#goh icons

[g0romajima]

Eunyung Baek in episodes 1-3 of No Home, the animated series

[stgosupremacy]

Ash: "Goh! It looks great on you. What a uniform." 😃

Goh: "oF CoUrsE! 💅🏼 EVERYTHING looks good on me!"

...

you know when the first few seconds of a new series has Ash and Goh flirting that it's going to be a good one

(help the blush the lashes LMAOO and ALL ABSHAHDNMFS) even sobble just looking at Goh like help wtf

ok but srsly how did journeys think they would get away with that 🙄 i am pretty sure the sub was even more obvious 😂

oh well you tried

CHLOE TOTALLY KNOWS LMAOOOOOOO she is unimpressed by Gohs hopeless attempts but- i am too girl. i am too

[tetsuospoohbear]

Some Pride Icons that I made on PicsArt. 💛🩷🤍🧡🐰🐶

[zuala-bear]

✨ Commissions✨

So- I'm finally attempting at putting my art to - uh - good use!

CashApp: $AzLee23

Discord: ZualaBear #6790

For Contact, feel free to use Tumblr DMs or Discord! This post is a tad outdated, but if you have any questions, feel free to let me know! I'm sure we can work somwthing out :p

Examples!

[pokeficdaily]

when did you guys get into pokefic? have you ever dug into the rlly old stuff before the XY era, like those old pikachu X eevee love story type videos? those were my favorites when i was a kid lol

OH YEAH i used to watch the pikachu/eevee ones when i was a kid too! im gonna delve into those a bit more to see what gems i can find there.

as for when we took up a genuine interest it was earlier this year and i think i just randomly came across a 3 hour long ash/chloe fic on youtube and the length was so absurd to me (no offense to the creator) that i sent it to mod bee and we both watched it and just sorta. became obsessed with pokefics sjhejdksnd

[pokemon-ing]

This week’s theme is ‘Blue’!

[commajade]

ahh jeong nyeon drama discourse among korean lesbians is so complex because the original manhwa interrogates gender and represents lesbian genders and lesbian love on such a real and straightforward level that a lot of them feel betrayed and refuse to watch it at all. for lesbian manhwa fans taking out buyong and mr. goh make the whole drama pointless and casting lesbian icon kim taeri even more disappointing.

but at the same time it makes complete sense for the drama to cut those characters because it only runs for 12 episodes and all the top tier actors in the cast are spending 1-3 years learning pansori and traditional acting and dance and martial arts, the show Has to prioritize talking about the artform and exploring these characters. and the way that okgyeong is depicted is absolutely fresh and radical and having such a deeply feminist storyline that's completely uninterested in men is so fresh and radical. and really risky with the current political climate. the drama could not have been this successful without the changes they made and the manhwa writer and artist love the drama and now thousands more people are interested in female gukgeuk and in reading the original manhwa so i feel like it had to be done.

if the political climate was different and the drama was allowed to be like 26 episodes or something they would've kept buyong and mr. goh in and it would've been a better drama for sure. but for what it is i'm personally satisfied? we have to see how they handle the plot to the end.

[sinnohanvulpix]

Sawyer is neurodivergent and you can't change my mind

Last year for Autism Acceptance Day, my good friend @pikatrainer99 and I did a collab post about Goh and our headcanon of being him autistic. Here's a link to that post if you'd like to check it out:

Today, we'd like to talk about Sawyer from Pokemon XY, another character who we both headcanon as autistic, and who means the world to me.

Let's start with his special interest, Pokemon battles. In all of Sawyer's appearances, we can clearly see his desire to learn as much as he can about battling and to grow stronger. He greatly admires strong trainers like Steven Stone and Ash. I mean, just look at how excited he gets when he hears that Ash had won five badges!

And that's exactly what he does for the rest of the series. He spends so much time studying and training that he manages to catch up to Ash within a just season's worth of episodes! But we'll get to that later.

Before going into detail about his most obvious traits, let's go over some of the traits that we only see for brief moments, starting with his sensory sensitivities. In episode 73, we see him getting visibly overwhelmed when the crowd around him, Ash, and Clemont suddenly starts cheering. We also see him shielding his eyes from Spritzee's Dazzling Gleam attack during his battle with Valerie. Note that he's the only one to react this way to both situations. I don't know about you, but I have yet to meet a single autistic person without some kind of hypersensitivity to noise, bright light, smell, texture, etcetera.

We also see in the following episode that he sometimes unintentionally gets too close to people when he's excited, not noticing their discomfort. We see this after Ash wins his gym battle with Valerie, and Sawyer is so beyond amazed and eager to learn from him that he momentarily forgets how to act "socially appropriately". Ash and his friends are visibly uncomfortable, but of course, because they're all so kind and supportive, they don't judge him for this 🥺

We also see in the first episode of XYZ that he's an amazing artist. And I mean, AMAZING! He can literally draw Squishy the Zygarde Core exactly how it looks in its official artwork, despite only having seen it for the first time that day! While not every autistic person has to have a talent like this, it's definitely not uncommon. Growing up, Pika and I both used to draw a lot, and our drawing skills were one of the few things we took pride in because of how much praise we got for it.

Now let's talk about one of his most adorable traits, which is his habit of saying, "I've gained some EXP!" Clearly he's into video games and enjoys feeling like he's in one, because this is definitely not something you typically hear in real life. This kind of escapism is quite common in autistic people, Pika and I included. In a world that's not built for us, sometimes imagining ourselves in a fictional world that we love can be really comforting and even inspiring in some cases.

You've probably noticed that Sawyer is holding his notebook in all of the last three screenshots, which is also something I'd like to get into. Not only is his notebook a crucial part of his character, but it's also a security item. Pika and I both have security items of our own, namely our phones and our favourite Pokemon plushies, which helps bring us a lot of much-needed comfort. In episode 75, we see just how panicked Sawyer gets when he temporarily loses his notebook, which quickly leads to him becoming depressed.

We know that he values his notebook deeply because it contains all he's learned on his journey, as well as an autograph from Steven Stone. But if you look deeper, it becomes clear that it's even more to him than that. He holds his notebook close to his heart, both metaphorically and literally. He hugs it after receiving approval from Ash (which I'll also get to later) Heck, he even attached his Key Stone to it! He cherishes this notebook like it's his baby, and we find that so adorable and relatable!

Okay, now it's time to get into what's arguably the saddest part of his character: his constant need of approval from others. Pika and I, as well as countless other autistic people, are no strangers to self-doubt, especially in a world where we can't meet a lot of people's expectations. Sawyer likely grew up feeling this way too, which would explain why he's always seeking Ash's approval, since Ash is the one he looks up to the most. Throughout the series, Sawyer's constantly trying desperately to catch up to him. What's even more heartbreaking is that even after he beats Ash, he still needs reassurance from him that he's become strong 🥺

And to make matters worse, he's constantly masking his frustration whenever he fails to beat Ash. The autistic community is definitely no stranger to masking either.

It's not until the episode after his Kalos League battle with Ash when we finally see Sawyer breaking down. All those hours of training to catch up to Ash only led to him losing again in their most important battle yet. He was devastated, but he couldn't show that in front of Ash out of fear of being judged. Once he and Sceptile were alone, however, Sawyer was finally able to let out all the built-up frustration. And oh boy, was it emotional to watch...

But being the resilient trainer he is, Sawyer quickly dried off his tears and reaffirmed his desire to become stronger.

It takes a lot of strength to bounce back from something like this. I also went through a lot of inner turmoil around the time XYZ was airing. But seeing Sawyer bounce back like this inspired me to keep going, and make it through the rest of that year with Sawyer as my main source of comfort.

Needless to say, I see a lot of myself in Sawyer, and so does Pika. Not only is he relatable, but his story is also a great reminder that no matter how bad things feel in the moment, we can always make it out the other side. This is an important message for a lot of people, especially within the autistic community.

Even after all these years, I still find lots of comfort in Sawyer, and I know that'll last for many more years to come 💚

[zombiibi]

More K-On && Pokemon icons !!

please credit me if using ~

Pokémon && K-on Christmas layouts — self indulgent

more k-on && pokemon icons to match coming soon !!

please credit me if using ~

[chireikiden]

Some unsorted (initial, I guess) retrospective thoughts on The Magician Who Loved a Fake.

First of all, Magician revisits a lot of themes and plot elements from Ashiyama’s two older doujins, Imaginative Power of Meiji ✕✕ (Reimu’s youth and struggle with her role) and especially Koushin Night (Marisa’s relationship with her dad, and even the part where she makes medicine for him). The final battle in Magician happening on the night of Koushin is a very blatant callback there. They don’t fit into the same continuity or anything, but I highly recommend reading them after Magician if you hadn’t read them before. They’re good.

===================

I loved (heh) how the meaning of the title kept getting expanded on. Is the “fake” that Marisa loves magic itself? Her dream? Her lifestyle? Herself? Reimu? Her image of Reimu? And whatever it is, will she still love it by the end? In the end, the answer was “yes” to all of those. If you’re gonna told me you took it for granted that Reimu was a candidate for the position of “fake” too, well, good for you I guess. But for me, that dawning realization was one of my favorite moments in reading this series.

Similarly, I enjoyed how at least my own impression of what the plot was “about” shifted over time. Of course, on a surface level, there’s the Magician Incident, but it’s never really sold as a huge deal in and of itself: it’s probably pretty clear from the start that it’s a lead-in to something more important. By Chapter 2, you’re led to think that the main conflict might be about Marisa becoming or threatening to become a youkai magician. “Reimu deals with Marisa becoming a youkai” is one of the most iconic and well-established plots in the Touhou fandom, with a lot of different takes, but possibly a risk of oversaturation as a result - at least as someone who’s translated a lot of them. I can’t help but wonder if that was a conscious reason that it ended up being teased and then subverted here.

Even as the story mainly focuses on them dealing with the Magician Incident, which starts developing new twists, the threat of a more important personal conflict looms in the background where Marisa has pushed it. In Chapter 9, the crisis of Marisa becoming a magician is suddenly and completely replaced by her personal crisis over not being one anymore. Reimu acts seemingly aloof about it at first, but by Chapter 11, Marisa has kind of settled into the new status quo while the story suddenly becomes about Reimu’s crisis over it – more or less the polar opposite of the conflict foreshadowed since Chapter 2, and of the usual trope. I think part of the reason Marisa settles into the village life is that Reimu is still there. When she disappears, Marisa misses Reimu first and foremost, and magic as the proxy that allows her to be with Reimu (as she admits out loud in Chapter 12).

Gensokyo of Humans did something slightly similar, with how the acute problem of Akyuu’s memory loss and impending death - while still serious - gave way to her much deeper misgivings about her lot in life. Although, in GoH’s case these problems were closely intertwined and mostly ran side-by-side rather than replacing one another as a twist, so it’s not the exact same or anything.

Even though Ashiyama’s on Twitter joking “Fooled you! This was a ReiMari manga from the start!” I think you can’t in all honesty call that a last-minute twist or rug pull or anything, as some people have taken it almost in bad faith. While it was arguably up in the air until Ch. 11 or so whether Reimu and Marisa’s relationship would be at the center of the story or not, I think by then it became well-established as the actual point of conflict (though as I explained above, it was there from the start).

In a related manner, from the very first cover page and announcement, the story is presented as an action-packed adventure manga. I don’t know how much of this was just marketing, but by SCoOW standards, it wasn’t wrong: at first, every chapter features at least one major combat scene. Thus the end of Chapter 8 is felt even on a meta level as the action comes to an end with a crunch and disappears from the story entirely. Marisa and Reimu’s grief over the loss of her magic is made a lot more real by the fact that much like Marisa’s life, the manga’s whole genre takes a shift (arguably towards something more normal for Ashiyama). Of course, Magician was never trying to present itself as an exaggeratedly happy-go-lucky shounen that would make this come across as an attempt at shock-value genre deconstruction or anything; but the complete disappearance of action from the manga reflects its disappearance from Marisa’s life in a way that wouldn’t come across if we’d never been shown that action to begin with. Of course, it’s still understandable to be annoyed by that if you preferred the action.

Personally, I absolutely liked the action scenes too, but they were maybe a little detached, and this shift made it easier to become invested in the emotional core of the story. (Of course, it also happened at the same time that the story became more emotional in general, so it’s hard to separate correlation and causation there.) And naturally, the final battle was great, both in its presentation and what it represented for Marisa as a character at that point. The way she’s forced to fight now - yet fights, and wins nonetheless - provides a big contrast for how she fought early in the series, when she was the second most powerful human in Gensokyo.

===================

Speaking of the “final” battle, let’s address what to me feels like something of an elephant in the room: similar to GoH, Magician has kind of a two-climax structure, where the story hits its first peak a bit earlier but then still needs to carry that energy forward to a second peak. Objectively that space between peaks is only like one chapter here, but it ends up feeling a lot longer. I was surprised but glad to see the inquisitor and witch’s story brought back and tied into the current one, but in retrospect, the pacing does suffer because of the page space dedicated to it then and there, when the story should be riding every bit of momentum from the final battle to the emotionally more significant ReiMari reunion.

While giving every bit of benefit of the doubt regarding the realities of working on a monthly manga, the squeezed pacing of the final chapter is the clearest criticism I have for this series. While it maybe says everything it needs to say - much of it being Marisa and Reimu telling each other what they have already told the audience, which is important - emotionally, it doesn’t work as well as it could, and kinda leaves the reader to expand on it in their own head. Having to digest an ending isn’t a bad thing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true it lacked some oomph.

In GoH’s case, the emotional resolution came first and then had a relatively smooth falling-action slide into the practical resolution. Here it kinda felt like the other way around, and didn’t work out as well. This model/theory I keep talking about might well be flawed and overly based on comparisons to GoH, though.

===================

Marisa’s stay at her father’s includes multiple other characters speaking with authority about how it’s a good thing, basically trying to decide her life for her the way her father used to. However, Byakuren and Kourin are both only projecting their own attitudes onto her and acting sanctimonious about it without really understanding either her background or her present situation. Byakuren of course is an outsider in general, and her armchair psychology and talk of filial piety come across as rather out of touch, but even Kourin, who ought to know Marisa pretty well and in many ways does, has his head too far up his behind to see Marisa’s lifestyle as anything but an imitation of himself, caused by his influence. He takes it upon himself to “fix” it by forcing her back home, and even decides that he must disappear from Marisa’s life entirely or she’ll follow him back to the wrong path again like the child she is. Even above that infantilizing attitude, him deciding to abandon Marisa for good would probably have hurt her more than anything else he’d done, possibly a far worse abandonment than that by her father.

Kourin does throw in valid and I’m sure honest concerns about things like Marisa hurting herself (she was indeed acting irrational and self-destructive - though her literal suicide attempt only came after his and Reimu’s abandonment), but it’s hard to see his other behavior as grounded in anything but personal bias. Whether or not this is intentional and without drawing too strict connections between different doujins, his behavior here and in Imaginative Power of Meiji ✕✕ makes it look like he has a streak of putting Reimu and Marisa in bad situations just to satisfy his own self-righteous moral of the story, even though he’s always been the closest, most trusted adult for both of them.

I’m generally not the type to demand that characters get their “comeuppance”, but man, Byakuren at least admitted (in her mind) that she was manipulating Marisa. Even though I find this Kourin really interesting as a character, I couldn’t help but want some kinda acknowledgment - be it by himself or by someone else - that he was kind of a prick. I wish his and Marisa’s reunion had been shown rather than happen between scenes, at least.

===================

All in all, Ashiyama delivers. I really liked the manga from beginning to end, and can only really say I’m disappointed in the ending’s pacing. The story was emotional, emotionally satisfying, and interesting in ways I didn’t even get into here, like the different magicians who got to show up or the huge damn themes of passionate work for its own sake, feelings of academic inadequacy, and legacy beyond death - something the series had in common with GoH, really. Dunno if I really ever bring it up, but I’m actually a historian, so these themes in Ashiyama’s works really appeal to me. The actual “witch hunt” stuff felt iffy historically speaking, but I liked the way it was used in the story, and also how the magicians of Gensokyo were kind of tied into the outside world - or the Outside World as it is in Touhou, anyway. I kept thinking to myself, yeah, in the Touhouverse, why wouldn’t medieval inquisitors be going more after witches and using witchcraft themselves in order to do so? Especially once it was established that yeah, even though magicians exist in this world, they’re more than capable of avoiding the hunts, and the actual victims were still mostly just regular people.

Ashiyama (and his assistant or maybe assistants, who especially did a lot of the backgrounds) did great work with the visuals, and speaking as a translator, Ashiyama also has some of my very favorite dialogue to work with for some reason.

I dunno. This has been just kind of a ramble.

[bluekat12345]

Pokémon Horizons thought

Since watching Pokémon Horizons, there has been something I've been thinking about since the start of the anime:

Will the main characters' starter Pokémon evolve?

This might contain spoilers for those who aren't that fair in the anime, so reader discretion is advised. And this will be rather long since this has plenty of theorizing and rambling.

For those who are familiar with the anime the Paldean starters are the main focus when it comes to starter Pokémon this season.

Liko has Sprigatito, Roy has Fuecoco, and Dot has Quaxly.

Liko and Roy have used their starters in plenty of battles, and they've even trained with Captain Pikachu. So, with all that battle experience they've been getting you'd think they would evolve soon.

However, I theorize that the show isn't going to evolve the kids' starters. The show might follow the idea of the of the main characters' main/prominent Pokémon not evolving. Which has been done to the following:

Ash's Pikachu (And some of his other Pokémon)

Dawn's Piplup

Chloe's Eevee

Goh's Grookey

Clemet's Chespin

Lillie's Alolan Vulpix

Brock's Crogunk

Serena's Pancham

I imagine they might allow the Pokémon they catch to evolve. Honestly, I mostly see Roy's Wattrel evolving at some point. I don't really mind if Liko's Hatenna doesn't evolve, since I think not evolving will suit it just fine. Maybe I can see it evolve into Hattrem, but I don't really see it evolving into Hatterene.

I can definitely see Dot's Quaxly not evolving, and that actually makes sense why it wouldn't. Dot herself isn't really a battler and doesn't really have much interest in doing so, thus I can see Quaxly not evolving anytime soon. Plus, Quaxly is a prominent figure in Dot's Nidothing videos, acting as her assistant, so I imagine it not evolving for the sake of her Nidothing streaming.

However, I hope this isn't the case. I don't mind if Quaxly never evolves, but I really hope Sprigatito and Fuecoco evolve at some point.

The whole 'main Pokémon not evolving' thing is becoming an overused theme to me. If the Pokémon needs a certain thing in order to evolve, I can understand that and let it slide. But for Pokémon that doesn't and doesn't have an everstone to keep from evolving, that has always frustrated me.

And it may have worked for Ash and Pikachu and a some iconic traveling companions, but this is a new beginning for the anime, no Ash, no companions, a whole new generation. And they don't need to repeat the past, I want to see their Pokémon partners evolve to highlight not just the Pokémon's growth and development, but to highlight Liko and Roy's development as well, to show that their growing along their Pokémon.

And to sort of serve as something for those who grew up watching Pokémon. I know the main protagonist are kids, but that doesn't mean their Pokémon can't grow up, like the fans have.

Plus I want to see Meowscarada and Skeledirge at some point in the show.

So overall, while I theorize the main kids' Pokémon won't evolve, I really hope they do. Like I said, I don't mind of Quaxly doesn't evolve, but I really hope Sprigatito and Fuecoco do.

[stgosupremacy]

ok just a post to say that if journeys did do a haunted house episode like xy and black and white did, (i found those the funniesttt omg) i would probably rewatch it thousands of times for the amount of times Gou would constantly be terrifed for his own life (or even ashs at this point honestly)

(i'm sorry what even was this episode help 💀

the differences in their expressions is actually so funny + the way goh moved closer to ash bless him

allister will forever be iconic look at him in these

(personal fav 🥰)

[nanayuz]

shigesatogou repeating history .

both ash and gary are abt to leave the anime, and i’m guessing goh already has. but pokémon is temporary, shigesatogou is forever. and so are their moments.

in ep 266 of os, the gayest conversation in pokemon ends up happening. gary says to ash “kirei na tsuki da na?” or “the moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”. this is often used as a confession of love in japan, a less straightforward ‘i love you’.

in jn135, a similar thing happens, with ash and goh. i’m not sure what exactly he did say in japanese, but he says “the stars are beautiful tonight” or ‘i like you’. it isn’t the same as what gary said, though he was looking at the moon while saying it. i know what you are.

__

goh’s iconic phrase “the future lies in my hands!” is said three times as ‘our hands’ instead. two of those times with ash, one of them with gary and horace. ash and goh say it after battling mewtwo and at the end of jn, the pm chasers say it after the mew mission. god, and they’re both after they battle the mew duo. that’s like, double gay.

__

gary literally comes back in journeys just to be goh’s rival. he’s ash’s first and most iconic rival, and came back to the series just to be the rival of ash’s new ‘buddy’.

and this isn’t directly shigesatogou, but both gary and kiawe tell ash he isn’t ‘deserving’ to be close to ash all the time. kiawe thinks goh’s his new rival, but gary knows goh and ash became instant best friends. man they fr got anipoke to bring back 2 of ash’s bitches to challenge goh as ash’s biggest bi-

also gary and ash are ‘first friends’, as well as ash and goh.

__

if shigesato doesn’t have an “i’m glad i met you” moment in the last ep i’m gonna yell cmon anipoke it’s happened to both shigegou and satogou

__

theyr all gay goodbye there’s probably a lot i missed

[letmelookatyouagain]

I've never done this for a fic before, but I have started to create a playlist for 'With You'. A lot of the songs have helped me get into Ash's headspace. The fic is mainly written from Goh's perspective with the occasional look at things from Ash's. Yet, at the same time, this story is very much Ash's. He's not in a good place and a lot of these songs reflect that.

Of course, they are not all word-for-word Ash's thoughts, but there are certain things that resonate with how I see Ash in this fic - especially in the early part (which is where the fic currently stands).

There is also one song on here (Shine by Take That) that I feels fits more from Goh's perspective.

This list is also just a draft and not complete. I some I may remove in future and others I may add.

If you have read the fic and would like to suggest a song to add, please let me know! I would love to create a full Spotify playlist for this.

Below is a list of songs I have written down. Under the picture I have also typed it out for those who would prefer to see the list that way.

'With You' - Ash's Headspace Playlist

Red - MOTHICA

Inside Out - The Script

oh god - MOTHICA

Shapeshifting - Taylor Acorn

With You Be There For Me? - Take That

Flaws - Take That

Alright - Pete Tong, HER-O, Jules Buckeley, Au/Ra

Shine - Take That*

Moods Like English Weather - The Gospel Youth

Tether Me - Galleaux

Glass Half Empty - VOILÀ

Background Sad - Icon For Hire

Days I Hate Myself - Take That

Keep Your Head Up - Take That

HIGHLIGHTS - MOTHICA

Misfocusing - Billie Piper

Ghost - Mark Owen

Voices - Against The Current

(* later on and more from Goh's perspective)

[love-is-a-pearl]

I think Pearlshipping is cute, but your last post has me wondering what DP would have been like with Dawn as the main protagonist and Ash nowhere to be seen. Who do you think the companions might have been?

That's a good question 🤔

If Ash retired before DP there is the chance they could've gone for battler Dawn, like Platinum and AU purple Dawn (could those be a hint :0c?) Cynthia is super iconic and having the endgame be a battle against her would be something they would absolutely want to include (i mean we even got it in JN so.. yup)

But if Dawn stayed as coordinator then its possible they could've gone for Lucas? Or a anime OC to be the main character? Again, Cynthia is too iconic so I can't see them sidelining the Gym challenge in the case of main character coordinator Dawn situation.

Maybe Barry could be the main character?! He fits the "shonen" stereotype that pokeani loves so I could see him being the one replacing Ash. And thus we keep Dawn doing contests.

So… Barry and Dawn. That leaves the 3rd slot empty.

I would love to say one of the stats trainers. Having Cheryl or Marley to take a big sister role in the place of Brock could be fun but I doubt they would do that.. Mira and Buck could work I guess, but I'm dunno what their goals could possibly be.

If we go for the gym leader thing… Only Maylene and Candice have ages that match, but they're too far in the game to make sense so… idk…

Maybe a Goh&Ash situation would work better? Since this hypothetical scenario could still use the general ideas from a "scrapped" Ash season and thus just delete the Brock parts since they weren't that many to begin with.

Either that or like.... Sorrel and Verity lmao

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- High School Story (OG Trilogy)

Welcome to the third official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about the OG High School Story trilogy, which (to the surprise of absolutely no one) I have ranked on the "Diamond Tier" at 10 stars out of a possible 10.

Everyone and their dog who knows me knows that this is my favorite Choices series of all time. And even that bias aside, I can in good faith consider this one of Choices’ best-made series too. 

Buckle up bitches, this is gonna be a long one. But I’ll try to keep it as concise as I can and break it up into each of the aspects that make the series so great. 

First, the MC. 

I do genuinely consider them among Choices’ best MCs. Probably unpopular opinion, but them being a blank slate works heavily in their favor, as it allows their character to be more flexible to what kind of character and story routes the player wants for them. You have different kinds of options in how you respond to things, a lot of which do have a significant impact on the actual story outcomes. The MC is a sort of an audience-surrogate character, but in a way that takes advantage of the interactive story medium and allows them to be proactive in the story, rather than making them bland or obnoxious or passive and then passing that off as self-insertable like a lot of modern stories try to do. 

Although there can be some noticeable traits reminiscent of a Mary Sue type character, they’re very minimal and never overbearing. The story rarely if ever makes a big deal of MC being popular, rather than turning them into some OP god/goddess where everyone else just blindly worships the very air they breathe. For the most part, being popular and winning hoco/GoH/prom are simply just bonus things for the MC rather than the crux of their entire character. 

Yeah, they can initially seem “too perfect”, but they’re really only perfect if you make them that way. You can make them do things like slip Koh’s secret to Isa, treat the incoming Hearst kids poorly, or be shit at their activity. You even get a few more gray decisions such as whether or not to turn in Myra or who to side with during the basketball game. And most of them do have consequential outcomes. Maybe not as major as the outcomes of stories like ILS or TH:M, but enough that they do significantly alter the story experience. I legitimately have so many different routes and versions of the MC I wanna try out in this series.

Second, all of the supporting/side characters. 

Along with ES, ILITW, and TH:M, OG HSS is one of few stories where having a large cast is handled well and benefits the story more than harms it. Although the high school environment can be a bit cliquey and some of the characters are based off of typical high school stereotypes, they each feel like their own unique individual person and there’s even a lot of subversion of the stereotypes they’re based on. The jocks aren’t all just meatheaded alpha males; the cheerleaders aren’t all just snobby mean girls; the nerds, despite being more sidelined, aren’t pathetic losers; and each of the LIs have some depth to their supposed high school stereotype traits. 

Aiden and Michael are my two most favorite LIs of all time. Aiden’s route especially is really genuine and earned and develops at a good pace, and I could probably make a separate post just about him alone. But really, all the LIs have some amazing growth arcs. And they, as well as all the side characters, are overall just interesting, down-to-earth, and memorable characters. Julian, Payton, Mia, Frank, Myra, Jade, and the rest all feel like distinct characters that I feel like I have actual reasons to give a damn about. Lest we forget the non-student characters. Characters like MC’s dad and Principal Hughs are especially iconic too, and give the story its own extra warmth and just that little touch of campiness. 

Even the antagonists were pretty compelling– although they maybe weren’t all the most common or realistic kinds of antagonists, the conflicts they created still felt believable and threatening, and they were utilized in their roles relatively well. Brian, Zoe, Isa, Max, and Kara are all characters where I can actually care about what they do. 

Third, the extracurricular activity system. 

This technically goes hand-in-hand with the MC, but it’s a big part of why this series is so immersive and God-tier for me that it deserves its own section too. There are quite a handful of choices in this series that have an impact on the story, but this one is by far the strongest one and it gives the story and MC a lot of flexibility and variance. 

Each book, you can choose sports, band, or cheer, and it gives you a very different experience of the story. Book 1 gives you a different conflict for each activity. Book 2, you don’t really get involved in your activity much, but it does affect how you may experience Isa’s reign and how characters will respond to which stances you take. Book 3 has pretty much the same base conflict in each activity, but the characters are all different enough that it does feel pretty distinct. 

 Not to mention that the different activities can give extra scenes with certain LIs. Romancing Aiden as a jock is still pretty damn good and I love it, but romancing Aiden as a band kid hits so much differently. You get extra interactions with him, a few more opportunities to score romance points, and you can feel this bit of extra connection between him and your MC. There’s a scene during the band concert where just before you play his song, they say that “you see a glint in his eyes that you haven’t seen before”, and after you finish playing it you see “his eyes gleam with pride”. 

Bonus points also for sports and cheer both being open to both m!MC and f!MC; getting to be a female football jock is very euphoric for me. Although I’d have loved more female jock rep and male cheerleader rep besides MC, Emma in Book 1 if you do the football route, Jade, Kieran, and one or two one-offs, it’s still incredibly enjoyable. Especially with how un-sensationalized it is– the jock guys on the team don’t pathologize or patronize or tokenize my f!jock MC– they just treat her as yet another normal part of the team. Which is how it should be. I haven’t done a male cheerleader MC route yet but I think it’s fair to assume that the same applies there. 

Obviously, this is probably not realistic to how most high school sports would work, but who gives a shit? It’s still believable and still makes the experience much more unique and enjoyable. In fact, nowadays there are some people advocating for sports to have a similar system to wrestling weight classes instead of gender/sex-based divisions, so if anything, this is kind of ahead of its time. To quote Caleb Mitchell, “If you’ve got the speed, who cares if you’re a guy or a girl?” 

Fourth, the storylines themselves. 

They’re not super emotionally deep or realistic stories, but that’s okay. They’re really fun and engaging, and if anything, that’s why they work so well. They’re able to think outside the box for what can be done within the high school setting. So we get situations that are fun and exciting and escapist, but never get overly absurd or juvenile or feel cheap in their conflicts, and are made to feel grounded with characters that are very down-to-earth and human. 

It’s a very idealized high school experience for sure, but it’s not without humanity or conflict and challenges, and overall it does feel organic. It makes you actually want to attend that high school, which is a pretty damn good accomplishment considering IRL high school more often than not is a traumatic experience for a lot of us. HSS is basically “high school but if it were actually good”. 

A lot of the conflicts are seemingly basic high school drama, but we see how it can have a very real influence on the characters and their personal struggles. Such as how band in-fighting and a screwed up half-time performance basically sends Aiden into a near breakdown over his fear of failure and strive for perfection in music. Or how the Ollie the Tiger statue being vandalized is deeply upsetting to Michael due to Berry being the one high school that was the most welcoming to him and his desire to preserve that. Or how people’s low energy for homecoming causes Maria to get frustrated and eventually snap from struggling with her leadership roles. Even if these situations are unrealistic to your average high school, it sure as hell is believable. Sometimes, it’s those seemingly small or petty issues that can be taking the biggest tolls on us. 

Fifth, no smut scenes. 

I mean, it makes sense, since I don’t think it would go down well for PB if they wrote smut of under-18 characters. But as someone who does not like how PB writes smut, I’m fine with that. Even if these guys were 18+, I wouldn’t want PB’s mediocre formulaic-ass smut writing to ruin the LI scenes, especially since characters like Aiden and Michael are my all-time favorites of Choices LIs. 

Granted the 30 diamond scenes we do get aren’t exactly immune to being formulaic either (I swear to God if they make my MC sit in Michael’s lap one more goddamn time instead of the other way around I will actually die on the spot), but it’s a lot less… glaring here. And frankly, I prefer it that way. Leave the NSFW bits (if any) of their relationships up to interpretation. 

Sixth, its relevance to its past installment, AKA the original High School Story mobile game. 

For the most part, I think it bridges pretty well with HSS Prime. I actually played Choices HSS before I heard about and downloaded the Prime game, and even then, I found all of the returning Prime characters like Julian, Mia, Ezra, Payton, Koh, etc. to be really memorable. Even Nishan and Sakura, who barely had relevance in the trilogy, were endearing to me. Hence going into the Prime game was like delving into the HSS lore and getting “The Origin Story” of the seniors and the school. 

Heck, I’d even say some of the characters– Julian, Mia, Koh, and Sakura in particular– got a bit of upgrade in Choices, being more mature from how they were in Prime. Honest to God, stuff like Julian’s over-machoness and Mia’s snobbishness could get pretty grating in Prime. While the Prime versions were obviously all more fleshed-out characters, seeing them the way they are in Choices is sort of like seeing how far they’ve come from how they were in Prime. Which I think is a pretty neat way for us to see them off as they’re about to graduate.

Returning for a second HSS playthrough after playing a fair amount of the Prime game, I was later able to notice all the Easter Eggs that showed up in the OG trilogy- Wes and Autumn’s history, Koh’s relationship with her grandma, Koh’s love for buffalo wings, etc. They were able to keep the two very connected, while still allowing OG to be able to stand on its own two feet. 

I also love how they make it so that the switch from the old MC and cast to the new MC and cast feels justified. The writers knew that taking HSS to Choices would need to be welcoming to both old and new fans, and to try and make the Choices trilogy continue the story of the Prime MC probably would have made that a bit more difficult. So they write off the Prime MC as having graduated the year prior and sort of set up the implication that the new cast was being “passed down the torch to unify Berry and take on Hearst”. Which works because it maintains some grounded relevance to the HSS franchise, but doesn’t alienate the fans who are new to HSS. 

It’s not perfect and it did have its shortcomings, but for the most part, it did feel like it was truly a part of HSS. 

Of course, the trilogy as a whole isn’t without its flaws. There are actually quite a handful of problems ranging from minor nitpicky general Choices problems to a couple that are pretty glaring. I think I’m gonna make a separate post for that, so stay tuned for “Everything right and wrong with each of the HSS Books”. But for the most part, they don’t really bring down the series all that much. 

Overall, I definitely consider this one of the best Choices series. It’s fun, escapist, immersive, a lot of your choices actually fucking matter, and it’s a good continuation of the HSS franchise.