#i hate that i generally like edgy anime

[nururu]

What were the garbage anime you watched before op?

oh god... now that I'm going through and remembering what I watched..... I don't even want to say nduchekdks 😭😭😭 tbh I think I just looked up "edgy anime" and went for it..... I'll mention a few... I watched school days (which tbh I thought was hilarious and great and I loved how mentally ill everyone becomes bc of this one basic ass boy). I also watched gantz which a lot of ppl love but the way they portray women is unacceptable!! loved the evil 14yro emo boy tho that's where my url comes from.. I watched... oh god... I'm so sorry.... I watched goblin slayer .... which after the first episode wasn't actually too bad of a show. I'm so sorry .... I watched made in abyss, which is actually a gr8 anime but the creator is a fucking weirdo and there was just too much weird shit happening so I actually dropped that one. oh I watched golden boy which I thought was gr8 but I only got through 2 eps bc that man wouldn't quit screaming..... there's more.. but I either don't remember or won't mention lololfjfjejcj

[icewindandboringhorror]

Very generic “”gothy” character in a children’s cartoon” type look just out of curiosity, seeing if I had enough stuff to put together a full outfit from a box of old clothes lol. I didn’t have an actual main shirt though, so it’s just a plain tank top with cat shape cut out of paper and safety pinned onto the front 

[carbonated-fenwater]

Mostly screaming into the void with this one but I'm almost to the end of earning my Bachelor's and I've got something to say.

It is not edgy or subversive to redirect your hatred onto animals that you deem morally impure or to try and yassify misunderstood creatures.

"Sea otters assault their females to death and drown their pups" they are still a cornerstone species worth protecting and whole ecosystems are suffering for the loss of them.

"Sharks are just ocean puppies and big sweeties." No they're not, they are apex predators and you have to treat them with respect. Saying they're not capable of aggression or completely misunderstood is still spreading misinformation, you cannot generalize a group of animals like this.

"Dolphins are super smart and actually capable of understanding that some of their behaviors are evil" I am actually going to break into your house and steal your shoes if you say this to me.

"Charismatic megafauna are useless and overrated and taking away from underappreciated species that Really need our help" wrong again dipshit. Animals like pandas, elephants, whales, and others that I'm sure you're tired of seeing plastered everywhere are important to get the general public involved. It's called PR (and while I wish it wasn't necessary and that people would care regardless I digress) and what conservation work IS done based around them is advantageous to other threatened species that share their habitat.

As someone going into the field of ecological conservation and marine biology, I have met one too many people who think it's okay to say a certain animal doesn't deserve to be protected because it makes them feel yucky or just because they think it doesn't deserve it. I shouldn't have to tell you why that is SO not okay. The underappreciated and overrated can both exist, you don't need to proselytize people into hating dolphins just so sharks can get their dues.

You're also allowed to just dislike an animal! But if you sensationalize their behaviors that are morally incorrect by human standards, then I am begging you to reevaluate yourself, get more educated on the subject, and talk to a real ecologist.

No creature on this planet deserves to be eradicated just because you are personally offended by their natural behaviors or deem them unfit to take up space.

[theshypinkflower]

Frothing from the mouth over your derek headcanons If you have any abt him youve been wanting to share I would LOVE to hear them

- In highschool Derek got his ears pierced (simple diamond studs to make himself look cool and Sal ripped one of the stud out of his ear because it “made him look like a fag.” Derek’s left ear lobe now has a little scar.

- Derek bullies mentally ill girls on twt, either because he thinks they’re cringe or because he wants to be a dick. He loves mentally ill girls cause they’re so easy to manipulate and force to send him nudes and SH pics (because of course Derek wants to see that).

- Sal made Derek do football in highschool. Needless to say, Derek was a bench warmer while Matt was the star player. Didn’t matter cause Derek still got to put a football patch on his letterman.

- Derek is TERRIBLE with animals. They don’t really like him. The only animal who actually liked him was a puma Sal adopted for awhile.

- His favorite food is sushi, sadly he ruins any quality expensive sushi by dousing it in soy sauce. His spice tolerance is shit btw, so he doesn’t even touch the wasabi. In general he really likes seafood, which is a stark contrast to Sal and Matt who are meat and potatoes kinds guys.

- Every Fourth of July, Derek goes to some “red neck” (literally just a more rural city) and buys so many fireworks for cheap. He doesn’t care if some are duds or dangerous, most of them are gonna go up and make a show. He’ll grab a paper towel roll and fill it with a bunch of smaller fireworks and light it on the dock of the lake house his family goes to during holidays. It makes a huge explosion and scares the crap of everyone.

- Derek only has one band he really likes and its MSI. He saw a bunch of "edgy" people online reposting their songs and he likes em! Everything else in his liked playlist is shit other people listen to. Likes his friend's rap favorites or his dad's 80s favorites. It's one of those bands he listens to whenever hes alone.

- Derek once dressed like an e-boy to garner some attention from girls. Needless to say it worked.

- Every couple of weeks he gets a touch up on his hair. Bleaches the roots, toner, trim, the works. He has an amazing barber who helped Derek fix his hair when he once tried using box dye bleach. It was a nightmare.

- When some of his younger siblings were born he tried giving them away. Like he put Matt in a box and sloppily wrote “FREE BABY” in big letters. It wasn’t until a neighbor knocked on the door with Matt in hands that Sal realized his baby was missing. Needless to say Derek got an ass whopping.

- Derek loves the water! I imagine he’s a really good swimmer (he learned to swim by getting thrown in the pool by Sal).

- Derek sucks at golf, but is decent at tennis. Although the hates doing doubles since Matt and Sal always get onto him for his serves. He use to play tennis a lot with his younger sister, Rochelle, but now all she does is tan by the pool whenever they go to the country club.

- Derek has been in a car accident. He was drunk driving and crashed into someone else. He was arrested for it and Sal had to bail him out. Again, Derek was beaten severely for this. Along with other crimes such as: shoplifting, vandalism, destruction of public property, disorderly conduct, and public nudity (he snuck out to go skinny dipping with friends).

- Derek is a reckless driver whenever his dad or Matt isn’t in the car with him. Like he has at least five speeding tickets in his glovebox. (How does this man even have a driver’s license)

- He absolutely hates weddings. Mostly cause of how many he’s had to sit through thanks to his dad. The only good thing about a wedding is the bar they usually have. Unless they don’t, then he’ll opt for being a menace and catching the bouqet during the bouqet toss (who the hell would marry Derek).

- For the longest time Derek said his favorite cocktail was an Old Fashioned (cause thats what rich people drink I guess) yet he never actually had one. It wasn’t until he ordered on while out clubbing and had to try so hard to keep a straight face. He will never talk about how he chugged down his friend’s fruit and sweet sangria cocktail (because he’s MAN HE SHOULNDT NEED FRUITY SISSY SHIT RAAAAAAH).

[doodle-dog-diary]

Thoughts/hcs re: the 2003 animated teen titans series:

Robin having multiple flavours of angst including but not limited to: "ScRew YoU yOu'Re nOT mY dAd", general teenage angst, not wanting to be under batman's shadow angst, thinks he's getting replaced by a younger sibling angst (jason), etc and running away from home to live on the custom built T shaped tower on the private island that's all very much being paid for by batman

At some point Jason steals the red x suit and uses it to torment Dick!robin CONSTANTLY. Bruce either doesn't know a thing about this or does, but doesn't let on that he knows, and is just watching on from a distance with fatherly affection like "aww they're bonding :)" while dick is popping a blood vessel with stress going "WHO is this KID???"

When Bruce adopted Jason he had no intention of making him Robin, but at some point the red x shenanigans were going so far that he actually started feeling bad for dick so he had to put his foot down like, alright, this kid clearly has some energy to burn off or something, let's redirect that energy to something more productive. Like punching the sHIT OUT OF GOTHAM GOONS HELL YEAH. And gives Jason the Robin ii mantle

Jason "gremlin child" Todd is clearly very "yippee :) violence" about this and the red x fuckery stops, but of course dick!robin finds out about this and is all "you replaced me?? >:'( I HATE YOU DAD" and his list of reasons to be angsty and emo increases yet again. Clearly his stress never ends

Eventually dick grows out of his teenage angst and becomes everyone's favourite big brother figure nightwing. And every time Jason tries to tell anyone about Dick's emo angsty edgy menace robin era NOBODY believes him. This is cosmic karma for all the times he broke into the titans tower and moved all of Dick's furniture two inches to the left so he'd stub his toe in the morning. And the time he replaced all of his birdarangs with custom made glitter bombs. And the time he bought a seam ripper and broke into titans tower AGAIN just to rip all the crotch seams of Robin's pants. And the time...you get the point

(Tim DOES know about Dick's edgy emo era (because he's a creepy little stalker FREAK) He just acts like he has no idea what Jason is talking about just to mess with him. Jason is TEARING his hair out and FOAMING at the mouth.)

[radiantrookie]

Reasons why MCSM was hated (That i could find)

The day it was revealed it, people disliked it because the idea of Minecraft having a story would ruin the game and Notch's original vision

People assumed the game was a cheap cash grab Microsoft made the second they bought Mojang, (MCSM was planned all the way back in 2012)

The gam was called the edgy and cringey for the first four episodes being dark because at the time during the 2010s, it was a popular trend to mock kiddy looking franchises for taking themselves seriously (Sonic for example)

People called the game cringe in general because Minecraft itself was cringe

People complained the game didn't have much gameplay and was basically a visual novel

The animation was considered bad at the time

The voice acting was considered bad

Smashbits

Reuben's death animation made people mock it even more

The Youtubers episode made people hate the game even more and called it a cash grab even more (Said Youtubers were also hated at the time by anyone who wasn't a minecraft fan)

People blamed the game for making other Telltale games take too long to come out

People also blamed the game for the shutdown of Telltale

Why the game is no longer hated

People who always liked the game are older and louder with their opinions online

The game is delisted which means people either forgot about it or don't even know it exists

The 2010 Irony Poisoning made by 90s and 80s kids who ruled the internet is slowly fading away as 2000s kids begin to start dominating the internet

Stuff people hated about MCSM now makes people feel nostalgic

The Youtuber episode is less hated because of the current era of minecraft youtubers, (And more nostalgia)

The Minecraft Movie made everyone who hated the game now switch up

[yuri-is-online]

Been brainrotting lately and now I present to you what I think is an underused story beat for Yuu. What if “Yuu” isn’t even the prefect’s real name?

Considering that Yuu’s first experience in Twisted Wonderland is waking up in a coffin, wandering around an obviously foreign place, and being questioned by a suspicious man in a crow mask surrounded by people in black hooded robes… I just think most people would not give their real name in such a sketchy situation.

Fast forward to when Yuu is more comfortable with the cast and there is both comedy and angst potential here. On one hand, the reactions to the deception could be pretty funny. (Cue a “woe is me” from Crowley. Of course he can’t find a way home for you when he doesn’t have your real name!) On the other, this could be a great way of exploring the prefect having a crisis. Yuu already lost so much in being taken to Twisted Wonderland, and now in a way even the prefect’s name has been taken.

What do you think?

waking up in a coffin, wandering around an obviously foreign place, and being questioned by a suspicious man in a crow mask surrounded by people in black hooded robes…

Annon, annon, annon, when you put it like that it sounds like Yuu woke up in the middle of a cult ritual of some sort. Which I suppose if you were an edgy Night Raven student idia you might argue that the enrollment ceremony totally is as an excuse not to go

But to be more serious, I have seen a few memes about this concept and I like it a lot σ(￣、￣=) It's a fun character concept, it's not everyday you get a chance to re-invent yourself completely.

That being said, just based off of the few dialogue options Yuu has at the start, I think Yuu is implied to believe that they are dreaming:

Which honestly doesn't make this idea any less valid. If you're dreaming about waking up in the middle of some weird necromancer's rite, why not give him a fake name? It's not meant to be serious anyway. Just go with the flow and hope things don't get too weird (and get offended when your dream doesn't give you magic powers) until it's too late and you realize everyone thinks your name really is that bad joke you made.

If you want to get darker, maybe Yuu really did think they died. A black carriage pulling a coffin really only goes to a funeral, and death has been depicted as an unmanned coach with black horses. Maybe Yuu is only just coming to grips with the fact that they really are alive when they see Riddle overblot and he hurts them. Maybe they now are sitting next to two people who have started to think about them as a friend, a really close one. Maybe they think Yuu is really brave because they charged headlong into danger without a second thought, and won, twice now. Maybe Yuu cries themselves to sleep that night because in a way... you died so yuu could live.

As for reactions, Crowley and the other staff members I think would be the most dramatic, followed by Adeuce and Grim. Jack I can see accepting your reasons and not thinking too hard about it, maybe even respecting your survival instincts, while Epel... well he says he's mad but mostly he's just concerned. He knows what it feels like to have two dueling parts of yourself and trying to find the middle ground. Ortho would be excited, you have a secret identity just like a magical girl/super sentai/anime idol/superhero take your pick really. He certainly doesn't mind getting to know you all over again.

Sebek screams at you for being a threat to Wakasama but it's clear to everyone who actually knows him that he's really just worried about the amount of stress you put on yourself. He would hate for you to have the same issues with self loathing he does. And Malleus? Well he lied to you about who he was because he was worried you would be afraid, even though you didn't know he existed. It would be very petty for him to hold a grudge against you for doing the same.

In general I think this would be something the others would have an easier time understanding as opposed to Yuu's sense of alienation or loneliness at not having magic. Identity issues are common themes in fiction, so I could see them actually seeing it as a problem as opposed to an abstract problem like no government papers (since these kids with one obvious exception don't do taxes.) But it would make for a great way to explore the prefect having a crisis just as you say, in a way it's the perfect example for every problem they might have with being in Twisted Wonderland.

[olderthannetfic]

Whenever I see the "there is no F/F content in fandoms, fandoms hate women" discussion on Tumblr, all I can think of is a phrase that is guaranteed to enrage half the Tumblr fandom audience, maybe more: "Have you tried imageboards?".

When I was younger, I used to frequent different anime and cartoon-themed imageboards. Big ones like 4Chan's /a/ and /co/, smaller ones meant for specific fandoms or kinks, non-English ones in my native language, you name it. The users were mostly straight men, and the F/F content and shipping flourished there. The "waifu threads" exclusively dedicated to gushing about female blorbos. The wast majority of kink content involving fictional women, either alone, with a nondescript self-insert man or with each other. The F/F fanart, fanfiction and ideas were just limitless, to the point where you would struggle to find one or two discussions about the guys in the midst of everyone celebrating the women.

The anime, cartoon or comic has a cast full of women? They will all get love. Women and men both? Women will generate much more discussion. One or two women amidst the cast full of men? People will mostly post about the two women, deal with it. Sure, there were designated boards and threads for the male characters, but good luck expecting there to be as much activity as there were in the waifu threads. The fandoms with lots of female characters, such as Touhou Project, thrived on these grounds, and much F/F shipping was had by everyone.

Now, of course, the imageboard culture is an entire separate beast. Right-leaning, edgy, bigoted - basically, what you get if you put a bunch of ostracized and lonely cishet male nerds in an echo chamber and let them feed each other bullshit all day long. A lot of the F/F art they made was sexual in nature, something that could be decried as sexualisation, but, the way I remember it, it was not much different from what is often done to male characters by straight women who ship M/M because they find the two dudes hot. A lot of gushing about waifus by the anonymous 4Chan dudes could be seen as misogynistic, despite the language being practically the same as when a Tumblr fandom girl is describing her blorboman and the things she wants to see done to him.

It all comes down to the the real life influencing the way we interact with fiction: male sexuality is viewed in a different light than female sexuality, despite both being more or less demonized in our society, just in different ways. Men are always predators, women are always victims. When a guy has sexual fantasies about a female character, he is a creep who wants to hurt real life women to enact these fantasies. When a woman has sexual fantasies about male characters, she cannot tell fiction from reality and is at risk of getting hurt by men while trying to enact these fantasies. And if either of them fantasizes about a same-sex couple, they are fetishizing queer people, obviously.

However, that's just how people roll - you cannot change what gender you are attracted to, and people with similar attractions stick together. It just so happens that the fandom side of Tumblr largely consists of straight women and queer men, so you get ships with guys, while the fandom side of 4Chan and the like largely consists of straight men, so you get ships with women. Both sides also happen to have cultures that don't mix well, and someone who frequents one place is likely to avoid the other.

I don't frequent 4Chan anymore, and I'm not big on fandom Tumblr, either, but Tumblr continues to be the unique place where I am more likely to stumble upon erotic fandom content featuring men than women, who are the majorly discussed and shipped characters practically everywhere else. I obviously do not excuse 4Chan's bigotry and rampant hateful bullshit, but my point still stands: if you want to see more F/F shipping and discussions of girl blorbos, but don't feel like making some yourself and creating a like-minded community on Tumblr, you should try your luck elsewhere on the Internet, especially when it comes to anime and cape comic fandoms. Tumblr is a unique place in terms of male-centric fandom content, and honestly, it's not that bad, if Tumblr isn't the only place you find your stuff at. It simply occupies a specific niche and doesn't offer much of everything else (though you can still find it if you look).

--

Now, be fair: plenty of imageboards are full of nominally straight guys who love millions of female blorbos... and art of Link getting wrecked.

[postingjustwhatever]

Spoilers for Sonic 3. This is just a rant. I just really want to get my thoughts out there and everything off my chest because I am just so upset, like really really upset. I am shocked I have heard nothing but praise for this movie. It really got my hopes up. I really didn't like the other ones. I'm not a big fan of the live action plus animated characters combo, The characters still look super uncanny and weird to me. I also really don't like Jim Carrey, I realllllly reallly don't like him. I don't find him funny at all. He's got kind of that millennial humor where it seems he thinks making weird faces and acting goofy is the peak of humor. Idk if younger kids find that funny, I feel like I wouldn't even as a kid. But I especially don't like it now, I'm just old man, I'm tired. I really wanted this movie to be a little more mature. Shadow Generations did such a good job. Dark Beginnings was amazing. I wish this movie could have felt more like that.

These movies just don't feel like Sonic at all. I know everyone gets sick of people complaining about Sonic's personality in these. But I think those are valid complaints. He just doesn't act or feel like Sonic and I don't think anything they do can make me view him as Sonic.

I just can't get over the whole Sonic the other characters being aliens from a different planet thing. It makes it hard to introduce other characters. And it completely changed who Sonic is. And now it's changed who Shadow is. Shadow is now just Sonic but edgy. He's just Sonic but if he got caught and put in a lab instead of living by himself and later getting adopted by humans. They took the Shadow being a darker version of Sonic thing literally. They changed everything about his backstory all while talking about how they wanted to do his backstory right.

It just hurts so much. I know I shouldn't be so affected by this. But I have been a fan of the Sonic franchise for so long and Shadow has always been one of my favorite characters of all time. And it hurts to have had my hopes up for this movie even a little bit thinking it would at least be better than the others and be so so disappointed. Maybe I don't have a right to complain because I didn't actually finish watching it. I started crying and ended up leaving around 45 mins in. Really embarrassing. I just couldn't enjoy it. I really really didn't like the Jim Carrey parts, they were painful. I was willing to sit though them because I wanted to see Shadow's backstory brought to screen in a big movie. But then then they explain his backstory and it's nothing like the games.

He crashed to earth in a comet. He wasn't created by Gerald. Maria wasn't sick. They didn't live on Space Colony Ark. I was so confused. I never even considered that they would change any of this. I thought the gun commander was just lying to Sonic about where Shadow came from so Sonic would work for them or something. But then they show the flashback with Maria and it's still the same. I ended up quickly looking up on my phone it they changed his backstory for this movie and they did. I just don't get why. I've seen people say because it wouldn't make sense in the movie universe because in the movies Sonic and friends are aliens. So they decide to just make Shadow an alien just like them?? I feel like they could have made his backstory work somehow. They didn't even try. Now he's just a literal dark parallel to Sonic. He's always been so but not like this. Do they think the most important part of his backstory is that he was in a lab, there was a professor and also a little girl he was friends with that gets killed.

It just kills me that they changed everything about Maria. She's not sick??? I guess if she's not sick it makes no sense for Gerald to have been researching a way to cure her or anything. I hate it so much. Shadow being just an alien takes away so much depth from all of their characters. Maria is the reason Shadow exists in the first place. She was so important. Their relationship was so important. It feel so much more meaningful for Shadow to have been created by her grandfather to cure her, than him just being some alien she was friends with. Her being sick but also so kind and hopeful was so important. She gets killed by the government when they raided a place that was trying to find a cure for her and she still tells Shadow to protect the people of earth. Maria was so important but now she's just some kid he was friends with I guess. I hate that they took away her sickness and her disability. I loved that the journal that came with Sonic x Shadow Generations portrayed that more. I loved that they showed it actually affecting her. I loved them showing her in the wheelchair hooked up to the iv bag but she was still smiling. She was still strong and hopeful despite everything and she still wanted Shadow to protect the earth despite what happened. And this movie took all that away from her character. I hate it.

Them just living on earth on some base makes me so upset. I was excited to see them on the Space Colony Ark. I wanted to see them looking out the window of the ark at the earth but instead I get them laying in the grass looking at the stars. Maria was so tragic because she loved the earth so much but she couldn't be there because she was sick. They took all of those parts of her character away.

I don't know how Professor Gerald was portrayed all I've seen of him was what was in the trailers and the brief glimpse I got before I left and I've hated everything I've seen. Gerald has never been as silly a character as Eggman. But it seems like Jim Carrey was playing him exactly the same. I assume he changes and acts different towards the end but my impression of him was already ruined. What's the point of him if he didn't create Shadow as a way to cure his granddaughter. It takes away so much from his character. He was also a tragic character. Him trying to do good with his research but then using his creation, Shadow as a weapon against humanity after his granddaughter is killed even after his death is ruined. He's still alive and he didn't create Shadow. I hate it so much. It's not as tragic with him still being alive. Did they have him still be alive so Jim Carrey could play double the annoying wacky roles. Gerald Robotnik is supposed to be a sad tragic old man but all I got was Jim Carrey in goofy looking prosthetic makeup.

Look I know it's a kids movie but couldn't they at least of made it a little less silly. The games were also kids games. Shadow Generation was also a kids game but it did a way better job with handling these characters. Maria and Gerald were Shadow's family. Gerald was his dad, sort of, I hate that they changed that. I guess Maria was still like family with him in this (idk what his relationship with Gerald was I didn't watch that far) but it's not the same.

I loved the Space Colony Ark, I loved it being some research lab up in space. What about artificial chaos, the biolizard, emerl??? None of that is a thing in these movies. It just sucks sooo much. Everything I love about the games is not in this movie. I couldn't finish watching it because I was so upset about the changes. It was bothering me so much it made Jim Carrey so much more insufferable. I am wondering if Shadow still has some connection to the Black Arms because he did fall to earth in a suspicious looking comet. I don't know if I even care because they already took away all the most important parts of his backstory.

Shadow's backstory being changed also kind of ruined the whole Sonic and his powers being sort of a natural force of nature thing and Shadow and his power being a man made thing. Like Shadow is always claiming to be the ultimate life form but he almost can't live up to Sonic's natural talent. It makes their rivalry so much more interesting. I also hate them having such similar backstories here. Sonic is supposed to be unburdened, free as the wind, living in the present, we don't even know what his backstory is. While Shadow is nothing but backstory, haunted by the past and burdened with tragedy.

Movie Sonic is nothing like game Sonic. There is very little that I love about game Sonic present in movie Sonic. I hate that since movie Sonic has a backstory they decided to take most of Shadow's backstory away so he would parallel Sonic. They really just made him Sonic but not nice.

I've just wanted to see a fully animated Sonic movie for years. I've especially wanted to see Sonic Adventure 2 adapted as an animated movie. These movies ruined my chance of seeing that. I thought this movie would be as close as I'd ever get to seeing SA2 in movie form. But there was nothing about it that was similar. Shadow may have the right personality but he has none of his backstory. Sonic isn't anything like Sonic. Tails is Tails I guess. I don't really care much about Knuckles but he doesn't even feel similar to his game counterpart.

I really hate everything they are doing with this movies. It's fine if people like them. I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion. I just really wanted to write how I feel about them because this one really upset me. I've cried a lot because of it. Which is silly I know. Shadow's character was important to me and so was Maria and it hurts so see so much changed about it. I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was watching this movie in theaters. In the dream there was some kind of change I didn't like and the movie was really short and I was really disappointed about it. I remember being upset about it because it sucked so bad. And the same thing happened when I actually saw the movie. They changed a lot and it was short because I left early. I just usually don't get excited for things because they usually disappoint me. I was kinda looking forward to this one and the good reviews didn't help. I was probably more excited than I realized because I did dream about it multiple times. I was disappointed in every dream. Usually when I am looking forward to something I have dreams about the thing where it sucks. I never been this thoroughly disappointed though. I think this is going to ruin my enjoyment of the Sonic franchise, everytime I see anything Sonic I think this movie and the disappointment that came with it is going to pop into my head.

Something that really bothers me is this quote from the director.

They didn't want too many characters so they could get Shadow's backstory right??? They got nothing about it right. I wish they wouldn't have added Gerald in the movie. He felt unnecessary. I would have much rather have had Rouge than another Jim Carrey. Rouge is important to Shadow's character. She was introduced in the same game. I hate that she was just sidelined like that. Them talking about how they wanted to do Shadow's backstory right just got my hopes up too much.

The lead up to the movie made me more excited than I should have been I guess. I preordered Sonic x Shadow Generations when it was announced. I played it when it came out, it had everything I loved about Shadow's character in it. I went to the Sonic Symphony this November. I felt like this movie, even if it wasn't great would at least be a fun way to end all of that. But it really just left me feeling awful.

I'm sure these movies have been great for the Sonic franchise. The money made from them probably helps them make better games. They've probably introduced a more people and kids to the Sonic franchise. I just kinda hate that this is the version they are introduced to.

I'm just so upset but I keep thinking something's wrong with me because everyone else seems to be enjoying it but I just can't. I don't think I am going to be watching any more of these movies, this one killed any interest.

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

---WRITTEN A WHILE AGO AND KEPT IN DRAFTS FOR WEEKS UNTIL I THOUGHT ABOUT IT AGAIN---

i hate how comfortable most of the mouthwashing fandom is with calling a disabled burn victim "a baby", or making fanart of him BASICALLY representing him like some kind of pet. his wide eyes are not for your cutesy purposes. he does not look like "the autism creature" because of his limbs. you guys are infantilizing and absolutely dehumanizing this character, and through him, in a sense, showing a few of your unfiltered thoughts about the disabled community! he is not the silly mascot of the group!!! HE IS A FLESHED OUT DEEP CHARACTER WITH HIS OWN MORALS AND HIS OWN MISTAKES!!!! AND HIS STATE DOES NOT MEAN HE BECAME A THOUGHTLESS BLAMELESS BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! HE IS NOT A PET NOR A MASCOT!!!!! JUST DRAW POLLE THE PONY (THE ACTUAL MASCOT) AS THE MASCOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what in the actual hell is wrong with you people.

to be CLEAR this isn't only about the fandom on tiktok : i've seen countless fanarts on here being like "he looks so cute here", or drawing the other characters "holding him" like a plushie or a pet (if you can visualize what i mean) and damn, unfortunately tumblr is just as bad as tiktok sometimes

ALSO this isn't either about being able to find humor in media that aren't comedies, because yes the babygirl/blorbo/pathetic meow meow thing is prevalent in every fandom imaginable and especially for older, "masculine/tough" male characters. Which I understand even if I don't partake in it, since it's all just one big joke. Hannibal Lecter or Gus Fring covered in blood is babygirl, let's put a bow png on him. hahaha. how novel. But this is not what's happening here. you guys are not calling him baby or babygirl because he's hot or the comedic effect of calling an edgy tough guy a baby. the joke is supposed to be about the absurdity/contrast of calling those kinds of characters (murderers, criminals, old mean guys, buff masculine superheroes, or in general "stereotypical" masculine guys) "babygirl". But here it seems overwhelmingly sincere. and that's extremely concerning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and if you want to look at it from a different/narrative perspective :

obviously there was thought put into why this happened to curly, why he looks like this, why jimmy's the one who put him through this, why it's jimmy that gives him the painkillers and why the painkillers are pills in the first place. there is thought behind his state and how it mirrors anya and what jimmy put her through. and not only is curly a metaphor for society IN OUR CURRENT MODERN WORLD in his reaction and INACTION towards what happened, the FANDOM/PUBLIC's reaction to curly and the overall plot is also a great mirror to hold up to ourselves. I won't go into detail about my full analysis of this BUT AlleyDreamer's "You Are Missing The Point of Mouthwashing" youtube video, and @/luckylefty's tiktoks about the games are both eloquent and clear and i highly recommend watching them.

SO....if you view curly's impotence, suffering, dehumanization. and overall physical state as something that can be meme'd or funny, you probably have not considered that part of the narrative that the game developers explored. and if you have and think that somehow it's still all good jokes to make EVEN when considering that joking about his state is also making a joke out of anya, out of women, out of disabled people, DAMN do you absolutely SUCK. is that really the best you can come up with?

SO. all in all. i understand lightening the mood of the fandom by ignoring the elephant in the room and choosing to just focus on jokes, but PLEASE stick to jokes about the group and their game nights and the shenanigans, daisuke and swansea's father-son relationship, or even the game's low-poly graphics and animation - hell, stick to replaying that swansea twerking clip again and again. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING ON THIS EARTH KEEP YOUR ABLEISM, SEXISM/MISOGYNY AND TONE-DEAFNESS TO YOURSELF !

ok rant over cough cough

[mementokore]

oooooh thank you for tagging me @snoopyviktor 💕

Get to know your mutuals!

Questions under the cut so the post won't get too long (because my answers will be too long either way, I cannot control my yapping) ✨️

What's the origin of your blog title? It originated from my gamertag "Memento Mori" (I've already made a whole post about why I chose that one somewhere here on this blog) and often found it already used on social media since it isn't an uncommon phrase, so I decided to swap "mori" with "kore" because Kore is one of the names of Greek Goddess Persephone - and what can I say, I relate a lot to the Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld, who is somehow both cottagecore and edgy, and if she can be both so can I

OTP(s) + Shipname: Oh god so many... I guess atm mostly Jayvik (Jayce & Viktor, Arcane), I've always shipped Destiel (Dean & Castiel, Supernatural), then of course there is Stolitz (Stolas & Blitzø, Helluva Boss) and Ineffable Husbands (Crowley & Aziraphale, Good Omens) but I honestly believe I have at least one OTP for every fandom and I cannot name them all here or it would take too long

Favorite colour: Never make a bisexual choose, but mostly blue, red, purple (and black if it counts as a colour)

Favourite game: Destiny 2 most certainly, Overwatch (2) more often than it is healthy, the whole Assassin's Creed franchise, Baldur's Gate 3, Minecraft (for 2 weeks a year), the Uncharted games, and games like Phasmophobia or Lethal Company where you can mess with your friends haha

Song stuck in your head: As of late I don't have that one song that I literally have to listen to 24/7 or I'll die, but a few are on repeat, like Bite Marks (League of Legends), To Ashes and Blood (Arcane), The Seed (Aurora), and The Kids Are All Rebels (Lenii)

Weirdest habit/trait? Uhhhhh probably that I always ask friends to do things like speak and order for me because of social anxiety, but as soon as I feel like they can't clearly convey what I mean (which is almost all the time because they cannot read my mind) my anxiety gets magically overridden and suddenly I can speak

Hobbies: Writing, reading, gaming, bouldering, swimming

If you work, what's your profession? I am not working yet, still studying Game Design

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? I'd love to be an author! Or at least be in Narrative Design for a game

Something you're good at: Writing, I hope, world building, character building and all that stuff. And helping friends by talking them through their emotions, at least according to my bf

Something you're bad at: Socialising, or maybe my anxiety makes me think that, but it always feels like I'm choosing the wrong dialogue options. Just ... talking in general. Finding the right words is easy when written, but not when spoken

Something you love: Art in any shape and form, mostly writing and drawing and music. Entertainment, be it shows or movies or games. Travelling, seeing the world. Nature. The sky. Animals. There's so much to love and so little time (and money).

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Probably anything that is considered "deep" or "philosophical" because I love thinking about and discussing topics that don't have a clear right or wrong answer or solution. Like emotions, psychology, space,... Oh, and other than that: OCs and story ideas. With the right person, I can talk about those literally without end

Something you hate: Mosquitoes, that you cannot be instantly good at something, genAI, probably so many things

Something you collect: Uhh I guess the closest I am getting to actually collecting something is me trying to own all of the Assassin's Creed games, and of course other books, shows, movies and games I like. I own quite a few blades too, like daggers, karambits, katanas and so on. And bow and arrows. They are pretty ✨️

Something you forget: Everything all the time. No, I am not joking

What's your love language? Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation

Favourite movie/show: Oh god so many. Some of my all-time-favs are Gladiator, Inception, LotR, Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean, John Wick, a few Marvel movies up until Endgame, HTTYD, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Hazbin Hotel, OUAT, ... I could go on for ages. And don't even get me started on anime

Favourite food: Uhh, Semmelknödel are pretty yummy, not sure what they're called in English or if there even is a word for them. Anything without meat (I don't like the texture) and with cheese and maybe garlic will probably do. Or something with potatoes. Or Ramen. Pasta. Chocolate cake. Cherries. Pomegranate. Okay forget it, I am hungry

Favourite animal: Cats, absolutely, and ravens/crows. Dogs and horses are great too!

What were you like as a child? I have been told I never really smiled at other people as a child (in contrast to my younger brother, who smiled at everyone), but instead just looked at them. Apparently I used to be quite confident and extroverted, holding speeches in front of other kids on the playground. That was before social anxiety and depression, and I don't really remember any of that

Favourite subject at school? Probably German (my native language) and English. I love writing and there I could do it. But all in all, every subject was interesting until they graded it

Least favourite subject: Maths. Heh. Cliché, maybe, but at some point I just didn't see a point in learning that shit, so I wasn't interested in it. I'm good at simple math and that's all I need in life

What's your best character trait? Uhh, empathy and compassion, maybe? I try to be the person who is helpful and kind, who is there for everyone who seems to need it. And I will defend the people I love without a second thought, verbally and physically

What's your worst character trait? Ooh I can definitely be selfish or stubborn in certain situations. I try to recognize it and be better. What I personally think is the worst though are trust issues, self-doubt and insecurity

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? I'd love to have money and influence, not because I wanna be rich and control everything, but because I think everyone deserves to be able to live their lives to the fullest and that's how I could make it happen. I want everyone to be able to use the one life they have on this earth to do things they enjoy. Be creative, relax, travel, live wherever you want, as long as you are kind and respect other people, I don't care what you do. Go and enjoy your time on this planet

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? Oh damn, I'm not sure I wanna meet any specific person. I'm more interested in just observing and being able to see for myself what past times were like. I'd love to see it all without interfering, just soaking up the atmosphere and vibes

Tag as many mutuals as you want!! Okay oof me and my brain trying to remember my mutuals' names uhh just gonna *scrolls through follower list* @lokirulesmidgard @tomboydweeb @banditsandbookworms @walkthefallout @hydrate-or-dydrate @death-blxssom @lelet-draws @unlucky-phantom @taniks-the-final-shape @kytty27 @hlz0s

I hope I didn't forget anyone and if I did or if someone wants to do it even though we aren't mutuals, feel free to go for it anyway! I'd love to find some new mutuals this way, too ✨️

[arundolyn]

Platinum is kinda interesting bc I have no idea what the hell they were going for with her. Like I know pastiche-ing anime tropes was kind of a thing at least in the beginning, like Ragna being the edgelord who's actually kind of a softie and Jin being the shining knight who's actually a huge homicidal douchebag, and lampooning magical girls as a genre was kind of a thing at the time, but Platinum isn't even all that subversive? Like aesthetic-wise she plays the whole thing straight, she's just a little asshole and says slurs for no reason. Is that meant to be the subversion? They couldn't even be bothered to toss in some of the edgy hyperviolent stuff that people kept slapping onto their 'subverted' magical girls? They couldn't give her a gun or something to show how 'mature' it's supposed to be? Because otherwise there's just a pretty straightforward magical girl character plopped into an otherwise ill-fitting backdrop and the more I look at her the more I wonder what she's even here for??

and dont forget the random incessant instances of her calling ragna a pedophile thats supposed to be played for humor somehow in some world bc lord knows i sure cant literally any time they encounter each other in story mode or fight . my fucking god that bit is bad and is often the biggest reason i can never recommend blazblue to anyone

and it SUCKS for plat specifically bc even outside the whole goofy botched magical girl thing there was SOOOO MUCH GOING ON?? TRINITY'S GHOST BEING IN THE MUCHOURIN. JUST IN GENERAL THE INSANITY OF THE MUCHOURIN, A STAFF MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR ONE OF THE BEST ALCHEMISTS TO EVER DO IT WHO HATED FIGHTING, FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF A FERAL LITTLE GREMLIN BABY WHO USES IT TO KICK PEOPLE'S ASSES UWUISHLY???? theres so much potential in various places for various things but it feels like they had no broad direction they wanted to go in and fell back on it being Mature and Subvertive by........ having a child call people a pedophile for telling her to stop bothering them typically? or making weird sexual comments comparing herself to adult women like that one gag reel in continuum shift with litchi iirc? dont remember how much she does That one but i do remember it happening. groundbreaking stuff there fellas. im sure the loc team didnt HELP but theyre definitely not entirely at fault considering the number of times plat does say the phrase "lolicon" out loud in jp is most certainly nonzero. ugh

plat couldve been many things but unfortunately what we ended up getting was fuckin rocky at best. woof

[jinxed-sinner]

Honestly it's really funny to me how much people look for reasons to hate Vivziepop. Not sure if it's happening here on Tumblr because I don't generally leave my dashboard but people on Twitter have been complaining about the part Spindehorse animated in Weird Al Yankovic's newest music video, specifically about the animation being weird and how Viv designed Weird Al looking "not accurate to Weird Al" and once you apply logic to it, all arguments basically die.

Viv didn't animate it, the Spindlehorse team did. Viv did the designing stuff for it

Weird Al would've told Viv if something looked off, so I am quite sure the part Spindlehorse worked on is exactly how Weird Al wanted it

Animation has, and probably always will, look weird because that's how animation works

I know fans like to joke about it but Viv isn't holding anyone hostage in her basement, that includes Weird Al (in fact Viv said Weird Al specifically asked her to animate the part of the music video she and Spindlehorse worked on)

Obviously it could be different off camera but everyone who works with Viv seems to genuinely enjoy being around her

You can not like something because it's not your thing. If edgy humor, swearing, and sex jokes aren't your thing, nobody's holding a gun to your head and forcing you to watch Viv's stuff. It's okay to just not like something lmao

I have yet to see someone bring up something about Viv that they see as a reason to hate her that isn't years old at this point or flat-out disproven. People can improve

please for the love of god just let keith david have fun with his husk plushies im begging

[oddygaul]

Zenless Zone Zero

Well, I’ve been playing the shit out of this game, so fair warning, there will be significant brainrot ahead.

Overall, I really dig it. I’m a huge mark for character action games, and well-done life sims tend to suck me in; Zenless Zone Zero is nailing both those aspects pretty damn well. In fact, it’s nailing them well enough that… how do I put this… it starts to slip into the territory of being A Good Game Generally, rather than just a gacha. And while this is a big accomplishment for ZZZ, this also puts it into direct conversation with other full-price games, resulting in its gacha elements causing more friction than Honkai Star Rail’s ever did*.

*I’ll be comparing this to HSR a lot, because I play way too much of both and they’re made by the same developer. I recognize that it is pretty odd and potentially even problematic to A / B compare them when I could be looking at the game through the lens of, you know, Gaming At Large. But hey, that’s why this is a subjective journal and not a holistic review blog! It is what it is.

So, the aesthetic of this game fuckin rules - it’s like, late 90s to early 2000s VHS-core. The main characters run a Blockbuster, for Christ’s sake. Presentation-wise (and systems-wise, and, hell, music-wise), ZZZ is obviously borrowing a lot from the Persona series, but like… great? I’d love it if more things cribbed that style and made it their own, from the confidant hangouts, to the small but comfy explorable areas, to the dynamic menus with edgy character poses. The character design itself is all superb, all the way down to the crowd NPCs - some the shopkeepers here have cooler designs than the main characters of some other games. Even aside from the designs, ZZZ is doing a lot with lighting and color desaturation that really lends it its own unique vibe. They actually have a cohesive artstyle in here! wild.

The presentation of the story is also killer. Sure, a decent chunk of the conversations are just models lip-flapping at each other - although they at least emote and pose a bit here, unlike the Star Rail dialogue scenes with their demure princess waves. In the main story, though, we get not only a heap of fairly lengthy cutscenes, but also this really cool comic panel-style presentation.

I feel like there was a bit of a trend in the PS3/360 era of games to present a game’s story in this comic panel / storyboard style. I understood the motivation: games increasingly demanded a more involved, consistent storytelling approach, rather than the ‘One big rendered cutscene at the beginning and end’ they used to get away with, and the generation’s increased visual fidelity meant that doing even basic, in-engine cutscenes took a lot more resources to make something half-decent. In Spyro the Dragon on PS1 you could get away with a fun little 15-second gag with a barely animated polygonal yeti or whatever; in the PS3 era, you were going up against tryhards like Metal Gear Solid 4. Amidst this landscape, the pitch of having your illustrators pretty up some storyboards and put them in the game sounds like it’d save a lot of work - plus, consoles were finally outputting a high enough resolution that this sort of flat image wouldn’t be compressed to hell.

Thing is, I always kinda hated that approach. In some cases, I think that’s the popular opinion - I fuckin love Bayonetta, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend its weird slideshow cutscenes. Even in games where the execution is perfectly fine, though, it rubbed me the wrong way. I think of Infamous - objectively, the art’s solid and fits the tone of the game, and the motion graphics aim to capture some of the dynamism typical cutscenes would provide. Despite all that, it still feels cheap to me - all of the panning, effects, and graphic imagery feel like they’re trying to polish up something that inherently doesn’t fit.

In ZZZ, though, I’m loving every one I come across. It’s obviously still done for efficiency reasons - there’s already a handful of characters that exist only in these panel scenes, saving the team the effort of having to model and rig them. But the freedom this allows for staging and storytelling is huge; the characters are more expressive here than anywhere else in the game, and we’re able to see situations with huge crowds and new locales much more often than would be possible in typical cinematics. And the illustrations are genuinely good, too - full of character, cool poses and creative compositions/angles.

if everything actually had to be modeled, there's no way we would've gotten Legally Blonde Nicole

Plus, the cutscenes are constant, and boy do I love the animation here. It feels so rare nowadays for a high-budget game to do stylized 3D animation of this ilk. Your biggest budget games are all going for the cinematic look, and pushing realism as much as they can - and while I know an immense amount of work and craft goes into animating something like The Last of Us, boy, I just could not care less about something so lacking in flair*. Even bigger properties that use a stylized artstyle these days, like Breath of the Wild, still tend to lean towards fairly naturalistic animation. Zenless Zone Zero’s cutscenes, on the other hand, spin and stretch motherfuckers around like we’re back on the PS2, are filled with forced perspective, and I am absolutely living for it. It’s not even reserved only for bombastic action scenes, either - we get honest to god character acting-focused conversation cutscenes.

*Seriously, take me back to the Naughty Dog that animated Jak & Daxter. Jak’s hero animation is top tier to this day

Of course, the combat animation slaps too; each of the playable agents is absolutely dripping with character. Even characters whose designs initially left me cold won me over once I saw the amount of care put into their movement and combo strings. It’s honestly shocking to me that this is the same studio that made Genshin Impact, a game I dropped after about 2 hours because of how lifeless all the animation felt*. Unique run cycles for every character, actual non-human designs, the flourishes everyone has when stopping mid-combo to snap them back to idle, the absolute synergistic audiovisual bliss of the parry… it’s really impressive stuff from a young team.

*Same studio in name only, totally different team, I know, but still

Mechanically, I have some mixed feelings about the combat as a whole. Zenless Zone Zero is, without a doubt, aiming to present complexity and depth as a team battler - that is to say, it’s more about team synergy, tag combos, and knowing who to use when, rather than soloing as any particular character. Nonetheless, I really would’ve appreciated individual characters having a bit more depth to their movesets; a jump, a launcher, cancels, anything. As outstanding as all the animation work is, there’s some characters that only have a normal attack string on square and one special attack on triangle. Like, sub-Dynasty Warriors level of complexity here. It’s rough.

This is where ZZZ’s gacha nature gets a bit ugly: so far, more complex kits and skill expression are mostly locked behind rarity, which is kind of scummy. In Star Rail, for the most part, 4-star characters are defined as such due to their numbers: they still have mechanics and complexity, they just aren’t tuned as high as the limited characters. Hell, in some cases they have more complexity. Ruan Mei is an almost incomparably stronger unit than Asta, but Ruan Mei’s play pattern is fucking boring: you use skill every three turns when it runs out. Asta, meanwhile, basically has her own risk & reward minigame that demands more thoughtful SP management.

In ZZZ, on the other hand, the lower-rank characters straight up have less going on in their kits. Nicole has like… one tech, sorta. Anby has one single animation cancel to chain her normal into her special quicker. Lucy’s only skill expression is choosing whether to tap special or hold special. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan, a limited character, has a normal string that bounces between melee and ranged attacks, can be dodge-canceled at any point in the combo to branch into variations of the string, and a hold-normal attack string that’s completely different and has the same branching dodge-cancel tech.

It’s one thing to lock raw damage and meta viability behind a gacha, but locking the characters that are mechanically more interesting to play straight up sucks. If I hadn’t been lucky enough on the standard banner to pull exactly the two characters I find the most mechanically satisfying, I don’t know that I’d still be playing - and this is the point where ZZZ begs comparison to other, non-live service character action games. Sure, it’s probably not fair to compare a random A-rank’s moveset to Devil May Cry V’s iteration of Dante, a feature-creeped nightmare of a kit 3 console generations in the making. But what about Sengoku Basara Sumeragi, my personal character-action GOAT? By all accounts a mid-budget title, yet it offers 40 full characters chock-full of more unique mechanics and animation cancels than you can shake a stick at.

Fuck, can we please get a new Sengoku Basara? Please? I’m desperate out here. I’ll take anything, y’all.

There’s also the inherent issue that plagues every action RPG (usually deftly avoided by the character action genre), which is the delicate balance of player success depending on the numbers vs actual mechanical skill - a balancing act made even more noticeable due to the gacha genre-standard of characters taking weeks of grinding to level up. This is a topic for another day, but suffice to say, a big part of the reason Honkai Star Rail works for me as a very pretty version of Cookie Clicker is because of the Autoplay option. In Zenless Zone Zero, if you’re not willing to grind out the same mob fight for a week or two, you’re gonna hit an endgame roadblock of doing chip damage to a boss you’ve mechanically mastered because you’re underleveled, and boy, that never feels good.

For all those issues stemming from the gacha, I will say, it’s great that the story missions let you use the characters that are actually supposed to be present for those missions, even if you don’t own them. Aside from how nice it is to have an opportunity to put the whole roster through their paces, it goes a long way for actually getting invested in the story. Honkai Star Rail’s storytelling is a hot mess for many reasons, but it’s always particularly jarring rolling up to a sidequest at like, a local theater troupe with a wanted space criminal, the sitting president of a completely different planet, a ten year old child, and a shirtless cyborg cowboy, none of whom have canonically met each other; ZZZ’s approach sidesteps this issue. The proxy angle even provides a pretty valid diegetic explanation for why agents that don’t know each other might be working together.

Now that we’ve sort of meandered back to the story after talking about animation led us on a long detour - the story is surprisingly solid. In particular, I really appreciate how straightforward the writing is. I don’t know if the issue lies with the original text or the localization, but Star Rail’s dialogue, even in simple missions, tends to be incredibly meandering and overstuffed; ZZZ is a lot better about letting all its characters talk like actual humans. It also helps that the plot so far is a lot more grounded, and spends more time focusing on each faction’s group dynamics rather than the overarching plot. These games live and die by their characters, so leaning into those strengths is a smart move.

Zenless Zone Zero is, unfortunately, fully in line with Hoyo’s weird conservative politics - in particular, 1.0 and 1.1 are absolutely stuffed full of copaganda. With how many safety regulation jokes they made at the construction company, I initially hoped they’d lampoon the police faction a bit, or make a commentary on how comically heavily armed New Eridu’s police force are. In a vacuum, Zhu Yuan shouting combat lines like “Stop resisting!” or “Freeze, hands up!” while blasting someone with her gigantic, ‘JUSTICE’-emblazoned rocket launcher shotgun feels like it ought to be satire. Every time we talk to the officers, though, it’s just line after line about their solemn duty to protect the people of the city, how essential and important they are for the community, and so on and so on.

This wholehearted embrace of the world’s current power structure is something Zenless Zone Zero approaches in nearly the exact same way as Star Rail. In both games, your playable character is someone that’s sort of operating outside the law - in Star Rail, as the maverick organization that is the Astral Express, while in ZZZ you work as an illegal proxy. Despite this setup, any time the protagonists come into contact with a governing body, they are no less than thrilled to help them enforce the will of the law.

In Star Rail, you aid the local governments (one of which is an undemocratic monarchy) in committing massive cover-ups to hide their failures from the populace not once but twice. In ZZZ, you aid the police to an obsequious degree - playing along with them to not arouse suspicion is one thing, but helping them organize a fucking community day on Sixth Street? Fuck that. Hell, said community day is even shown to initially be DOA because none of the local residents trust the police - and you best believe we get two full scenes of the MCs changing the resident’s minds, resulting in them spouting shit about “Oh, it was our fault for judging the police too harshly - they really do have our best interests at heart!”

is it tho

There’s an argument to be made that the N.E.P.S. are a little different, given that they exist in a post-apocalyptic world with monsters popping up every day - and ZZZ’s copaganda is certainly a little less flagrant than something like Spider-Man helping the NYPD install civilian surveillance networks in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And, sure, perhaps this can help excuse why they post fully armored, rifle-wielding soldiers in the Lumina Square DMV, and provides some justification that their existence is more helpful than the real world’s civilian-murdering property guards.

Thing is, though, at every turn you’re hit with dialogue and situations which make it clear that, no, they’re the normal cops. Every other sidequest seems to involve calling the N.E.P.S. in on somebody or helping with an investigation, and for every time we see them handle ethereal activity, there’s two instances of them being called in for petty property theft or something similarly minor - even the playable character has heaps of dialogue choices threatening to call the police on someone*. Much like Star Rail’s reactionary politics were strangely at odds with the ‘blazing a new path’ ideals of the trailblaze, Zenless Zone Zero’s obsession with the police puts a damper on its underground, counterculture aesthetic.

*Including a case where both options threatened this, leaving me without a non-narc dialogue choice.

illustration by Lv01KOKUEN

And finally… I don’t know where to fit this in, so I guess it just goes in its own little section at the end here. Lots of people, myself included, have touched on the Persona inspirations - and they’re certainly significant. One thing I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention as a huge influence is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade Battlefront. From its sense of style to its worldbuilding, ZZZ damn near feels like fanfic to me. Hell, it’s right in the name - BBB? ZZZ? And this is on top of the dimensional crossover / big city vibe, the retro fashion, the different factions. Victoria Housekeeping might as well be Libra 2.0 - Von Lycaon is a damn near perfect 50/50 expy of Klaus and Stephen Starphase. And then Belle / Wise, who assist these powerful fighters in a noncombat role just like Leo, also turn out to have some sort of special magical eyes granted to them by untold powers from within the dimensional rift??

I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong - love Nightow. But that can’t be coincidence, right?

[astrxlfinale]

Since I love doing this format a lil too much! Time to dole a few more on out there.

HCs; A Lighter Bundle.

. Is a 'get it done' cook at best. He's never really home to practice extensively. What you can count on however is a specialization of basic breakfast foods. Enough repetition made him solid in whipping up bacon and eggs.

. To tie with this, he primarily lives off fast food due to his lifestyle. Despite the few things he keeps at home, he's rarely there with such a big portion of his life requiring him to travel all around the place.

Won't catch him complaining though. This also means that he's well known across a lot of eateries, often helping with mishaps or just having that Lighter favorite as it's come to be dubbed.

. While he doesn't have a specialty animal he favors. Dogs are a species that happen to love him to absolute bits. Even the grumpiest types somehow come around to wanting to spend time with him. It ranges either from play (he's come to learnt he signs of this), or just enjoying a moment of quietude with them.

He does wish to adopt one, one day.

. Light's preferred setting are rooms on the lower spectrum of well lit. This is mainly due to the 'adjustment phase' of eyes acclimating to light serving as a consistent point of pain and potential headaches to him. His aviators are specialized to always make light more 'muted', as such he can always come comfortably let them handle situating.

To go with this, even with his shades, lights they find themselves rapidly alternating through colors can still agitating his senses if they're too bright. This is mainly on computer and TV screens however.

. Lighter is actually a big fan of kind 'white lies.' Despite how truth can be truth, if someone's in a great mood at the time, he just hates being a spoil sport in general. He'd rather just play along to keep up the energy and ensure that with his encounter, things can have a little memorable highlight.

. In terms of a workout regiment, he alternates a central part of the body to give attention to, and proceeds to give it a 100 reps before starting his day. Things like light jogs to stretches however are a ritual practice.

. Isn't much of an internet person at all. Outside of Interknot, news feeds and some sights that hold artistic imagery are things he enjoys frequenting in the allotted time. He only keeps his social sphere to contacts, rather than joining any larger scale discussions, in Lighter's eyes its merely a waste of time for that level of investment.

. What you can find on his phone however is a metric fuckton of music. He's more of a fun of more energized rock, a touch of edgy things (with a fighting mood), not to mention things like swing jazz when he wants to take a load off.

. And of course, he's making a lot more of an active effort to just be around his Sons of Calydon band. Lighter genuinely enjoys both the time and often whacky experiences. Learning to prod and poke his share of fun, learning the fine line on how to not genuinely anger them, it's often a very therapeutic thing despite it seeming like a handful. Time with them is how he comes to decompress for the day.

Yes, even the 12 hour to day long sparring sessions their insane amounts of stamina can usually eat up.

[aphverse-confessions]

hello hey, self-proclaimed favourite anon tossing my hat about Jesson. I wanna take a crack at how people talk about Jesson because it's infuriating to see people be total extreme polars between the two. People think Jessica is an irredeemable monster, or they think Jessica gets way too much flack from her audience without understanding/acknowledging the questionable stuff.

REALLY HUGE DISCLAIMER HERE!!! I don't want this to be condoning the idea that people should be held accountable for 5+ year old behaviour. People can and will absolutely change, we shouldn't deny that people can change for the better and learn from their mistakes. Jess herself is capable of growth: she changed Kawaii~Chan's name to an actual name, Nana Ashida, actually gave a backstory to Nana and completely dropped Nana's weebish way of addressing people and dropped Kawaii~Chan as a name entirely. Give people credit where credit's due, treat people with grace and empathy.This entire confession is just my personal reflection on the Jesson debacle, just sorting out my own feelings about the two and trying to find a middle ground between the two extremes of hating Jesson and defending Jesson.

Speaking generally and not just in regards to Aphblr, a lot of people seem to completely completely blame Jess for everything wrong with the series and. Like, I don't think thats fair at all to Jess because it was Jason also contributing and helping out with the stories. We don't know who did what and quite frankly Jason did had an influence on the writing on the series so people shouldn't just scapegoat Jess.

Jess had self inserts, Jess was cringe, Jess butchered the love triangle are criticisms I saw during Youtube, Wattpad, etc during Jesson's hayday and some of these criticism's still persist. Which like... guys, Jess being cringey and self inserting into her stories isn't the most pressing issue you think it is, I'd LOVE to make mad dough self inserting and roleplaying with a harem of hot bishonen boys. I'm gonna be blunt, a very fair share of criticism towards Jess was quite misogynistic and I'm not going to deny that. Back in 2016-2019 people were awful and bashed her for the aforementioned which... ew. Hell!!! I even see some of this misogyny to current day on Youtube!!! Which . Fucking Sucks.

If you're gonna give Jess flack, give Jason flack. If you're gonna call Jess cringe and dumb for self inserting onto a cute perfect anime girl with her boy harem, call Jason 2x amount of that cringe for self inserting onto an edgy werewolf alpha + getting jealous over minecraft cubes. It takes two to tango and Jason definitely had a hand with how the series were written.

Something honestly more important to mention that people cite Jesson's badly written stories as a moral failing instead of actually criticizing the contents within the stories when portraying certain topics*** (put a pin in this, we will come back to this class). Like, people were putting more effort in dragging Jess about the bad writing of MCD and MyStreet with the love triangle + Aarmau, than actual problems with the portrayal of sensitive issues such as racism.

However, in spite of my defense of Jess, I'm gonna be blunt. There were a lot of fucking problems here, Scoob!!! Like. Actual problems with both Jessica and Jason as people that people sometimes overlook due to the more pettier criticisms/complaints. Yes, Jess was a victim of Internet's misogyny and that's 100% valid to acknowledge that, however I feel it's a disservice to handwave and not acknowledge the actual problems Jess had. Jess being a victim of misogyny and Jess doing bad shit are two statements that can co-exist.

Jesson being pariah-ed out of their own fandom isn't exactly undeserved considering all of the legitimate issues there were with the duo (not just Jess herself). It's not a 'hate-train' to not like Jesson or to still be discomforted by their previous behaviour because yeah. It. Was bad. Because we do point-proof-analysis round these parts bitches™, I will provide proof where I can.

To list the issues with Jesson off of the top of my head in no specific order: - Jess absolutely fetishized mlm on multiple occasions. Admitting she's Septiplier trash and fetishizing two real men's friendship when Jess was a 23 year old woman: (https://tinyurl.com/aph-confess) / (https://tinyurl.com/aph-septi-vid-react) - Adding onto the previous point, Jason 'Fans-shipping-my-wife's-Self-Insert-with-other-fictional-men-is-'whoring'-her-out' Bravura even admitted Jess's queerbaiting (https://tinyurl.com/jason-admits-the-queerbaiting) - Jason Bravura as a whole person: from his extremely possessive attitude towards the fanbase when it came to ships (https://tinyurl.com/jason-temper-tantrum), from how he absolutely fought with his tweenage fanbase back in 2016-2018-ish, him being really aggressive online in general, him having a horrible influence on the writing - Apparently Jason was responsible for the Ein-Aphmau incest??? I have no source for this, but would not be shocked if this was the case. - *** Romanticizing grooming/creepy as fuck age-gaps thru Aarmau and Gene PDH. I blame Jason for him being an alleged freak (going off of Jess's Draw my Life). Throw the whole man into the rancor pit at this point - *** The horribly done racism subplots of MCD and MyStreet. Oh my fucking god. I already went into this on my initial confession with Kip and Zoey+Aph being racist to him, the cutesy microaggressions. I already discussed about it in depth, here's the link to read more about it -> (https://tinyurl.com/confession-about-racism)

Jess using mlm to queerbait fans and fetishizing two REAL people as a grown ass woman was shitty, Jason is an entire cesspool of a person and was shitty. The horrible, tone-deaf messaging and portrayal of racism being so prominent throughout MCD/MyStreet was shitty. These problems don't suddenly stop being issues just because people raising petty points about Jesson.

Like there were a ton of problems with Jesson as people/content creators, it's not fair to just dismiss all of the listed as totally petty fandom wank. I feel like in modern day, it's a fair compromise to celebrate the media that they made without falling into praising them as people just because they made a cool Thang™. We can enjoy the stories they made without having to totally enjoy the people behind them. With my previous confessions, it sparked some healthy discussion within Aphblr and I hope this confession will raise some healthy discussion about Jesson as a whole where people can find a middle ground between totally loving/hating Jesson. This was a wholeass essay, so here's a shrimp as a reward 🦐

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