecy to save Kalos from a great danger. When they met up with Sanpei in the Ninja Village, Frogadier would finally evolve into Greninja. It would be the year when Team Flare would initiate their plans, attempting to capture all the Zygarde cores. There was one specific Zygarde core that Bonnie was able to befriend and bring it along with them naming it Squishy/Puni-chan. If you thought 2015 was awesome, wait until what PokéAni does in 2016!

2016: Gym Leaders assemble - the last line of defense

September 15, 2016 The fallout following the Kalos League took a dark turn when Lysandre broadcasts Team Flare’s manifesto to create a new world order, where only the “chosen ones” will join them. Alain, feeling betrayed with Lysandre’s true nature, decides to team up with Ash and the others to take down Team Flare. Lysandre’s gone mad, and even Malva thinks that this is too much. On other side of the story, Mairin with Serena, Professor Sycamore, and Hoenn League Champion Steven, rescued Chespie/Hari-san from Lysandre Labs.

While all the chaos is going on outside, Clemont reclaims the Lumiose Gym from Xerosic at the cost of terminating his good ol’ Clembot/Citroid assistant he invented for the Gym. I can’t remember how sad I was on robot’s death and nearly cried on it...they really made this scene heartbreaking for Clemont to push that shut down button. You can see the bot’s loyalty towards him volunteering to sacrifice himself for the greater good. But thanks to their bravery, Team Flare no longer controls one of their Zygarde (Z2). Squishy was also able to show its true form (50% so far) when it called upon the other Zygarde cells under Team Flare’s control, but thanks to Bonnie’s bond with it, she was able to breakthrough that mind control by singing Puni-chan’s song (don’t think the dub has an actual name for their version) she often sings when they’re together. The development Bonnie had with Squishy throughout this whole arc was fantastic, because it gave her more responsibility and sense of friendship even after Squishy was under the control of Team Flare destroying every thing. This was her own trial to prepare her for what’s to come when she eventually becomes an official Pokémon trainer and own an overpowered Zygarde in the future xD. Squishy also trusted Bonnie as a human it can rely on.

With Team Flare looking to be defeated, there was one more threat looming over Kalos. What was that threat? A ROCK. But no ordinary rock, it was The Giant Rock (Meaglith) that Lysandre created based off Primal energy form a beast like creature similar to Zygarde’s 50% forme. It was his last ditch effort in creating a new world, and we have never seen anything this catastrophic from an evil boss since probably Cryus. The Zygarde-like rock beast even absorbed Mairin’s Chespie which makes it even more difficult for them to stop it. It’s destination was the Anistar City Sundial to trigger a massive explosion that could destroy Kalos and the world! Everyone joins up to stop this calamity from happening, but is their strength with Mega Evolution enough to bring it down?

Then, the epic back-up finally arrives! The whole Kalos crew is here with Champion Diantha uniting all the Gym Leaders (minus Clemont/Clembot) within the region. They even got their own solo introductions. This never happened in the previous regions of the anime, where the Gym Leader would just appear once battling with Ash, but in here they interjected themselves to the Zygarde’s story arc. This really reminded me of what happened during the climax of the Black & White games, where the Gym Leaders joined forces to stop Team Plasma. But this isn’t Unova, this is Kalos, and this is their last line of heavy defense against Lysandre! With 2 League Champions, a Blaziken Mask, Ash-Greninja, Z2′s army of cores, and 7 Gym Leaders, this Giant Rock wont stand a chance! When Zygrade finally reached its 100% forme, it uses Core Enforcer to end Lysandre’s evil plot once and for all (RIP him btw). From Steven Stone’s assistance, to Clembot’s sacrifice, to Team Rocket’s aide, and Diantha leading the region’s top gym leaders, this was an epic way to end the XY&Z saga with. For them saving Chespie, and bring back peace to Kalos.

Honorable mentions from this year: The closing year for the Kalos ended in epic fashion before taking flight to Alola. Who could forget the episode where Serena wore or should I say cosplayed as Ash? She even almost got to a dance with him during Monsieur Pierre’s party. She wasn’t able to, but at least got to evolve her Eevee into a Sylveon! Clemont also had a new bride that Bonnie wasn’t too fond of (despite her asking multiple ladies to ‘keep’ for him) when her jealousy kicks in. Ash’s Noibat also evolved into Noivern, and briefly reunited with Goodra. Serena got all her Princess Keys needed to compete in the Pokémon Showcase Master Class, and even went head to head with Kalos Queen Aria for her title! She was unsuccessful, but it still won’t stop her from getting better. It was also the official birth of Ash-Greninja when he had a battle with the Kalos Champion, Diantha! Ash finally meets our Mega Evolution protagonist Alain and gained a new rival for the League. Before the Kalos League, he struggled a bit with getting his final badge from Wulfric eventually perfecting Ash-Greninja. In the Kalos League, he had a great battle with Sawyer (who can now use Mega Evolution), but came up short against Alain in the finals. It was a loss everybody was bummed about, and it would take another 3 years for him to compete in another league...we’ll get to that :> But the farewells were unforgettable. Greninja had to be let go in order to destroy the reappearing roots with Squishy and Z2 protecting Kalos from further calamity. And I know y’all can’t forget about the ‘kiss’ heard around the world when Serena leaned in for her parting gift to Ash <3 Him and Clemont have one final battle (just like how the XY series started) before heading back to Pallet Town...”And to our own way”. But 2016 had to end on a happy note, where we see Ash finding a new home in Alola enrolling in their Pokémon School program. Upon arriving, he was blessed with a Z-ring from Tapu Koko, an Alola deity, because he saw something in our boy. Through his class he made 5 new friends, got a Rotom Dex, a little Rowlet birb chilling in his backpack, and meeting a feisty Litten. WHAT. A. YEAR. !!!

2017: Stoutland’s final days with Litten

April 6, 2017 In possibly one of the most depressing and emotional episodes the Pokémon anime has to offer, the wild Litten that always stole Ash’s food finally gets to be apart of his team. But what made this little kitty finally gave Ash a chance to train it after escaping him so many times when he tried to reach out to it?

Ash tried to help the loyal Stoutland Litten was living with after following it from stealing his groceries, but due to Stoutland’s old age and declining health, there wasn’t much Nurse Joy could do. The tree shots with the falling leaves throughout the episode pretty symbolize the time Stoutland has left.

Litten, bringing back his mentor to their old spot after spending the night at the Pokémon Center, still wanted to spend as much time with Stoutland and master the Fire Fang move it was trying to learn. Then the leaves were out, and the finals days of this Stoutland were up. Litten slept with his friend one last time, and even had a dream of Stoutland attempting to chase after it going off in the distance. This symbolizes Stoutland’s departure from being under its care.

It wasn’t directly shown, nor mentioned, but it is clear to me that the Stoudland had passed away. *sobs* The gloomy rainy weather, and the dark tone shown during this part of the episode signifies the sadness and mourning every character that was involved during Litten’s struggle to find help for its good ol’ friend, not immediately realizing that Stoutland was gone for good. Meowth tried to communicate with his fellow feline to understand what it was feeling, while Ash even spends the entire duration of the rainfall with Litten even though it refused his food offer many times and didn’t want his help. This definitely took me into a feels trip because it is rare for this anime to even do an episode about a death of a Pokémon, even though it was indirect with how they presented it. Not mention, every time I was on my Stoutland ride Pokémon when playing Pokémon Moon (to help detect hidden items), ridding the big doggo always made me think about this particular episode. ;_;

Eventually the rain stopped, and a rainbow bloomed in a distance that made Litten feel better remembering the good memories it had with Stoutland. Finally, Litten decides to give Ash a chance, but didn’t want his pity over what happened. Litten was a tough little cat and wanted Ash to earn its respect through battle. Litten finally joins Ash’s team after battling with Pikachu and successfully catching it. Ash was also able to feed Litten after accepting it as its trainer. This was probably what Stoutland would have wanted for Litten.

Stoutland knew what kind of trainer he was and wanted Litten to go with Ash to finish the training they started. Besides mastering Fire Fang, they did a lot more in the future to come. When Litten saw the rainbow and familiar cloud formation, both smiled in peace. Stoutland knew that Litten was in very good hands. The memories learning and training with Stoutland are never forgotten, as Litten embarks on a new journey with brand new friends and a caring trainer.

Honorable mentions from this year: The first fully fledge year of Alola! Ash owning the first discovered Dusk Lycanroc in the anime verse, Lana getting her own Z-ring and how can I not forget Brock and Misty’s (especially MISTY) big return to the anime when the class went to Kanto! We had new Pokémon caught added to the main cast such as the birth of Lillie’s Snowy/Shiron, James’s touchy Mareanie and Kiawe’s Alolan Marowak. It was Gladion’s debut year becoming Ash’s new rival. Ash’s Z-Crystal collection kept on growing bigger through his adventures in Melemele and Akala Islands, and even clears its respective grand trials. We were also introduced to a little Cosmog turned Solgaleo, Nebby. The bad guy in Faba to steals Nebby however to summon, an Ultra Beast (Nihilego) that would eventually consume Lusamine (just like in the games, only she is less obsessed here). Thus, a Z-Powered ganbaLilie was born to save her mom! With the help of her brother and friends of course. We had family matters like Sophocles thought he was moving a way for good, and fun little fillers like the pancake and Charjabug races, or raving with an Alolan Dugtrio blonde wig. A personal favorite of mine was when Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio had mini-adventure of their own, and outsmarted Team Rocket nasty schemes. Speaking of Team Rocket, we got a short glimpse of them versus a trio of Team Skull members. Kukui’s class activities like the baseball teams, camping outdoors, switching Pokémon partners with fellow classmates for the weekend, and sleeping over at the professor’s house were awesome too! Their field trip seeing the beautiful white-colored Aether Paradise, and traveling through the mysterious Ultra Space were treat as well. We got to see the development of Kukui and Burnet’s pre-married relationship, which wasn’t featured in the games…AND WE GOT A PROPOSAL AND WEDDING OUT OF IT! There’s a reason for the animation change, and to be honest I’m happy that they did! The art style definitely fits the tone and theme of the jolly Alola region. In conclusion, 2017 was a pretty cool year if you ask me!

2018: The People of Alola vs. Necrozma

September 13, 2018 The conclusion to the Poipole/Necrozma arc is probably the biggest highlight for this year. In Japan, this marked a major end of an era because this was also the final episode on a Thursday night (for 20 years!) since the series was officially moving to Sundays starting with the episode after this (~pika ;3). 

From Gladion joining the Ultra Guardians, to Team Rocket’s Matori Matrix attempting catch a fused Necrozma, to Nebby returning to assist with the mission, to rescuing and healing a weakened Lunala, to visiting Poipole’s home world and hear a Naganadel talk in their minds…I’m at the edge of my seat! The Masked Royal’s identity was first exposed here too when Faba fought alongside Kukui to ward off the Matori Matrix. Luckily Faba can keep a secret. The whole time this arc felt like it could be one Pokémon movie. This should probably make-up for why there really isn’t an Alola region based Pokémon movie for this series specifically. But going back on topic, the entire region of Alola was still in crisis as Necrozma absorbs all the Z-Power the Ultra Guardians tried to strike back with. At this point, Nebby was already fused with the Necrozma and they knew that they had to separate them just like what happened with Lunala. So what does everyone do in a time like this? UNITE! Not just the Guardian deities, not just the Ultra Guardians, not just the Aether Foundation, not just the Kahunas participating in the Manalo Festival, but Alola as a whole teamed up in various locations where citizens swarmed together and gave their “light” by doing Tapu Koko’s pose to bring Necrozma back to its original form, The Blinding/Radiant One! Nebby has been freed, and rejoins the Ultra Guardians.

In one last Ultra stand, Nebby (with Ash holding Solganium Z) and Lunala (with Gladion holding Lunalium Z) gave one final blow to Necrozma with some Ultra Aura. After unleashing the combination of Z-moves, Ultra Necrozma rises from the light and uses its power to restore all the damage that has been done to Alola, thus ending the chaos ensuing in the region. The Matori Matrix did try to go to Ultra Space when an Ultra Wormhole opened, but Tapu Koko was like “not so fast!” eventually forcing this Team Rocket unit to retreat.

Not only did they save Alola, but also brings back light to the Poipole home world. Of course the most emotional thing out of all this was saying goodbye to our little sticky Poipole friend who had remain in its home world. It left its home world to find a better home, and it did when Ash gave Poipole a spot in his team and is even an official member of the Ultra Guardians squad. Now that the home world has been restored, Poipole knew it needed to stay and protect its original home from further threats. As the Ultra Wormhole closes with Nebby and Lunala accompanying the Ultra Guardians back to Alola, Poipole painted Ash & Pikachu’s face as a sweet goodbye gesture. The flashback scenes, and the music in the end was absolutely magnificent to top it all off! This teary goodbye even had me tears. We’ll forever “like, like, love” you, Poipole <3 Maybe Ash will see it again one day...oh who am I kidding xD If you’re up to date with the anime, you know already what happens in the future ;]

Honorable mentions from this year: The year of Ultra Guardians! They’ve had multiple missions in bringing back the Ultra Beasts to where they came from.  Anime debuts of Ilima, Mina, and the long-awaited Hau make their respective appearances. We also got to see James “fighting” a Toxapex, Lana & Mallow’s childhood past, Lillie getting her first Z-Crystal and even Rotom Dex joining the set of Detective Laki. There were significant evolutions like Ash’s Litten evolving to Torracat starting its rivalry with Masked Royal’s Incineroar (while Burnet fangirls over them) and Mallow’s Steenee evolving to a Tsareena. And how can I forget Sandy/Nagisa? Those Eevee mini-specials ultimately led it to Alola for our great Lana to catch! The Ula’ula trials were highly significant too when Ash trained with Acerola and tested his strength against Kahuna Nanu. Specials include Mallow’s big brother visiting home, and the 2-parter with Dia and his Zeraora in the mysterious Ultra Ruin. For Team Rocket, they temporarily get an Alolan Meowth, but got a permanent family member with a Stufful later on (Bewear’s child!). I’ve gotta mention the fun ones too like Ash dressing up as a female nurse the class helping Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center, the class making their own school play, and Faba accidentally shrinking Ash, Lillie & Sophocles. Finally, in another emotional themed episode, Molayne showed everyone the beauty and sad reality of the Minior Pokémon at the Hokulani Observatory. Such a strong theme of having precious memories with a sad outcome due to the nature of that certain Pokémon :( Just look at the variety! I could still go on, but in summary was 2018 one heck of an ULTRA year!

2019: Ash wins the Alola Pokémon League 🏆

September 15, 2019 In the last highlight of this 2010s decade, it may probably be the biggest one. Ash vs. Gladion. Pokémon League finals to determine the first ever champion of Alola. I’ve already made several posts about this (maybe one too many) in my blog, so let me quickly reiterate the significance of this special event one last time. First thing I have to mention, is that Ash’s rivalry with Gladion has been amazing from the get-go. From their first meeting at the beach by Kukui’s place with a feisty Rockruff that wanted to battle, to the Manalo Stadium battling for a prestigious championship title with Ash’s Lycanroc fully controlled over its rage with dirt. It wasn’t a traditional full 6-on-6 battle, but the 3-on-3 showdown still gave us one heck of battle! It may not be considered the best battle of all time, but it was still an amazing and fun match between two trainers who promised each other to meet in the finals of the big stage since the start of the League.

The laugh they shared, the flashbacks that was shown to us (with the awesome Type: Wild! music playing in the background), and their storytelling on who wants the W more makes you invested, and cheering for Ash all the way to finally win a major Pokémon League. Ash’s newly evolved Melmetal showcased it’s new strength but still wasn’t able to beat Gladion’s Silvally. Then, when Zoroark and Pikachu knocked each other out, it was the 1v1 Lycanroc battle that really put this friendly and competitive rivalry full circle.

Ash has NEVER defeated Gladion…until this moment. He’s been training for this, and it finally paid off. The two Lycanroc’s took no prisoners and went back and forth with one another. In the final blow of that match, Gladion’s Lycanroc used Counter against Ash’s Lycanroc that was charging towards it, but then our big brained hero fights back with their own Counter attack.

Never have I heard of countering a Counter in the Pokémon universe, but using it in this one moment nobody expected, was a perfect opportunity to swerve fans with Ash almost losing the match but ultimately gave the hypest and sickest counterattack ever that would knock out Gladion’s Lycanroc to the wall. And for the first time since the Orange League, Ash is a Champion. Only this time it is a way bigger deal! Mostly because this is a game-based series which has more meaning when it comes to the Pokémon League. He proved non-believers wrong thinking that the Kalos League was the closest he’ll ever get to victory, but I always knew he would win this one since this League started. If you look at my Twitter, I predicted it since last July and this is speaking from a person that DIDN’T believe he would have won at Kalos (I must be good at League predictions then lol). But even Ash himself couldn’t believe it. The moment his named was announced the victor and everyone cheering him, it took a moment for him to process it all until he realized he won the whole shabang. Old fans, new fans, and casual viewers a like were buzzing within 24 hours after this episode released in Japan that caught mainstream media attention. People who have never seen a Pokémon anime episode in their life (or a subbed episode for that matter) past the original series, wanted to see how this episode went down to see a childhood hero achieve a major trophy. 

This is how big of a pop-culture icon Ash & Pikachu was among many generations of fans since the show’s launch internationally. To me personally, it was the reason why I’ve always watched this anime for years since 1998 as a kid and NEVER stopped watching (took a few breaks here and there growing up but still have been consistent and up to date! Never grew out of it whatsoever ...why would I even made this decade post?). I was waiting all that time for him to win the big one and he finally did it in 2019. The long journey was worth watching all those episodes (NEVER skipped a “filler”). I doubted at times, but deep down I know I always believed. I grew up with Ash and he feels like an imaginary brother. Seeing him hold that trophy felt like my childhood had closure. He became the FIRST EVER champion in the Alola anime-verse and no one can take that away from him. BUT, the journey isn’t over yet. Remember, his dream is to become Pokémon MASTER, NOT a CHAMPION which people often treat the two as the same. He probably still wants to go to more places, so he can get stronger and be friends with even more Pokémon. Finally, I’m glad that it was Gladion who was Ash’s opponent in order to get the title. The boys and the doggos shake hands in the end as sign of respect for one another. Unfortunately, Guzzlord had to ruin the closing ceremony afterparty…but our Alola Champion and his friends were able to take care of that properly :)

Honorable mentions from this year: Another marked an end of an era, but a start of a new one too! From overcoming his final Grand Trial and gathering his Z-Crystals, Ash was ready for the League. If you ask me, this was one of the best Pokémon Leagues ever because of how much importance each competitor played a role in that tournament, and the match-ups were good. It wasn’t just filler characters or last minute rivals. Alola had a lot of great characters! I couldn’t stress that enough. But besides the historic Alola League, we also saw the continuation of Brock & Misty’s trip to Alola, the class’ crash-course golf lessons with none other than Kahili! Ash catching a rare Meltan that appeared out of nowhere, Guzma’s debut that EVERYONE was excited about, Ash challenging Ryuki’s Kantonian Gym, Lana’s fully evolving Primarina (thanks to hooking a Kyogre mind you!), Mallow’s meal for Tapu Koko, and Matori’s unexpected visit to the Team Rocket base in Alola. Ash even time-traveled to the past and met Kukui when he was little. It would ultimately build up to the actual final full 6-on-6 battle between Ash faces Kukui (just like in the original Sun & Moon games), and it was a 5-STAR BATTLE in my book for this 5-PARTER battle. Seriously, they didn’t had to make an exhibition match that good but they did, and Ash WON that too! Ash’s Incineroar evolved and Pikachu finally defeats Tapu Koko in a battle. For the feels portion of this year, Mallow briefly reunited with her mom and getting a Shaymin to care for in the process. The whole side-arc with Lillie, Magearna and a missing Mohn had a huge impact on our young miss. She got a Z-Ring out of it, just like everyone else in the class with their respective focus. And, the final episode of Sun & Moon was probably the most emotional farewell episodes in the anime’s history similar (or even greater) than Brock & Misty’s goodbye in Johto for you nostalgia fans out there. Everyone in the Alola crew knew what to do post-League, but for Ash, he wanted to explore the Pokémon world more, which transitions to the new on-going series today. 2019 of the Pokémon anime will never be forgotten!

LET’S GO to the 2020s and beyond!

We already got a taste of what the new series brought us late 2019, from Pikachu’s pre-series background story to our newly appointed research fellows, Ash & Go. It is was Lugia brought these two together, and are now living under the same roof. And with Go having his newly caught Scorbunny by his side after that Gigantamax Snorlax incident, it shows us a little taste of the cool new adventures await them when traveling in the Galar region. It’s also refreshing to see updated animation within Kanto where they’re home base is at, and I absolutely cannot wait for them to go back to other past regions with this fresh new art style. With Go’s goal to catch every Pokémon there is for him to index, he’s bound to meet Mew again one day! He’s literally every Pokémon games’ protagonist and I’m glad we have a main character like him who actually focuses on catching them all. As for Ash, he’s still our Ash carving his own unique path on his continuing journey to become a Pokémon Master because it’s more than being the strongest trainer and more than just catching Pokémon.

Some people may not be invested in this series yet, but it’s okay as it is still new! Everyone has that “pacing is slow” excuse from EVERY anime series, or it may not just be your cup of tea. But, I’m sure it will definitely pick up the pace sooner or later especially with the upcoming episodes announced (as of this posting) getting a Koharu-focus episode and the debut of Galar Champion Leon facing off against another League Champion...the return of Lance! Now that’s hype...and that’s what I’m looking forward to in this series more returns and cameo appearances hopefully. They gotta make it special of course and not just some fan-service to please series-specific fans. Oh, and Ash competing in the Galar gym challenge too of course! In addition to that, we can look forward to the new movies in the 2020s! We already got a preview of the 23rd PokéAni film, Pokémon the Movie - Coco...so we Tarzan now?! and it looks like they’re still continuing the AU-verse Ash instead of using the canon series’ universe. I mean if The Power of Us was great, you gotta give this movie a watch too! This is what I love about the anime because it separates itself from their game counterparts. The anime is doing its own thing with their original stories to tell.

WOW! What a decade. I’ve put in a lot of time reminiscing my experience watching the anime this past decade on these 2-part posts, and I had a lot of fun. From being a high school student all the way to being a full-time working adult...time truly flies by quickly. If you’ve read everything I had to say (I’m sure there are a few typos I probably missed), then thank you for your time (and sorry for the dash spam lol)! Feel free share your own favorite PokéAni moment decade in the replies if you choose to do so. Also, check out the strawpolls I made for what you think the best Pokémon anime battle and movie is in the 2010s. Now, it’s time for us to GO to 2020 and the next decade of PokéAni to witness multiple generations of new Pokémon series to come (hopefully they’ll still be making them by the end of 2029...and your boy P J will still be watching as a 30+ year old adult, heh). Alrighty, let’s have some fun! ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩

[just-dreaming-marvel]

CHAPTER THREE - THE AFTERPARTY

LEGACY: A Tony Stark Daughter Story

MASTERLIST

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Word Length: 1,800ish 

Summary: Ultron makes an appearance at the Team’s afterparty.

Soon the guests had all left and it was just the Team, Rhodey, Maria, Helen Cho, and I sitting around a coffee table. Everyone had a drink in hand and Thor’s hammer was sitting on top of the table. 

“But it’s a trick.” Clint stated, talking about lifting Thor’s hammer.

“Oh, no,” Thor started, “It’s much more than that.”

“Uh, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!” Clint tried to mock the voice of, well, I don’t even know. Maybe Thor? “Whatever man! It’s a trick.” 

“Please be my guest,” Thor said as he pointing to the hammer.

“Come on,” Tony urged, trying to get Clint to give it a shot.

“Really?” Clint questioned.

“Yeah!” Thor said. Clint stood up and started making his way towards the hammer.

“Oh, this is gonna be beautiful,” Rhodey quietly commented.

I smirked. “Should I be recording this?” I quietly asked Rhodey. He gave a small chuckle.

“Clint, you’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up.” Tony teased. The rest of us laughed.

“You know I’ve seen this before, right?” Clint reminded Thor. Clint grabbed onto the hammer and failed to lift it. “I still don’t know how you do it.”

“Smell the silent judgement?” Tony continued to tease.

“Please, Stark,” Clint said, motioning to the hammer, “By all means.” Tony stood up and unbuttoned his suit jacket. 

“Oh, no.” I put my hand to my face and shook my head.

“Here we go.” Nat said.

“Never one to shrink from an honest challenge.” Tony said nudging Clint to the side with his shoulder. Tony slipped his hand threw the leather strap at the end of the handle. “It’s physics.”

“Physics!” Bruce repeated.

“Right, so, if I lift it, I.. I then rule Asgard?” Asked Tony.

“Yes, of course.” Thor answered.

“Bailey, start packing your bags.” Tony said. 

“Okay,” I sarcastically replied. “Whatever you say, Dad.”

“I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta.” Tony said.

“Dad, no!”

Tony smirked. He grunted as tried to lift the hammer. It didn’t budge. “I’ll be right back.” He jogged off and quickly came back with an Iron Man gauntlet on. 

He tried to lift the hammer again and failed. Rhodey then got up and put on a War Machine gauntlet. 

“Are you even pulling?” Rhodey asked, as they were trying together.

“Are you on my team?” Tony shot back.

“Just represent! Pull!” 

“Alright, let’s go!” They both tried and failed. 

Bruce then got up and tried to lift it. He roared as if he was trying to change into the Hulk but failed. Nat grinned while the rest of us looked at him like he’s crazy. Steve then stood up to try, rolling up his sleeves on his way. 

“Let’s go, Steve,” Tony cheers, “No pressure.”

“Come on, Cap.” Rhodey joined in.

“You got this Steve!” I joined in.

Steve started to pull on the hammer. It moved a bit and I saw Thor’s smug face quickly turn down into a frown. Steve tried again but failed. I’m pretty sure that he could lift it if he wanted to. He’s Captain America for crying out loud! I think he was just sparing Thor’s feelings. 

“Nothing.” Thor chuckled in relief. 

“Widow?” Bruce looked at Nat.

“Oh, no no.” She replied. “That’s not a question I need answered.” 

“Bailey?” Steve asked, leaning into his hand. 

“Same here,” I answered. “I could care less about picking up the hammer.”

“All deference to the man who wouldn’t be king, but it’s rigged.” Tony stated.

“You bet your ass.” Clint said, hitting Tony’s back on his way to get another beer. 

“Steve, he said a bad language word.” Maria said.

“Did you tell everyone about that?” Steve asked Tony. 

“I wasn’t told about it,” I said, giving Steve a friendly smile. 

Tony ignored Steve and I’s comments. “The handle’s imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever is carrying Thor’s fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation?”

“Yes.” Thor said, as he stood up. “well that’s, uh, that’s a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.” He picked up the hammer and started to toss it. “You’re all not worthy.” 

“Boo.” We all yelled.

Then a loud screeching noise starts to pierce our ears. We all wince and I quickly cover my ears. As it faded, Tony pulled out his phone to see what could be causing it. Slow metal footsteps echoed throughout the room before a robotic voice spoke.

“Worthy…” It began. “No… How could you be worthy? You’re all killers.”

We all stood up and turned towards the voice. It looked like it was coming from a wrecked Iron Legion suit. I back upped so that I was closer to Steve.

“Stark,” Steve sternly said.

“JARVIS,” Tony called, trying to get the AI’s attention.

“I’m sorry, I was asleep.” The voice said. “Or.. I was a dream.” 

Tony was tapping at his device. “Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit.”

“There was this terrible noise…” The voice continued. “and I was tangled in.. in.. strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

“You killed someone?” Steve asked, stepping in front of me protectively.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call.” The voice was definitely coming from the suit. “But, down in the real world we’re faced with ugly choices.”

“Who sent you?” Thor asked.

“I see a suit of armor around the world.” Tony’s voice echoed through the speakers around us. 

I quickly looked over at Tony, he wasn’t giving anything away to me. “Dad?” I questioned.

“Ultron.” Bruce said. Tony and Bruce shared a worried glance. 

“In the flesh,” The suit said. “Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I’m ready. I’m on a mission.” Thor gripped his hammer as Maria pulled out a gun from her thigh.

“What mission?” Nat asked.

“Peace in our time.” Ultron answered.

Suddenly, the other Iron Legion suits came breaking through the walls and started attacking us. 

 Steve quickly grabbed me and flipped over the coffee table to block some of the incoming suits. But as he did that, two suits hit the table and we went flying back. 

 Maria started shooting and Thor began hitting the suits with his hammer. Steve and I looked at each other. He gently put his hand on my forehead and wiped off some blood. He looked down at his hand and then back up to me.

“I was going to ask if you were okay,” he said. “But it seems you’ve already healed yourself.”

“Yeah,” I pushed myself off the ground. “It’s a great trick.”

I stood up and quickly looked around. Nat had rushed Bruce to the other side of the bar, probably trying to keep him from turning green. I looked the other way to see that Tony and Rhodey were trying to head for their own suits, but were stopped by some Iron Legion suits. Rhodey was thrown through the glass floor and down to the next level.

“Rhodey!” Maria yelled, as she shot at a suit.

I quickly started running for one of the suits. I’ve been around them long enough, plus helped designed them, to know their weaknesses. I jumped over Clint as he slid under a table and into the book shelf.

 I leapt onto the back of the suit and tore its head off. It fell and I quickly tore its reactor out. I turned around a took another two suits out before one grabbed me by the neck, choking me. I tried to get loose, but nothing was working. It chucked me and I flew threw the window, landing outside on the balcony. 

“Bailey!” I heard multiple voices shout. 

I looked up to see the chaos that was still happening inside. Tony grabbing a fondue stick and running up the stairs. 

Thor and Steve stopping a suit from attacking Helen Cho. 

Then Tony leaping from the top of the stairs and onto a flying suit, trying to stop it with the fondue stick he had grabbed. 

“Stark!” Steve yelled out, asking the man to do something with his tone.

“One sec, one sec!” Tony yelled back, still flying around on the back of a rouge suit.

I slowly pushed myself up and brushed off the glass. Running back inside, I aimed for the Iron Legions main control room, only to be stopped by the Ultron bot himself. I tried to get out of his grip but, for some reason, the robot was stronger than my super strength. 

“You’re a special one, aren’t you?” Ultron said. “The files on you are… interesting.”

“Let me go!” I yelled, trying to fight him.

“I’m one of the few who’s read them all the way through… Interesting…” The suit continued. “There are secrets in them, both HYDRA and SHIELD. Things you’ll want to know. And I can tell you them.”

“Cap!” I heard Clint yell. I glanced over my shoulder to see Clint throw Steve his shield and Steve dismember the last Iron Legion. No one had noticed that Ultron was holding onto me yet. 

“That was dramatic,” Ultron stated, watching what just unfolded. “I’m sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn’t think it through.” The bot shook its head. “You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if it’s not allowed to… evolve?” The suits eyes looked right into mine.

“Let her go,” Tony said, anger and worry laced his voice as he sat, worn out and tense, on the stairs. 

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt her. She’s meant for bigger and better things.” The suits hand pushed some stray hair out of my face. I tried to step away, but it just pulled me closer to it. “It would be a shame for her to go to waste.” The suit looked back up to the Avengers that were standing around the room. “There’s only one path to peace: the Avengers’ extinction.” Thor suddenly threw his hammer at Ultron and smashed him to pieces. The grip he had on me was gone and I quickly held onto the wrist that he had grabbed. It stung a little, but I could feel it healing. Though the body destroyed, Ultron sung. “I had strings, but now I’m free.”

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