#i know the game does this too but it is even more comedic in anime form

[lala-blahblah]

THE ACE ATTORNEY ANIME IS SOOOOO UNSERIOUS they include a whole extra flashback episode when Miles Phoenix and Larry are kids (it's so cute) and it ends and Nick is like "haha yep! What a great time we had! And now we finally solved the mystery of Miles's dad so nothing stands in the way of our friendship!" and then you get a jumpcut to Edgeworth saying "It seems like this is goodbye once again" and leaving behind his "miles edgeworth chooses death" letter as he walks out into the night LIKE BRO???!!!!

[classofo9theflipsideremake]

Class of 09: The Flipside: Rewrite

Hey everyone! I’m a huge fan of Class of ‘09 and I’ve been thinking about how amazing the game could be with a bit of a revamp, especially after the direction the third game took. While I love the dark humor and over-the-top tone of the original, I feel like the third game didn’t really hit the mark for me (and I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way). So I’ve been working on an idea for a rewrite/remake, but with a fresh twist—turning it into an interactive YouTube series while keeping the same spirit and dark humor that made the first game so iconic.

Plot Overview:

The story would pick up after the Graduation ending, with Jecka as the main character. She’s been desperately trying to find a university that will accept her, not because she cares about school, but because (in her words), “I’m too fucking hot to work in a fast food restaurant, Nicole!” She calls Nicole at 3 AM, and together they find a “cool” fashion university.

It turns out Jecka has secretly loved fashion for years and even draws her own outfits every Wednesday when she barely talks to anyone—even Nicole! Most of the game would follow her experiences trying to survive at the fashion university, dealing with new classmates and the ridiculous world of high fashion.

While the cast is mostly new, Nicole, Ari, and Jeffrey all return:

Ari is now a confident head of the city Pride Parade and got into the university because of her work designing outfits for the parade.

Jeffrey is much less weird—he’s still into manga and anime, but his focus is on design and improving his art. He got into the university because his anime character designs have great anatomy.

Nicole got in by tracing Jecka’s work (I don't wanna get murdered by the fandom so I had to sneak her in the University SOMEHOW).

What Makes It Different:

Same Dark Humor: I want to keep the sharp one-liners and edgy humor from the first game. Think along the lines of the famous "I feel" conversation from the Nicole x Ari ending.

Character Growth: Jecka gets more depth, especially with her secret passion for fashion. Nicole will still be chaotic, but she’ll face new challenges trying to survive at a university where she doesn’t belong.

New Characters: Jecka’s new classmates would bring fresh dynamics and humor. Some could be rivals, others potential new friends.

5 Endings: I’ve outlined five endings, with a mix of success, rivalry, and even failure, all with the same darkly comedic twists that Class of '09 is known for.

Why Interactive YouTube?

I think the interactive YouTube format would be a cool way to bring this story to life. Viewers could make choices for Jecka and Nicole, leading to different outcomes—kind of like the original game but with the visual and comedic flair of a YouTube series. I’m aiming to create something that feels like it could be an official continuation, with all the humor, drama, and ridiculousness we love from the first game.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Does this idea sound like something you’d watch? Any suggestions for what you'd want to see from a Class of ‘09 remake? Let me know!!!

[sunflowerhae]

The Flops™️

Y/n

A 22 year old professional dumb ass with a side gig in being comedic relief. Y/n is easy to understand; she loves video games, loves her cat, and loves pasta. And well..MAYBE she loves her fans too. Y/n is what you could call an “unstoppable force”. She’s going up in the online entertainment world, and has no plans on stopping soon. After having JUST passed her 4 million subscriber milestone on YouTube, y/n believes her life is just near perfect. Which is exactly why God needed to humble her, she thinks. Because WHO kicks someone out of their apartment (3 months before their lease ends, might I add) because of a “miscommunication” if not compelled to by God Himself. So, now Y/n has to move all of her things..AGAIN..to a new place…AGAIN…and pray to God (who we’ve found does NOT have a soft spot for her) that this one sticks - at least for a little bit. Everyone around y/n quickly learns that it’s not her who’s the comedic relief, but instead her life which is so ridiculous, that you can’t help but laugh.

Giselle

Giselle has two main interests. She is a fan of music, and a fan of y/n. She got the music part covered by being one of Korea’s leading superstars. AND she has the y/n part covered by being y/n’s absolute ULTIMATE best friend. When she’s not hypnotizing a whole country with her melodies, she’s dreaming of hanging out with her friends and, maybe hot Greek men. But be careful! This kitty bites, and if you poke too hard at her, you’ll understand why they say she has claws.

Winter

When winter isn’t focusing on her (some would call it) obsession with animal crossing, she’s focusing on her blossoming career in the mukbang community. If you can name it, Winter can eat it. She’s still pretty new, but she’s gaining a steady following by her charming personality and, quite frankly, insane ability to hound a plate of food faster than you can utter an insult. It of course doesn’t hurt her new following that she’s good friends with some of the most influential people of her generation, but that doesn’t mean much to her. With a laugh and bite - winter is a happy girl.

Jisung

Jisung would never call himself a streamer. Sure, he plays video games for people to watch. Sure, he gets viewer numbers up to the thousands. SURE, he makes money off it and has a weekly upload schedule. But no, Jisung would NEVER call himself a streamer. So y/n does it for him! You might think the whole “bicker like siblings” thing is an act for the camera, but that’s just the nature of these two friends. When she’s not nagging him about how much he eats and yet never goes to the gym, Jisung fills the space by laughing and bullying y/n’s gameplay choices. Some newbies are convinced they actually hate each other, but OG’s know these two love each other fiercely, the difference is they show it in their own..unique..way.

Jaemin

Ah..Jaemin. The irony of Jaemin befalls all his friends. He is, by far, the most outgoing one of the bunch. Jaemin sees a new person as a new opportunity for a friend. He laughs in the face of introverts, while also hugging them and giving them a free bag of chips. Jaemin knows just what to say, and just when to say it. And it pains them all that he’s the ONLY “normal” one of the group. Jaemin is currently studying business at SNU, hoping to one day open a cat cafe. His nonchalance towards being in the most envied and admired friend group of their country confuses Jaemins classmates. And what confuses them even more is that, when asked if he feels lucky to be friends with them, his reply is only, “those idiots? More like what crimes did I commit in my last life to be cursed to know them”. But fear not for little old Jaemin, for he is probably the sneakiest of the lot. And if you don’t know what I mean, I’m sorry, but it’s already too late for you.

Jeno

Jeno is a model. It’s really that simple. Jeno is a model - and also so much more. He’s Jaemins best friend, he’s winters boyfriend, he’s the “glue” of the group (as y/n would put it), and he’s just genuinely a nice person. If you have an issue with anything - he’s there. A leak in your roof? Call Jeno. You’re missing a final ingredient for a recipe you’ve been dying to try? Jeno will find it, or die trying! Need a shoulder to cry on after a nasty breakup? Jeno is at yours with a tissue one minute, and an undisclosed location with a gun and some rope in the next. He’s the fiercest and loyalist friend you’ll ever have; who just so happens to be a model.

GG! (Good Game!) 👾

Notes: does anybody actually read my character descriptions bc I actually think I popped off w these ngl. Also not them being a hype house lowkey (without the house part)

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[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

Animaniacs VS Crunch: WHY are they insane-y?

Despite being the creator (in-universe) of the main trio of Animaniacs, Lon Borax himself is a relatively obscure, and more often than not, absent character.

In "The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special", it's revealed that before he drew the Warner siblings, he created Buddy (again, only in-universe).

Buddy (both in-universe and out) was seen as a boring character, suggesting that Lon Borax himself perhaps wasn't the most creative person. In that case, isn't it strange that he went from creating a character as unremarkable and bland as Buddy to characters as boisterous and bizarre as the Warners? Especially, as it turns out, in such a short amount of time:

"Congratulations, Borax, you’ve discovered a cure for insomnia. That’s the most boring cartoon I’ve ever seen. Do you realize we have to show this cartoon to the front office tomorrow?"

This was Weed Memlo's response to the Buddy cartoon. When Lon tried to defend himself, claiming that is wasn't "that bad", Weed was having none of it:

"No! It’s worse! Fix it! Add more characters! Poof it up! Stay up all night if you have to! I want funny! If you need me, I’ll be at the smokehouse."

Weed Memlo (a director at WB) demanded that Lon work overnight, all the while he would be lounging around at a restaurant. Now, if you know even the slightest bit about how to make a cartoon, you'll know that it takes time...ALOT of time. As in, it takes over half a year to make just one episode of most cartoons, amount of time. So you'll also know that, even if he wasn't starting from scratch, expecting Lon to create new characters and heavily modify an existing cartoon in just one night is absurd.

link

What Animaniacs is depicting here is an overt example of an animator being forced to partake in crunch culture. And how did this affect Lon? Well, in his own words:

"I worked all night on that cartoon. I was exhausted, and then...and then I remember it was exactly 2:43 a.m. on the morning of February 30th, I-I started drawing these weird characters!"

What seems to be heavily implied here is that the stress and exhaustion he experienced due to crunch drove Lon mad, and that's why the Warners are as insane as they are.

As we know, the Warners go on to appear in more Buddy cartoons, then get their own shorts to star in (even if they didn't make any sense), but end up locked in the water tower once the studio didn't want to deal with them anymore. After a few brief escapes or instances of the studio temporarily letting them out (either to loan them out to other studios to make more money or to have them star in war propaganda short films), they escape in 1993 and end up starring in their own TV show.

But Lon Borax?

He went nuts.

Yeah he doesn't get better, they just put him in a home.

This is all portrayed comedically, but unfortunately crunch culture actually does have harmful affects on animators and people who work in the video game industry in the real world. 100-hour weeks, cases of sickness and depression, just really awful stuff. However, I don't think this was the writers necessarily making light of crunch, quite the opposite.

Weed Memlo got so fed up with the Warners he quit directing their cartoons. They constantly annoyed everyone who worked at the studio. Pulling pants down, scaring their crushes, playful teasing, stuff like that. They never did anything too harmful, in fact sometimes people just ran away screaming before they even did anything. This was their response to Wakko simply asking "Can we eat with you?":

Still, the studio certainly wasn't peaceful with them around. Most of the human actors were clearly bothered by them (although toons like Bugs and Daffy seemed to be more lenient to the Warners). It wouldn't have been like that if the Warners were sane. Sure they're kids (toon kids on top of that) so they probably still would've ran around and misbehaved here and there regardless, but not to the extent that they're known for.

The Warners made people afraid of going to work, and probably stalled if not halted production of a lot of what the studio was working on (Plotz even says "The Warners had single-handed brought this studio to a screeching halt.") The studio would've saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had given Lon more time, prioritised their worker over money.

But they didn't.

Watching this episode, it feels like writers were trying to get that message across. That the studio deserved to have to deal with Warners; that they were the consequences for partaking in crunch culture. The Warners had been serving large doses of karma for almost a full season at that point, only this time, their "special friend" wasn't just one person.

It was the corrupt industry that birthed them in the first place.

[aspureasamelody]

You've written a surprising amount of Megan fics! I think your fics are the only ones I've seen specifically focused on Megan or Megan & someone (usually Jack)!

So I wanna ask who you think would be best with Megan ? (And who would be worse with Megan?)

Thanks you!

Megan's a cute little nightmare and she's so fun to write! She's a bratty spoiled princess and I enjoy that about her, kids are so funny.

In canon, it's pretty clear that the one's that are best with Megan are Jack and Dojo.

Jack gets annoyed, but he also gives her piggyback rides, programs his bots to make sure they don't hurt her, and he doesn't actually lose his temper with her or get all that frustrated from her antics. He takes everything she throw at him pretty well, and she throws a lot. Megan likes him enough to take him for granted, and he does play with her.

At the end of the episode, when she tells him she was to play "Scream like a sissy girl," Jack's automatic response is that he just doesn't know that game, so he was clearly already planning to play with her, even though she just helped him lose against the Xiaolin monks. Megan enjoys the reactions she can get out of him, but Jack is still in control, surprisingly watchful, and surprisingly not all that emotional about it compared to how he handles other things.

And Dojo is just already a dad basically, he's a natural. As much as he didn't want to be handed off to a little kid he doesn't even know, he immediately got in character and dressed up for her tea party. And he knew out to playfully encourage her to help him save the monks, made it into a game for her and everything, she was thriving.

And in canon, the one who see is worst with Megan is Wuya.

Little kids can be mean and blunt, and Wuya got frustrated to tears over very standard childish insults and childish obstinacy. Even after Wuya gets her body back, I think she'd be ill-equipped to handle Megan's silver tongue.

But you're probably asking me for more fanon dynamics.

For fanon, I haven't written it (yet) but I think the one who would be best at babysitting Megan is Vlad!

Vlad has a lot of energy and a jolly spirit and a high tolerance for taking it on the chin when he's made to do things, like how well he handles being tasked with all the chores as the new monk. He's good at acting and adlibbing, too

With his stamina and how slow he is to anger, Vlad would be so good with a little kid who is trying to run him ragged. He would play along with her tea parties as well as Dojo does. He's creative, he's funny, he's got the temperament for it, and he comes off as a teddy bear. He's also got strong defenses, so if she says anything careless or mean he'll brush it off, and if she actually hurts him or plays too hard he'll shake it off

Plus, he'd be great at pretend or at any sporty games, and he'd be fine with pretending to put up a good fight or with letting her win. He could keep up with her however much she's running around, but he's also got the kind of personality that Megan would have fun playing off of

I imagine he helps Jack babysit quite a bit

It is tempting to say Katnappe. And I think Megan would totally adore Katnappe. She probably begs Jack to call the cool cat lady over to play with her whenever she can

She'd love Katnappe's catsuit and she'd be especially love all of Megan's kitties. And Katnappe and Megan would play off enough other well if Jack there's to be the responsible straightman for them to tease

But Katnappe babysitting Megan on her own would get tired of her pretty fast. Megan also strikes me as someone who would accidentally be rougher and less careful with little animals than she means to, and Katnappe won't be watching her close enough to mitigate that, so unlike Jack's Jackbots, I think the kittens might lash out and scratch her. And Katnappe would get frustrated with that. So Megan and Katnappe will always just work best as a comedic trio with Jack

Also Katnappe is a bioengineer and there are a lot of dangerous things in her lab, and while Jack goes through the effort of making sure he's either actively keeping an eye on Megan or keeping her in a damage-proof bubble when she's in the lap, Katnappe would leave her unattended

So Katnappe's this interesting middle ground between "good with Megan when she doesn't have to worry about being responsible, but really shouldn't be left in charge of her."

And I think the one who would be worst at handling Megan would be Raimundo. He really doesn't seem good with kids.

We already see how Raimundo handles whenever Omi is childish. On the lighter side, Raimundo often tries to trick him but gets kinda frustrated with Omi whether he falls for it or not, but especially if not. (And Megan would be both a sore loser and a sore winner because spoiled little princess, and Raimundo doesn't handle either well.) On the heavier side of things, he seriously tweaks out when Omi is naive or childish and either lashes out or takes it to heart and make a grudge over it, no matter how clear it is that it's coming from a place of earnest childish ignorance from a kid who doesn't know what he's doing

And, worse case scenario, there was this whole thing that Raimundo had way too much fun doing because he was clearly airing out those grudges like a punching bag

I really think Raimundo would lose his temper with Megan or get really emotional if and when she's either carelessly blunt or childishly mean to him. And Megan actually would be acting out to try and push buttons, so I worry about how he would respond to that

...Of course, that's not a dynamic I'll ever explore in a fic. I obviously don't want to write Megan getting a black eye because a little kid is acting like a little kid. It's upsetting enough to watch that scene with Omi, but Megan's not a trained fighter, so it would be way more upsetting there

[radio-ghost-cooks]

gods i love shipwrecked 64

i'm watching Night Mind's video essay on it and i can't agree with him more

the live action/sfx bits are so good. the fact that the game itself feels like something that could have been put out by some 3rd-party dev for n64. it's really cool that you can play it as just a Plain Old Game too. it has so many little nods to classic platforming games and puzzles. and shoutout to the fact that the honest fear-inducing parts don't come until far later in the game.

loads of yapping under the cut bcs i don't wanna spoil anyone + there's a lot kjasdhguhd

the subtle comedic elements like the wolves in the game just kinda Being Places keep you from losing your mind. Stumbler and Wulf working together to research and catalogue the place is a cute guide that comes across like a safe haven. and it's really cute that you can actually email Stumbler too! atp they're probably too busy to answer a lot of stuff, but i'd probably send them a thank you/appreciation email (if i had the guts for horror games lmao)

i haven't finished the video yet but it's already so so cool. it's also really cool how Stumbler and Wulf seem to be genuinely friendly. like a pair of curious, sentient video game characters who wanna know about the world around them. even if Stumbler's help isn't all that helpful sometimes (see: his apparently horrible cartography skills), it's like a little ray of light in all this nightmare.

the way the creator balanced so many characters is a mystery to me. i can barely keep track of my own sometimes and i only have 6 of them 🙃 and i always love it when a game does Things on your computer. the number of push-button-open-tab moments are so fun to me.

also shoutout to the tumblr community to arriving to the same conclusion i did regarding Stumbler and Wulf (gay animals fr fr)

[ai-the-broccoli]

DN ask game: 11 (lawlightmane), 24 and 25, please!

thank you for the ask!!

11. what do you think about (lawlightmane)?

I love them!!!

in terms of comedy, their yotsuba arc shenanigans were some of my favourite moments in the show. like I know how much this phrase gets said but seriously. world's worst toxic polycule. I always love horrible polycules in fiction, they're great fun (see gramarye ot3 and matt-juan-celeste-adrian from ace attorney; I ship the first one, and the second one is just so intriguing in terms of how fucked up it was. dysfunctionality, obsessive hatred & rivalry, murders, suicide, accidentally-implied grooming, dependency, untreated dpd [this one is like strongly implied in canon] and probably also bpd, npd and who knows what else mixing together in the worst way possible, the mysterious relationship between a codependent lesbian [strongly implied] working for years - in the role of his manager - with the womanizing bisexual male actor she fucking hates, the guy just having spy cameras installed all over his male rival's home for some fucking reason......... oh wait) but also! in this case they are like... surreal in such a nice way because of the contrast??? like it's so incredibly toxic and yet here they are. having the most godawful first date (canonically addressed as a date) in the animated sitcom that is called Death Note Yotsuba arc. love to see it. okay how do I explain the appeal here? uhh basically it's kinda like. gap moe.

now comedy aside (but also sorta combined with the comedic aspects; mainly I mean "moving onto it as a serious thing"). MAN. lawlightmane is just fucking insanely good in general. like it's like. it's many things, it is EXTREMELY compelling and an incredibly intriguing dynamic that is full of potential for many things. iirc after I first watched DN and got obsessed with it badly, I made a tierlist and on the topmost tier I put lawlight and lawlightmane (lawlightmane wasn't even an item on the tiermaker I was using, so I just uploaded a screenshot to use myself). both because it was very funny as World's Worst PolyculeTM, and because it's genuinely great. and now my opinions on all of those characters and relationships are much more developed, I think I definitely appreciate it more seriously on a whole.

regarding each respective one-on-one relationship involved in lawlightmane...

well I am. obviously majorly incredibly into lawlight as a ship (beloved otp-tier ship, and maybe somewhat on that tier across fandoms too; I think it's my top favourite canonically-m/m ship rn [maybe tied with another 1-2, but not necessarily]). not sure I need to elaborate since I mean it's lawlight, it's really good

and then law/mane [censoring since this is... negative-ish? so I'm not putting it in the ship tag]. uh full disclosure I have no interest in law/mane if light isn't involved in the picture sorry. (at least rn I've never seen anything that's convinced me) I can see the appeal, and I can also see why some people don't like it, but for me it's really just... well it's just not much my thing lol unless it's a lawlightmane-related situation. OH also personally I can't see it as a romantic thing per se, like my brain just really doesn't compute at the idea of "L is in romantic love with Misa" or vice versa even in an AU. but as for any sexual aspect, it's just a plain "this isn't my thing" situation (as in I'm not interested but the idea doesn't make my brain automatically go "???? [error 404 does not compute]" as a romantic depiction may). their dynamic also doesn't grip me like yagamane (also non-romantic -ish ship for me) does, so yeah, overall I can't say I ship it outside of shipping lawlightmane! HOWEVER as a dynamic it's pretty neat within lawlightmane too.

EDIT (before posting the draft): I woke up today and was about to add "actually I think for a ship such as law/mane, what would probably at least slightly convince me of it has be something thematic probably, so if anyone has any ideas related to how they thematically complement each other or such feel free to send them my way, I like that sort of stuff" but then as I was brushing my teeth my brain filled in the gaps vaguely myself. it's something related to gluttony/hunger/appetite etc. and uh... okay I can see it now ngl lmao. that being said even in that vein I still just like them in lawlightmane for the time being, what changed was that I now have a better feel of their dynamic within lawlightmane if that makes sesne.

moving onto yagamane. man I LOVE yagamane and their whole... *gesture vaguely*. I personally definitely don't see it as a... idk, relationship formed of mutual genuine romantic and/or sexual attraction, but like, it very much doesn't have to be. it's super appealing in the way it's sooooo fucked-up in all sorts of ways, including thematically, mutually, and it's incredibly compelling to chew on. I also love both of them as individual characters (extremely obsessed with light but also really love misa and find her fascinating to think about) so that helps.

anyway lawlightmane really is very good, imo. I love it, thanks for asking anon

24. any headcanons you want to share?

let's see, what have I not mentioned much here yet?

Matsuda has indeed sort of had a crush on Light

Soichiro considers himself a straight man but is not one

The Shinigamis technically can have sex despite what the author tells us, but they are largely asexual or at the very least on the ace spectrum

Kiyomi doesn't canonically present butch but she should be. in an AU where she lives to the future

Misa doesn't die after she attempts suicide near the end in the anime canon

Light should take to gambling, c'mon you know he has JUST the right personality for that shit, go for it Light, develop a gambling addiction instead of a serial killing one! you can do it!!

nsft-related:

weirdly to me Mello is mostly a dom except for when it's with Near. though I haven't thought about this extensively so my opinion can change

I'm not a 100% strict lawlight top/bottom purist per se but I'm sorry I completely can't digest a relationship where Light is exclusively or mostly a dom and a top while L is exclusively or mostly a sub and a bottom. I respect your (general "you"; as in whoever is reading this, not the anon) opinion if you do, and it's fair, but I just can't see it, it doesn't work for me. the dom part is more important than the top/bottom part for me also.

on that note my opinion is that Light TECHNICALLY can dom, especially in relationships with people other than L, but. he's actually just... not into it. he thinks that he is, but it will just turn out he isn't. he'll get the instant powertrip high over it for a very short period of time at first, and then he just. loses it, the high fades quickly and he gets bored as fuck. and he isn't into it at all and finds that he wants to be the sub to some other person actually. which in itself is something he'll find extremely humiliating but that's good too

anyway it's nearly a fandom consensus at this point that Light has a praise kink I think lmao. that I do agree with. I will propose that we also assign praise kink to Matsuda and Soichiro; it's already been done (well, one by someone else and the other by yours truly) and I think it makes sense tbh.

... actually on that note. my personal hot take is that we as a fandom should very much consider applying the "like father like son" principle to nsft involving Soichiro Yagami, in connection to Light Yagami (<- you must understand that I have a lot of those takes because the first DN fic and currently my only DN fic I've published off-anon is in fact a soichello fic. it is only natural)

also yes I think Kiyomi should be a dom and has S tendencies

Misa definitely gives sub energy. though I wonder if she can also dom

25. ramble on about whatever you’d like to

lately I've wondered briefly if MikaMatt (as a romantic? ship and/or as a platonic ship) would be good solely because I put them in the roles of Iino and Ishigami respectively in the Kaguya-sama AU (Iino and Ishigami are canonically subtextual love interests to each other, and they're a fun duo even though I don't particularly ship them romantically). however I still do not understand Matt much sadly so this might be as far as it goes [-> note: if any Matt fans see this and want to fill me in, feel free!! I'm always interested in hearing more]

speaking of Mikami. I def like mika / light casually but I often wonder how come I don't actively like it more considering my OTP in mgrc has the whole... god thing, as a major major major draw for me (see: my current blog header title is a reference to that ship). that being said I do get it because mika / light is different from hime / san in various ways outside of it so it tracks

Light should become friends with Chika Fujiwara (he'll hate her but hey. it's fine) and get into board games and card games, it will save him (maybe slightly. sort of. it will help a little at least.)

okay anon so. I'm going to take a wild guess here and assume that you're at least to some degree familiar with the J-drama adaptation (maybe you've watched some of it?), but if not you can still read this part I suppose.

it's so funny that every other adaptation of DN just gets progressively gayer and gayer because dude literally what the fuck was going on with j-drama lawlight lmfao

the fucking shower scene (and everything about it), the ??? scene where L hooks Light to a polygraph??? (no like what the fuck was that really. it's not as infamous as the shower scene, but the blatantly textual sadomasochism is extremely in your face in that one), and the whole blue sceneTM, and then Light practically kissing L's cheek after L's death, and everything else

with that being said. hmmmmmmm. anyway moving on to my feelings about the j-drama in general:

I liked it overall! some stuff in it are very nice. and I like the characters too, but definitely not as much as the canon counterparts.

importantly I absolutely have to see the drama and each character and each relationship in the drama as like, a whole separate thing from the animanga canon, because if I viewed it as an adaptation they would come off as awful whereas as its own thing it is nice.

I like j-drama Light a lot! ...but not even nearly as much as animanga Light, sorry. I have to see him as a whole separate character 100% (that way he's funny and cute-ish, and I can appreciate him), otherwise I can't enjoy him at all because I'll just be thinking "where's my beloved amazing perfect Bad NPD RepTM :( they nerfed him and now he's not relatable anymore" the whole fucking time <- wow this is very normal and doesn't say anything about me at all. dw about it

and on that note. ngl I have to complain a bit. so I've seen more than one person say that j-drama is so much more ""human"" than canon Light, and I mean, that's a fair opinion!! I get what you mean and I totally get where you're coming from. that being said... I'm sorry I don't agree and I'm not sure I like what that implies either. I know that compared to animanga Light, j-drama Light possesses various traits that are societally more associated with "humanity" but y'know what idk. I don't think that's true. to me animanga Light Yagami is extremely human. I think it is an incredibly human wish to desire to become a god, also

personally I don't think j-drama Light is a better person, if he commits the same atrocities as animanga Light and just simply feels worse/feels more empathy/feels more guilt or whatever about it. I strongly believe that your actual morality is determined not by what you feel but by what you do, like, someone who keeps doing bad things while feeling the societally expected level of bad for it is hardly a better person than someone who does the same things, no more, while being unable to feel as much [insert expected feelings] over it (but still doesn't do more bad things than the previous person).

anyway back to the j-drama. basically I like it, and I def have many fond feelings over it personally, but the watching experience wasn't as good as anime DN for me, and there is more stuff that I dislike. and also I can't compare it to animanga DN too much because as an adaptation per se it doesn't work at all imo (but as its own thing? it's fine and I like some stuff in it quite a lot).

anyway I think that's all on my mind for now!! thank you for the great questions, I had fun writing this

[shadowslocked]

Things that tickle me about Dungeon Meshi, in no strict order:

How it starts with Laois monologuing about how due to them being hungry they can’t defeat the dragon, setting up a lighthearted and comedic tone only for that to be cut swiftly when Falin gets eaten and in her last moments teleports the others away

The intro in general reminds me of Harvest Moon or other games where something happens to the heroes and they’re reset back to Level 1. Laois Crew was able to get pretty far down from how it sounds, but due to losing all their gear and even two members quitting it means literally starting over. The reason they even rely on gathering food in the dungeon is that they were too poor to afford resources

Its set up that death itself is serious but not something a person can’t come back from, establishing early that resurrection magic is a thing and then later emphasizing not to rely on it and then further down explains it in more depth and the hurdles with more complicated situations (such as what would be required and limitations)

When Senshi appears in the first episode it, to me, sets up the theme of food and the preparation of food being a way to connect people. If Laois hadn’t been trying to cook monsters in the hub area, they never would have met Senshi and likely would not have made it as far as they did.

Nothing exists for no reason. You really get a sense of how connected everything in the dungeon is, and that it is an entire ecosystem. Animals feed off each other, there’s worry about over excessive killing, there’s themes about taking care of the environment but also acknowledging that nature will find a way to thrive without you

But also why people would go into the dungeon, beyond trying to reach deeper levels or kill the Lord of the Dungeon, such as peeling the gold gilding off the castle walls and corpse retrieval. The dungeon isn’t simply there, it’s an important part to the town by how it creates jobs and brings in people

The first episode, and series in general, does a good job blending it’s lighthearted moments with its low key dark moments. It’s never excessively making jokes to downplay the darker themes, but at the same time it doesn’t linger heavily on the dark moments and let’s you step back and breathe. The series puts forward the worry of Falin being digested by the dragon and the hurry to reach it, but still allows moments for the party and audience to focus elsewhere because it knows we won’t have the answer till we get there. And when we do get there it shifts to give proper focus to the seriousness of the situation without downplaying it. Like I don’t know if I’m describing it well, but Dungeon Meshi is really good at balance

When Marcille and the Orc Leader are arguing over history and why the Orcs were pushed underground, it never highlights which one is right. That might change later, but I think it’s interesting to let them fight over it but never have an “um actually” moment. They say their version of history and then the fights over, so you’re left to ponder on which side is legitimate.

Episode Five makes me feral because we’re are getting hints to lore and backstory, while the main character is focused on trying to gather food for the party and thus is naturally not aware of the significance until its standing in front of him

The reveal the Dungeon Lord is actually looking for somebody and using the monsters for that search, changing the audiences view of them from being a simply crazy mage to somebody no different than our heroes in the pursuit of a loved one. This does not change that the severity of their actions and the harm it brings

[doughguts-art]

Okay okay back with more Bandit questions and observations now!!! Hi!!! First off, what's the model of his gun? Literally just curious, really doesn't mean anything unless I feel like drawing it lmao. Secondly, what's his thoughts on the people in power/the guardians + the queen (I'm lumping the Judge into the guardians)? You said he won't work when he can survive well on his own, but does his dislike stretch out to even wishing harm on the guardians? Actually, does he know if a guardian dies, their Zone dies, too? How knowledgeable is he on the world of OFF's lore and how it functions?? Thirdly, does he have any friends I should know about? You drew him interacting with Project Goldfinch/Just Finch to break up the text in my first ask, what's their relationship? Does Bandit scam him to hell and back, or do they just casually chat every now and then? Fourthly, I VERY BRIEFLY checked out Ask Bandit and here are some observations I made: Uno, how come you ship him with Red from Animal Crossing? Is it cuz they both steal and resell?? If so, that's hilarious and I love your sense of humor. Dos, when drawing him with Elsen 7 I did not know Bandit currently resides in Zone Three, because 7 lives in Zone One. This whole time I was under the impression he travels through Zones for some reason lol? I guess that's my curse of having a handful of ECU Elsen that do that themselves lmao. Last but not least, not something Ask Bandit related, just generally speaking, would you like to see any future doodles I make of Bandit, whether he's interacting with my own OCs or otherwise? If not, I totally get it lol. Sorry if this is too many questions btw!! You're free to infiltrate my inbox with silly questions too if you want, just to make it more fair. Thank you! :]

Apologies in advance, I didn't make any new Bandit art for this post so I'm just linking something I drew in April that I don't think I shared to tumblr XD Answer time!

I modeled Bandit's gun after a Glock?? Kinda?? I didn't really reference a specific model, more like loosely inspired. I probably should create a prop-reference for it, but I haven't yet.

Bandit's dislike for authority does not stretch to wanting to take out the guardians. It would be counter-intuitive to his role as a merchant to kill off his customers by killing off the guardians. Bandit cares too much about profit, and although the guardians are annoying, without them he wouldn't have profit.

Bandit is fully aware on how the world of OFF works, it's inner workings, and other meta things.

Bandit will say anyone is his friend, even if they clearly hate him. Louis would be the only one that would truly think of Bandit as a friend (except maybe my elsen-sona, but they're a mary-sue type oc and should probably not be counted if we're talking in-universe/story lol)

As Finch is the protagonist in my game concept, Bandit will be the merchant selling them items. Finch is distrusting of Bandit, but sees him as a necessity in their mission. I do have an idea where Bandit does steal something from Finch to propel the plot, but who knows if that'll stay in the final lol

Bandit x Redd is a joke ship created by @brandy-elsen (tagging the account it was posted on and not your current account because I do not wanna waste a tag on this I am sorry Brandy AHHSGFG). All the credits to her for the comedic genius. I think you guessed right as to why that ship exists tho. I just drew it for that post because it met the "two pieces of fanart" criteria I set.

Bandit travels the zones, your initial assumption was right. He is only in Zone 3 on the askbandit blog because of the story being told on there. He's gotta refill his stock of sugar manually since sugar happens to be one of the things he cannot magically pull from his pack.

I would love to see future doodles you make of Bandit! I like collecting all the fanart I get and posting it (with credits/links) to his gallery on toyhouse.

I'm terrible with asking questions, but I'll keep your offer in mind if I have any in the future! :D

a dapper Bandit in a suit

[thesoulesscollection]

Random Facts & 'Party Tricks' Of Choc Kinsley

Hopefully you aren't getting too tired of the mostly Choc content here. But sorry if you are. He's my favorite Oc besides Honey of course. 

I just realized it would be his birthday today, April 1st (how comedic) and so he would be 59yo in 2015 if playing off ear on the games wonky timeline, during ItA and in 2024, 68yo. What an old man he is. lol. Only wanted to share that with you all if anyone was interested. 

Tw/Tags: Implied Drug Use/Abuse, Health Issues

Choc is double jointed, abnormally flexible then a regular human should be. Has hypermobility. As he gets up there in age, it's a little more difficult and he does deal with frequent bodily pains.

Deals with daily chronic pains, usually mild to a point he can ignore it but to the trained eye of some it's noticeable with his sporadic mannerisms 

^ Though when it's bad he's shaking uncontrollably, nearly bedridden and or left unable to function/control his own body 

Weak sensation of the hands, attune to tingly static (like they're asleep) so it ends up more often than he likes to admit with him accidentally dropping stuff he was holding. 

^ Same with his legs, there've been plenty of incidents, too many to count where they had randomly given out beneath him and he's left in a heap of long, bony limbs that can't move

^ Genuinely a very bony man, you can easily see them which he knows aren't healthy but laughed it off. Can hear him from a whole distance due to the loud crackling of his bones. 

In his youth (even now) He's the life of the party. Knows how to have a good time and keep the mood positive. Whenever someone is around him, it's sure to help boost their own. 

^ A recovering party animal with a high tolerance who used to drink and take drugs in unnatural excess. 

His weirdest and creepy ‘party trick’ is where he's able to twist his head near full circle like an owl and keep it like that for a couple minutes straight. He can do it without hands too. 

^ Can do the same with his back, turn right around-the-clock and bend over like a crab. Able to fold himself in tight to odd places and it's useful when 

^ Another weird trick, not natural at all and gross, but post incident relating to his mouth. As it was broken, it hadn't healed properly so he could open up wide, just enough he could try to put his whole fist in and touch his tonsils.

^ His tongue can touch not only his nose but also his eyeballs due to how long, slender it can be. As well, can do all sorts of weird tongue twisters.

Whenever seemingly excited, happy or any other similar emotion, Choc flaps his hands while bouncing on the balls of his feet, unable to contain the movement. 

Is always on his feet, is everywhere doing anything to help from early in the morning to late in the night, you will never see this man go on many breaks or at all. People do worry about him pushing himself far too much but somehow he's a ball of energy. 

^ Literally an expansive book of knowledge. Whenever someone needs to know something, it's best to go to him

[daegutowns]

svt as animes

tags: svt as animes, based on vibes alone, only animes i’ve watched tho, the selection is lacking, surprisingly deeper than i expected 

seungcheol

demon slayer

an older brother does anything to protect his younger sibling and also find himself? sound familiar? yep, this is definitely the anime for our coups. there’s a lot of heartwarming and funny scenes, showing how there is always a light in the dark. people can always prove you wrong, and trusting in yourself is the most important part of the process. hard work always pays off!

jeonghan

bluelock

this is essentially an anime that’s about soccer! but, the characters’ own personalities were constantly being challenged. the basis is: you have to adapt or evolve or you don’t make the cut. you can’t just win a game in a clear-cut way -- you have to learn about the way people are and how they tend to behave. you have to be able to trust your team and know their strengths/weaknesses as well. as a master strategist, this is very fitting of jeonghan! 

joshua

spy x family

you never really know what to expect next. at first, you kind of expect either an edgy, thrilling story about a spy or a heartwarming story about a makeshift family. but, you end up getting both. truly, you never really expect what’s coming next. very silly, but also sweet. it really just shows you that you never know what anyone is thinking inside their heads… 

jun

sailor moon 

throwing yourself into something new is never easy. but, it’s easier when you have people you can lean on next to you! jun trusted in himself and the other members of seventeen as he broke into the kpop idol industry. usagi trusted herself, her sailor friends, and tuxedo mask in order to become a better sailor moon every day. plus, jun is sooo babygirl. 

soonyoung

ouran high school host club

what a classic. just like how hoshi was a tiger this whole time after hiding behind his hamster persona, tamaki suoh hides his true feelings for the sake of others. only when he is truly himself around his friends and the people he loves is when he shines. a great comedic piece about being yourself and always doing what you love. 

wonwoo

komi can’t communicate

since the story revolves around komi, a soft-spoken and very shy individual who is very beautiful and her new friend who wants to help her out, the altruistic vibes suit wonwoo. seventeen helped wonwoo become more outspoken, just like tadano helps komi with her communication skills. as someone who is more introverted himself, i think wonwoo represents how sometimes you need to rely on others to get out of your shell! 

woozi

k-on! 

a very cute and wholesome story about people who love music and just want to perform well for each other! i think a very integral part of uri jihoonie is his love of music. as these four girls discover their love for music and what it can do for themselves and others, they flourish as people too. woozi always puts his heart and soul into music, so it’s natural that an anime that can reflect that would be perfect for him. 

dokyeom 

one piece

this anime is so silly! it’s layered with meaningful and emotional arcs as well. over time, it only gets more and more deeply connected to you. luffy always says he’ll do anything for his crew, or his closest friends. this anime is all about friendship and the journey that you have in your life together with them, making it the perfect anime for dokyeom. 

myungho

toilet-bound hanako-kun 

the plot of this anime is very complex and mysterious, which is the impression that myungho gives off at first glance. his calm and eye-catching demeanor makes it an even better surprise when you find out how kind and silly he is. this story teaches you how even a second glance is not enough and that there is often more than what meets the eye. the cute drawing style and romantic undertones also suit myungho very well! 

mingyu 

jujutsu kaisen 

at heart, mingyu is someone that loves his friends. in the jujutsu world, the only comfort they really have is within each other. the friendship between yuuji, megumi, and nobara really shape the story in the beginning. as you get to know more, you realize that there’s a lot more that goes on. mingyu is not only a great looking guy, he’s very talented, smart, tits like toji, good at cooking, and etc. (he would also be a gojo stan.) he eats up the baseball episode! this story shows that the connections between people are crucial and to cherish the moments you have with the people around you! 

seungkwan 

haikyuu

one of the best comfort animes of all time, so of course, this is perfect for seungkwan. there’s a lot of emphasis on learning from mistakes, leaning on the people around you, and playing to your strengths. weaknesses are only there to show how much you can grow, and dreams are meant to be lived up to! friendship, the passion you have, and determination are very important aspects of life. haikyuu really teaches us to love the people around us, just like how seungkwan loves seventeen. 

hansol 

my hero academia 

being different and being quirky is not a weakness -- it’s a strength. everyone has their own unique traits and abilities. even if they’re not visible to the naked eye, everyone’s worth is beyond measurement. making friends that appreciate you, having a dream to look forward to, and leaning into those eccentricities instead of trying to run away from them is what my hero academia is about. vernon embodies this completely! 

chan  

hunter x hunter

there’s truly a lot of different layers to this anime, but the most noticeable is how hard everyone works towards their goals… no matter what they may be. whether they started from scratch or had talent flowing through their blood, everyone stays true to their beliefs and achieves their goals with hard work. dino is so incredibly hard-working, so this matches very well.

[eekykins]

Choro hcs please?

oh, GLADLY!!!! He's my favorite character in the show!

Choromatsu is clearly very into anime, anime games, and such. But he probably knows very odd and obscure ones too, and prides himself in finding those rare gems.

Some of his favorite animes are twists on magical girl or romance animes, he lives for the unsure feeling he gets when watching something unlike anything else. Whether it be a horror or comedic twist, he adores it. It's a breath of fresh air from the cookie-cutter things he finds popular through the years... since he is an anime veteran.

He has a high appreciation in animation in general, even some Western cartoons. He was a big fan of Teen Titans, Steven Universe, and Gravity Falls, actually. He does have a hope to make his own show one day, but he knows it's hard to break through to get popular unless its like everything else, or is beyond exceptional.

Again on the animation thing, he likes to practice drawing when he can. Either on scrap paper that he hides, or on his phone with his finger. He does have decent skill, but is kind of hard on himself since he compares himself to the beautiful styles he sees online or in shows.

Choro is veeery good at finding obscure merch of idols and animes. The strangest of things he can and WILL find it. He somewhat makes it a mission to locate most, if not all, merch of things he really really enjoys. He' probably gotten scammed a few times from trying to get some off of shady sites, but he'll never admit to that.

Admittedly, he has quite a bit of issues of wanting to be seen as perfect. Though his ego is big, he is very hard on himself internally, though he buries it as much as possible and replaces it with "I'm better than them". He's gotten so good at it, he started believing it. But not in a good way.

He has high anxiety but is good at masking it on the spot, but once alone he will just sit and stare for a while, letting all the shakes out. If it's something being built up to, he will overthink and stress himself out beyond belief to the point he might run of at 90mph.

Though he's attracted to girls (cis or trans, he doesn't care), he enjoys mlm and wlw comics. He's not gross about them, but it comes off that way since he enjoys the relationship building a biiit more than straight comics, and gets more excited over them getting together. He's actually really supportive of LGBT rights, if he had the opportunity to go to a pride parade, he definitely would.

I like believing he's a closeted genderfluid ^^. He's not ready to come out yet, he doesn't think his brothers will support him. Except Karamatsu, but he doesn't trust him not to run his mouth in front of the others. He either thinks the others won't understand, or will be assholes to him for it (though, in reality, they wouldn't really care that he is and would support him if someone messes with him).

He likes the idea of sweeping someone off their feet, but the reverse is what his heart truly pines for. He'd love to be spoiled and taken care of in every aspect, especially emotionally. Definitely clingy and overly affectionate, loyal until death. His biggest dream is to be married one day.

He is a BEAST at rhythm games. He holds all the high scores at the arcades in his city, and will defend his title with passion.

Okay, that's a few I have, but are the most interesting!!! I hope you like them 💚💚💚

[autolenaphilia]

Broken Sword: the Shadow of the Templars

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a point-and-click adventure game by Revolution Software from 1996.

Broken Sword is an attempt to tell a serious conspiracy thriller/mystery story, with a complex plot and intelligent writing. Yet one that isn’t too serious and has plenty of humor and told with colorful visuals reminiscent of 2D animated movies.

It starts with a murder and bombing in Paris that our player character, the american tourist George Stobbart witnesses and narrowly avoids being killed by. And he decides to investigate the mysterious killing. He teams up with french photojournalist Nico Collard, and they soon discover a complex conspiracy involving the Knights Templar and their lost treasure.

Broken Sword is very much an amalgamation of its various influences, with there being clear influences by Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,various stories and myths regarding the Knights Templar, and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Gabriel Knight overall is the most obvious influence, which is not surprising, because it was one of the few prior attempts to create this kind of serious mystery adventure game. The protagonists are even a comedic blonde-haired american man and a dark-haired intelligent woman. Yet it does synthesize its various influences into something that feels fresh.

The story and writing is excellent. It is a story that treats its audience like adults and respects their intelligence. So it isn’t afraid to drop in references to things like Alfred Jarry’s play King Ubu. And the writing carries this learning lightly, with a genuinely witty sense of humor. It’s one of the funniest games I ever played.

And you need the humor, because this kind of conspiracy thriller stuff needs a certain tone to work well. It needs to take itself and its characters seriously enough that there is some genuine tension, yet not take the conspiracy theories too seriously. And Broken Sword manages this balancing act well. The conspiracy theory about the knights templar is used to provide the story with a dramatic weight drawn from history, and combines that with modern paranoia about the chaos caused by global neoliberal capitalism, yet it never takes that stuff too seriously. I like the Eco-inspired reveal that the modern evil conspiracy isn’t actually ancient, it just pretends to be and wants to appropriate the power and prestige of the templars. And the game knows how to keep the conspiracy stuff just fantastical enough to remind us that this is a fantasy, without being too over-the-top for the game’s serious tone.

It’s not the same as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, where both the author and his most ardent fans took The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail conspiracy theory underlying the novel’s plot as fact. Broken Sword is often suspected of being an influence on The Da Vinci Code, which might be true, but might be a case of similar influences on both works. Broken Sword does reference The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail several times, characters are named Plantard and Lobineau, although the Jesus bloodline idea isn’t part of the actual plot, like it is in Gabriel Knight 3. What I would argue however is that Broken Sword is the kind of intelligently written conspiracy thriller that Dan Brown wants to write, but isn’t capable of writing.

The game is not perfect. The characters in the Syria sections rely on ethnic stereotyping that hasn’t aged well, even if I like the boy who learned english from Jeeves and Wooster tapes. And while George is far more likeable in this regard than Gabriel Knight, his closest predecessor, his infatuation with Nico does go into creep territory at one point very late in the game. These are both things that director Charles Cecil himself regrets. Still, I very much enjoy the writing in this game.

The fairly grounded if humorous tone of the game is reflected in the gameplay too. The game is very standard point-and-click adventure, no surprises here. But the game’s puzzles are largely devoid of the moon logic that could sometimes be a problem for contemporary adventure games, a design decision that reflects Broken Sword’s tone. The puzzle design is fairly simple, but therefore fairly intuitive. And that makes for a rather fun game to play. There are a few dodgy puzzles, but overall this game feels fair.

This is an adventure game where you can die, at multiple points in the story. And this does work to make the gameplay reflect the tension of the game’s thriller plot, by having actual stakes, game-overs, that George can actually die. And true to the game’s tone, they can be funny too. And while your progress can be set back quite a bit by a game-over if your last save was a long time ago, that’s perfectly fine. It has a point in creating tension. And there are no Sierra-esque “dead ends” or unwinnable situations that I could find, of the type “the player missed an item they need to progress, but can’t go back for it, so they are stuck,” so the game doesn’t become too hard. Those are not fine, and they are thankfully not in Broken Sword.

Finally the game’s presentation is top-notch all around. The graphics on a technical level is nothing spectacular by today’s standards, it’s fairly low-res 2D graphics. But by 1996 computer technology had progressed to the point that Revolution could use more detailed and slicker-looking 2D art than the pixelart of many previous point-and-click adventure games, and they took full advantage of that. The art design of this game is excellent. This game looks gorgeous, especially the lovingly-detailed backgrounds. Broken Sword has this warm and colorful cartoon-like look to it, reminding me of traditional 2d animated movies and the Tintin comic books. And the game’s animated cutscenes fit fairly seamlessly with the rest of the game, due to artstyle consistency (not always the case with video games), and help with the animated movie feel.The animated movie feeling is so convincing because Revolution Software hired people with that kind of experience to do the game’s art and animation, such as Eoghan Cahill and Neil Breen who worked for Don Bluth, or Roslind Allen who had actually worked for Disney on the Ducktales movie.

They similarly looked outside the video game industry when it came to the game’s music. The game’s composer Barrington Pheloung had composed music for various theatrical films and television shows, most notably Inspector Morse. And Pheloung composed an excellent soundtrack, that helps with the game’s epic feel, and the music is actually performed by an actual orchestra, instead of just using MIDI as many game soundtracks did at the time.

The game is fully voice-acted, which was becoming standard at the time, but the high quality of the voice acting is anything but common, not even today. The accents are often dodgy, but in a fun way. The standout actor is of course Rolf Saxon as George Stobbart, which would turn into the role of a lifetime for him. He would reprise in all future Broken Sword games and he feels irreplaceable as George.

Broken Sword: the Shadow of the Templars was a huge success, and remains popular and beloved to this day. It spawned a franchise that is still on-going. It feels like a point-and-click adventure game milestone. And this is despite it not being a very innovative game, there is little in the gameplay, story or presentation that we haven’t seen before. As a game, it really doesn’t do much that we haven’t seen in its predecessors in the genre by Lucasarts or Sierra or even Revolution Software’s own previous games, like the excellent Beneath a Steel Sky.

Broken Sword is still an adventure game classic that deserves its accolades. That’s because it does what it does very well, with a minimum of flaws. The game is not all that original in concept, but the execution is of the highest quality. It manages to become a classic milestone game by that alone.

Broken Sword is such an enjoyable experience to play that it feels like a benchmark of quality for point-and-click adventure games, one that is rarely met. In fact, Revolution Software’s Broken Sword sequels haven’t really reached the heights of the original, as much as I like the second and even the third game in the series.

Revolution haven’t even been able to fully recapture the magic in the game’s remaster from 2009, the Director’s Cut, which is overall a weaker version than the 1996 original. It adds puzzles and entire sections of the game where you play as Nico, but they don’t add much to the story. These additions are artificially grafted onto the original and feel like it, as they detract from the pacing. It reveals how tight the original game design and pacing is. The new art is by the great Dave Gibbons, but similarly it clashes with the original art. The new animations are worse too, often looking like a cheaply made motion comic compared to the movie-like original animations. The remaster also removes things, including bizarrely censoring the blood and violence in cutscenes. It’s a weird decision that maybe has to do with the fact that the remaster was created for the DS and Wii consoles, made by the sometimes aggressively family-friendly Nintendo. This also included removing the ability for George to die and get a game-over, removing the tension that created.

However, if you buy the Director’s Cut on GOG, it includes the original MS-DOS version of the game as an extra. And that version is easy to get running on non-dos systems with Scummvm. And this is something I recommend you do, it’s a great game.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

One thing I like(d) about Elysia is that she is a meme. She does outrageous, ridiculous things because she’s a comic relief, and her reactions/attitude are exaggerated to make you laugh, and everyone (used to) reacts to the comic relief tropes seriously—

(Whether you actually found it funny is a different matter.)

—and that puts her in the role of jokester while the other person in a scene will play the straight man (as in, the serious person, I’m aware there’s a shortage of straight men in hi3). Sometimes it’s Mei, sometimes it’s Mobius, sometimes it’s even Su, as long as they’re clashing with her nonsense comedy is created!

BUT on the other side of that, Elysia’s early writing shows she has deeper sides to her, too, sadness she hides and thoughtful beliefs she’ll make you earn to speak.

Comic relief characters with sadness or seriousness to them can be really fun, because the gap creates depth! …but there’s a pitfall which I think Elysia kinda falls into.

You see, either you accept she’s doing a bit (which is most likely what’s intended), but you also create a discrepancy in how you perceive her, where she has a seriousness flip switch and you forgive the rude things she does because they’re not meant to be understood as happening within a reality that would treat her actions as bad. Like a cartoon.

(Exaggeration for the sake of comedy, especially if it’s slapstick or comedic sociopathy, is nothing new; nor is the concept that the viewer is meant to understand it’s not reprehensible or serious because it’s played for laughs)

EITHER, you treat her character as consistent, and consider her comedic bits as being in the same register as her serious ones, which translates into Elysia being fucking mean and/or harassing people outright. This gives much more depth to her character, as well as flaws. Mei’s annoyance towards her in ER fits this interpretation very well, and is a big part of why Elysia was subverting Mary Sue tropes back then.

(The unfortunate thing is how we know Mihoyo sees Elysia’s flaws...)

A good example of how this gets fucked up later is the maid uniform incident with Mobius at the beginning of EE. Elysia sneaks into her colleague’s closet and adds fetishy clothing in there.

If you read this scene literally/seriously, Elysia is a creep who breaks into other people’s private spaces and messes with their stuff, in the name of her own personal amusement (it’s harassment). You could even see it as sexual harassment considering the “joke” is that the maid outfit is a kink thing. Very illegal! Very don’t do that!

BUT. The story treats it as a comedic moment. You’re meant to turn off the seriousness switch and laugh about it, because the way it’s written is “silly joke about Elysia doing outrageous things and Mobius playing the straight man”, and “haha, callback to Mobius wearing girly pink clothes”, and “it’s not Mihayou if there’s no asset re-use”.

This creates a gap of perception between the writers and the viewers. At least in EE (I think it was more split in ER, with how some comedic things had serious or lore implications) writers expect the viewer to see these scenes as comedy, Elysia isn’t doing anything BAD, she’s doing something FUNNY, just like Himeko’s naked drunk shenanigans, or every time a tsundere starts beating up their crush in anime, turn your brain off for a minute.

But! Honkai is a serious story, with complex lore and deep characters! By the time we see this scene we KNOW Elysia is a deep character who CAN be a fucking creep (see: her catching Vill-V by literally showing up inside her room to breathe down her neck). We’ve seen several scenes in ER where her outrageous behavior is responded to seriously (Mei calls out her behavior numerous times, etc.)

So we watch and take the scene in as is. The scene tells us Elysia is an outrageous person, and we expect the world of the game to respond to her as such, as the straight man, as it… honestly did in most of ER?

But it doesn’t. The writing has switched register.

Look, it’s a joke.

Look, this scene isn’t here to inform you of Elysia’s flaws, it’s to make you snicker.

Look, nobody minds her shenanigans, they’re funny, they don’t really count.

What do you mean they used to count? Look, you saw it that way.

(The characters used to react as they should.)

Look, Elysia’s perfect.

[zzthekaiju]

Best of the Reptiles in Media - 05 - Draco

Back again with some new scaly beasts to gush over! And for this entry, we're talking about everyone's favorite mythological beast...DRAGONS!

If there's someone out there who doesn't like dragons, odds are that they are very dead inside...or afraid of giant reptilian beasts that fly and breathe fire. And to be honest, it's not hard to be a bit frightened by the prospect. In typical European folklore, the dragon is a loathsome, dangerous monster that ransacks kingdoms and steals away maidens while hoarding tons of treasure (kind of like your typical national ruler, but that's beside the point). In most western cultures, dragons are a symbol of pure evil, mostly due to their correlation with serpents (we'll have some snake representation for one of these entries, don't worry). But just as the dragon was symbol of greed and wrath, so too was it one of bravery and power. And as civilization grew, we came to see dragons as a number of things. Sometimes, we preferred that maybe they don't have to be the bad guys (though most eastern cultures had done that already). And out of all the heroic dragons that came out of this better mindset, I think the best out of the lot is the star of 1996's "Dragonheart". The noble Draco.

The plot of this film is that the dragons are just about dead. All because of a very human error. A dragon was tasked with healing a prince named Einon from a fatal wound by bounding his own heart to his. It worked, but the prince, now a king, turned out to be a vicious tyrant. His mentor, Bowen, was enraged by what he perceives as the dragon's heart corrupting Einon, and he vows to destroy his whole kind. Eventually, all but one dragon remains.

But one thing leads to another, and Draco points out that the dragon-slaying thing has become a zero-sum game. If he wins, he looks forward to just hiding and fighting slayers again. If Bowen wins, he's out of a job. So he provides Bowen a third option...pretend slaying. As in, act like he and Draco are fighting while conning villagers out of their money. It's...not really that noble, but it beats losing a livelihood or being stuck in a cave.

However, there comes a point where neither Draco or especially Bowen can hide from how bad things have become under Einon's reign, and they must put aside their differences to free the land from tyranny.

Part of what makes Draco such a good character AS WELL as a good dragon is that he's brimming with personality. They could have easily gone for the "wise yet stoic beast of legend" angle and made him perpetually stone-faced. After all, he has the visage of such a being (and what a visage it is, seriously he's one of the better-designed western dragons out there). But instead, he's a witty and almost sly sort who enjoys a good bout of comedic banter and barbs when it comes to his partner Bowen. The great late Sean Connery makes it so that his voice both commands respect and sounds like the kind of charming gentleman you'd expect from one of Sean's more recognized roles, if you know what I mean.

Not just from a comedic standpoint, but even though he was the one who came up with the whole scheme, he contrasts with Bowen in that the latter is a jaded washout who threw away his role as a knight of the Arthurian Old Code while he still holds dear the old ways of chivalry. Though despite being that ignored angel on Bowen's shoulder, he doesn't act like the man is lesser for his disillusionment. "You sound like someone who tried." he says in response to Bowen saying that nothing can bring the Old Code back. Just the way he says it, man. He isn't even angry, just empathetic.

But yeah, for the most part, I love Draco for how hilarious he can be. The animators and Mr. Connery clearly had a lot of fun with him.

I can't go without mentioning how Draco's story ends, sadly. Because he's bonded with Einon, he has to die so that the monstrous king does to. And Bowen, long after getting his groove back as a knight, has to be the one to do it. The scene where Draco begs him to strike him down is just harrowing...but it comes to pass, and everyone, hero and audience alike, is saddened by it. But Draco is still with us. In the stars, amongst the souls of other noble dragons in the Draco constellation that he was named after.

Rest assured, Draco won't be the last dragon we see in these entries, but he's by far the one who's had the most impact with me. He's intimidating, but he's funny. He's wily at times, but more noble than any of the human cast combined. And as for the sequels/prequels this film got, at least they carried on the tradition of western dragons as characters instead of monsters, though none come close to him (Drago comes close in my opinion, at least).

Until then, we look to the stars. For the inspiring spirit of Draco is there for those who know where to look.

[sonicattos]

ah random blurble spouting random headcanons at a random person i follow at 3 in the morning time! -Everyone says Shadow is represented by heavy metal, a lotta people seem to think that the Super Sonic songs of Frontiers would be "better suited" for him, however a lot of the songs in his own GAME are NOT heavy metal, in fact, most of them are electronic rock or full-on electronic jungle, sometimes even trance type tracks. As such, I propose that the genres that would best represent him would be either atmospheric dnb that uses lots of samples, or experimental types of electronic rock. -Sonic would be the type to listen to breakcore (like actual breakcore) to help him focus and Tails would be the type to be like "S...Sonic h...how does this- yknow what, sure, if it helps it helps" -Shadow likes nature. We already know he probably has a soft spot for animals, he loves lavenders, and part of his whole thing is thinking of the world as beautiful in some ways, as Earth itself represents both his and Maria's own personal desires, dreams, and wishes. Despite the fact that he has that edgy emo boy demeanor going on with his looks and his small actions, his overall personality really doesnt actually reflect that much, apart from some of the ways he speaks. However, that can just be chalked up to him enjoying being a bit dramatic. Overall, he's a lot less.... aggressive, than people seem to make him out to be. -To add to the "dramatic" part, I think he genuinely enjoys BEING dramatic, but in the moment he doesn't really realize he is being dramatic. Like, i dunno if this is relatable, but the being "autism funny" thing i go through, where I intentionally do try to be comedic, yet somehow at the same time i dont actually realize i am. I'm stating things I truly think, however i do know that when I say it that way it makes people laugh with me, so I'm cool with it. This is part of why the Shadow in my Paradox AU got into theatrics as an adult, because he's really fucking good at being dramatic and people think he's just a really good actor, but no, he's thinking about actual shit that's happened and channeling his inner drama from that thing into himself saying the lines lol. -Tails often tells Sonic all about how he overworks himself and shit, but he himself does the exact same thing. Whether or not it's something he picked up from Sonic, or just something that happened to be part of him thats a similar trait, is unknown. However, it DOES lead to them both badgering one another over overworking themselves until they both do the "I'll only stop if YOU stop!" thing to eachother before passing out somewhere random. Amy often has to check in on them to bring them out to a couch or something like that lol. -Tails tried to make a robot doggy to act as a "friend" to Knuckles so he could have a buddy on Angel Island whenever he's there for extended periods of time, the robo dog ended up a lil... wonky, though. Think like... a very very weird chihuahua. That's what it acts like. But Tails can't bring himself to "shut it down" because he says it's TOO much like an actual dog and he feels bad for it. They have yet to show Knuckles, so this weird yapper robot that "sleeps" most the day and kinda weirdly wobbles around the rest of the time just kinda.... lives in Tails' workshop. And sometimes bumps into them while they're doing stuff. This dog is also the only thing Eggman outright refuses to destroy when it comes to Tails' creations, even sometimes going out of his way to make sure it DOESNT get caught in the robotic-battle crossfire while fighting the team. Eggman is.... oddly sympathetic toward robotic beings, as seen in a lot of continuities of him where he doesnt just, like.... scrap and replace his "less reliable" robots despite them being, well, less reliable. It's an oddly continuous trait of his and I think it would be funny if a silly weird robo dog were to be his goddamn weakness lmao.

-This is more of a future au, but Amy ends up growing up to be a very witchy type who's genuinely knowledgeable in those types of practices. She's already got those hippie vibes to her, even moreso than the rest of the group lol, so I think it'd check out pretty well! Knuckles would bring her an especially cool rock that looks like a squid and she'd be like "Knuckles those are amethyst crystal points where did you find this it's absolutely stunning??????" And he's like "oh there's a bunch of em none of them looked that cool though". And it turns out that he's been finding cool crystals everywhere, just none of them looked enough like animals to him so he didn't think they were that important lol. But now he brings her the "weird shiny ones" because he knows she likes em so why not? -Sonic and Shadow have a chili dog eating contest and Sonic learns the true extent to the whole "Shadow cant get sick" thing -Just... overall other bizarre shit they compete over. They'd absolutely make a competition out of anything, which they need to absolutely bring back in-canon. They wouldnt always be beating the shit outta one another, but they WOULD be having multi-mile races over the dumbest possible decisions, or having a contest over who can go the longest without pissing someone off on accident lmao.

(tried to give some love to characters besides Sonic, Shadow, and Tails lol. They're all good characters honestly, I love em. Also help me name the robot doggy because i may use that in a possible AU lol)

- i agree with the first one!!! although i feel like shadow appreciates almost all types of music! he hates being perceived so he doesn’t talk about the music that doesn’t “fit his vibe”

-i can see sonic either LOVING breakcore or despising it, no in between and i won’t elaborate

-shadow loving nature is one of my favorites. and there’s no way it isn’t true since it was his and maria’s dream to visit earth. they’ve had to have read books and stuff too! that’s why he’s standing by that tree in shadow 05, it’s “his tree”

-you’re so right about shadow being dramatic. in game canon, doesn’t matter in what game, he’s calm, but when he gets excited or any intense emotion, he starts yelling and says over the top one liners. a more recent example would be in team sonic racing and how he behaves in the game while just talking to someone vs how he acts while racing. he’s so monotone and calm but when he’s competing he’s practically screaming at everyone.

-i hc tails is an intense hypocrite because at least sonic takes time for naps. tails will not sleep for days and still yells at sonic for pulling one all nighter.

-i love the robot dog hc hdjfjd; eggman is a very interesting character because while he literally abuses animals he has sympathy for his robots. perhaps because he designs them with voices and personalities and such. you’d think he’d shut off orbot and cubot by now especially since they’re ruthless to him but no, he still keeps them around. don’t forget sage like jeez he literally just made a human girl and didn’t think he’d be attached?

-i see amy becoming more witchy too!! she already has her tarot cards and her “sonic sense” i’m pretty sure she’s said that she can sense chao as well? or just peoples auras in general? i have this stupid hc that she cursed herself by accident which is why she wears rings, and also why she can turn invisible in 06.

-shadow becomes sick for the first time not clickbait

-i love the competition for no/a stupid reason so much. they kinda haven’t stopped doing that, again, in team sonic racing sonic challenged shadow to a race because he wanted to help shadow on a mission i think.