#i imagine most places are pretty similar based on what the games imply

[ganglygamer]

I'M HERE I'M A PODCAST ENJOYER!!!

(tldr at the end because this is kinda long)

I should mention that there are also unused versions of the TSON cover made by the same artist (hauntedfaun) that show Noone having long black hair and a white gown. Though I think most people in the fandom (myself included) don't really like that look as it feels a bit too similar to what we've seen in previous LN designs (Six and RK for example). It's obvious though that they made her hair way shorter in the final design.

So basically, don't feel bad if your version of Noone isn't accurate to what's shown on the cover, since most of the other fanmade Noone designs that I've seen don't really follow it anyway. My version (seen below and here) is actually similar to yours in a lot of ways, except I envision her having reddish hair and freckles - but there are other interpretations, like her having brown hair or blonde hair and different styles of clothing.

As for when TSON could take place, we can only kind of guess using context clues seen in the rest of the series. In the preview for the new comic we do get a glimpse of the counties having some blend of modern skyscrapers and gothic architecture, but nothing that really pins down a time period.

That being said, a lot of the technology in the LN games does seem to come from the mid-late 20th century, specifically things like heart monitors, subway systems, electric fences, big blocky CCTV monitors, etc. And in TSON it's implied that Otto records everything on a modern tape recorder, while with his dream machine the noises it makes always made me think it was hooked up to some larger old-fashioned computer cabinet (think of an old NASA supercomputer).

Taking all that into account, I imagine what we see in the Counties likely takes place between the mid-1960's and early 1970's, since that would be modern enough for the buildings and tech mentioned above, but also vintage enough for the stuff we see in LN2 like black-and-white TV or the style of hair and clothing on the Viewers to still be common. Although, this is all assuming the Counties is supposed to be OUR world and not just the fictional LN equivalent of the real world.

tldr: You can pretty much draw Noone however you like since there doesn't really seem to be an "official" design for her between the official artist or the fanartists. Also TSON likely takes place in the mid-60s/early-70s based on the buildings and technology seen in the wider LN series.

Noone!

So, recently, I listened to the Sounds of Nightmares podcast (a little late, I know, but still better than never) and I have become obsessed.

(P.s. If you're wondering what the scrawls read, I was just speculating what hair-do Noone carries. In the end, I do think they're pigtails but I drew her with short hair because it's recognisable.)

Also side note, when do you guys think the podcast is set?

-The modern-day or perhaps sometime during the 1900s...

[takinghisbow]

just made myself laugh realizing that kok.ichi's greatest assets in the TL.OU verse are the same as in the game: the ability to be threatening (mostly bullshit) and the ability to be totally disarming/totally not a threat (even more bullshit)

[purplekoop]

So I was digging around in my old art to look for a design that inspired one of my newer characters, and ended up finding something I definitely remember, but not to its full extent.

I had some Overwatch OCs, all the way back in 2018, within the first year I actually had the game. Not just any OCs, but OCs meant to be full hero concepts of course! And fortunately enough, I gave one of them a full kit breakdown, complete with stats! I think I must've been inspired by Master Ian Gamer, an OW youtuber who at the time occasionally made his own concepts in a similar style, both for canon NPCs and his own original characters.

So, for historical sake (and because I think it'd be cute), let me present to you:

Prisma- Hero Concept

(For readability's sake, I'll type out my old notes verbatim as normal text, with any new comments in parenthesis afterwards like this.)

Story: "I shall protect Earth's beauty."

(The larger box left open for the story itself was blank. From what I can remember/assume, she's an Omnic environmentalist with either some kind of crystal-forming power or hard light tech.)

Support 50 HP, 150 Shields Speed: Slow Difficulty: (2.5/3 Stars)

(The health numbers are the same as Zenyatta had back then, which knowing me might've been implying a connection. The "speed" stat is meaningless, most OW characters share the same base movement speed, with Tracer and Genji moving 10% faster. It may also be implying her lack of movement abilities. Also does OW2 even give heroes difficulty stars anymore? So much changes so fast it might not even be a useful rating to give anymore)

M1 (Primary Fire): Gemstone Daggers. Prisma throws a sharp gemstone from her waist to attack. Damage/shot: 50 Shots/clip: 8 Reload: 2 sec Headshot: Yes Shots/sec: 2 Airspeed: Slow Gravity: Yes

(Ah, poor young me, using PC input notation instead of the universally correct terms. This'll bother me more later. The main thing I gotta note here is how similar this concept is to Kiriko's knives, but with some notable differences. For one, the base damage is 50, presumably meaning that headshots do 100, just barely enough to two-shot most heroes at the time! I guess Zen could always do that with discord orb too. But apparently to balance it out, 8 ammo and a two second reload, which is atrocious. For reference, iirc most OW heroes have a 1.5 second reload animation, with animations longer than that being rare exceptions like old Orisa and sentry Bastion being longer, but they had massive ammo pools to chew through before that. Hitting your shots doesn't sound easy either, with the dubious "slow" projectile speed and the confirmation of gravity making me imagine something like Torbjorn's primary fire. The shots per second of "2" actually isn't too bad, assuming it means a fire rate of 0.5 seconds then that's only slightly worse than Zenyatta. Still overall a pretty weak-sounding weapon, with okay max potential DPS held back by a lot of slow reloading and a hard to land projectile.)

M2 (Secondary fire): Regenerative Crystals. Places a large gem on the ground that heals nearby allies. Gem HP: 150 Healing Radius: 10 meters Max at a time: 3 Cooldown: 15 seconds

(Wow, speaking of familiar concepts in retrospect, healing turrets! I think. Frustratingly there's no healing per second rates or specification whether they're an AOE like Soldier's field or single target like the healing turret that finally happened in-game via Illari. Aside from that ambiguity, the biggest difference between Healing Pylon and this ability is the fact you could place a whopping three at once. I don't know if it had a three-charge cooldown like Symmetra's turrets do or if each one has a full cooldown and you just have the ability to place up to 3 if it recharges while one is already active. Either way it adds to what'll be a theme of Prisma adding a lot more clutter than she has to onto the field. This is her only means of healing though, so it might actually be warranted)

E (Ability 2): Refractive Wall. Reflects all projectiles (even beams) back at the enemy team. Wall HP: 1000 Height: 2.5 meters Width: 5 meters Projectile damage: 1/4x Duration: 8 seconds Cooldown: 16 seconds

(Alright to cut myself slack, knowing that the shift ability is internally "ability 1" and the E ability is "ability 2" is the kind of thing I wouldn't have learned without Workshop, which was a year away at this point iirc. Still, this one being first pains me. Anyways, a reflective barrier is a neat idea I've heard at least a couple times. It felt very fitting for the crystal theme, with the added perk of reflecting beams likely being there so you could reflect things like Zarya's laser in a logical way. Actually, an important distinction left out is whether this is a barrier or a physical object like Mei's wall. If the former, it's essentially just Ramattra's barrier with a higher cooldown, but much longer duration. Considering it's made of rocks though, I imagine it'd be more likely like a Mei wall you can't stand on, and also made of only one object rather than 5 pillars. The "1/4x damage" stat seemingly implies that unlike Genji, the projectiles reflected by this would deal significantly reduced damage, to the point where it hardly seems worth the extra coding hassle it would take to add that mechanic to make it work.)

L Shift (Ability 1): Refractive Armor Prisma coats an ally in gemstones, reducing damage and preventing stun/cc. Damage taken: 1/2. Duration: 5 seconds Cooldown: 18 seconds

(Oh okay this is just Fortify but given to an ally. I think that was a deliberate goal, considering this might've been intended as a counterplay option into Brig's notorious stun at the time, but I don't exactly remember whether she was added at this point or not. Still though, between the temporary stationary cover on E and the fortify on shift, this is sounding a lot like a support version of Orisa. What a funny concept that'd be, huh.)

Q (Ultimate): Diamond Guardian Places a diamond turret that fires a laser at any targets in range. HP: 400 DPS: 25 Range: 30 meters Ult Charge: Slow Call-out: "Fear the earth's power!"

(So... if I understand it right, this is an entirely damage-oriented ult. Not even high damage, and not even from a bulky target like B.O.B., and not even from a fast-charging ult. The only redeeming quality seems to be the insane range. For reference, Ramattra's ultimate has only a 13 meter range. You are NOT outranging this thing, but it doesn't exactly seem like much of an issue. Utterly bizarre ult design, I have no idea why she has a damage-dealing ult at all, let alone such a bad one. Though neat detail, the crystal standing next to her in the art seems to be the ult, based on the icon. Very big "hit this to progress in a Zelda dungeon" energy.)

Playstyle Synopsis: Prisma is a mix of defensive, protective, and supportive abilities, which combine to form a hero who can strongly hold an objective. However, she falls short on the attack, with a tricky M1 and low-damaging ult.

(Why did I think "defensive, protective, and supportive" were three usefully distinct descriptors. To give myself credit though, it seems the bad damage and ult were deliberate weaknesses to balance out a support based primarily around defense and area control. She very much feels like a hero made by someone who liked defending on 2CP maps and wanted a healer to pair with stally fortress comps like Orisa, Bastion, Torbjorn, and Symmetra. Yeah... I was that kind of freak back then. I'm only slightly sorry. She very much feels like a product of her time though, which makes it all the more shocking how many abilities sound so familiar to newer additions to the game. Her art even implies she'd float to move around like Echo. There's nitpicks I could make with rebalancing this hero, but that's for another time perhaps.)

As a closing thought, I should mention how important it is to my creative history to remember when I first made a geomancer named Prisma! See, after this, I took the name and basic crystal powers concept, and gave them to an alien lady in a suit for a short-lived space story. Later on, I took that version of the character yet again and made her a human woman with crystal powers, keeping the suit and the name Prisma. This time she was made for a major RPG project called City of Desos, which I've mentioned before is the origin of War Bots star Wilderoad. Unlike the gunslinging bot, Prisma is still planned to be part of Desos, so even after all this time the legacy of this Overwatch OC lives on!

Anyways hope somebody finds this neat. I did have a couple more designs, but very few kit details if any, so I may share them separately. This is fun, despite some stuff in this folder making me wince. It's neat being able to look back on your art, not just to see where you are now, but also to know you might've been onto something for longer than you thought. The kit design and layout here isn't that far removed from the likes of my notes Role Requeue or War Bots, just limited to what I could do on notebook paper while I should be paying attention to class.

[sirenjose]

Reading Alice's first birthday letter, it's already obvious Orpheus was down in Melbourne and helped Alice escape which is good but at the same time, I wonder how much influence he was having over her life after Melbourne. She managed to get a job as a journalist but thinking about it now, being a test subject wouldn't give much work experience and she managed to get a pretty nice apartment too, unless she managed to reclaim any of her inheritance if she had any. I don't necessarily know how recent they say her escape was could be at year at most. It's a nagging thought especially when you consider how her Deduction Stars are quotes written by someone observing her from afar and treating her like a test subject still.

I honestly need to reread and spend some more time thinking about her letter. It's definitely quite a bit to digest considering how it's written. Orpheus definitely seems implied to have beem the other person involved in her letter. Though I can't say I know for sure where it's taking place. Yes, it could be Australia, but based on the mention of medical reports, "juvenile" handwriting, pen left in a "crevice", nurses, but especially the "iron bars", my 1st thought was this was taking place at the Asylum, yet the mention of "Bourbon's drawer"... based on Alice's flashback in AoM, that could more imply it is Australia. Orpheus we know went to both the Asylum and potentially Australia (based on 1 of the individuals in Alice's flashback looking similar to Orpheus). Not to mention finding the key in a drawer is the same thing we saw in Alice's flashback...

Though I wonder if his true goal was to simply help her escape. If so, why didn't he reach out to her after she escaped, why not re-introduce himself as being her childhood friend? Why did they only meet up once more at the manor? I honestly still wonder if to an extent he was also performing or had the desire to perform some experiment/test on her. Though I guess Australia's tests might've been more just Vilhelm, while Orpheus may be saving his for the manor... Which again, need to ask what he is hoping to accomplish exactly?

And isn't Sam supposed to be working for Orpheus? In which case, Sam might've snagged the key and planted it himself in his drawer upon Orpheus' request. Though if so, what's this about Sam's "secret"...

Honestly, my thoughts right now are obviously scattered and disorganized. If Orpheus is the main one speaking (not saying "Who are you"), that implies Alice did forget Orpheus, at least for a time, while he did not... but then that begs the question why does he at least pretend not to recognize her... and does she not recognize him from her time with Vilhelm? Especially if she only escaped a year or some short amount of time before her game? The medication being messed up might've been why she was able to begin "remembering", though... what was the medication meant to do in the 1st place

I'm honestly really confused... Apologies for these nonsenical thoughts.

Yea, this likely takes place in Australia, and Orpheus is definitely involved in her escape (no idea if Sam was helping Orpheus do this or not, or whatever Sam's "secret" is, unless it has to do with perfecting his dovlin recipe for Demi, I don't know... or secret that Sam is helping Orpheus...). The one who likely forgotten someone is likely Alice forgetting Orpheus considering her mental state after the tragedy based on how she acts backstory video in the asylum prior to the experiments. Besides Sam's secret, we also don't know for certain the express goal of (Vilhelm's?) experiment in Australia. We also don't know why Orpheus didn't decide to reunite with Alice after helping her escape, or why he's using drugs on her at the manor.

Progress, but we're still missing so much...

I imagine her becoming a journalist has to do with her desire for the truth after her experience with her parents dying. She likely wanted to know who did it and why and what happened to everyone (culprits and victims, including Orpheus I imagine) afterwards, and she is an intelligent woman, so that likely would've been a good enough start to get her into that. And if she got any good jobs as that, that might apy for the nice place she has. Though it's possible, as people knew she was the daughter of the murdered DeRoss couple, that she had some inheritance left to buy the place... Though it's possible Orpheus aided her with that, for now I'm assuming she got it herself until otherwise stated.

[moritakathedrawer-leonaguilez]

Corrins in FEH: Distinctions between the Male and the Female

Preface

Firstly, congratulations to Female Corrin in winning this year’s CYL. Though I’m more of a Male Corrin fan so I would be lying that I am not a bit sad with the results. But hey at least he’s top 15 (for Men). Anyways…

Something interesting of all the “avatars” is that Corrin, in each gender, represents the two main paths, Female from Conquest and Male from Birthright. As it is illustrated in their respective box art. I won’t argue if this makes it canon or not, however their portrayal beyond their games have also followed suit. For example, from what I heard about Warriors, correct me if I am wrong, is that Male by default gets Hoshidan noble and whereas Female has Nohrian noble. But I’ll focus on FEH as it’s the game I’m more familiar with and accessible for me.

Let’s talk about their portrayal in FEH. In their base alt(i.e., OG) it is ambiguous which route each took but in their seasonal alts, it’s pretty obvious that male does come from BR and whereas Female from CQ. I attempted to take notes of some of the differences between the two , from castle quotes, voice-lines ,Lv 40 confession and meet the heroes page. I noticed that they do have contrasting differences. Here’s a table of summary:

Brief Discussions

OG

Both of them have mostly the same lines and even the same Meet the heroes entry but interestingly, they have some differences in their castle, voice lines and even confessions. Male emphasizes about choices and road taken has a somewhat serious tone while Female more on bonds and cheery. Though it is vague which route each took so it is on you how to interpret it.

(However one may say as what male Corrin’s Yato sprite looks like the Omega variant meaning he’s from Revelations. But I argue that it’s contradicting with his art and weapon name that has the standard Yato. I think IS that time just gave him the Omega Yato sprite that early as they didn’t think FEH would last long.)

Ninja

Of all the Corrin alts that have both male and female versions, so far the Ninja alts are the most different and their lines are very different and it isn't vague which route each represents. If you read all their lines and the Meet the heroes page, definitely Ninja Male Corrin is definitely from Birthright and the Female one is from Conquest, the closely associated characters is a big hint. And it’s neat that they had encountered each other.

Another note, this line also intrigued me from their paralogue:

“It's definitely a bit shocking, at least you still get along with your siblings! Oh, Elise... As upbeat as ever, I see.”

-Ninja Male Corrin Paralogue 65-1

I find this intriguing because it references about his experience from Birthright and he had a reaction when he saw Elise. However in his voice lines and castle lines he mentions sending Ninja clothes to Elise, there are two theories I could think of—One, she survived in that reality, or Two, it is some sort of in honor of her loving memory.

Fallen and Adrift

These alts don’t have much indication of which road was taken since fallen are presumed from the pre route split and adrift ones are just Young Azura’s imagination.

The Fallen lines seem similar for both of them—about them suffering , anxious and trying to contain their powers and rephrasing one another. From what I could tell, Fallen Male Corrin seems more unstable than Female. While in their Adrift forms, Male Corrin is very concerned more with Azura while Female is more concerned with the summoner.

Another note is no indication about Revelations of all the alts except these alts. In the Meet the Heroes Page of Fallen(both), there’s a mention of Valla while the rest of Corrin entries none. And for Adrift, the paralogue takes place in Valla.

Halloween

Of all the Corrin seasonal alts, this is the most similar for the both of them, they almost say exactly the same lines or rephrasing in both castle and voice, even confession. Though I found some nuances that implies Male Corrin is from Hoshido while Female is from Nohr. Just like in Ninja Paralogue, they meet too and they’re BFF’s, literally “friends with myself”.

Unique Alts

Meaning that these alts have no counterpart in respective gender (yet) like New Years is exclusively for Male while Summer for Female. Despite that, it’s pretty obvious which one is from, Male again from Hoshido—voice-lines and the paralogue takes place in Hoshido, together with his Hoshidan brother Takumi, (though Camilla is there for some reason). And Female, no need for explanation as it is explicit in the title in her paralogue “Nohrian summer” and as Anna stated that this takes place in the world of Conquest.

As for Legendary Female Corrin, it’s very explicit that she’s from Conquest. In all her lines talks about the events in the CQ route. By following this precedent, it’s pretty obvious that in the near future Legendary Male Corrin will be from Birthright. And I can’t wait to hear his thoughts about the BR route too. And that would be a huge help too in my analysis I’m writing—“Lord Corrin, Second Prince of Hoshido”. It’s still WIP.

Resplendent

Recently Female got her too so I guess I’ll include this but I couldn’t find something notable. They just both doing role-play with the realm that their resplendent represent— Male talks about future as he represent Askr while Female like a dark fairy as she represents the fairy land (sorry can’t remember the hard to pronounce Norse name). So far there has been a pattern Askr for Hoshidans (Takumi is a fitting exemption and his resplendent makes sense) while Fairyland for Nohrians.

Side note, I just love Male Corrin’s special line “This is the end!”, I like this aggressive side of him.

Quick comparisons with other “Avatars”

Before I’ll conclude, I did some quick checks with other avatars: Kris, Robin,and Byleth, if they also exhibit some differences between Male and Female too. ( I only checked the ones having counterparts, unique seasonals I didn’t because I won’t have something to compare with. I didn’t include Shez and Alear since they’re new and I’m not very familiar with them yet.)

Kris’: They both say the same but Male emphasizes on training, while Female about serving and loyalty to Marth.

Robins: Same with Kris. They say the same or rephrasing some lines however in their confessions and some lines Male is about bonds and partnership while Female reminds of herself about the summoner. As for the Grimas, meh. Personally not a fan, can’t finish reading their condescending lines. “Worm this, worm that.”

Byleths: Kid you not, all lines are exactly the same, not even rephrasing, even exactly same confessions, literally copy-pasting.I may know the reason. As far as I know, they’re supposed to be emotionless for lore reasons which gives them a little variety.

Conclusion

Of all the “avatars” Corrins provide variety with their alts and there are distinctions between Male and Female, not just simply copy-pasting most lines for each gender unlike other avatars most especially Byleth.

By nature, they are the same—kind, trusting, endearing and optimistic, but by nurture (i.e., taking different paths and experiences) makes them a bit different. From what I could tell in their overall portrayal in FEH, Male Corrin seems to be somewhat serious, low-key melancholic, emphasizes choices and path to peace while his Female counterpart who is easy going, cutesy and emphasizes bonds. With these distinctions between the two, the notion that “they’re just the same person but different gender” could be challenged, for FEH at least.

( Wanted to recheck and compare their lines in their own games too but so many lines to read and I won’t have much spare time soon. So far I’ve noticed they have different support lines for Gen 2. For example, with Male Corrin support with Kiragi, they’re doing hide and seek, while Female, they had a conversation about Kiragi’s role as a royal)

In their seasonal alts, they act goofy and a kid at heart. This can be said to all seasonal alts too. But this really makes sense to them due to their locked in a tower childhood. They would naturally act this way as they enjoy to the fullest of their freedom and be mesmerized with new things.

As we have seen, it has been consistent which route represents who. Male for Birthright and Female for Conquest. Even their kid: Kana hints which road was taken from by their refined weapons. I’m certain that Male Corrin will get Hoshido Noble from his legendary to mirror the female counterpart. I haven’t found one that heavily implies from Revelations yet. It is very likely that Brave Female Corrin will break this pattern or IS will throw a curveball at us as usual.

I am glad that the characterization of Corrin in FEH is surprisingly good and gave them some depth and nuances despite how much the fandom loves to make them into overly peaceful, naïve and silly caricatures, and especially Female Corrin who is reduced to fan-service. I hope this will make people warm up more to Corrin.

And with that concludes my attempt of doing “”analysis””. I’ve put more effort into writing this than I ever did with my school essays. Like this has ~1800 words and I didn’t resort to using redundant word extending techniques. This shows how interest and passion would make you do. I did my best with all my abilities and limits and I hope I didn’t miss something. If something was overlooked, please politely correct me and please don’t kill me…

[theabsentmindedwriter]

Isabelle, my way and still an adorable pup.

From New Leaf onwards, Isabelle is a special NPC character in the series who first acted as your assistant when you are Mayor. This kind of role doesn't really change as games go along. Granted more of her background information is fed to us in tidbits. However it doesn't change the fact she is popular in her own right.

(New Horizon's apperance)

Apperance wise she is recognizable, no doubt about that. With her bell like head, friendly smile, her buck tooth and her general attire which she is usually wearing something with a skirt. Though her original new leaf apperance was lacking any shoes before. As seen here.

(Her apperance in Smash Bros Ultimate. Based on her spring/summer attire in New Leaf).

Though an interesting thing to note is her outfit will change a bit during the seasons. Trying to fit with the changing temperature despite being a fuzzy puppy herself.

(Fall attire for New Leaf and New Horizon)

As for my experience with her in the games. She was honestly a pretty welcoming sight. Just a general fuzzball of positivity and support. Granted it took some more time for her to be on a similar level that I placed Ankha. I always found her sunny disposition...and some hilarity in her dialogue to uplift my spirits.

As for background information about her. There was ton's to find in the game. Usually drip fed to you based on what other villagers say about her. Also some NPC's like her brother reveal some interesting info about her. Throughout my research the most bizzare I have discovered was her Brother mentioning she graduated from nineteen different universities in Engineering. To which I am not sure how that is possible. Though it would explain how capable she is as your assistant. Of course if you treat the 'many sisters' in different towns as Canon then that is probably the reason why. Despite her implied intellgence she is still has some silly moments. Like chewing on shoes, being a bit forgetful, has yet to fully unpack in her house, hates confrontations, scary when angry and well being the lovable pup she is.

She won me over in the long run and well this runs into my depiction of her in my stories. I did run with the fact she has a crush on the Mayor. In this case being Nacho, but I always imagined her starting off on that to grow as a better and stronger person. Using the her admiration for the man who ran the town to improve as a person. Come into her own so to speak.

Granted it didn't start until the second story, but after that I made sure she gets her fair share of character growth. Being a kind, compassionate, kinda shy puppy to a more determined and ready to tackle problems that went beyond being assistant to a mayor. Which I like to think I accomplished that. Because to me she deserves it for her determination. Though hilariously I decided to put her in a poly relationship with Ankha and Nacho. Mostly because at the time I couldn't decide between the two. So I decided to F it and went that route. Which works since she is bisexual here. Which is pretty accurate to her crush on the Mayor regardless of biological sex. Though that was as far as I was going to take it. No anime level harem here.

Backstory wise she pretty much remains mostly untouched with the games. There is still more about it not fully explored like her parents or early childhood. However I did give an explanation for what I call the Isa-clones in other towns. Being a result of a science fair project gone wrong. Resulting in more of her running around. Despite this knowledge I have yet to ever bring them up in the main story. That and the council of Isabelles. Boy can you imagine the family reunions?

Physique wise is the most funky process I had of figuring out. Firstly, she is anthro like Ankha and other animal folks. Though not the same blend as Ankha. She is also 5'5" and slightly chubby...also curvy as well. I will admit the internet affected by decision making process in making Isabelle a sort of short stack. Though I always imagine her to be kinda short is because of her Shih Tzu dog breed. Which is a toy dog size. Her physique does improve as the stories go along. Her getting a bit more fit but still having a bit of chub (because I just think it's cute with her). She sort of ends up being pretty strong in her own right. At least until the current story to which by then she is on a even playing field with the stuff going on. Compared to Ankha more agile body, Isabelle is definitely more tanky if you catch my drift.

Story significance, she is definitely important being one of the anchors that keeps Nacho in check later. Not to mention having a higher position power in the current story. Helping with her growth to stand out on her own. Though there are times I feel like I could do more with her. I never truly know because I am the one writing and having to figure these things out. But I like to think I am doing well for the most part.

If you are interesting in hearing more about her. I can make another post talking more details than I did here. Unless you are looking for specfic questions to be answered. Anyways I said enough. Hope this has been a fun peak into my mind with Isabelle here.

[bellamyroselia]

Part 2 of the author's notes, because Part 1 was getting too long apparently...

So why does Ares bring up the Lightning Chariot right after he asked if Palutena wants to hold Pit? Because the most influential chariot-related figure in the mythos, Athenian king Erichthonius was practically adopted by Athena. He taught people how to yoke horses, use plows and chariots, smelt silver, then came up with the Panathenaic Games and invented quadriga, and after his death he became the constellation Auriga (Charioteer). The snake in the statue of Athena Parthenos also represents him and fun fact, his story actually predates the tale of Athena and Poseidon fighting over Athens historically speaking! But anyway, the implication here is that Lightning Chariot’s builder was the last baby Palutena ever held.

Who are demigod twins Palutena brings up? Aeneas and his lesser-known brother Lyrus, who presumably is his twin as Anchises and Aphrodite only did the horizontal mambo once. Lyrus is only here because I couldn't resist of not giving Aeneas a twin. Pop culture really likes to give characters connected to Virgil (Aeneas is the main character of his magnum opus, Aeneid) twin siblings so might as well give in to the urge myself, especially since I can just use an already existing character. As for the events that are referenced, Aeneas was raised by nymphs in his first five years before he was given to Anchises. The idea here is that Ares takes a page out of that playbook - give Pit some five years of easy childhood and then bring him to meet the rest of his family. He was just planning to do the parenting himself and not dump Pit to some nymphs to raise, haha.

The things about giants is also inspired by an actual myth. Long tale short, Poseidon was a jackass enough to cuckold his own son and out of that union twin giants, Ephialtes and Otus, were born. They wanted to have divine wives and settled on wanting Hera and Artemis bad choices, and the plan they came up with was to pile mountains on top of one another until they reached Olympus - a fight broke up between them and Olympians and once the giants left, Ares was missing. Ephialtes and Otus probably realized way too late that capturing him wasn’t the brightest idea and since letting him go wasn’t an option, they locked him in a bronze jar. It took around 13 months for others to find him, and Artemis and Hermes went to free him. While Artemis distracted the two giants into killing each other, Hermes lockpicked Ares out of the jar and then they went back to Olympus. I think you can see the dark twist this fic took here - and it does suck to be Ares in this case, because he was fully conscious during those 13 months and it was said that it was enough to break him down. Just imagine how badly someone’s mind could crack if they had to endure that for even longer!

I guess the way I treat angels can be weird to lot of people, so might as well explain it here - I don’t view them as being similar to angels in Christianity. Besides it feeling out of place considering how this is a Greco-Roman mythology based franchise, it feels… Well idk, weird to me? At least the human world of Kid Icarus seems to be stuck during the pre-Christianized Imperial Roman period, and guess what was happening during this time period?

Moving on... With that in mind, angels in Kid Icarus being viewed as similar to angels in Christianity just doesn’t sit right with me. I view them more as a subcategory of smaller divine beings - think of something similar to nymphs but not exclusively women. It would at least make the rules of what would qualify as an angel much more straightforward, since angels can make more of themselves with each other whereas nymphs have to result to other means (and those means almost always end with the birth of a non-nymph). Granted, this does imply that two big-time gods could possibly have an angel child (pretty much how most nymphs were born in the first place), that a god and a human could have an angel child (example: Aphrodite and Adonis were said to have had a nymph daughter, Beroe) or that human could become an angel (though this is purely here because the case of Artemis’ hunters is weird - even the mortal-born ones are referred as nymphs, so what is it? They seem to become immortal in a sense that they can’t die of old age, so maybe they become nymphs once they become hunters? But honestly if humans can become gods, why not angels then) - and if one chooses to interpret it as so, so be it. Nowadays an angel child born by either of the first two ways would be pretty rare and they’d likely be seriously deified soon after their birth anyway, so it’s not like their birth would affect the angel population in the long run. And just like with nymphs, I believe an angel could become a big-time god but it would likely be a bigger deal than it’s with nymphs. Like how many of you even know that Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite is an ocean nymph? Most of the time she’s simple just referred as queen of the sea or goddess of the sea, making it hard to remember that she’s a nymph at all… And all while writing this, I didn’t even realize that Pit actually fits into that second category of how nymphs/angels could be born until now. Funny how things work.

So who were the divine parents unlucky enough to have mere human children? Well, just the mother truth to be told - Nemesis is sometimes said to the mother of Helen of Troy, her father still being Zeus. She’s the unlucky divine mother of an unlucky mortal child sired by a divine father. And divine genetics are already such nonsense even when ignoring stuff like this. What do you think this guy’s children he had with a woman literally named “sea monster” would look like?

Well your answer is Medusa, her two other Gorgon sisters, the three Graeae and Echidna. Makes no damn sense to me either. I could pull many other equally nonsensical examples, like how the power scaling between demigods is enough to give me a headache (how come Philammon was only a good musician while Autolycus could shapeshift?), but I’m going to only use one - Echidna had children with both Typhon and Heracles. With Typhon, she gave birth to many familiar monsters and with Heracles, she had perfectly normal human triplets. If anything, all this does is prove that the lines between humans, demigods, monsters, smaller deities and big-time deities are murky as heck, but a more talented writer could easily use that as an advantage. I'm not that writer. 😂

And we have finally reached the end. I wasn't lying when I said that this truly was a wall of text! Maybe too long for author's notes, but what's done is done. I hope you enjoyed this little insight to my mind while creating Sky Blue Eyes. Have a nice day!

So, I wrote a thing. Probably not the best thing I’ve ever written, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have fun while making it, so I thought why not share it here. Palutena and Pit are possibly OOC though, but I hope it’s not too noticeable.

I’m also likely going to share the overly long author’s notes here in a reblog once I get them on a presentable state, because I want to share that 2k+ wall of text somewhere. Turned out that I had way too much things to say than any end note section should allow 😂

[cayenne-twilight]

Professor Layton Iceberg Explanation

As I said in the tags of the original, the iceberg I made was a meme consisting of both real theories and satire/parodies/fandom memes. If anyone is interested, I can work on an unironic version that only has real theories.

Buckle in because this post is LONG and heavily saturated with lore and information.

Actual theories

Parallel universe 1960s where the world wars didn’t happen. There’s an unused file in Curious Village that shows the year as 1960 and the time machine from UF is set to 1973, ten years into the future. The series canonically takes place in an undefined time period (hence the technological inaccuracies and fantasy elements), but it’s based off the 60s. There’s more evidence but we don’t have time to go over every little thing. I linked my “no wars” theory below but TL;DR the outdated airplanes and underdeveloped medicine in the Layton series imply that the world wars may never have happened. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632205992162099200/outofcontextdiscord-timegearremix-zonosils-war

The real meaning behind the statue in Future London. In UF, the purpose of the statue is to spark Layton and Luke’s conversation about their friendship. Luke is stressing out about moving overseas and sees himself and the professor in the story behind the statue, but in the bigger picture, Clive must have been the one to commission it. Some theorize that the little boy is Clive and the man is either his father or the professor. One idea I’ve seen is that Clive wishes he could be Luke for real, while another is that he wishes he died ten years ago, and another is that he’s literally terminally ill explaining why he doesn’t care about consequence. Personally, I think “the boy succumbed to his illness” refers to his mental illness seeing as he wanted the professor to save him from his madness as he saved him all those years ago.

True location of Monte D’Or. there are no deserts on the British isles to my knowledge, so it makes the most sense for Monte D’Or to be in Southwest USA where English is the default language, they have a desert, and there exists a city famous for flashy hotels, casinos, and entertainment. What makes it odd is that nobody ever mentions overseas travel, and all the major characters are from England.

Loosha’s origins are not explicitly explained if I remember correctly, but the implication was that her prehistoric (supposedly) species was sealed away along with the garden, allowing them to survive all the way to the time of LS until Loosha was the only one left. The garden provided a good habitat and protection from predators, and it’s logical that they’d slowly die out anyways, but there’s no explanation of any specific factors that led to Loosha being the last.

Beasley is not a bee I wrote a post about this one as well, but TL;DR Beasly lacks several defining bee traits whilst having several human ones. He is not human, yet, by definition, not a bee. It’s possible that he is the result of Dimitri’s testing, but whatever his untold story is, he remains an enigma of nature. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632381715250282496/theory-beasly-isnt-a-bee

Subject 2’s identity is currently unknown. There is a subject one (parrot) and subject 3 (rabbit) so there has to be a second. For a long time, people suspected Beasly to be him seeing as he’s a bit of an amalgamation and definitely not a regular bee (see above). After the release of LMJ, though, people began to suspect Sherl, the intelligent hound who could speak to certain people but not others. That being said, it’s possible for one to be subject 4. Sherl’s memory of a bright flash matches up with subject 3’s memory of being electrocuted. They never explain why the animals were being experimented on, but it was probably Dimitri making sure the conditions of his machine were safe for humans before reliving the incident from ten years ago.

Lady Violet died from the plague from DB. There’s no evidence for this or anything, it’s just an idea. People say she died from the flu but I don’t remember them saying that in the game, at least the US version. Extending off my “no war” theory: it’s theorized that the Spanish Flu was spread by the travlelling soldiers, so if that’s true, it’s possible for the epidemic to have been averted for some decades. Maybe the Spanish Flu reached England later than in real life. The hole in this is that DB’s plague must’ve been close in time to 1918 while Violet’s death was much later, so it would’ve had to stick around.

Bill Hawks is working with Targent and Arthur Cantabella. There was a force in the shadows buying the time machine technology from Bill. Someone with a ton of money who helped him cover up a freak accident and get away with it completely, a feat that involved shady means like violence by hired thugs. Some theorize that it was Targent, seeking power over time in exchange for a little mafia magic. The Labarynthia project was sponsored by the UK government, so as the PM, Bill must’ve known about it. He probably supported dubiously ethical, high stakes (witch pun) psychological experiments like Cantabella’s and helped him stay in the shadows.

All the NPCs in St. Mystere and Folsense are dead. I make fun of this type of theory later, but they’re admittedly captivating. I’m pretty sure the canon in CV is that the villagers are Bruno and Augustus’s OCs that they made robots of and built a town around, but it’s more interesting to think that the village was there before, and the townspeople died of a plague and were replaced like Lady Violet. In Folsense, there really was a plague and they never explain the NPCs there. They’re either real people who appear way younger than they are due to hallucinations (even the ones who already look old ?), or they don’t exist at all, which is pretty spooky. This part of the story is a gaping plot hole. In a similar vein to CV, the edgy yet plausible theory is that they used to live in Folsense but died of the plague and now live on as hallucinations.

Hershel seeing everything as a puzzle is a coping mechanism for all his trauma. This was a joke but I thought about it for more than five seconds and it makes way too much sense.

Plot holes and unexplained questions that we like to overthink because it’s fun

The downfall of the Azran was vaguely explained in canon by people being so greedy that it lead to the civilization collapsing. It’s not a stretch to imagine that happening, but it would’ve been more interesting with a little more detail.

Layton and Luke are programmed to routinely forget how to walk. I didn’t know whether to list this in the joke section or not, but it’s odd that the characters actively participate in the walking tutorial (as opposed to showing a little memo to the player) as if they didn’t know how to before, especially when they go through this several times a year.

The truth behind Pavel. He’s simply a joke character who teleports, is a polyglot (sort of, at least he wants us to think he is) and is mega confused all the time. He’s a fun character to make crack theories about because of his cryptic nature that even he doesn’t seem to understand.

Miracle Mask deleted scenes. The first trailer for MM featured animations that were not in the final game. One was the Randall falling scene, except in a slightly different style than the one we know. Others were completely foreign, like Layton and Luke pacing across a theatre stage as if Layton’s about to expose someone with a dramatic point. Cut content and “could’ve beens” are always curious to think about.

Evan Barde: secret mastermind. Arianna and Tony’s dad is a mysterious character who died under mysterious circumstances. I think the canon is that his death was a genuine accident, but concept art of him making a creepy evil face suggests that maybe he originally had a larger role in the first drafts of LS than the finished game.

The secret to how Paul and Des pull off their disguises is unclear and will remain unclear. There is no plausible explanation for their shape shifting. Unless Paul is just a little dude wearing a human suit like that one Wizard of Oz species and Des is the best quick-changer ever and hides his naturally feminine legs under his cloak.

Alfendi’s mom. When LBMR came out people scrambled to piece together who Hershel had a kid with, but there’s no way alfendi is his biological son. This happened with Kat as well and her biological parents turned out to be brand new characters, so I’m sure Al will get an adoption backstory if his arc continues, be his parents old major characters or nameless, faceless NPCs.

Granny Riddleton and Stachenscarfen are omnipotent deities. Idk which section this fits best under, but these two characters have some serious power. At first introduction, they’re implied to be robots, but they appear everywhere in later games. They follow the Professor wherever he goes and assist him on his adventures, GR collecting puzzles and housing them by some odd magic, and Stachen teaches you how to walk. They both introduce and supervise the gameplay. By extension, I guess this idea could apply to Albus as well in the prequels. GR and Stachen even had the power to appear in LMJ, something no major character could do. I consider them akin to the velvet room attendants from the Persona games.

Clive’s kill count is a vague subject in the game for the sake of keeping it PG. I don’t know if anyone’s ever mathematically estimated the damage he caused, and I sure don’t want to try, but the game appears to push the idea that he didn’t kill anyone at all, saying they stopped him in the nick of time and things like that, even though we watch him raze the city. If they ever want to bring him back post-time skip, I can see them twisting it so that the mobile fortress cutscene wasn’t a linear sequence of events, but instead a compilation of scenes over the course of hours so that London neighborhoods around him could be evacuated and have it make sense. Knowing Level-5, it’s more likely that they wouldn’t think this deep and do something more lazy, though.

Memes and references

Post-time skip Flora is real references the famous L is real theory from Super Mario 64. Like Luigi in SM64, Flora was also a highly anticipated character who didn’t appear in a new game, in this case LMJ or LMDA. In the end, Luigi did become real in the DS port so hopefully Flora is real will be realized as well.

Hershel can’t read is a veteran fandom meme referring to how in the first few games, especially Curious Village, Layton asks Luke to read every document out loud for him. Perhaps this was an exercise to improve Luke’s reading skills and independent thinking, or perhaps he was just too lazy or preoccupied to do it himself, but this grew into the joke that our genius Professor was actually illiterate this whole time.

Layton’s smash invitation is hidden in PLvsAA. It’s no secret that the fandom would kill a man to get the Professor into the smash brothers franchise. In PLvsAA one of the puzzle artworks features a goat eating a familiar white envelope with a red stamp, sparking the joke that either Layton or Wright got the invitation their respective fans desired, but it got lost along the way.

The science board is the mysteriously vague organization Don Paolo got kicked out of for the crime of being evil. It’s the epitome of liberal arts majors and art school graduates trying to bs their way around not knowing any science and failing miserably. “He was very good at all the sciences, but then the CEO of science told him to stop because he was using the power of science for evil science”. They do this again when “Dr. Stahngun” describes his time machine what with the soolha coils and whatnot.

Hoogland is death cult initiation is a parody of “Mario 64 is Freemason initiation” which is ridiculous, just like the creepy human sacrifice subplot of AL.

You can see the reflection of someone watching you in Aurora’s eye references the famous, creepy Talking Angela theory. In retrospect it would’ve been funnier if I said Angela instead of Aurora.

Every copy of Professor Layton is personalized references the famous “every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized”

Clive’s fat ass in HD is a meme that originated from the announcement of UFHD, saying that half of the excited fans wanted to cry again while the other half were simply attracted to Clive. If we want to enter real bottom-section-of-the-iceberg-chart territory then let’s say Clive’s character has some sort of psychological siren properties that draw people to him like a magnet and/or Harry Styles.

Things I pulled out of my ass for shits and giggles

Infinite hint coin hack: I’m sure a tech savvy cheater could hack the game for infinite hint coins, but there’s no easy or interesting way. I don’t know why someone would do that though, considering a lot of the hints suck and there are puzzle guides on the internet.

Cringy, unused Randall villain monologue. This joke is derived from the actual scrapped MM content as well as deleted content being a popular element of iceberg charts, but it’s sadly not real. Would’ve been hilarious, though.

Last Specter Puzzle 031: Light Height tracks and records children’s intelligence level. It doesn’t, but it’s always fun to make fun of arguably THE most ridiculously difficult puzzle in the franchise. (Seriously, do they expect 7+ year olds to know trigonometry???)

Hershel struggles with tea addiction. Hershel from the games drinks tea in moderation, but the manga begs to differ. He has a tea set in the Laytonmobile, and an attempt at teatime while driving causes him to crash.

Folsense is a metaphor for Alzheimer’s. This is inspired by those edgy kids’ show theories where everyone’s in hell or something, but nobody has ever said this.

London Life is reality and the plot of the games is all in Luke’s head. That’s one way to fill every plot hole. How funny would it be if Luke made up crazy characters and stories based off his fellow townspeople Sharkboy and Lavagirl style. “This dude who lives in a castle and asks people to give him all their money for nothing in return is a vampire from 50 years ago involved in a tragic love story”.

Secret ending encoded into Tago’s Head Gymnastics. It’d be crazy if there was, and Dimitri would hound Tago for the secret to time travel. If you didn’t know, the Layton games started as an adaption of Akira Tago’s puzzle series, except they decided to add a story to make it more interesting and marketable.

Daily puzzles datamine your DS. I’m bad with technology but is it even possible to datamine a DS??? Idk, but I think my DS lite from 2008 is safe.

[listless-brainrot]

Hi! I know you love Haru and I'd love to hear your thoughts on what his personality is like? Not his bending or his ships, but just what kind of person he is. He was super undeveloped in ATLA and I'd love to understand him better and write about him!

hey, i'm glad you asked!! super flattering to have you come to me in regards to this question, and i've analyzed this guy to hell and back over the course of nearly a year now, so i'd be more than happy to give you my characterization of him

granted, it's pretty lengthy, and is heavily based on canon, hence why a lot of it ties to his bending, but i'll try my best to make it so that it's more about haru as a person, rather than his service to the plot

also makes me super happy to hear that people do want to understand and write about him!! that really does mean the world to me particularly, so thank you <3

with all of this in mind, here's a collection of my (pretty lengthy, sorry about that) thoughts:

haru being super undeveloped is actually one of the reasons why i find him so compelling- there’s so much you can do with a character of his caliber because there’s not much canon/supplementary material that can discredit your characterizations. canon, however, does actually supply a characterization of him that i’ve managed to compile and accrue over the course of finding nearly every single little detail i can find pertaining to him. this includes his canon episodes in both book 1 and 3, the videogame he appears in (which is straight up called avatar: the last airbender), and even the silly shorts.

(mild disclaimer, i know full well that the latter two i mentioned are considered non canon, but i like incorporating little bits and pieces of what they have to offer, as i don’t really have any other options. also, the videogames are the only supplementary material where he’s treated as a part of the gaang, so it’s the most personality you’ll ever get.)

i’ll start with main characteristics i try to keep in mind when writing him, and then talk about smaller, more innocuous details that i just find particularly fitting for him.

haru is:

emotionally driven. a lot of his decisions are more driven by emotion, rather than logic. this ties in with his impulsivity and morality. he’s aggravated by his position in the village as the only earthbender left, and this culminates into him still bending discreetly despite the inherent risk. he does this not only for himself, but to preserve the (possibly only) emotional connection he has to his arrested father. this is a similarity he shares with katara, who’s emotionally tied to her mother due to losing her, and haru is the one to understand what that loss really means in this interaction: “this necklace is all i have left of her.” “it’s not enough, is it?” by saying this instead of an apology or some other response, he shows that the feeling of loss she’s experiencing is mutually understood in a way that goes beyond just sympathy. there is nothing that will replace who you’ve lost other than the person themselves, and he understand that more than anyone. it’s also implied that haru doesn’t know if his father is still alive, as no one knows where the prisoners go, but it’s clear that he still holds a sort of hope that he’s somewhere out there, and that keeps him going. it just takes a little bit of outside influence for him to fully believe in that, as well as being reunited with his father again. in general, he’s also pretty receptive of other’s emotions, and is quick to come to their aid.

impulsive. not just impulsive, either- he’s got anger and resentment lying beneath his quiet composure. it’s not as bad as characters such as zuko’s, but it’s still worth mentioning. i’ll mention the impulse part first, though- generally speaking, haru reacts faster than he thinks. upon being spotted practicing his bending by katara, he runs away without pausing to consider the harmful repercussions of being found out (nor followed home). he not only runs away from danger as a first instinct, he also runs towards it in some cases, ironically enough- he’s the first one to notice and immediately run towards the mines once he hears/sees the explosion and suspects that someone’s in trouble. he does this without any prompting by katara, even if the act of actually saving the old man needed some egging on from her in order for him to accomplish. his impulsivity comes to a head in the form of his most dangerous act- him attacking the warden. i’ve already elaborated on that specific interaction here, though i will once again emphasize that haru had absolutely no plans past attacking the warden based on his body language, further fueling the idea that this was just a split second decision, one made on nothing but complete and utter impulse. to bring the anger aspect into this, he’s also unable to hold his tongue and insults the fire nation soldiers and even his town once the former leaves, and his instincts swing wildly between running and fighting on a dime with little in-between.

adaptable. instead of completely shutting down in the face of such a negative situation (and over the course of five years, no less), he brings it upon himself to practice bending, accept his role as man of the house and work in both the shop and on the farm, and other responsibilities that go unmentioned, especially when taking into account that his father is apparently the leader of his village. this is where you could start paralleling him well to sokka, which i have done before, but i will make this more haru-oriented. there is definitely a lot more to be inferred with this particular aspect of him, but i will say that it takes someone of strong will to adapt to the situations presented in his episode, and learning to live with the grim reality of fire nation occupation. to run down what we see again- soldiers freely patrolling the villages, soldiers overtaxing the villagers, soldiers entering wherever they wish unannounced, soldiers stealing away people in the night without much resistance, soldiers forcing villagers to work in the coal mines to gather the coal needed for their ships, and soldiers forcing captured earthbenders to build fire nation ships. this is all off of the top of my head, so i could be missing a lot, but again, seeing haru still be as morally oriented and determined as he is after all of this, it’s pretty impressive and telling of his adaptive capabilities. to take this one step further, he’s also extremely adaptable when it comes to working with others, as in the games he fills his role as a necessary component of the gaang without conflicting sokka or other preexisting roles, and in book 3, he finds his place amongst teo and the duke, taking the most initiative amongst the three.

lonely. a snippet from his personality bio on avatarspirit.net calls him “lonely and brave”, and i think that’s especially fitting for his character. he only had his mom for five whole years after every other earthbender was taken away, and this is without mentioning the ostracization he faced simply being one, given how the fire nation constantly demoralizes his country’s benders and likens them to savages. the village he lives in also appears to be full of old folks, so it’s not very likely that he had friends his age that were even in town, especially if we consider the circumstances of following book 2 episodes with the earth army recruiters. (it’s also unlikely that his friends are alive if they did join the army- take a gander at this line from zuko alone: Gow: Just thought someone ought to tell you, your son's battalion got captured. You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners? Soldier: Dressed them up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the frontline unarmed, way I heard it.  Then they just watched.) furthermore, it’s not likely that haru could’ve left his little village prior to its occupation- the games imply he’d been to omashu previously, but the circumstances of the war make this unlikely, unless he was super young. given his not always pleasant attitude and sullen expression we sometimes see him with, it’s not hard to imagine that the effects of him being so alone without the connections he needs has affected him deeply.

some other things:

-he’s horrible at lying (”they’re crazy! i mean, just look at how they’re dressed” is that really the best excuse you could’ve come up with??). -he doesn’t like keeping his hands/arms still (arms are usually crossed, sometimes gestures as he talks, hands usually balled as if expecting a fight). -he’s pretty outwardly expressive (for someone who’s supposed to be hiding most of the time, he tends to wear his emotions/intentions on his sleeve). -he can’t bite his tongue (especially when it comes to something that goes against his personal beliefs). -he doesn’t know how to react to touch (katara hugging him takes him by surprise both times, and he doesn’t reciprocate often, if anything he reacts stiffly) -he’s particular about his appearance (notably in the games, he makes negative comments about people touching his hair, and there’s also. sokka’s comments in book 3. sigh.) -he’s considered dangerous/sensitive by others (note sokka’s comments in book 1, and katara’s comments in the school time shipping short) -he lives a busy personal life (works both in the family shop and on the family farm, and has probably had to work in the coal mines at some point, though this is speculative) -he’s not above poking/having fun (in the games, he’s not above making fun of sokka and his comments about benders, and jumps at the opportunity to ride the omashu mail chutes) -he’s family oriented (count how many times he talks about his parents, it is many times i assure you, it’s important to note that he’s one of the few atla characters to actually have both parents as well as a decent relationship with them) -he has a tendency to idealize. he talks about his father fighting against the fire nation even when horribly outnumbered. it wouldn’t be surprising if he idealized the ideal of rebellion (which would later bite him given that:) -he’s a part of the first successful earth kingdom rebellion. this is mentioned on the wiki, and is unfortunately not shown in the show. it should’ve been, though. -he’s dramatic. he has an entire cliff he brings katara up to just to be dramatic and spill his sad backstory. he needs to be encouraged to save the old man, but he does it in the most dramatic way possible- he really didn’t have to stop the entire avalanche AND push it back into the mines. drama king. -he is very lucky. this can apply to anyone who encounters the gaang, but honestly, given his personality and a few things i’ve mentioned above, it’s a miracle that he’d survived as long as he did without detection nor suspicion. -he’s creative. (this one is much more speculative, but he does create huge statues of katara and ty lee pretty quickly, maybe he’s done similar things before)

to summarize: he’s a lonely impulsive idealist who isn’t afraid to throw hands if necessary and is also very attached to his dad <3 his connection to his dad makes up at least 75% of his personality

[entityupdates]

This is a supplementary post for my Rook Gets The Omnitrix AU fic. This post explains which aliens he has and why I choose them.

I love the original ten aliens and I think they’re an amazingly balanced set but for this fic, I wanted to have some underused aliens and just do something different to keep it fun without making OCs. A balanced team generally has water (Ripjaws), fire (Heatblast), energy/ electric/ tech (Upgrade), flight (Stinkfly), smart (Grey Matter), speed (XLR8), building/ versatility/ resistant (Diamondhead), Sensory (Wildmutt), and some kind of unique power (Ghostfreak). Plant manipulation, duplication, and sound are also core powers, I think. Sticking to this formula, here are the aliens I went with for this story:

1. Tidetail Wave

One of the creators confirmed that the Omnitrix has DNA of other Earth species, including the dolphin and white lab mouse. I knew I wanted to use one so I went with the dolphin. There is no canonical name for this transformation so I’m calling it Tidetail Wave.

Since this is an animal we have in real life, I wanted to keep Tidetail’s powers realistic and I’m not taking any creative liberties with this guy. Dolphins powers include swimming, echolocation, sharp vision, electroreception, mud rings/ mud nets, agility, intelligence, enhanced healing and ability to produce natural painkillers, holding their breath for a long time, and incredible speed in the water.

I originally picked Tidetail because he covers the water part of the team but he also covers sensory. Dolphins can use echolocation, meaning they can emit sound and listen to the way it bounces off objects to mentally map their surroundings, and they can also use electroreception, meaning they can sense the electrical impulses that living things give off and use them to find them if their sense of sight is restricted. 

The power I was most interested in was the mud rings/ mud nets dolphins make. In shallow water, they can kick up the sand below to create these rings to trap and disorient prey. I feel like it would be pretty cool to see this in combat.

The Omnitrix usually scans the “ideal” form of a species (as shown in the second Omniverse video game) so Tidetail would be stronger than the average dolphin. Dolphins are already pretty strong and can have pretty wicked teeth designed for latching into things. They’re naturally pretty resistant, have a healing ability several times as strong as humans, and can continue on with injury which would be useful in combat.

2. Archfiend

This is another alien that has been implied to exist by Derrick J. Wyatt but has not been confirmed. We can assume Archfiend’s DNA is in the Codon Stream though and we have seen Benzarro use a version of this alien called Archfiendzarro.

This alien has enhanced strength and durability and hellfire powers but I imagine that any kind of advanced fire techniques are something this alien must learn and just has regular fire powers by default. 

As you can assume, Archfiend would fill the fire slot on this set of aliens. There aren’t a lot of options when it comes to fire aliens. I decided not to go with Heatblast since I wanted to limit the number of original aliens that we see and I didn’t go for Swampfire because he seems a bit too powerful for a beginner Omnitrix wielder to have. I felt like Archfiend was different and unique so I wanted to try him. Plus, I eventually wanted Rook to visit Anur Transyl and I felt like Archfiend would be a good alien to use there.

3. Antigravitesla

Antigravitesla is one of the aliens made for the Latin American commercials but never seen in the show. Antigravitesla has control over gravity but he has trouble controlling his powers. The commercial is only a few seconds so we don’t see much of him but he seems to be very powerful, maybe too powerful for a beginner but I think the inability to control Antigravitesla’s powers balances it out. Since he cannot be easily controlled, he cannot be used as much or very well and it also presents a challenge to the Omnitrix bearer.

I wanted to take some creative liberties with this alien and give him some electrical powers as well since he is named after the man who designed the modern alternating current electricity supply system, thus allowing him to take the place of energy alien on the set. I did consider going for Upgrade or Brainstorm on this one but Antigravitesla is my favorite commercial alien and I wanted to take on the challenge of writing an alien like this.

4. Terrorsaur

Terrorsaur is one of the Tom Perkins aliens that he made for fun and was not based on anything in the show, though he did intend for this guy to be a Ben 10K alien. Terrorsaur is a flying alien with the ability to cause terrifying hallucinations. I choose him to cover Stinkfly’s flying ability and some of Ghostfreak’s spookiness.

Like with Antigravitesla’s powers, I think the hallucinations may be a bit overpowered but, the Omnitrix bearer can’t always use all of an aliens powers right off the bat. I think that at first, Rook would only be able to use Terrorsaur for flight and master the rest of Terrorsaur’s powers later on.

A lot of the Omnitrix aliens can fly but Stinkyfly is pretty much the only one good for riding. I didn’t want to use Stinkfly though and it wasn’t that difficult to settle on Terrorsaur. I really like this alien and I think his scary appearance would be fun to write.

5. Four Arms

I think we all know who Four Arms is. He’s got super strength, thick skin, and not much else which makes him an excellent beginner alien. When it comes to strength, I didn’t want to pick someone too overpowered and I also wanted to have a balance of unique and recognizable aliens. Four Arms felt like a good choice. 

I did consider using an Acrosian (Fistina’s species) since supposedly the Omnitrix does have that DNA. I thought it may be funny but I already named Tidetail and I didn’t want to have too many forms without canonical names since that feels a bit like OC territory and I didn’t want to do that. I also considered Atomix or Humungasaur but I thought that would be too overpowered.

6. Juryrigg

I had a hard time settling on who to pick for the smarts category. Grey Matter and Brainstorm are probably the best choices since their intelligence covers a lot. I also was leaning towards Gutrot for awhile, even if his knowledge is mostly surrounding chemistry, before I settled on Juryrigg. Juryrigg’s intelligence is surrounding machines which I think is a good supplement to Rook’s interest in cars. He needs to be used responsibly but his powers are good in and out of combat. Plus, he’s pretty fast and he’s got claws which is a good skill to have if he ever is separated from machinery. 

7. XLR8

Like with fire, there aren’t a lot of options for speed. The main options are XLR8, Fasttrack, Skidmarx, and Jetray. I love Jetray but I already had flight, water, and energy covered. Jetray may be too overpowered for a beginner. I’m not too familiar with Fasttrack and I almost went with him for that reason. I really wanted to use Skidmarx but we don’t actually know his powers and from what little we do know, I thought he might be a bit overpowered.

Like Four Arms, I think XLR8 is a good strong but simple choice. They’re also fairly recognizable and I wanted to have a few aliens who characters would recognize. Plus I really like XLR8.

8. Bloxx

I almost went with Diamondhead for this spot. Diamondhead is an amazing alien and one of my favorites. His crystal building can be used in many ways and he is very strong and durable. But, I decided to go with Bloxx which is basically just a weaker, more bendy version of Bloxx.

Bloxx gets a lot of hate and I think he was mostly used for comical reasons in Omniverse but I think he is a good beginner alien and he had potential if he is used right.

9. Kringl The Summoner

Like Terrorsaur, Kringl is one of Tom Perkin’s designs that he made after the show and is technically noncanonical. I picked this guy to fill the miscellaneous slot but his powers are kind of similar to Ditto’s. Kringl has the power to summon energy constructs that resemble elves. I imagine he also has some kind of enhanced strength or durability and some kind of ice powers like Artiguna. I also feel like he would have some kind of mental link with his energy elves. Maybe he has weak senses and he relies on them to navigate? 

I’m not sure if Kringl is overpowered or underpowered but I wanted to use him. I feel like he’s a very unexpected alien who can be pretty useful. 

10. Wildvine

Last but not least, Wildvine. Plant powers were not on the original squad but I think they’re a core ability. Swampfire is a bit too strong but Wildvine has a good set of powers. Plant manipulation, regeneration, stretchy limbs, digging, and seed bombs make a diverse skillset. Plus, Wildvine is a classic alien who was not part of the original set. He’s fun, he’s strong, and chances are his powers will be pretty useful on Revonnah.

[otnesse]

Well, technically, it was more Masamitsu Hidaka who felt Misty was "least justified" (Shudo was simply relaying what he said). And considering what he bragged about in that WPM interview in 2010 about how he viewed all the girls as disposable eyecandy (made worse in that they're 10 year olds), I really don't want to imagine what HIS idea of a "justified" character is (ironically, I'd argue Misty's successors had even LESS justification ultimately, even moreso when they tended to just be replaced each generation, many times without them even accomplishing their goals).

And yeah, pretty much agreed overall regarding Brock (besides, I really wasn't fond of his gag where he hits on every woman he sees. I just see that as making us straight guys look bad). I'm not entirely sure I really agree regarding AG and DP (AG had terrible ratings even in the Japanese version. DP did get slightly better ratings, but only temporarily.).

And Misty definitely drew out some aspects of Ash that quite frankly they never really accomplished with later entries with her various successors, not even Iris (who unlike most fans I actually didn't mind at all. If anything, I liked her precisely BECAUSE she was similar to Misty in various respects.). Even ignoring that, there were hints that the game developers liked her anime incarnation enough that they may have created Generation III specifically as something tailor-made for Misty (I mean, not only is the Hoenn region based on Kyushu and was specifically a primarily water-based region, something which we only managed to get in the main games once again with Alola, modeled after Hawaii, but water-type Pokemon played a very central role in that region, from having a water-type legendary, to having a villainous team, Team Aqua, dedicating its goals TO water Pokemon. We even got a specific Pokemon, Surskit, that was Bug/Water. Something that didn't seem to make sense unless they specifically designed Surskit as a way to help develop and address Misty's bug fear. And that's not even beginning to take into account the Gen I remakes where they effectively rewrote Misty's character to have specific traits from the anime, like her desiring to journey or her being a fangirl of Lorelei [contrast that with Brock, who is very much distinct in overall character from his anime counterpart such as being obsessed with rock types and being a fossil fanatic, while by contrast, anime!Brock doesn't place particular focus on rock types when traveling on Ash [it took until DP for him to gain a rock type in the form of Bonsly], and he was more desiring to be a breeder if anything.].). Oh yeah, and during the 10th anniversary of the anime, Mayumi Iizuka implied that Misty was going to appear in DP in the future, and there seemed to be some set-up to that appearance with the initial focus on Misty's lure, but nothing came about on it.

I for one NEVER bought into the idea that Misty had she stayed on would regress to Brock's level. Even IF she regressed, it would have only been to Ash's level (if even that since we had more ideas on Misty's actual goal as a trainer than we did Ash's Pokemon Master goal) due to the overall nature of Misty's goal being more active than passive. If anything, I suspected that if she stayed for AG, she'd if anything gain even MORE prominence as a main character precisely BECAUSE of just how much it would work for her goal, also allow her to be on equal standing with Ash by that time due to his no longer being a rookie. Same goes for DP, really, especially when they introduced a certain Pokemon, Shellos and its evolved form, with distinct regional differences in the same region that conveniently were Water types as well (not to mention Togekiss would have been a good way for Misty's bond with Togepi to actually develop further). I certainly never felt she was the least justified in the cast by any stretch even if we were to ignore Brock.

Justification

A follow-up to this post.

So, we know one reason why the TRio was kept instead of Misty; they were Takeshi Shudo’s favorites. Another reason is that Mr. Shudo felt that Misty was the “least justified” of the main cast members. It’s worth noting that he wasn’t happy about this (a fair section of his blog post on the subject concerns his regrets over not doing a better job writing for Misty), and that he didn’t want to cut her from the show, but given the choices offered by the higher-ups, this was the call he made.

Let me be blunt: Takeshi Shudo was a very interesting writer with a lot of unique ideas, and I wish he’d had a bit more authority and scope to pursue some of them in Pokemon, but I cannot understand how he came to the conclusion that Misty’s presence in the main cast was the least justified, especially when he and his staff had already proved otherwise.

Keep reading

[nervestatic]

SMPSTUCK AU / human session lands

you get a planet! you get a planet! all my bitches be getting planets. back at it again with my homestuck au, finally posting some mcfucking uhhhhhhh more information!!

check out the smpstuck au tag to find out more!

TECHNOBLADE / the land of frost and ruins rabbit consorts, derse dreamer

so! techno! breaking his land down into parts, i’ve given techno frost as a callback to SMP earth, and the kingdom of antarctica! he’s got a very cold world, with most of the structures covered in spires of ice. ruins was built to play off of the idea that minecraft is a post-apocalypse game, so techno’s land ended up being a world that used to be populated on the surface, but froze over. his consorts are rabbits who build warrens under the ice and populate the ruins! his land is very isolated and lonely, and requires a lot of solo grinding in order to get anywhere under the ice, which i thought would be fitting for his playstyle.

PHILZA / the land of ash and frogs frog consorts, prospit dreamer phil had half of his land decided for me- as the space player, it was always going to be the land of [x] and frogs. i chose ash for him as a middle ground between how i think of phil’s current hardcore world, which i mostly associate with the nether, and his hardcore series 2 world, which i mostly associated with the desert. i’m imagining a lot of big and empty space, with a near-constant downfall of ash reminiscent of the basalt deltas in the 1.16 nether, just. filled to the fucking brim with frogs. there are frogs everywhere. please god help this man

WILBUR SOOT / the land of rivers and pulse salmon consorts, derse dreamer i had a lot of fun designing wilbur’s land! i’ve always thought it was interesting when the lands interact more with the players, which is what pulse refers to. his land is covered in a network of rivers that glow from within, the water levels and light shifting and changing in time with wilbur’s pulse. when he gets emotional, his pulse changes, and his land changes to reflect that, which i thought would be really interesting with a rage player!

(also haha wilbur fucked a salmon)

NIKI / the land of flowers and slumber bird consorts, prospit dreamer niki’s land is actually based off of the wizard of oz! she’s associated fairly heavily with flowers, especially now that she and puffy have a flower shop, so her land is just covered in these great vast fields filled with flowers. but, like in the wizard of oz, it’s easy to fall asleep there- and stay asleep. niki, as a breath player, has an easier time navigating it than most, but for how pretty and charming it is, it’s probably one of the most dangerous lands on this list. her quest is about waking up the consorts to free them!

ERET / the land of glass and depth dolphin consorts, dual dreamer eret’s land is, for the most part, underwater! his house is on a little spire surrounded by ocean, similar to dirk’s house in the original comic. there are odd glass structures under the water, and there’s a lot of vibrant colors and life that he can just barely see from the surface. the only problem is that he’s got no way to get down there! his quest is about figuring out how to contact his consorts and how to navigate the world without, like, drowning.

TUBBO / the land of tunnels and hives bee consorts, prospit dreamer tubbo :D tubbo’s land is actually mostly hollow! it’s build like a giant beehive filled with smaller beehives. it’s fairly labyrinthine in nature, with lots of interconnected loops and twisting tunnels similar to how caves generate in minecraft, and he has to be careful not to accidentally wander into a hive and bother the consorts lest they get angry and try to sting them! he has the hardest time getting to his gates, because his house doesn’t spawn on the surface- it spawns inside the tunnels, meaning he has to find his way out before anything else.

TOMMY / the land of discs and shade crocodile consorts, derse dreamers tommy’s land was, of course, inspired by what started smp wars in the first place- the discs! also drawing from lohac and lowas in canon, it’s a relatively open world with lots of large flat surfaces- the discs! they form plains and cliffs that need to be climbed between, and can be quite precarious to walk on. it’s also relatively dark- there’s no natural light sources aside from tommy’s house, which stands out like a beacon compared to the rest of the land. his land is also where the scratch device is!

FUNDY / the land of chaos and circuits ??? consorts, dual dreamer SO. locac. fundy’s land takes on the appearance of a large circuitboard, stretching in rainbow colors as far as the eye can see. he has yet to find any actual consorts, but he’s also been a little busy dealing with RNG. similarly to his RNG difficulty in minecraft, fundy’s land has the inherent aspect of chaos built into it, randomizing the effects of every action he takes. his quest is... actually kind of vague and confusing, much like most of the things about locac. it does help him learn how the fabric of SBURB works, though, because locac is the only land that’s malleable in this way!

DREAM / the land of caves and fog spider consorts, derse dreamer the land of caves and fog was inspired by the manhunts! the entire surface of the planet is littered with cave openings- some of them are tiny, barely big enough to hide in, and others are huge and sprawl beneath the planet’s surce! the further into the caves you go, the less foggy it gets, but the spider consorts aren’t exactly friendly and you’re gaining visibility as you lose safety. i wanted dream’s land to call back to the way he just sort of... vanishes, bringing the literal aspect of fog to it.

GEORGE / the land of mirrors and bridges salamander consorts, prospit dreamer so i’ve already talked about george’s land a bit in my fic, which you can read here! lomab was intended to be a little bit ironic in nature- the witch of void, georgenotfound, surrounded by things that make him see himself. his quest, and ultimately his Choice, are all about balance- about acknowledging the lines between isolation and being perceived, and finding a good middle ground between those two things. the land itself is lots of chasms with bridges going over them- stone bridges, rope bridges, wooden bridges, you name it, and there’s thousands of mirrors in various sizes scattered across the surface.

SAPNAP / the land of flame and bone bat consorts, prospit dreamer sapnap’s land is, effectively, the nether! lots of fire, lots of giant fuckoff fossils that are big enough to use as the basis for consort cities! it’s fairly dangerous at first, until they manage to alchemize a fire extinguishing system to put sapnap out whenever he inevitably catches on fire again. i haven’t thought his quest out too much- i wanted his land to tie into his aspect (doom), so i thought it would be quite poetic to imply that once there were creatures who lived there, before the game, and now it’s just ruination.

BADBOYHALO / the land of blades and string mouse consorts, derse dreamer badboyhalo’s land is, effectively, a giant quilt. hundreds of thousands of strings woven together create a net overtop of what is, essentially, the void, strung up using massive blades that were inspired by his knife-throwing! the land is all about risk and reward- step wrong and the strings might cut, but cut the strings on purpose and you’ll change the landscape in a way that benefits you. it appeals to bad’s sense of caution, but forces him to take risks to complete his quest and get the rewards!

and that’s it! some human lands. i hope you enjoy this. if you have questions please god send me asks

[yandere2me2]

Hi there! First, I just wanted you to know that I really enjoy your writing. I don’t know most of the characters you write for, but I still am able to understand who they are as people from your works which is really cool!! Secondly, I was hoping I could hear your thoughts on the Obey Me characters? You can do as little or as many as you want, whatever you’re comfortable with. And finally, I just wanted to say I hope you have a good day!

Thanks anon! So far I’ve only written a few things, but if you wanna check out what characters I’ll write for, check out my newly posted rules post - for any fandom listed, I’m good writing any character so long as the other rules are followed (ex: any Obey Me character but Luke since he looks and acts like a child).

Since no limit was placed, I’ll just do some general headcanons for the first 4 brothers for now. Know that I’m willing to write about any other characters in Obey Me aside from Luke for future requests :)

So without further ado, some yandere Obey Me bros (under the cut because this got LONG)!

TW: implied/mentioned forced captivity, manipulation, unhealthy relationship standards, non-con/dub-con, degradation, voyeurism  

Lucifer

Sadistic - but that’s a given with the game information. To be more specific, he sets strict rules for his darling and is very much a control freak; he has so many things going on in his life that he has to manage out of necessity, but his darling is a special case he’ll gladly take on 

If his darling breaks a rule, he enjoys doling out punishments. What type of punishment depends on his mood, the type of incident his darling caused, and if their actions affected Diavolo. God help them if if they insult Diavolo

Possessive with a capital P. His darling is his. No one gets to see them fall to pieces under his hands but him. No one gets to bring them to the peak of pleasure but him. They will fear him the most above all others if that’s the way his darling must cope with his methods. Lucifer would prefer an amicable relationship, but he understands he’ll be met with resistance with the standards he has

Praise will come rarely, so any darling that craves it will have to earn it by being on their best behavior. If his darling does manage to get him to praise them, he’s in a very good mood and will be more open to requests (he won’t let them go, but some new books, hobby materials, or food options are fair game)

He’s a yandere that will lock his darling away for their safety as well as his own comfort and ease. Dangers are everywhere in Devildom, and he knows his darling will manage to find trouble if left to their own devices or with his brothers. He’s not going to risk it. Besides, he’ll have a better hold on his darling if he’s the only one they interact with daily

Going off the last point, Lucifer would also hide his darling away to avoid Diavolo’s attention. By my read on their relationship, Lucifer holds little power to oppose Diavolo thanks to their pact, and Diavolo wanting in on Lucy’s darling would frustrate him beyond words - can’t he have just one thing for himself? I’ll be writing more on a Diavolo/Lucifer/Darling situation after requests are filled, but BOY do I wanna write about this now

Mammon

He’s needy. Mammon craves affection from his darling in any amount they’re willing to give. He’ll be the first to deny it if his darling or someone else points it out, but everyone knows

He Does Not Like To Share His Darling! At all!!! He will pout and whine and get even more clingy if he thinks his darling so much as looks at someone else with interest (imagined or not) - especially his brothers

His punishments are usually to reassure himself that he’s in charge, that his darling did him wrong and they should be grateful he’s their protector, that he even bothered to notice them in the first place. Any other demon would have left them to fend for themselves; he is the best demon a puny human like his darling could ask for

That said, when he isn’t worked up he’s very much a sub in his relationship with his darling and aims to please them. Praise doesn’t come too often for him, and he loves when he can get any positive affirmation. He’ll get testy if his darling outright insults him

He wouldn’t think about locking his darling away until much later. After his darling grows accustomed to living in Devildom, after Mammon starts realizing and (unwillingly) accepting his feelings, he notices how close his darling is with his brothers and the others, how easily they could be stolen away from him… he doesn’t like it one bit

Mammon wouldn’t think much about his plan before he sets things in motion by making a deal with some witches to set up a private space for him and his darling that no one can reach without his say-so. This of course incurs a ton of debt that he’s confident he’ll pay off in a jiffy (he won’t) and he only leaves when he needs to handle paying off his debts or deal with some Devildom official business - he’s the second most powerful demon brother under Lucifer, so as obnoxious as Mammon could be about how “important” he is, he’s not entirely wrong

If he’s in a good mood, he’ll spoil his darling as best he can with any material good he can think they’ll like. Just name it and it’s theirs. Unless of course they upset him, then he’s just as quick to take any privileges he gives away and remind them who’s in charge. It makes him hurt to have to punish his darling, so he tries to avoid it unless he thinks they need a reminder of who has to make the rules around here

Leviathan

Levi doesn’t have much experience with darlings compared to his brothers - throughout the thousands of years he’s lived alongside his brothers, he prefers to shut himself away most of the time. He’s had the least amount of darlings in his lifetime, and when they pass on he secludes himself to fantasize about his perfect darling (who’s usually based on a combination of anime characters and past darlings he’s had)

He’s so insecure, constantly worrying how he isn’t good enough that he bullies his darling into having them convince him that he’s who they want. His darling better be convincing though; if he senses pity or fear or anything else that takes away from their sincerity, he won’t be kind when he’s punishing them

He’s almost as overbearing as Mammon - that’s a feat in itself. Levi won’t isolate his darling though; he’ll manipulate and guilt his darling into wanting to stay with him to avoid his ire. They’ll manage to step on his toes in one way or another, finding some unspoken overstep as an excuse to point out their flaws

Honestly the “transport yourself into a video game” trope opens up so many fun options for Levi to play with his darling. He has games (similar to the one we witness in canon) where he and his darling can spend virtual weeks together without anyone to disturb them. He has games he knows his darling hates - horror games that are gruesome for demons, let alone a human, where his darling can’t escape and can die as many times as it takes for Levi to be pleased before he transports them back out. He has naughty games for when he wants to import his darling to watch them endure whatever scenarios fit his fancy - anything from tentacle porn to gangbangs. By the end of it, his darling will be so grateful to be back in the real world they’ll be begging to stay with him, just as long as they don’t have to go back in a game. Levi uses the affection to his advantage

He forces role play on his darling - Levi as the Lord of Shadows and his darling as his precious Henry. His darling better learn their lines and how Levi likes them to respond if they want to stay on Levi’s good side

His darling’s wardrobe consists of mostly Ruri-chan and Henry cosplay Levi purchases for them. No you can’t change my mind

Of course, if his darling isn’t in a game or reading some top manga series, Levi’s talking about it to them or having them watch/read along with him. He just wants to share what he enjoys with the person he treasures, even if they’re just a simple normie human

Satan

Earlyon, his darling is warned by the other brothers that his smile is fake, that he’scynical and shouldn’t be trusted. But out of all the brothers, he comes acrossas one of the least intimidating, so it’s easy to gravitate towards him

Tbhhe’s likely not interested in his darling at first – humans are lessercreatures to demons, food for most and potentially nuisances when one makes apact with a powerful demon. Until he finds something noteworthy, like how quicklyMammon forms a pact with this human, he doesn’t see much potential

He’s pretty reasonable up until he’s angry; for a darling surrounded by dangers and demons,he appears to be the least likely to harm them, and they accidentally push one of hisbuttons at some point. Once his limit is reached, he is terrifying – wrath isin his name and he lets his darling know when he’s displeased

After the first time he loses his temper, he’ll givehis darling clear warnings before he punishes them. He uses his darling’s fearof his punishments to his advantage, encouraging “good” behavior with thethreat of “or else” in the background

He has some notable similarities with the eldest brother: a sadistic streak a mile long and a preference to dominate/need for control to ensure his darling is undoubtedly his. How Satan shows these traits is different in key ways, however

Satan is sadistic more often when he’s feeling neglected, miffed, or bored with his darling. He’s not as strict as Lucifer, actually allowing his darling the freedom to act on their own accord in most cases. It gives his darling the chance to show him how much devotion they are willing to give him without him commanding it. If he gives an order, however, he expects his darling to obey

Unlike Lucifer, Satan doesn’t have the risk of things going Bad if something doesn’t go his way; Lucifer needs to please Diavolo or risk failing on his end of the pact, and so control is key for him. Satan likes control, but to the extent of knowing he has the final say. Satan doesn’t want to control every aspect of his darling - at the end of the day he wants his darling to voluntarily choose him, even if only out of fear of his displeasure - but he will have them

Satan has his own possessive habits - he needs affirmations that his darling is his. Either he’s marking them in some primal way or he has his darling reassure him through their actions

He stalks his darling. Have you seen how aware he is of his brothers’ activities in-game? It’s almost unnerving in some situations - and that’s just canon material. Satan watches his darling out of curiosity at first before it grows into an obsession for him. After a while he knows every little detail, every mannerism, every preference. All those outings he asked his darling to join him on before he actually clarifies he wants to date them? They’re all used as opportunities for Satan to review later

Advice to any darling of his: Do NOT compare him to Lucifer if you know what’s good for you. Just. Don’t. He won’t kill you, but you will wish he did by the time he’s through with you

I say this as several of my points are comparing his similarities/differences with Lucifer hahaaaaaaaa sorry Satan

[radramblog]

Ultimate^2

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate has finally unveiled its final DLC character, with reactions ranging fully across the spectrum. Hot takes abound.

I mean, statistically, just about every possible opinion is going to be represented. There were at least 500,000 people watching the reveal stream, and that’s not including those viewing through restreams. That’s insane for a trailer of any kind, let alone for a console-exclusive video game DLC.

Now that it’s been like… a day and a bit, I think most of the spciest takes have probably been made, which is the perfect time for me to chip in with my own milder opinion. More of a butter chicken, really.

(no images in this one i’m lazy tonight)

I figure I’m this late already, might as well drop some notes on the other ones first.

Piranha Plant was kind of the definition of an unexpected pick. Not only was it from an already well-represented franchise, being fucking Mario, it’s also just…not a character. As such it makes an odd choice for a DLC fighter…except for the part where it was free. If you owned the game in its first month. And frankly, I don’t think people would have been happy if it wasn’t. As it is, though, it’s a perfectly fine character- surprisingly cute, actually.

I’m unsurprised about Joker’s inclusion. With how huge Persona 5 became in both Japan and the west, capitalizing on it to make a shitload of money makes perfect sense. The character plays well enough, though the meter gimmick was kind of a daunting sign of things to come. All that in mind, though, the most surprising thing about Joker being in the game is that they still haven’t put P5 on the Switch. Atlus please.

Hero and Banjo/Kazooie were announced on the same night, and I distinctly recall someone saying that this was one for the Japanese audience and one for the Americans. I mean, I’ve never played Dragon Quest, so I guess I fell into the latter? Both series have a long, well-regarded pedigree (Banjo’s lack of recent offerings notwithstanding), so both arguably deserve their respective positions. Hero is the much more notable character gameplaywise, though, with the incredibly complex mana and spellcasting mechanics. Complaints about RNG in Smash aren’t completely unfounded- though it has existed in the past in the form of, say, Luigi’s misfiring side-B- but I know a lot of people think Hero took it too far. If I’m honest, though, the weirdest thing is just having Akira Toriyama-ass 3D models in the game. Banjo’s gameplay is…awkward. The kit is kind of a mess, but at least the gimmicks weren’t going too hard, you know?

Next was Terry, perhaps the most obscure character on the entire list in 2021. I actually really like Terry in this game- while he’s still trying to emulate a similar feel to Ryu/Ken, the difference feels more natural, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s because I’ve never really devoted significant time to them, but Terry’s kit feels easier to work within than the Shotos when going between characters.

Finally for the first Pass, we had Byleth. I think it’s for the best that they announced the second Fighter’s Pass before this released, because if both 4 and Ultimate had ended their run on Fire Emblem DLCs then people would have been pissed. I mean, people were already pissed, but like…moreso. As someone who has played Three Houses, I do think the game is worth celebrating, but having yet another Fire Emblem Protagonist (read: basically a blank slate) in the game over all the substantially more interesting characters 3H has to offer is just really frustrating. Also the final smash looks like dogshit, like FE3H has overall worse animations than Smash for obvious reasons but I’m pretty sure this attack looked better the first time around.

FP2 opened with Min Min, which brings ARMS to the table. ARMS. The only first-party fighting game Nintendo has outside of Smash, so it looks a bit less weird next to everything else but…come on, man. I think this was the most confusing pick of all of them- the game came out in 2017, and having Min Min in Smash would serve as promotion for a sequel…which hasn’t been announced. There was a graphic novel in the works, but it was cancelled earlier this year. Oops? At least the stage was fun.

As much as playing them is awkward and complex, the Minecraft addition was fitting. Only the best-selling game around. I think people weren’t sure if Microsoft would go for it, but they let us have Banjo, so sure. I’m mostly just annoyed that they couldn’t get any of the songs from the actual game in there- like, you got one in from the fucking mobile game, but you couldn’t just get C418 on the phone?

Sephiroth is definitely one of the hype-ier releases from this pass. The character is iconic, as is his theme and his home game. I’ve never played any Final Fantasy game, but I can still respect the name. Once I remember how to spell it. The whole bossfight aspect to his release was also quite cool, while it lasted.

On the other hand, I have no love for Pyra nor Mythra. There’s so much wrong with these ones, frankly. They’re another swordy character, immediately following Sephiroth too, and they go back on Smash’s very deliberate decision to split characters like Zelda/Sheik and Samus/ZSS up (Yes I know Pokemon Trainer does the same thing but I have a lot more leniency for them). Add in their being from a JRPG much less well-known or remembered than the previous couple characters and the designs being…questionable, I have a big issue with the whole thing. This was also around when I kinda stopped playing the game in general, and they definitely didn’t help pull me back in.

Kazuya might have, though. With the exception of him and Sephiroth, all the characters from the Fighter’s Passes were pretty much protagonist-types, but this motherfucker pulses with the essence of bad guy. What I’m saying is that he’s fucking cool, and while he’s ludicrously complex, that makes perfect sense since…I mean just look at the combo lists from Tekken 7. His inclusion also kinda rounds out the list of biggest fighting game franchises out there being rep’d in the game, though I imagine now I’m going to have stans from Mortal Kombat or whatever on my back. They’re not going to put a fatality-capable character in Smash, guys!

Finally, this rounds us around to the original point of this article. Let’s talk about Sora. And by that I mean…I don’t really have a huge amount to say about him. Kingdom Hearts is a franchise that completely passed me by growing up, and I don’t think I have the time or energy to devote to it now. I’m sure it’s good, people seemed really excited for him to be in the game so they have to have gotten that love from somewhere, but I don’t share that feeling.

That’s not to say that I don’t think he deserves a slot. The idea of “deserving a slot” in Smash Bros is kind of an odd concept, even though it’s come up a lot so far this post. But a slot in this roster isn’t just a place in a popular fighting game, because at this point, Smash is kind of a museum of (mostly Nintendo) games- and so having representation is a forever acknowledgment that the franchise is, or has been, an icon to so many. Kingdom Hearts, to my knowledge, has 100% earned that position, and so Sora getting to be playable here makes perfect sense. He wasn’t my pick (Touhou representation never I guess), but I’m happy for those who wanted him.

As far as the actual gameplay looks, he reads like a character that kept in mind what people didn’t like about Hero when he released. It’s another sword-based character, which I think at this point speaks more about the demographic of video game characters than it does about Smash. But I appreciate that the Magic Bullshit is toned down, and that it’s also his only real gimmick (The 3-hit combo feature is A Thing, but other characters e.g. Bayonetta have already done that, so whatever). His recovery potential looks patently absurd- like he just gets Pikachu/Pichu’s Up-B as a Side-B that can also be chained with his actual Up-B? This guy better be light as hell or he’s going to be super hard to take out. I dunno, I think he looks solidly fun enough- more dynamic and aerial than the other swordfighters, at least- and that’s good enough for me.

And I guess that marks the end of Smash Ultimate. Not with a bang, but with a key…dude. It’s been a very solid run, the game managing to keep itself fresh across several years of development, even as other games have risen and fallen. Smash is kind of forever at this point, I think, though the finality of Ultimate’s ultimate character implies that this particular iteration may be coming to its end. And seeing as it is always one Smash per console, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Switch itself was nearing its endgame as well.

Okay but also it’s pretty funny how they heavily censored everything Disney out of Sora’s DLC except for that little Mickey charm on the trailer, like how much must that one shot have cost them, was it even remotely worth it, I don’t know but I kinda want to

[partnersatfazbear]

Midnight Motorist - An Essay

I promised this awhile ago, but my thoughts on Midnight Motorist... This mini-game has literally kept me awake for hours on two separate occasions trying to figure it out, lol! So, reading the Updated Freddy Files *suggests, not confirms* that Toy Chica: The High School Years may be how William lured each child. I made notes on this, of course.

Although I listed who was used as a stand in for each, it has no bearing on the actual child killed.

The first, represented by Foxy, is already dead. I assumed this was a stand in for Norman/CC.

Second, represented by Freddy, was lured away with promises to help with homework.

Third, represented by Wolf. Run over their dog. We all know this is referring to Susie/Chica.

Fourth, represented by Toy Bonnie. It was suggested that their house be set on fire and then Chica uses her body to put out the flames. Best I could settle for this one was perhaps pulling a fire alarm at the restaraunt, or something similar.

Fifth, Funtime Foxy. Live hostages. Presumably luring a child away with promises that their friend / missing friend is in the back room.

Sixth, the Puppet. This one is the most interesting and why I'm including it here. Chica says "I'll come over to their house later, maybe break through a window, or set the house on fire and smoke them out [IIRC, I am paraphrasing a little]" The window, in my honest opinion, has to refer to Midnight Motorist. Scott has made a point of adding things in a following game to clarify the game before (starting at least since Sister Location). With the other one referencing Susie and Fruity Maze, I think this theory holds up, although it doesn't really help solve Midnight Motorist I think it's very important to note. (William has as much of an obsession with fire as Henry, huh?)

Lastly, there is Pigpatch. It's implied William would have knocked out a child and told them he rescued them after being "kidnapped". I really like this one.

The number of victims adds up to the number of children: BV, Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, Chica, Golden Freddy, and Puppet.

Now that that's out of the way, I feel this heavily implies the footprints outside the window in MM are William's. The feet match the Glitchtrap suit, which most of us assume is a prototype for Spring Bonnie. Not only that, but obviously the springlock suits wouldn't work in the rain. Second, if you take some logic to it and see Charlotte as the first victim (no suit, no hiding the body, developing MO) then this killing would be the start of his MO--kind of an "in-between" point where he's evolving. Now, as to who the people in the house are...

In my fic, I kept the general idea that it was William as mustard man (thank you MatPat, this is my fav name for our mysterious fellow). Mostly because despite the evidence listed there is still a ton of evidence supporting it:

Later That Night - this is the name of the game file for MM.

Rain - Due to the in-game rain and this title its heavily implied to be just after Charlotte's death.

Grey Text - Michael is the only one to have the grey text and has similarities to Chair Person. (Note: I think Matpat did point out the color is slightly different, but it's still grey.)

Purple Car - William is the only one seen with a Purple Car back in one of the mini-games (FNAF 2, IIRC). To further support this, the car is also seen as an easter egg in the Dreadbear DLC of Help Wanted (with purple headlights). This is probably the most damning evidence that Mustard Man is William, in my opinion... but then how do the footprints make sense?

In my fic, I explained it away as footprints from the evening before (it was the best I could muster at the time) but this is super weak :V So this kind of brings us to alternative theories. If it is William, the supporting evidence is... good evidence of that. So, the other options are:

A Child Victim's Family - This is my second favorite theory because I think it could possibly work for, say, TOYSNHK [The One You Should Not Have Killed, hereby pronounced Toy-Shnuck] (who I made Cassidy). The problem with this is the child's gender is referred to as male. And there's a huge debate on Cassidy being female in game lore and TOYSNHK/GF being male. It IS a gender neutral name and wouldn't be the first time Scott changed a gender (see: Puppet), BUT it's pretty weak since all the info we have on TOYSNHK is recent. It could be another child that isn't Susie, though, but why show some random child as opposed to an important one? PizzaSim's games all revolve around specifics like Puppet (the first to die overall) and Susie (the first to die of the main five).

Henry is Mustard Man - This is the theory my wife likes. I can sort of see it and I even considered it at one point, but there isn't much evidence to go on. Why is the car purple is the biggest wrench for me. I also have problems with Mustard Man's attitude ("This is MY house", "He'll be sorry") Even if Henry was torn up about Charlotte, I can't see him treating his kids this way. This would also heavily imply the missing window kid to be Sammy, which hasn't been referenced in the game lore at all. He was barely mentioned in the novel trilogy, even. This also makes Gray Text either Aunt Jen or Henry's wife. There's just not enough to support this, in my opinion.

UPDATE 5/28/21 - Please see this post analyzing Fazbear Fright’s story “What We Found” for a more detailed look at what I’m about to explain that supports the Henry theory: Also from the books, CC / Norman is now referred to as Evan.

For this to work, we must assume Henry is an alcoholic after Charlotte’s death. I think the “later that night” evidence becomes somewhat irrelevant, because if this was the night of Charlotte’s death it wouldn’t really make sense. Part of me wondered if it took place after FNAF 2′s Springtrap cutscene, but the footprints don’t match. It has to be Spring Bonnie or Glitchtrap. Also, Evan and Elizabeth have also died by this point because neither are seen in the mini-game in this theory. You also must assume, based on the story evidence, that Henry married / stayed with Mrs. Afton after William either “died” or they divorced--they had to have been together for an x amount of time as for Mrs. Afton to be living with Henry but also the fact that Mrs. Afton kept Michael and the purple car. Henry using William’s car wouldn’t be unheard of if Mrs. Afton kept the car and the house, I just don’t feel Henry would use it unless he had been using the vehicle awhile. This also explains the Bonnie-esque footprints outside since William would want to come get / visit his kid he’s [most likely] no longer allowed to see. He may even be taking Michael back to the FNAF 4 house (implying that the house we see in MM is Henry’s). Speaking of, if we assume William’s intentions are [likely] bad, he’s probably taking Michael back to experiment with the Funtime-Nightmares, if you believe this theory. I think this theory is probably true considering the random grave (which, in this context has no answer except a Twisted animatronic aka a Nightmare) AND because the blueprints in Sister Location SHOW the Nightmares on the display during Funtime Freddy’s repair, implying they are real and not imagined. This is also assumed to be punishment for Michael killing Evan. I think Michael goes WITH William because of his tumultuous relationship with a now mentally ill and drunkard Henry. Henry probably knows that William killed Charlotte and a common theme in some works is a parent seeing their child (or a murderer) in a child aka Michael reminds Henry of William, so he neglects him (which in itself wouldn’t be out of place for Henry, since he already wasn’t a very attentive parent).

The main issue with this theory is that it sort of assumes that CC was Michael and not Evan. I don’t think that’s the case, though.

While we're on this version, I also want to discuss evidence for the MM driver being drunk. Not only are you driving on the opposite side of traffic, the Files book explicitly states "crashing" into the secret road for the mini-game. Not that Henry couldn't be drunk, especially if he just found Charlotte dead, but... for me personally it seems a stretch. And I already mentioned the car.

William's Father - This is an interesting idea, but the foot prints kind of rule it out. At least there's an explanation for the car, though, right? Still, it doesn't explain the foot prints unless you assume maybe his father was more alike Afton than we thought. But then why bother showing us background on our killer so late with no pay off? I easily dismiss this theory.

A new theory, at least one I haven't seen posed yet:

Vanny - That's right. Vanny. What if she survived/lived? Some leaks even suggest she may be related to the Aftons. Mustard Man's color is similar to Princess Quest's heroine. It explains the footprints, but doesn't explain the car. This would make for a nice foreshadowing of Vanny, IMO, but it’s weak at best.

You know when Matpat discusses "that one puzzle peice that we're missing"? That's this entire mess of a mini-game. Don't get me wrong, the music is bawlin and it's fun to talk about, otherwise I wouldn't write about it, but it is undoubtedly FRUSTRATING.

What are your opinions?

I also wanted to point out some other interesting things from the Files book I haven't seen discussed: There is confirmation of two sets of gold suits. Not only is there the FNAF 2 phone call, but the text specifies between Spring Bonnie/Springtrap and Fredbear/Golden Freddy. IE: FNAF 4 suit is Springtrap but the one from Stage 01 is Spring Bonnie. This could be oversight, but... I don't think it is. I'm sure most of the fandom does ASSUME this anyway, but I felt it was worth noting. (In my fic, they are the same suit, but the second sets are upgraded after the original failures).

The poster behind Scraptrap. Nothing really interesting here, but there is an image of a building with two gargoyle (lion?) statues behind him. Presumably this would be a police station or Fazbear Fright. I just thought it was cool since I never noticed this in the image. My initial thought was this might be a reference to the hospital in Man in 1280, but that’s a stretch.

Jr's. This is the random building in Midnight Motorist in which Green Man says "gtfo" to our Mustard Man. I should mention I feel that is good evidence to it being William or Henry, depending what the building is. We can 100% say it is NOT a bar (in my fic, that's what I used, even though it doesn't make sense. I don't see a drunk person driving to a second bar so close to their home when they could have gone there initially, BUT then I am a home-drinker when I do drink, so I don't know the night life). The Files refer to it as simply "a restaraunt". Whether this IS a FNAF location (also referred to as restaraunts) or just some random eatery, it's something to contemplate. I am in the camp that it isn't FNAF 2, at least.

I have some other things from Fazbear Frights' Blackbird I wanna discuss, too, but I'll wait until the book is out to help you all avoid spoilers.

Now, this is all just my thoughts on it. Please don't take anything too seriously (as Scott says don't rack your brain on this, it's not worth it). I just think these are some points that haven't been discussed before.

Also, if you wanna read my theory on why Scraptrap is partly the Golden Freddy suit, I have that theory here.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk? <-- is that a dated reference? Probably.

[blueoatmeal]

what do they eat????

the surface culture in KATAOW is Very Strange, and part of that strangeness is what people eat

when there was only one sapient species on the planet, humans, it was easy to draw the line between what was morally okay to eat and what wasn’t. broadly speaking, anyway. Don’t eat other humans; why? because they’re sapient. they’re people. just about everything else is fair game. humans will eat anything

not very complicated. and generally when humans thought about hypothetical other sapient species, whether they be mutants or aliens or whatever, they usually came to a similar conclusion: despite being a different species, the other sapients are still sapient, still people, and so would be off-limits, if they did exist. the What Measure is a Non Human trope does start to come into play here, because it is easier to question a being’s sapience if they are different from humans. But generally speaking, to humans, sapient = not a menu item

Here’s where things get complicated.

In KATAOW, humans are no longer the only sapient species on the planet. Far from it, in fact. I can name about thirteen just off the top of my head.

Now, if they were aliens, they’d have come from their own entirely separate ecosystem. Usually in media there is an unspoken “one sapient species per origin planet” rule. This rule is rarely broken. this wouldn’t be a problem, as long as all the sapient species agreed to not eat any other sapients. The more there are, the less likely this is to happen, but it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine, as humans usually do, that assuming the alien sapients have their own supporting ecosystems already, they could all agree not to eat each other, as a moral compromise if nothing else; a truce of sorts, a show of respect

Well. the new sapient species in KATAOW are not aliens. 

They mutated, or evolved, from existing species in Earth’s ecosystem. In many cases (but not all) they seem to have entirely replaced their ancestors. For example, the Timbercats are the only example of modern ex-domesticated felines. There are no little kitties that can fit in a shoebox. None. None that we’ve seen, and Benson implies there aren’t any.

With birds, however, it’s different. We see examples of wild bird mutes (Beakbeak), and sapient bird mutes (Hummingbird Bombers). Is this distinction based on individual species? I don’t know.

In an inversion of the cat situation, the bunnies, or rather, megabunnies we see, are the only bunnies we see. But is it possible that there is now also a branched-off separate sapient species of bunny that we just haven’t met? I don’t know.

What causes some creatures to develop sentience, and others not to? They all seem to have changed in some way, but only some are intelligent now. Why? I don’t know. Humans seem to have, generally, been exempt from the mass mutation event. As we learn more about the world, this information may change, but this is what we know now.

Regardless, the fact remains that the creatures, the fauna of the world changed drastically, and with that change their needs changed too. Many plants and I would have to assume fungi and bacteria, archea, viruses, etc. have thankfully ALSO changed drastically. Is the ecosystem balanced, then, after such a drastic disruption? I’m not sure. The mutated life survived for 200 years though, so the environment coped well enough not to just kill everything, at least.

But still, food. Balanced or not, stuff definitely changed.

Let’s get the humans out of the way because they’re simpler:

Something happened to drive the humans underground, leaving a lot of food behind. They stay down there, so obviously they found ways to grow and hunt food down underground. If we can do it on Mars, a burrow is no problem. Humans were already eating whatever they wanted, so not much changed. And unless a lot has changed over 200 years, humans would still be averse to eating other sapient species. That’s been our history.

There are a few humans on the surface. Wolf implies that she won’t eat a mute if it’s sapient, when she first catches Mandu. Wolf and Benson seem to live off of old abandoned human food and non-sapient mutes. This works fine because there’s only a few surface humans; otherwise the supply of abandoned food would quickly run dry.

And that’s it for humans. 

Non-sapient mutes will eat whatever, regardless of sapience. Beakbeak doesn’t care that his prey is intelligent. He’s an animal in the traditional sense of the word. Wild animals continue to be wild animals, just like before the mutation. Nothing new there.

But the sapient mutes? The sapient mutes are weird.

Just so we’re on the same page, here are a few sapient mutes we know:

The Mod Frogs, the Newton Wolves, the Hummingbird Bombers, the raccoons, the Dubstep Bees, the Scooter Skunks, the rats, some elephants, that waterbear/tardigrade guy, our insect bud Dave, the Snäkes, the Timbercats, Scarlemagne and his assorted primate gang, and those rodent ppl in Umlaut Valley--prairie dogs? Punk Prairie Dogs? Etc.

Quick note, there are a few that are questionable mostly for lack of information (Mandu, dragonflies, flies) and I’ll touch on them later. For now we’re working with indisputably fully-sapient mutes.

So.

Obviously their diets changed from their wild ancestors’, but I think we can assume that generally, their broad dietary range didn’t change. Strict herbivores are still built to handle plants only. There’s no reason their digestive systems and various feeding adaptations would have changed that drastically.

Herbivores? Probably mostly still herbivores. The Dubstep Bees seem to still rely on plant products, and don’t care for meat. Elephants are also obligate herbivores, and we see some with, what, some popcorn and cotton candy? That tracks.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll be glossing over the fact that most carnivores I know do occasionally eat a bit of plant and can thus be considered technical omnivores. That’s not relevant right now. There are plenty of plants and none of the plants are intelligent, so there isn’t an issue.

Omnivores need a bit of both. Raccoons, rats, and skunks are our best examples. They have plants, so that’s fine. There seems to be enough variety of non-sapient mute prey for them too. These mutes are urban too, so just as their ancestors did, they supplement their diets with human food. There is no need for them to eat sapient mutes, and as far as I can tell, they don’t. I’m pretty sure most primates fall under this category too. Insects vary, but Dave seems to be an omnivore. Wikipedia tells me tardigrades go here as well.

There are some animals that are generally herbivores but occasionally eat meat, like Hummingbirds, but again, there seems to be plenty to go around, and no reason for those few meaty meals to be sapient mutes.

Carnivores. Yeah. I’ve been waiting the whole essay to write this part. Who’s left? The Mod Frogs, the Newton Wolves, the Snäkes, and the Timbercats. If they can’t eat meat on the regular, they just can’t survive.

The Newton Wolves, Timbercats, and  Snäkes express their willingness to eat humans. The Snäkes also are implied to be regularly eating sapient prairie dogs. The Newton Wolves are known to hunt and eat Mod Frogs and humans. These are all hard facts.

Little bit more speculative here: The Timbercats, like irl cats, would probably be more keen on eating Snäkes if they weren’t so venomous. I don’t think they’d be opposed to it though. The Snäkes are large enough that wolf could potentially be a menu option. Wolves have historically been known to eat cats and snakes, so their sapient counterparts are probably fair game too. I don’t think the cats would want to eat wolves, though that thought is based largely on size and the fact that irl domestic cats don’t hunt irl wolves. Could they? Sure. I just don’t think they’d go for it when there are other options. Likewise, various omnivores would be considered prey to various carnivores, with practical and historical considerations determining their exact place on the food chain. Snakes and cats regularly eat frogs irl, so that’s that on that.

You may have sussed out my main driving question by now, but before I get to that, let’s take a little detour: humans as prey

No animal specifically hunts humans in the wild. We are not the prime prey animal of any species. Well, besides some bacteria, and a few parasites, but until we see a sapient bacteria or tapeworm, that’s not relevant. But these new mutated species, much larger and more intelligent than their ancestors, seem to see humans as just another prey option. And rightfully so! We are bald primates, just clever little mammals. Heck, even the rats are bigger than us now! If a mute would eat a rat, how different would human be? Different shape, but otherwise? Not much! I’m just saying I get it. Humans have been established as equal to other sapient mutes, and susceptible to the organization of the food chain in a way we’ve never been before. We’re not special anymore. We’re not even in power! We’re in hiding!

Now I don’t know, but I have to imagine that the reason several sapient mutes are okay with eating other sapient mutes is twofold: history and demand. 

All these animals were, before mutation, accustomed to eating beings on a similar intelligence level. That was their normal. So when a few of them mutate and gain sentience, what reason should they have to stop what they’ve been doing for all of history? Inter-species communication isn’t new, just easier.

And demand? Demand is more speculative. All of the mutes are much larger than their animal ancestors. So they need more food. If their main food source grew as well, and wasn’t sapient, there’s no issue... until you keep going down the food chain and run out of what they eat, and so on... But anyway, that could be alright. No moral issue, certainly. If their main food source stayed small (intelligent or not tbh), there’s going to be a food shortage for the predator.

This is all VERY simplified, btw, ecology is complex as hell and I could spend years mapping out all the causes and effects here

Back to the point: if there’s a food shortage, you either find a solution or die. Predators are probably gonna want to hunt prey of an appropriate size. So they either find different prey, change their preferences, adapt as many animals have had to do for ages. Difficult sometimes, and a hassle, but doable. OR... if their prey did grow, but also gained sapience? Screw the morals, which are historically more human-based anyway, and eat them. For both prey and predator, it’s not very different from what they’re used to. It’s not new.

Alright. That all makes sense to me. So what’s the problem? What’s that big question? I’ll tell you what’s been bugging me:

What the fuck are the Mod Frogs eating!?

“Well Blue,” you might say, “Just big insects and stuff, right? There are dragonflies and flies in the show. Why should the frogs be any different from the other predators in the show?”

They shouldn’t be any different, by the logic of this whole essay, but they are.

All the other animals, I’ve been able to find reasonable food sources for. But then the frogs subvert the whole thing by having dragonflies and flies working for them. The two most obvious and recognizable prey animals for frogs. So, are they in some kind of weird servant-prey Stockholm syndrome relationship?

Okay, possibly. I don’t have any data to disprove that. But it doesn’t fit with the rest of the kataow vibe and also I don’t like it. Like, the predator and prey stuff I can understand, but that is a special kind of fucked up, sapient or otherwise.

So if not that, then that’s gotta mean the frogs aren’t eating them, right? Okay, that makes some sense, I mean, they use the dragonflies for transportation and the flies are?? Also transportation????? Or assistants??? Its unclear. How that arrangement came about, I don’t know. 

Are the flies and dragonflies sapient? I’m not certain. The flies wear suits, so that’s a point for Probably Sapient. The dragonflies are largely treated as non-sapient but intelligent animals, like a domesticated horse. So maybe they’re like Mandu? Only they can speak. Dave knows and speaks their language. You don’t say “oh I speak a little Horse, lemme talk to them.” That’s not a thing. So the dragonflies for now are Probably Sapient, But It’s Complicated

Alright, alright, enough of that nonsense, there are plenty of bugs! Large ones too! And small mammals, irl frogs will eat those too! If they can get it in their mouth and it’s an animal, an irl frog will be willing to try and eat it. There’s no problem! What’s the point of this! They just eat big bugs! Just not flies because they’re sapient and--

Ah. Aha. No; see, that’s just it. Because they’re sapient. But hang on, didn’t I just say I wasn’t sure about the flies’ sapience? Yeah, I did, and I also said they probably are sapient, and even if they’re not, I have more.

ALL of the obligate carnivores in kataow reacted to Kipo’s gang in the same way; “Oh, that’s food.” And then only later, even if just a minute later, and usually reluctantly, “But maybe friends instead?” All the obligate carnivores EXCEPT for the Mod Frogs.

“That’s because humans are too big and--” Bullshit. Humans are the perfect size for mute frog prey. Sorry, that’s just a fact. And not only that, but they treat Dave and Mandu the same as the humans. Why? Why? Dave is a freaking insect!!! And the perfect size!!! And Mandu would be a great snack! Wolf almost ate Mandu, and she’s got a strict “if it talks it’s not food” policy.

Alright so I don’t have an explanation for Mandu besides “their sapience is uncertain and maybe that’s enough.” Maybe they’re too focused on the humans? I don’t know.

But Dave?????? When they captured him with Benson in the beginning, why didn’t they at least threaten to eat him??? Huh?? My proposal: because he’s sapient.

...So ...what?

So, if we go with this logic, the Mod Frogs are the only carnivores who care AT ALL about sapience of their prey. The omnivores and herbivores have the privilege of way more options, so they don’t get an opinion.

Why do the Frogs care? Why? And why is it just them?

This is where I run out of answers.

And yeah, there are probably other sufficiently-sized non-sapient prey animals for the frogs. There was a big spider and that’s probably enough proof for that point. They’re fine. They have stuff to eat.

But that doesn’t take away the fact that while they seem to choose not to eat sapient animals, none of the other carnivores do. 

Why.

Is.

That?

Jamack caught a Dubstep Bee in his mouth and what did he do?? He spit it out! Why would he do that if sapience wasn’t a factor? Why?

Seriously though if you have answers PLEASE share them with me, I am absolutely bewildered