#i know the second one looks a little janky but i hope the general idea of what i was trying for is there ||orz

[xumoonhao]

everyone! important button question:

which of these texts looks better:

please ignore the border moving. i do not know What happened but i will fix it </3 i just want to know about the letters and which movement you think is better!!!

[kalee60]

Kalee. Kal. Hi. Hello.

So I recently got a Tiktok because all the kids these days are doing it and my sister keeps sending me videos 🤦🏼‍♀️🙄 I know.

Anyways

There’s apparently this challenge.

Kalee.

It’s a kiss your best friend challenge.

And all I can think is:

Steve and Bucky.

It could be canon verse. It could be an au.

But like imagine. If you haven’t seen the videos it’s super cute but also cringy because like what if it doesn’t go over well, it would be awkwardddd! They basically just film themselves hangout with their best friend and then try to kiss them and see if they’ve secretly been pining too.

Imagine.

Claire - my gorgeous pocket rocket from the Big Apple 🍎

This ask (that you sent eons ago) could not just be answered with a simple - 'omg, yes - I know right - it's the perfect Stucky scenario - someone should write it'... Because well - I guess somehow it turned out that I could write a little something...

I hope you enjoy this, because without your cheerleading, your throwing of pom poms and generally screaming at me in comments and on here - well writing wouldn't be half as much fun.

So for you Claire - enjoy this little story of two boys, a kiss in the making and a TikTok account 😘

~*~*~*~*~

Nerves rode Bucky as he placed his phone down into the perfect position; camera at the ready, not pressing record yet - but waiting for the signal. Steve was doing the exact same with his phone, only from a slightly different angle, setting it up for their parkour trick - something they were going to post to TikTok later. But although Steve was under the impression he was about to perform a flip off Bucky’s shoulders to grab hold of a tree branch then scale the fifteen foot wall beside it - Bucky had other ideas.

He’d seen a new TikTok challenge that week, it was plastered all over the platform and filled his suggested videos, and since the first time he’d watched one, then devoured another fifty straight away, he’d secretly wanted to do it. Wanted to throw all caution to the wind and seize the moment.

Today was that day.

Bucky Barnes was going to kiss Stevie Rogers right on the lips. His best friend since middle school, the boy, now man that he’d secretly loved for over a decade - and although Bucky could have thought of a million different ways to show Steve how he felt - he’d just never had the courage. At least if the video bombed, he could still put it up as a laugh and hopefully Steve would see the joke and it wouldn’t ruin their friendship - hopefully.

So Bucky waited for Steve to finish fiddling with his phone and camera positioning, which was taking him longer than usual to set up, trying to not let the butterflies in his gut take over.

Steve finally looked up, face flushed red like he’d already performed the stunt and Bucky was struck dumb, staring at how beautiful Steve was in the afternoon sunlight. He became lost in the way the shadows from the trees created patterns across Steve’s tightly toned body, the slight wind whispering to Bucky to take his chance, to not mess it up. And Steve stood before him like a golden god, nervously splaying his fingers, cracking his knuckles while staring back at Bucky with an unreadable expression on his face. Was he worried about their trick?

“You okay, Pal?” Bucky asked, his voice faltering with the knowledge he was about to change everything - or nothing.

Steve nodded, eyes wide and bright, darting over Bucky’s face, and Bucky took a moment to bask at being in Steve’s full attention.

“Yep,” Steve popped the ‘p’ and ran a hand through his hair, blonde strands sticking up comically, but Bucky didn’t laugh, he’d never seen someone as breathtaking as Steve did in that moment. 

Steve was Bucky’s true north, a steady and unrelenting force at his side - but it went both ways. They’d been through family deaths, relationship fallouts, fights and everything in between, but the one thing that was always unbroken - was they were in it together. No matter what life threw at them, Steve and Bucky were as solid as rock. Unshakable.

And Bucky was probably about to screw it all up.

They closed in on each other, coming to a standstill until only a foot separated them; Steve’s huge blue eyes darted quickly between Bucky’s; there was something different about the look, intense, and Bucky wondered if his own nerves were obvious and Steve was suddenly unsure about the acrobatic feat they were attempting.

“You still want to do this? Haven’t changed your mind?” Bucky asked to make sure, and was surprised when Steve licked his lips and shook his head emphatically.

“No, I’m sure - more sure than I’ve ever been about anything.”

Bucky smiled, Steve being dramatic about their parkour tricks was not unusual, but the way Steve’s cheek twitched and how his foot tapped on the ground was not normal behaviour. And Bucky couldn’t help but start to worry that his idea to surprise-kiss Steve wasn’t the greatest one, wasn’t something he should be trying, as it seemed Steve was janky - wound up.

“Alright, Stevie. If you’re sure.”

Resolve filled Steve’s features as they both turned on their cameras, and once set up, Steve took an almost hesitant step forward.

Bucky held his breath.

It was the moment of truth. 

They’d practised the trick so many times, had to start toe to toe for it to work, Steve pushing off Bucky to sprint to the wall, running vertically up the side of it, to twist around and jump off Bucky’s shoulders and flip onto the tree branch, shoving off it then using his momentum to run up the rest of the wall. Finally gripping the lip and climbing over it. 

They’d gone over it at least thirty times.

No injuries as of yet.

But this time, just as Steve pressed forward, Bucky yanked him in - at the exact same time as Steve flew forward, completely catching Bucky off guard as he was heading in the wrong direction than expected, he was moving towards Bucky instead of pushing away - and their heads slammed together with a loud thud.

And instead of taking the defeat of the moment graciously, Bucky was in too deep, had waited too long, had it all planned out - and so as Steve rubbed his forehead looking as mortified at what had transpired as Bucky, Bucky once again leant forward. Only to find Steve pitching towards him too, and for the second time in less than three seconds their skulls cracked against the other.

“- holy shit, Barnes. Are you going to let me kiss you or not?”

“- Steve you fucking menace, I’m trying to kiss you!”

The silence was deafening as their words mingled together and wide ocean blue eyes met stormy silt infused grey-blue ones in shock.

“- what did you…?”

“- did you just...?”

Once again talking at the same time, they both trailed off, and the words started to sink into Bucky’s fried brain. Steve was trying to kiss him. Him.

Slack jawed, he could only stare at Steve whose expression mimicked his own, clearly having come to the same realisation about Bucky. He managed to swallow the obscenely thick lump in his throat and with a small tremor in his hand, reached up to place it on Steve’s forehead where a red mark was forming - rubbing the spot gently with his thumb. Steve’s eyes softened and his shoulders relaxed.

With the last tendrils of fear slipping away, Bucky trailed his fingers down the side of Steve’s face before reaching behind his head, gripping the base of Steve’s neck. Then stopped.

Steve’s breathing laboured, coming in sharp and Bucky tightened his grip, loving the way Steve’s eyes fluttered half shut before they opened again, trying not to lose contact with Bucky’s.

Steve was stunning, so responsive and Bucky licked his lips, loving how Steve’s attention snagged on his mouth immediately.

“Can I?” Bucky husked, and Steve nodded jerkily when Bucky’s fingers played with the silky strands of Steve’s hair as he leant in.

The first meeting of their lips lacked the pain of slammed heads and teeth - but it was perfect in every way. Steve’s lips were plush, soft and pliant under Buckys as Bucky took control of the kiss, pressing forward into Steve’s heat. Bucky’s other hand came up to cup Steve’s face tenderly, unable to express how it felt to be kissing his lifelong friend after so many years of yearning for it, Bucky almost at the point where he thought it could never happen. The fact Steve kissed him back - enthusiastically, made his heart thump louder and harder until it was all he could hear in his mind.

After a moment, Bucky pulled away, resting his forehead on Steve’s, mindful of the tender place they’d cracked heads minutes earlier, and couldn’t stop the rasped laugh that escaped.

“You laughing at the way I kiss, Barnes?” Steve sassed with a smile in his voice.

Bucky chuckled, “no, not at all.” He paused a second to gather his thoughts, “I just can’t believe I set this up to kiss you on camera for TikTok, so damn nervous the whole time you’d freak out and punch me - and you were doing the exact same thing.”

Steve grinned and pulled away enough so that he could stare into Bucky’s eyes, the emotion shining from his beautifully clear expression stole the breath from Bucky’s lungs.

“How long?” Steve asked with a whisper. And Bucky wanted to lie, to tell him it wasn’t long, that he’d only just realised if only to stop himself looking too much like a sap.

He didn’t lie.

“The day you punched Deon Franklin when he asked me for a tongue kiss while calling me those terrible names.”

Steve’s stunned look spoke volumes, “Bucky. We were sixteen.”

“And…?” Bucky winced at Steve’s incredulous tone.

Suddenly Steve laughed hysterically, and Bucky started to back up, but before he got too far, Steve grabbed his biceps stopping him in his tracks. “Oh no you dont. You do know why I punched him right?”

“Because he was a dick?”

“Well apart from that.” Steve said wryly and took a deep breath, letting Bucky go. “It’s because he upset you. And I was desperate for your attention - wanted that kiss he so crudely demanded as a joke.”

“What…” Bucky stammered out, “You wanted me back then too?”

Steve smiled indulgently at him. “You didn’t think I stuck around just for your personality did you?”

Bucky roared with laughter, elated at the turn of events and grabbed Steve, slamming their mouths together, and soon the kiss morphed from chaste and exploratory to something meaner, something heavier. Pushing Steve up against the tree, the small noise from Steve’s throat as the bark dug into his skin set something feral off in Bucky and he kissed deeper, shoving his tongue further until both of them struggled for air.

A loud beeping infiltrated Bucky’s hearing and he reluctantly pulled away, adoring the slack jawed and glazed look in Steve’s eyes way too much. Wanting Steve to look up at him with that exact same expression but with a lot less clothing and a lot more privacy in place.

“Want to do the trick still?” Bucky questioned as he walked over and grabbed his phone to stop the alert that he was running out of video. When Steve didn’t answer he looked back over his shoulder and almost dropped his phone.

Steve was leaning limp against the tree, clearly half hard and staring after Bucky like he’d just gifted him the world. When in actual fact, it was Steve who’d done that for him.

Bucky stalked back over, gripping Steve’s chin, kissing him soundly one more time, and Steve immediately went pliant under his touch, oh boy, they were going to have so much fun.

“How about instead, we go back to mine and see what other tricks we can come up with?”

Steve’s breathing came in faster and harder and a broken ‘yes’ worked its way out of his throat, Bucky catching the word in his mouth as he kissed Steve again.

Bucky smirked as he pulled away, helping Steve stand upright.

“But, only on the condition that we tape it.” Steve said in a voice deep and rich, and Bucky was suddenly on the back foot when Steve smiled deliciously at him, eyes full of dirty promises.

Dry mouthed and vibrating from anticipation, Bucky followed Steve to his car, walking in a slight daze at what had transpired in only twenty minutes.

And all Bucky was certain of, was that although his TikTok kiss hadn’t gone to plan - everything else would fall into place.

Just the way it was meant to.

[thenervousmedic]

I had a minecraft dream last night...

This is going to be a long post, but bear eith me, and take the time to read it.

I don't dream about minecraft very often. In fact this might be a first. I'm still in bed while writing this, as im afraid if I wait I'll lose a bunch of the memories.

It involved myself and a few members of the Dream SMP getting sucked into MC. Ironic, I know. Dream, George, Badboyhalo, Tecnoblade, Wilbur Soot, Tommyinnit, and myself. We all looked like our avatars... mostly, and even had some special skills i'll get into later.

To be clear, they were as they are in real life in terms of personality.

I've not watched the dream smp yet... maybe I should start soon. Anyway, side tracked...

The world worked differently than normal MC. It was more realistic, especially the combat and movement. Anything you can do irl you can do here. The drawback was that it made everything harder and more exhausting.

I was dragged in a month before the others, where over the next four weeks, I'd figure out how the lives system works; how difficult movement was; that crafting was nearly the same as normal mc; and how to build.

Five lives. There was a little tracker on the back of your hand, five squares for five lives. Each life you lost, a square would disappear. But it wasnt that simple. Every tine you died you'd feel the affects of the world more. Eating took longer, everything cost more and more realistic amounts of effort, and most importantly... taking damage would actually hurt.

On your first life damage was less of a danger and more of a 'stat' to just be aware of. Getting attacked, shot, exploded next to, ect wasn't too bad. But the more you died the more these things started to get scary. Arrows would tear their way in and ve painful to remove. You'd bleed and have actual wounds that needed care.

By the time the smp members were spawning in, I'd already been reduced to my last life. I was never good at minecraft, though im alright irl with a bow it didnt help much.

You spawn in unconcious. I'd lost my first life that way. I spawned above water. A painless drowning. I hadn't gone back to the ocean since, it scared the fuck out of me.

The first to arrive was Techno. I went back to spawn for the good sheep spawns there. Found him asleep in the grass. He was lucky no creepers had spawned.

Nearly everyone was bigger than me, I'm pretty small, so hauling this guys limp piglin ass all the way to my little safety shack was really hard.

Then Dream and George one after another. Badboy. Tommy... and finally Wilbur.

Wilbur was... a special case. He was a ghost. Just like his ghostbur skin had been. Fully awake, really freaking out. I was near collapsing from taking everyone else to my home, wasnt really much of a comfort, but I at least managed to convince him to come with me after the sun started to dip.

When we got back Wilbur helped me make beds. Couldn't have everyone sleeping propped up against the walls... Wilbur couldn't grab anything, but he could open and close chests. He also found out he could manafest things like his guitar, and a plushie orca. Things that made him a little less anxious. It was nice to hear music again.

I didnt get to talk to him long. We finished the beds, put everyone on one, then I immediatly konked the fuck out over the crafting table.

By the time I woke up, everyone was already awake and talking. The typical suspects. Why are we here, how, what happened, is this even real. You get the picture. I guess usually social anxiety, especially in the presence of people I admire so much, would've been a big stressor but after a month alone in this world I damn near started bawling at the thought of someone else even existing.

I told them all I know. We are stuck here, we have lives, dont fucking lose them it makes the game harder. The physics are just as janky as regular minecraft, mobs are much more articulated, armour actually has weight and at this point I wasnt aware of the little buffs everyone had to a particular skill.

Dream was incredibly good at exploiting the game's wonky system and parkouring, even of he couldnt nessesarily do it irl.

Techno was suddenly extremely knowledgeable about combat and could handle most weapons effectively. He was also a piglin-type guy which made him immune to fire.

George's coding skills translated directly into redstone knowledge, letting him build ridiculous machines with enough respources.

Tommy had incredible luck with loot and generally got good enchants.

And Bad was, thanks to his skin, some form of demonic entity and would be completely ignored by most hostile mobs.

Wilbur, as you know, was a ghost who could phase through anything and summon ghostly items.

We didn't find out everyone's special trait immediatly, of course. It happened over many days of trail and error trying to collect resources, build, and have fun.

Turns out my skill was useless by myself, hence why I never found it before they arrived. Anything I gave to another person was twice as effective. Healing items helped more, food would fill them on smaller portions, armour would get a free temporary enchant depending on what they needed.

I'd never liked playing minecraft alone.

I'm losing some of the dream, I shoukd wtite some bullet points down or this post will be miles long.

Tommy accidently befriended a wolf, he named it Wilbur to mess with Wilbur. We had two Wilburs.

Bad was constantly driven up the wall by peoples language but truly was using it as a coping mechanism early on because he was afraid of being stuck here forever. We made sure to swear occasionally so he'd get the oportunity to yell at us.

Techno lost his first life when a creeper blast threw him directly into Dream's sword.

Dream never got over it.

Wilbur started making more songs and even made a few targetted at the groups adventures.

Wilbur descovered if he goes into the floor he cant tell which was is up, this terrified him, he never went underground again.

George made automatic farms and eventually even non-minecraft typical things like a morning alarm clock, a compass that pointed to the nearest village, and invented new armour that was more lightweight but still protective.

Wilbur the wolf regularly barked at and mauled giant spiders before they got anywhere near the house, much to literally everyone's relief.

Bad learned how to read and write enchanting table symbols.

I taught Dream how to repair his clothes and in return he showed me how to build traps.

Techno learned he could talk hoglin, piglin, and villager.

Bad learned he could stare at endermen and mistakingly assumed everyone could so he told everyone else its ok to do so.

Tommy lost his first life to an enderman.

Wilbur worked with george for a whole week on special gloves that would let him touch stuff.

I took an arrow dangerously close to the lungs after Tomny's first respawn trying to bring him home.

Dream realised he couldn't take off his mask and wished he could see the world normally again, nobody knew what his vision was like.

Bad descovered a joy for cooking.

Bad also tamed a cat and named it Muffin.

Muffin the cat would ride Wilbur the wolf around.

Dream lost his first life to hunger after pushing himself for too long.

Techno took a wrong step in the neather and lost his second life to a seriously long fall.

I never knew what I looked like...

Tommy lost his second life being overrun by zombies without a weapon. We made a rule to never leave the house alone after this many deaths.

Bad descovered pretty late that milk is poisonous to him and thus cakes will kill him. He lost a life to cake. He was devastated.

Tommy built a cute campfire. He and Wilbur would mess around singing at it. Wolf Wilbur thoroughly enjoyed this.

I would stay up most of the night watching everyone sleep because I worried the house could get invaded or surrounded. They found out after Phantoms started spawning and made a rule that at least one of then would stay awake at night to make me feel better.

George built Dream an obstacle course with lots of moving parts and such. He ran it every morning.

I learned how to play guitar from Wilbur at the campfire.

Torches never burnt out after they arrived. No idea why.

That's all I can remember...

It was a hard dream, I was sad and angry sometimes... but the happy moments made it worth it.

I hope I return to that dream someday.

[mrfutureboy]

I would like to know when you started drawing and where your passion for fanart started 😊

Oh FUCK dude i did not see this i’m so fucking sorry this is so late 😭 damn you, tumblr, for not fucking notifying me!! Anyway buckle up this is gonna be much longer than you asked for <3

Honestly ive kinda been drawing all my life! I hope that doesnt sound dumb cuz obviously almost everyone drew pictures when they were kids, but i know that it’s been a consistent hobby for me since i was little. By the time i was in 3rd grade I was hoarding notebooks to draw in. Cuz that’s something fun about me: i had a real huge habit of drawing in things that werent sketchbooks. Through middle school and beyond I did buy/receive sketchbooks, but I started out with various kinds of notebooks. One I had from like 2nd grade was like a hardcover, stationary-type notebook that I drew cats in lol, and I have 2 velvet lisa frank notebooks from 3rd grade. In high school and college I had a really bad habit of drawing in the margins on my notes and on handouts the teacher/professor would give. Those classes where the prof just prints out all the notes beforehand and gives them to you to follow along? Oh man, I spent so many classes barely listening while I drew on them! I also used to draw on my physics homework and tests and sometimes I even got extra credit for them (thank you jeff :D). I actually have a folder of various drawings I’ve kept from that 8yr time period and a lot of them are on classwork 😂

Obviously, I’ve been doing a lot of digital art lately, which I’m sure is what u were more curious about rather than the shit about drawing on my homework. I got a surface pro as a graduation gift in 2016 bc prior to that i had a wacom tablet and a janky ass laptop, so the gift was kinda a 2-in-1: i can do schoolwork AND art easily! i like digital art a lot and honestly im still learning new things abt it every time i draw. I use Leonardo currently (i’ll skip that story) but I started out doing digital art on sketchfu WITHOUT the wacom tablet in maaaaybe 2012??? 2011??? does anyone on this site remember sketchfu? Honestly couldnt even tell u how i found that site hahah the internet was just full of wonders back in the day. RIP sketchfu. Once i got the tablet tho some time later i used sketchfu still (i think) but also gimp and krita i believe.

Oh i suppose I should mention that i took art all four years of highschool and also minored in it in college! So it’s something i did academically as well as for fun. I keep thinking about going to art school for realsies but idk. I’m already $$$ in debt from my first degree i dont feel like adding to that 😅😓

Ok now for the second part of your question: I’ve also pretty much always done fan art! Ive never really been one for OC’s, EXCEPT for the self-insert superhero double life “comics” i wrote about a poodle named Sassy when i was in third grade. And then the knock off “comics” i wrote at a later time which honestly it was weird that i did a knock off of my own thing rather than just adding them to the original or making it a spin off with at least one of the og characters. Cuz it wasnt a spin off!! But anyway there wasnt really much to any of these characters; i just needed vessels to get my weird ideas out.

So anyway yeah most of what ive ever drawn has been fan art or self portraits, because its just easier for me to take characters that already exist and bend them to my will (artistically). Well excluding art assignments in school i guess because i would usually have to draw something specific and therefore not something self indulgent. But yeah ive drawn for lots of fandoms like the earliest i remember is warrior cats. Then theres things like pokemon and warriors and random other books i read thru middle school (i used to read a LOT but now im practically illiterate); spn, sherlock, and marvel through high school; and then marvel and bttf thru the end of hs and beyond. Idk i also have always loved looking at other peoples fan art and so im like “shit i wanna do that too!”. Tho i will say marvel was my biggest fandom and the one i had the longest interest in, so that was probably where the passion REALLY came from cuz I was drawing marvel stuff for such a long time (tho not posting shdjsk u have to trust me), but ive been doing fan art forever :)

(Of course, a lot of the fan art i was making prior to recently was drawn in lined notebooks or on homework sheets or what have you, and I wasn’t posting really any of it, but i was still making it and a good chunk of it still exists. Oh i should also mention most of it was with pencils or ballpoint pens like i wasnt doing anything too fancy. There was some digital art in the highschool-college time frame but it also really wasnt…much. Honestly i barely posted any of it here but I know some of it’s on deviantart)

I cant pinpoint the exact time I started getting more “serious” about my art in general, but i know the first pandemic lockdown gave me more free time and i was less stressed about schoolwork so i just kinda had a good outlet. (Tho i will say that prior, I had been in a life drawing club for a short while, and i had also been working on a personal sketchbook project that had me pretty ~inspired~ to do art. Also i watched twin peaks around this time and it inspired a lot of Feelings and i was making funky collages and other art pieced that were sometimes related to that. Some of those are on deviantart)

Honestly I think the Big thing with my digital art was coincidentally getting back into BTTF the summer of the 35th anniversary bc the fandom here was THRIVING and i was like “oh shit wait i want to contribute!” But as i kept drawing i kept wanting to improve and that leads us to right now where im constantly trying new things (whether subtle or obvious) and challenging myself to do full body drawings with different poses, and doing screencap redraws and what have you for various reasons (backgrounds, proportions, pose, etc)

So yeah :) Basically I’ve been doing fan art forever (I didnt even get into all the mediums ive tried but that’s another conversation bc this is already so long and convoluted) and it’s kinda coincidental that ive suddenly really gotten back into it and have improved dramatically in such a short time. Thank you so much @rovermcfly for the ask and again im really sorry you had to wait so long for a response! Stupid tumblr

[polkscastle]

That New Pokemon Direct, Though (My Thoughts)

Pokemon is now 25 years old!! With this momentous occasion, we have received a new Direct video about Pokemon's up-and-coming developments!! It came and went in a snap but, still gave us a look at a brilliant and shining future, while providing a taste of a legendary history. My Thoughts: ----- New Pokemon Snap: I don't believe I have ever talked the Pokemon Snap revamp on this site so, here we go. I've never played the original Pokemon Snap game so, I have no personal nostalgia for this spin-off. However, I am kind of excited for it. I think it could be a full little side adventure. No battles, no enemy teams, no big save-the-world journey; just looking for Pokemon doing fun Pokemon things and taking pictures of em. Sweet!! I may or may not actually buy it on release (I'm trying to be tighter with my budgeting). Still, I hope it turns out to be fun for a lot of people. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: OoooooooooooooOOoooOO!! THIS IS IT!! We've finally got some Gen 4 love in here!! No joke, Generation 4 is my all time favorite era of Pokemon. Diamond was the first main game I ever played and was what really drove me into becoming a full on Pokemon fan. This maybe fueled by blind Nostalgia but, SWEET ARCEUS, I AM HYPED AS HELL!! That said though, I do feel I need to address some criticism/concerns I have as well: - I will count myself among those who expected GameFreak to give us the same game story of the originals delivered with the graphics/art style of the current generation, like with previous remakes. Color us surprised when we're shown gameplay footage and see the return of chibi-fied overworld characters and grid-based environments. Now this really isn't an issue for me. I don't need the end-all-be-all of video game visuals as long as the game can still function properly. Honestly, I kinda missed the little blocky little overworld people. They were cute. Still, it's bit weird that the main games of the two most recent generations have consistent full scale models and more organic environment layouts but, these remakes appear to be recreating the old games' style as closely and as strictly as possible. Why this is, maybe explained more by my next point. - Despite being co-directed by Masuda himself, the remakes are not being developed by GameFreak's staff but, by a partner company, ILCA. This has me concerned. Not that I think that they'll do poorly or change the games in any bad ways. They're already working off of a solid template. However, that is my concern. That since they're not the usual staff, they're going to be too cautious with changing anything from the original games. Whether out of reverence to Masuda and GameFreak or, out of fear of the nostalgia blinded fans, they'll stick strictly to adapting Diamond and Pearl exactly as they already were. I know that is kind of the point of remakes and remasters (giving old and new fans another chance to play the original) but, since I've already played the originals, I wouldn't mind some alterations. I like it when a remake can look at its older self, keep and enhance what was great about it, change or take out what doesn't hold up well anymore, add some new things for little spice, and ultimately give its consumers a fresh new take on a older property. Things like the Delta Episode (a new epilogue adventure building off the old main story) were my favorite parts of playing through Alpha Sapphire. So, I am hoping for something like that to appear in these games. However, this is just the announcement. I can't truly say that GameFreak/ILCA sticking so close to originals (if that is indeed what they're doing) is a pro or a con for these remakes until I play them. And yes, I will be playing these remakes because my love for Gen 4 is that strong!! One of my main boys isn't a Luxio for now reason!! Heck, I've even thought about streaming my playthrough of it!! Nah, never mind. No one would watch that. Still, I am a bit disappointed that I won't be able to explore a full-scale, open area Sinnoh region... ...unless... Legends Arceus: OH MY... okay, just listen. Within the back corners of my mind, this is the Pokemon game I always wanted. A Pokemon adventure taking place in a far earlier time in the world's history; SIGN ME UP!! Years ago when I tried coming with ideas for a fake Pokemon game, my biggest idea was an adventure that was half set in the past (time travel shenanigans. I blame Pokemon 4ever and its steampunk Pokeballs). So far, I love what I am seeing of the game. The old world versions of the Gen 4 protagonists look great and, I'm stoked to see an untamed version of Sinnoh. What's the story? How does Arceus come into play? Could the story possibly be about the older conflict between Dialga and Palkia? This actually gives me hope that Legends will continue on as a series with the other regions!! Possibly even one for Johto that depicts the story of the Legendary Beast Trio... ...please? No major criticisms or concerns so far, except maybe two. First is that, from what we were shown in the trailer, the game still needs polishing. The overworld Pokemon animations look a little janky to me. Second, and by far the most important thing, is HOW DARE YOU MAKE THE STARTERS THREE FAVORITES OF MINE!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE!!!???? ----- TLDR; I thoroughly enjoyed the new developments shown in this Direct but, I'd still like to keep up an attitude of cautious optimism for these new releases. They may not end up being perfect but, I'd like to keep hoping they'll still be enjoyable to play. Thank you for stopping by, Friends. Hope you're all staying safe and well. Have a wonderful day. ^w^ (*sigh* that was a long one. Thank Arceus, I no longer have to deal with all those nagging REMAKE GEN 4 comments ever again... ...they've already started screaming about Gen 5 now, haven't they?)

[rynhaswritersblock]

tiktok famous (hc) - part two | p.p.

summary: a whole bunch of dif tiktoks featuring you and bae peter

warnings: chaotic energy, cussing, and BUTTERFLIES

+ + +

- i'm backkkkkkkkk

- so y'all really enjoyed the last tiktok imagine

- and you wanted another

- SO HERE WE GO BABYYYYYYYYY!!

- so basically....

- (just enjoy it)

- i got a lot of tiktok related comments and requests and i hope i remember them all

- (big boobs? whew chile) ANYWAYS SO:

- like pretty much none of them link together so this hc is going to be split into sections of like... blurbs!!

- yayayayayaya

- this one is inspired by @drecming

- so i think most of us know this very special sound..

- ...

- CAN'T TAKE BIG DICK BUT I SUCK ON IT

- y eah

- so as per usual

- you and peter b chillin

- they really do b vibin doe

- OH BY THE WAY

- y'all are dating in this situation :)))))))))

- and as you're binge watching your favorite show you can't stop doing the hand motions to that friggin dance

- aka the epidemic of generation z

- i keep doing the sugar by brockhampton dance i literally can't stop it's fine

- and thank god peter somehow doesn't notice

- like your movements are so subtle but you deadass keep doing it like once per minute

- and so you get up

- like "fuck this, man. if it's stuck in my head i'm at least gonna make a tiktok"

- and so you set it up

- peter's still on the couch in the background

- this boy STILL doesn't really notice what you're doing

- to be fair hsmtmts is a very enticing show ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

- but as soon as the audio plays peter recognizes it

- his head WHIPS over to you

can't take big dick but i suck on it

- he raises an eyebrow at you

i ain't fucking with the pussy, got a bump on it

- *eyebrow raise intensifies*

bad bitch put the pussy on me (on me)

- he sits up, watching as your hips roll (oh man)

whip out my dick then i hump on it

- he slightly cringes at the lyrics me too peter

i'm a bad ass bitch, what you lookin at?

- your butt

ima throw that-

- "oH NO YOU DON'T!" he yells, slight smile on his face as he swiftly shoots a web at you, the string wrapping around your waist and spinning you to him

- the song continues to play as you snort, wheezing as he balances you

- the video finishes and you raise your eyebrows at him

- "no throwing it back on camera," he says pointedly

- you tilt your head in a way that screams peter i love you but you and i both know that i can do what i wanna do and over-protectiveness can be toxic

- he sighs

- "okay, you can, but i'd like it better if it were just for me"

...

- HAHAHAHA

- okay NEXT ONE

- this next one is inspired by @ritxal

- in this one you can choose your relationship

- so peter is a natural born softboy

- he didn't choose the softboy life, the softboy life chose him

- but here's the thing

- it was friday night

- you were bored

- and you decided

- it was time for a change

- and so you approached the man

- who happened to be upside down

- because when is he not

- and, ignoring his protests, gave him an e-boy makeover

- poor peter was decked the fuck out

- striped long sleeve

- band tee

- black ripped jeans wITH THE CHAIN

- nike socks and af1s

- beanie

- and most importantly

- black nails and a little black heart under his left eye

- just picture it p lease

- and it his transformation was posted on your account to forever embarrass him

- and you lowkey found this look a lil wee bit ATTRACTIVE

- whatever

- okey this one's for you @lilmissquackson !!!!!!!

- y'all ever seen the without me (halsey) ones??

- ye

- even if you haven't you'll still get it lol

- so you're in class

- learning about sokovia because history and shit

- and, bored as hecc, you decide to whip out your phone and copy this video you'd seen

- you begin filming and place your right hand on top of peter's left (yay classmates!! sitting next to each other WHOOP!)

- his gaze is hard on his paper as he continues to scribble down notes

- you turn the camera to him for a bit and you're like yes perfect

- and then you return the camera and pull your hand away

- and he REACHES OVER AND TAKES YOUR HAND BACK

- AND YOU'RE LIKE  Y E S

- IT WORKED OUT

- PLUS HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW AND HE'S SO CUTE

- you put the phone down, smiling, adjusting your hand a little before you realize you can't take notes anymore because your hand is occupied and using your left hand just aint it period (a/n: im so sorry if any of y'all are left handed lol but pretend y'all are in opposite positions so he has your left hand haha)

- and it's then that he looks at you

- and if his eyes don't make you MELT

- okay i'm sorry that last one was mediocre but you get the point

- alright so like in this process of writing this i've been struggling a bit with details and stuff and making it sound good and funny so they're gonna be short and sweet bc i literally don't know What To Do :)))))))))))))))))

- back to your regularly scheduled programming hell yeah

- this one's for you, @drecming

- back at it again with the ideas!!!! fuck yes!!!

- okay SO

- you seen those "i'm on my savage shit" ones?

- where the guys hand is on the girl's thigh (OR IF YOU'RE A DUDE READING THIS JUST STILL IMAGINE YOUR OWN LEG I TRY TO KEEP THIS GENDER NEUTRAL BUT I FORGET AND PLUS RN IM JUST EXPLAINING THE TIKTOK KJSDBVIBUV) and then she pulls her leg away and the music is like

iM oN mY sAvAgE sHiT

- anyways

- peter's hand is just vibing on your leg

- for you dirty minded folks no it's not vibrating or doing all that janky shit we're children of god here

- says the one who just said the s word OOPS

- and you, as per usual, pull up the sound and start recording

- peter hears the music and is like Huh????

- and then you pull your leg away, grinning at him cheekily before he grabs you, phone flying out of your hand and he pulls you into his lap

"my thigh"

- you give him a look like excuse me sir hUh

- and his face is just like

0_0

- before he smiles at you and laughs and says he's kidding

- but then he stops laughing

...

- and raises an eyebrow

- WOAHHHHHHHH SPICY

- zooooweeeeemamaaaaaaa

- aight moving on

- THE NEXT ONES ARE INSPIRED BY YOURS TRULY!! YAY ME FOR HAVING IDEAS FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE!!!!

- so i'm sure you and like everyone @ your school (if you're in school.. lol) is familiar with this one

- i'm just gonna let y'all experience it idk why i've been telling the tiktok before idek sajbsidvb

- so you're in class right

- doing nothing bc your teacher sucks :////

- but its fine bc it's a fun class

- so you set up your phone with you and peter in the screen and start recording

- peter looks at the phone and then you, confused

"hey, stop!" you say in a whiny voice

- mans is like Uhhhhh what did i Do

"stop! omg peter sTop!" you're smiling at him

- he's so confused

- and then as you're talking

- your voice suddenly lowers into your lower register

"stop!! peter stop it- I SAID STOP."

- his eyes widen and a confused smile is on his face as he jumps back slightly

"YOU KEEP PLAYING *smacks your hand on the table* TOO DAMN MUCH."

- the video stops and you and peter are just silent for a second before busting out laughing

"you've never seen those?"

"no????"

"god peter, you live under a rock"

- the duck walked up to the lemonade stand and he said to the man running the stand: hey! bonk bonk bonk got any grapes?

- sorry i randomly thought of that

- okay NEXT

- this is the one that hits different

- gets you in your FEELS

- DAMN

- we all know peter's a gamerboy

- so he's just chilling playing minecraft on the xbox or something

- what a fuckin nerd

- jk minecraft slaps so hard

- anyways

- as per usual, you set up the camera and start filming

- and you

- i think you know what i'm talkin about

- you slip underneath his arms

- and start crawling into his lap

- and the SECOND he registers what's going on he fucking YEETS the controller behind him and wraps his arms around you

- and when i say yeets

- i mean like

- ZOOM

- you bury your arm in the crook of his neck and you feel him physically relax under you (heartbeat racing though of course) and hold you tighter, planting gentle kisses along your neck and shoulder

- ..

- god FUCK talk about B U T T E R F L I E S

- y'all are going to HATE ME for this one

- prepare yourselves

- so you guys are just chilling in peters room as y'all normally do

- and peter goes to the bathroom

- and like stupid adorable fuck he is

- mans left his phone on silly goose

- and of course

- we all know you can't help yourself

- so like a NORMAL HUMAN BEING

- you decide to snatch it and go look at his tiktok drafts, god knows why

- and the first one you tap

- WHEW CHILE

- your jaw drops to the floor as soon as you read the text on the video

"so apparently when a guy's chain dangles it's attractive..?"

- heart skips a beat

- hands are sweaty

- knees spaghetti

- you look up to make sure the bathroom door is still shut before you whip out your phone and start videoing

- peter is looking nervously cute into the camera before he leans out of shot,

- you know what's next

- and right as the beat drops

- he shows up, SHIRTLESS, with his cross necklace (you've only seen him wear once lmao) dangling down

- not to mention the goddamn CURLS hanging down

- and your heartbeat quickens

- ... both heartbeats...

- then fucking PETER JUST STROLLS INTO THE ROOM

- ALL INNOCENT N SHIT AS IF HE DIDN'T HAVE A VIDEO ON HIS PHONE THAT LITERALLY MADE YOU READY TO RISK IT ALL

- "why do you have my phone?"

- you've never slammed it onto the bed so fast

- "no reason"

- he raises a suspicious eyebrow before picking up his phone and unlocking it

- and the fear in his eyes when the screen opens to his video

- he looks back up at you, mouth slightly open in fear/awe/ohshitohgodohFUCK

- and you and your goddamn mouth-

- "peter, it's hot"

- and oh how the look in his eyes changed

😈

+ + +

until next time <3

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8 Review – The Rescue

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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian review contains spoilers.

The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8

The core of The Mandalorian has always been the connection between Din Djarin and Grogu. After the first live-action Star Wars TV offering proved in its first season that a story about a faceless Mandalorian could have so much heart (something I hope remains true in the many upcoming shows), that connection became even more vital to the storytelling in the second outing. Instead of the twisted family relationships between the Skywalkers, Din and Grogu were a found family dream, propelling the Child into households everywhere. Unfortunately, at the end of season two, Din and the Child’s heartfelt connection doesn’t quite feel as central as it should.

This isn’t the smartest show in the streaming world, but it is still one of the most fun. Din finds the location of Moff Gideon and the captured baby with the help of Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Bo-Katan Kryze, and her lieutenant Koska Reeves. Their two-pronged rescue mission goes surprisingly well, the squad of Mandalorians and Din himself taking out stormtroopers, dark troopers, and finally, Moff Gideon. But when Din delivers Gideon alive to his allies, it’s clear this is only less than half of the former ISB agent’s plan.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

Gideon tries to turn Din and Bo-Katan against one another, using his knowledge of Mandalorian tradition to initiate a fight. To truly gain the throne, he says, Bo-Katan has to win the darksaber from Din in battle. It’s both a keen portrayal of the nature of power (someone always must be humbled, especially according to an Imperial who thinks of all of the good guys as “savages”) and a classic manipulative villain. Although Gideon’s plan is clear, it doesn’t work. Eucatastrophe appears in the form of Luke Skywalker, who in the best Jedi fashion, breaks all the rules to save the day.

Din’s hard choices — whether to give Grogu to the Jedi, whether to let Bo-Katan kill Moff Gideon, what happens now that she has to, by tradition, take the darksaber from him by force — take a back seat. Instead, the energy of the final minutes is sapped by a cool but uncanny Luke, Mark Hamill’s welcome presence digitally de-aged far enough that he sometimes looks like his sketchy Battlefront avatar. That game keeps ahold of its medal as the best inter-trilogy appearance of Luke, too. Where his dialogue in the game emphasizes his kindness, on the show he’s first a warrior and then a plot device, interchangeable with the general concept of a Jedi.

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Not to say I don’t want to see more Luke, but that bit of fan service sprinkled this episode with sugar when I wanted more substance. Frankly, I didn’t find the CGI appearance too off-putting on its own, although it’s even worse when Luke turns away from the camera toward the end. Luke’s voice doesn’t sound the same anymore, and his eyes don’t have the same spark. I wonder if it would have been better or worse to have cast fan favorite Sebastian Stan or another look-alike. The ambiguity itself speaks volumes.

Luke’s presence is clearly a case of Jedi ex machina, but I was so delighted to see him that I can’t present that as an entirely bad thing. (There’s even a bit of “we called it” pleasure in there.) But as elsewhere in the episode, the build-up goes on a bit too long compared to the payoff. Luke’s dialogue is sparse and lacks emotion. As usual, the music does a lot of work here, diverting from the Star Wars method of leitmotif to give Luke a new, mystical and melancholic introduction.

Even the long-awaited fight between Moff Gideon and Din wass more setup than payoff. Surely some of the time spent reminding us the beskar steel was strong, crafting a meticulous order of operations for how tough various types of metals and glass are, could have been traded for a more dramatic setting than a single hallway. The darksaber fight was cool, with the blade setting the wall on fire and Din using some impressive footwork, but the combat didn’t travel, didn’t tell its own story with acts and beats the way the best Star Wars duels do.

I’m also torn on the fight scenes with the infiltration team. More often than not I ended up wondering whether the cool stunts were going to get the good guys killed, their eagerness to get up close and punch seemingly unnecessary and unsafe when the stormtroopers have blasters. But at the same time, it was great fun to see a team succeed with such competence, the good guys well matched with the bad. It was especially exciting because it’s a team of almost all Mandalorians and all women, armored and weighty. Moments like Cara Dune’s gun jamming reminds us Star Wars is a janky universe, its heroes subject to inconveniences as well as epic stakes.

Read more

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Star Wars Fans React to The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale

By Kirsten Howard

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How The Mandalorian Captures the Spirit of the Star Wars Prequel Era

By Megan Crouse

Like last episode, the relationship between Din and the Child drives the titular Mandalorian’s every action. His love for the baby is the whole reason he puts himself in so much danger, goes to such physically taxing lengths. But they don’t actually interact very much in the end. Even the baby plaintively reaching for Din while handcuffed doesn’t reach the tear-jerking emotions of the scene where Din laughs just seeing Grogu responding to his name. The emotional connection between the two has been well established already, but this is the finale: it shouldn’t coast on the good will from the rest of the season but should make the connection even stronger so it can twist the knife even further later. The very beginning promised some neat characterization between the good guys. There’s a lot to say about the relationship between Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians. The scene where she and Boba meet is delightfully prickly, everyone willing to fight at the drop of a hat. Bo-Katan dismisses Boba as a clone. Boba, perhaps comforted by Din’s quick acceptance , resents her self-proclaimed right to the contested throne. Koska being so willing to fight on her leader’s behalf gave some great heat to the scene. I love the idea that the two groups have such a deep fissure between them since it illustrates exactly what Bo-Katan is trying to unite, how hard that will be, and why not all Mandalorians might agree with her. It’s also just fun, a sort of Chekhov’s gun of that many people in Mandalorian armor being in the same dingy room together.

There was plenty to love in this episode. I gasped out loud when Moff Gideon nearly shot himself, winced when it looked like the dark trooper would smash Din’s helmet in, and felt that old, old love for Star Wars when it became clear the X-wing held no ordinary pilot. Seeing Luke in the flesh was a delight despite the flaws, reminding me of how much I love the central fantasy of Return of the Jedi: a super-powered nice person can save the day on both strength and kindness. Bo-Katan, Fennec, and Cara were wonderfully cool and central, too. Din showing Grogu his face was touching and long-awaited.

But Din letting the Jedi — any Jedi, but especially one he doesn’t know — walk away with the baby feels wrong. Maybe next season, we’ll see a repeat of the show’s beginning: Din having second thoughts and going to retrieve his son again. The tease at the end of the episode suggests a lot more Boba Fett in season three, a not unwelcome prospect due to Temuera Morrison’s good performance and one that might have made filming during the pandemic more feasible. But I’m left lukewarm about this episode. Even as it wowed with individual moments, the arc of “The Rescue” overall drifted too far from Din and Grogu. Surely some of the time devoted to build-up, shiny plot threads, and cameos could have been traded for a little more time with the iconic duo.

The post Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8 Review – The Rescue appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[hypexion]

Ashes of Outland: Francium Reveals

In theory, Francium is incredibly, violently reactive. In practice, it’s super radioactive, so you can’t actually find out if it is.

Aldor Attendant is a card that makes all your Librams cost one mana less. For the rest of the game. What’s a Libram, you ask? A new Paladin mechanic, of course, because Paladin needs more mechanics. Specifically, they’re a new type of spell. If Librams turn out to be good, Aldor Attendant could be a strong contender for “Most Hated Minion 2020“. Since, you know, making things cheaper, forever, isn’t really a safe design.

Hand of A’dal is another cycling buff for Paladin. It doesn’t really scream ‘great card‘, but I guess if a minion spits it out at random you won’t be unhappy. And hey, it replaces itself, meaning you don’t lose out as much when the buffed minion dies.

The first of the Librams is Libram of Justice. On it’s own, this looks a little over-costed, but just a little bit of mana reduction makes it very good. While it’s theorectically possible to make it cost zero, that’s unlikely. But you only need to reduce it by two to make it a one-sided Equality, which is very appealing. Especially since you get a one attack weapon, along with Paladin’s ability to produce legions of 1/1 tokens on demand. This is a strong opening argument for the Libram package.

Germination is a new minion copying card for Druid, because the old ones are rotating out. The copy of the minion also gets Taunt, for whatever that’s worth. Again, I’m not really seeing this as a winning card, since copying has never really panned out as a useful effect. While Druid is probably one of the best classes to make use of it, it still doesn’t help that it’s a fairly high-cost effect that needs high cost minions to be effect. Maybe it’s worth picking off of a Discover, but otherwise, Germination doesn’t seem amazing.

Mok’nathal Lion is yet more additional support for Deathrattle Hunter. Conceptually, it looks well put together, with all the various parts having synergy. With low health and Rush, you’ll be able to trigger your copied Deathrattle immediately, and deal with an enemy minion. This is a nice overall package for decks running Deathrattle minions, so I think it might see some play if Hunter has enough of them. It doesn’t even need to be a dedicated Deathrattle deck either, just one with more than an average number of them.

Libram of Wisdom is a spell Paladin would have loved years ago. While the buff isn’t too much to write home about, the fact that it returns itself to your hand is super useful. And at two mana, reducing its cost to zero is a cakewalk. There’s a certain strength that zero mana spells possess, and Libram of Wisdom is probably rather good at zero mana. It also makes Lady Liadrin make a whole lot more sense, since you can immediately spew out a bunch of free buffs after playing her.

Aldor Truthseeker is the second cost reducer for Librams. Because apparently, they needed two. It’s also a fully statted Taunt minion on top of that, just for kicks. A neat trick with this one is that it makes Libram of Wisdom cost zero by itself, allowing you to immediately cast it on Aldor Truthseeker, for a cool 5/7 Taunt minion. With Divine Shield.

Replicat-o-tron is a weird replicating Epic minion. It probably works best in decks that can generate lots of tokens, while having access to decent buffs. That way, you can pour power into one minion, and end up with many powerful copies. This does have the issue, of course, that if your opponent does something nasty to it, your other minions will be ruined in short order. This feels like a card that will be either quite good, or totally terrible, with no real in between. Worthy of the Epic rarity, at least, and with the upcoming pack changes, at least you’ll never be completely unhappy to see it.

Nagrand Slam is almost Pyroblast for Hunter, except completely different. The dream play here is probably having all four tokens go face, for a nice clean tweleve damage. What’s more likey is that they’ll attack all sorts of wrong things. Including, sometimes, the enemy hero. The problem here is that since the Clefthoof tokens can attack any enemy, they don’t work well as removal, and they don’t work well as burn. Which means, overall, the card doesn’t really work. It’s almost an interesting idea, but ultimately, it just doesn’t quite do what needs doing.

Sethekk Veilweaver is a better version of a Paladin card that doesn’t exist. Getting random Priest spells turned out to actually be good, and getting replacement spells for your targetted ones could be nice. Especially since that includes your removal spells. Sethekk Veilweaver is also in a good spot mana-wise, since early on it’s not to easy to removal, and later on your can drop it down before casting your spells. While this probably isn’t a game winning value engine, it does look like something that can help you towards victory.

Libram of Hope is the third Libram for this set. It costs a whopping nine mana, with an effect to match. Except you’re never going to cast this for nine. The entire point of Librams is that you make them cost less. Probably the most back-breaking part of Libram of Hope is that with the right ordering, you can play four of them in one game. (Or more, in Wild, but I think that would work out.) One or two 8/8 minions are managable. Beyond that, it gets a lot harder, especially once you consider the healing you’ll be getting. Definitely a good closing argument for running the Libram package.

Shattered Rumbler is weird. It’s another card that relies on you casting a spell on the previous turn, which seems tricky to manage in some cases. Additionally, it hurts itself with its Battlecry, which is unlike every other minion with a mass damage ability. Honestly, I’m not sure what to make this, because it’s just so unlike anything else. The fact that it hits friendly minions is kind of not great, though.

Ysiel Windsong is Aviana, but for spells. Seem like she should be a Mage card, but no, she’s a Druid card. Presumably, there are a bunch of fun wakcy combos you can pull off when all your spells cost one mana, but it might be tricky to get things working. The main problem with Ysiel is that she makes Innervate cost one mana, meaning you can’t easily increase the number of spells you can cast. Maybe there’s a key component I’m missing, but it seems like any combos based around Ysiel will be pretty janky.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Aggretsuko Season 2

Yes, I know this one’s late enough that the conversation is prety much over, but I had my reasons. It’s been long enough that I’m comfortable including spoilers in this review, though, so be mindful of that.

Aggretsuko quickly picks up from where the not-great Very Metal Christmas special left off, with a rather uneven second season split into two distinct story arcs. While neither of them are bad by any means, I was rather disappointed that neither of them focused very heavily on the core cast, meaning that we don’t really see a credible character arc for either Retsuko (who gets the idea for a character arc next season in the finale of this one) or Haida (who is almost a non-presence due to his own attempts to stay out of Retsuko’s way), instead forcusing on two brand-new characters. Again, neither Anai or Tadano are outright bad characters, but ultimately Anai is forgiven too quickly by the people he harassed (because there are only ten episodes and the story has to move on) and is very quickly pulled out of focus, and Tadano is difficult to get much of a bead on aside from being charming and lazy. While a deeper look at his character reveals a very selfish person who projects his ideal view of the world onto everybody else, that element doesn’t really go anywhere because she never seems to call him out on this particular flaw, it’s just left for the audience to notice. (For the record: I think he was redeemable and it was okay for her to give him one last chance to change his mind, even if he wasn’t going to.)

This all leads to a season that just doesn’t build the way the first one did, even if it’s still plenty entertaining to watch - their break-up is ultimately a friendly one and they’re both moving on with their lives. I won’t say that was the wrong way to go, but it certainly left me thinking “wait...that’s the end?” when episode 10 was over. There’s even an entire subplot - the fight between Gori and Washimi - that’s left entirely unresolved here. Retsuko’s doomed romance with Tadano takes up the majority of the screen time and yet very little happens in it, with him only revealing his actual problems at the very end of the penultimate episode.

And I haven’t even touched the fact that the visual presentation, stylized as it is, is still hampering the show for me. This probably won’t ever change - this show’s gonna look the way it’s gonna look because it’s Sanrio - but the very generalized art style and lack of detail results in some janky looking cuts, and makes the effect of zooming in very unconvincing. What I want from Aggretsuko is for it to give a little bit more focus to its main cast rather than a revolving door of side characters, or at least to properly keep up the focus even after somebody’s character arc is over. Both Anai and Tadano are directly tied in with Retsuko’s job, and it’ll be rather strange if we just never see Tadano again after having spent five episodes establishing a business relationship.

7/10. Still totally acceptable, but a step down from the first season in its storytelling. Hoping for better next year!

[sieben9]

“changelings” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

Well, damn.

Where do I even start?

Ah, yes, ridiculous fashion choices. Thank you, that’ll do nicely.

Seriously, what is up with this belt? Is there a funny story/deep significance I missed here? Did the Evil Queen get really into wrestling while off-screen? Is this a Fight Club thing?

So many questions, and neary an answer in sight…

…yeah, OK, I’ll get to the actual episode. Under the cut, though. Be warned, this wasn’t a happy one for multiple reasons. For one it’s so long and I am really sorry. I just kept going “and another thing…!” until we got to the current state of things. There are some “skip here” suggestions in the text, though. For another… yeah, just go ahead and read the thing. Short version right here: I did not like this episode, and its also a microcosm of this show’s issues with character continuity. (As in “which bits are canon this episode”)

OK, brief shout out to the whole scene at the barn house. Regina threatening the Evil Queen with crushing her own heart was deeply worrying, but also kind of badass. Good on her. Also, the conversation afterwards. It’s nice to have it all out in the open for once.

Next up: the flashback!

names displayed to silently accuse the guilty (not really they just happened to be in the shot)

Which was… alright, I guess? I mean, the Rumbelle dynamic was completely off compared to what we’ve seen from anything but their very earliest days (I’m thinking about the Robin incident, which was… maybe Belle’s second day there?), but compared to all the other nonsense going on in that area, this is barely a blip on the radar.

This had definitely the only moment of much-needed comic relief of the episode, namely Blue’s dress. I mean, she wears it with commendable sincerity, but that thing just doesn’t get any better with prolonged exposure.

So, Rumple can read Elf, but he can’t read Fairy? OK, I guess, but you’d think that over a 200-year-long rivalry, he’d have made the effort. Well, if nothing else, the “Belle knows Fairy” thing is a nice fanfic fact.

Anything else here…?

Oh, yeah. Rumple’s mom.

Alright, it might be a little early, but I’m calling it now: viewed by quantity, Rumple has The Worst Parents on this show. Simply because both of them were evil, child-stealing assholes who abandoned their son. …you know, despite the very obvious irony in that sentence, I’m shocked Rumple turned out as good as he did. All praise the two spinning ladies.

By the way, how many parents do we have who didn’t abandon their children? Obviously, there are some, but I highly doubt we’d get as much as an even split. Yes, I realise that this is part of the show’s theme, but that is still a lot of absent parents.

He didn’t get much out of that conversation, though, did he? Well, looks like he’ll have another opportunity this season, at least… (If I sound a little underwhelmed, it’s just because of my general mood, I’m actually pretty excited to see more of her. “Sometimes you have to choose power over love”, huh?)

::long groan:: I don’t wanna do this. Because I feel like this should be a serious, in-depth analysis, when really all I want to say is “this episode hurt me and not in the good way”.

I think a large part of the problem is this: I wasn’t there with the story. I think Rumple and Belle’s actions both grew… sort of organically to the point they reached by the end of the episode, but getting there was such a janky, half-baked mess that I just. Didn’t. Buy it.

Right up until the end of that really, really disturbing scene in the library, there are some giant leaps of logic I’m supposed to just follow along with. Like “the best way to get my son to love me is to speed up Belle’s pregnancy” or “Rumple wants to cut our son’s destiny so that he can be corrupted ‘or worse’.” Also, what the hell is “worse” supposed to be in this scenario? What, exactly, did he think Rumple would do to his own child? Ugh!

Also, this didn’t happen until later, but “Just because he did the right thing today doesn’t mean he’ll do the right thing tomorrow”? Really, Emma? Isn’t hoping people who do the right thing today will do the right thing tomorrow kind of at the core of your entire moral system?

::dons hardhat::

OK, outright: The library scene was painful, and deliberately cruel on part of the writers. Because there were so many options for this to play out that didn’t involve Rumple chasing Belle into the elevator that’s been an established “Thing” in the narrative of this couple. I’m not saying this is bad writing (I want to, but let’s face it, I’m hardly objective), but it’s definitely a deliberate punch to the gut. And then there’s the bit where Belle has to talk Rumple down, which…  ::shudder:: yeah, not a good look.

What annoys me about that conversation… OK, one of the things that annoy me about that conversation is that I can’t even properly analyse anyone’s character motivation here, because I have no fucking idea which bits of canon I’m “supposed to” remember this week!

Some canon dissection at this point, skip if you’re bored.

So. Belle told Rumple that “all she wanted [him] to do was try”, which is reasonable enough on its face. In an ideal world, I’d assume this refers back to his comment in s5 where he basically said that the darkness was irrevocably part of him and that he had no intentions of changing that. Which is a… bold choice of words for someone who was literally, straight-up cursed with that amount of darkness. But I digress. The thing is that I don’t actually know if that’s what Belle meant, because, like I said, there’s been a very clear trend of “please only remember selected pieces of established continuity” in recent seasons episodes, and if you’re going to play it like this, that makes any kind of analysis really hard.

Because here’s the thing: he absolutely did try after that. Right after that, you might say. He and Belle worked together (using Belle’s method rather than gunning for Hades directly) to get their child back from Hades. And when Belle decided to put herself under a sleeping curse so as not to risk Hades stealing their child (because Belle does impulsive shit when she feels cornered), Rumple not only got their child back, he also tried to kiss her awake afterwards—something he previously said would require too much of a change from him to even attempt! And when that didn’t work, he did what she’d asked and brought her to her father, who refused to wake her, because his child being worse-than-dead was apparently still better than her being with Rumple. (And no, words still cannot express how much I hate Moe French. He started out a shitty father and then got worse.)

And then he kept trying to wake her up, because that’s what you do for a person you love. I’d even say he was about to succeed in waking her up, when what I can only call a diabolus ex machina turned up to tell her that Rumple is bad and will “destroy his family” (in a frustratingly unspecified manner that was never elaborated upon). And I’d be happier with this if it was framed as the kind of self-fulfilling prophecy the season 2 seer girl made—that Belle trying to avoid a future where Rumple destroyed their family would put them on the path to destroying their family—but I’m not sure that’s what’s going on. And if it is, then the writing in that one bit of the show is certainly a lot subtler than everywhere else.

I don’t care how cute a baby you are, adult!you is still a douchebag

So, at this point, Rumple has tried really hard to be a better version of himself, but somehow none of that work is recognised in narrative. It’s perfectly fine for Belle not to recognise it for several reasons (it’s also a bit weird, considering how she still seems to feel about him), but the narrative never acknowledges that all of this can definitely be filed under “striving to be better.” Which, again, brings me to the “so which bits of canon are canon today?” question. (Also, hi, I have a strong suspicion that the people involved in planning this show are a lot better at short stories than ongoing series with open sequel hooks. No pun intended.)

And then, like I said, things took a pretty sharp turn towards the end of last episode and at the top of this one. I’m… not even touching that any further. I’m tired, and not in the “I woke up early to get this writing done” sense.

::sigh:: Remember The Bear and the Bow? Good times, that, huh?

Alright. Deep breath. It’s uphill from here. Kind of. The hill is inside a hell-pit, so it’s not a great climb.

The post-library bit of the episode kind of works as far as internal logic goes. The episode had pretty much lost me by then, to the point where I was just relieved it actually wasn’t Rumple who spiked that tea. Because, let me tell you, I know I said I didn’t see myself quitting the show, but that version would have been hard as hell to watch. So. Glad I don’t live in that version of reality.

Still, at that point, Belle has no reason to think someone other than Rumple would have wanted to give her that potion. Which meant he was still after the baby, so sending the little bean away was… still not a great idea, really, but I can see how she arrived there. Belle does impulsive shit when she feels cornered. If she thought Rumple had really sunk that low… yeah, it’s still not a great option (and, again some really good acting in that scene), but not completely out of left field.

And Rumple was obviously afraid something like this would happen, which is why he tried to barge into the convent like that. Didn’t exactly make him look more innocent, but he was in a hurry.

at least you’re pretty to look at, I guess

At least one person acted entirely consistent with prior characterisation, meaning the Evil Queen. Because that potion was such a classic move that I’m a bit surprised Rumple didn’t see that one coming. My guy, this is basically the same woman who convinced you Belle was dead before locking her in a cell for thirty years. She knows where to hit you and how to make it stick, and you should know that!

And this is not me saying that it’s Rumple’s fault, but he sure got a good hit from the idiot ball when he unceremoniously dropped the Evil Queen as his partner/”partner” without going “hm, could she possibly feel the urge to screw me over for this?”

And so, Rumple missed the birth of his second child, Belle had her first child without her husband to support her, and while Gideon is a lovely name, I can’t help but think that picking a name for your child is something couples should do together, playfully bickering back and forth for weeks that no, we are not naming our son Immanuel, why is this even a discussion? (…I had several friends get pregnant over the last three years and you hear some weird stuff. The little guy is called Immanuel now, by the way. Among other things.)

Oh, and speaking of the little guy’s name...

WHY WOULDN’T SHE TELL HIM? Seriously, the name wouldn’t do anything to find him he couldn’t do with blood magic. Which he has readily available, since it’s--and I know this comes as a shock--his child. Seriously, that just seems... nedlessly cruel.

Also, to close this out with some (semi-)humour, I want to make this a callout for one Belle Gold, who decided that of all the people present this was the best person to hand her newborn child:

I think I am on record for saying that I would not trust the Blue Fairy with taking care of a gerbil, nevermind a human being. Frankly, if she told me the sky was blue, I’d go outside and check, just in case the apocalypse had gone off while I wasn’t looking. That’s how little I trust her.

Now, I do know that this is not the story of how Blue has been evil all along, but there is a world where that’s the big twist at the end of this episode.

[rwbyconversations]

The RWBY OP Rapsheet

I got very bored this week and because I couldn’t think of anything better to do analysis post wise- or more accurately, I could but all of the ideas broke a rule I have regarding posting about Volume 6- so I instead decided to do a breakdown of all the characters who make appearances in the openings of each volume. Because I know/hope there’s someone who cares about these little details as much as I do. This has been put under the read more for ease of data users. Just to note, this isn’t a breakdown of the songs, just the opening sequences themselves. 

Also if you have ideas for an analysis post you’d like to see me tackle, please feel free to use my inbox- it’s always open. 

Volume 1- This Will Be The Day

First appearances- Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Ozpin, Glynda Goodwitch, Roman Torchwick, Cinder Fall (silhouette), Emerald Sustrai (silhouette), Mercury Black (silhouette), Creatures of Grimm. 

Last appearance of: Summer Rose (until Volume 3)

Plot relevance: Jaune never actually has a scene at the Beacon statue, which is the closest this OP comes to setting up a plot. 

Grimm count: Very prominent in the OP. 

At one minute, five seconds for the extended version and thirty seconds for the version used for the rest of Volume 1, this is the shortest of the openings. Personal rating: 6/10, would be higher if This Will Be The Day hasn’t become slightly overused in meta appearances. 

Volume 2- Time To Say Goodbye

(this is probably still my favorite opening in the show for the record)

First appearances- Sun Wukong, Neptune Vasilias, Scarlet David, Sage Ayana, Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Yatsuhashi Daichi, Velvet Scarlatina, Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, Penny Poledina, James Ironwood, Bartholomew Oobleck, Peter Port, Hei “Junior” Xiong, Melanie and Militia Malachite.

Recurring appearances- RWBY, JNPR, Ozpin, Glynda, CRME, Grimm.

Teased battles- Yang vs Mercury (happens in Volume 3), Emerald vs Weiss (yet to happen), Blake vs Roman (happens during No Breaks), Ruby vs Cinder (happens during Dance Dance Infiltration), Pyrrha vs CRDL (seen in Extracurricular).

Last appearance of: Junior, Melanie and Militia, Roman, CFVY, CRDL, Penny.

Plot relevant: Silver Eyes foreshadowing, Pyrrha’s fall symbolism is followed up on in the show itself, all fights teased barring one appear in-show. 

Grimm Count: One quick shot of the Grimm running through a forest.

Personal rating: 10/10, best OP in the show, give me the Weiss/Emerald fight you cowards.

Volume 3- When It Falls

First appearances- Qrow Branwen, Winter Schnee, Raven Branwen (photo), Taiyang Xiao Long (photo), Adam Taurus.

Recurring appearances- RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, Cinder, Mercury, Emerald. 

Teased battles- Yang vs Mercury (happens in Fall), Emerald vs Weiss (has yet to happen), Adam vs Blake (happens in Volume 3), Ruby vs Cinder (previously fought in Volume 2, have not yet had a rematch), RWBY and JNPR vs Grimm (shown throughout the Fall of Beacon). 

Last appearance of: Neptune, Sage, Scarlet, CFVY, Glynda, Port, Oobleck, Mercury and Emerald (until Volumes 5 and 6 respectively), Pyrrha, Ozpin (until Volume 5), Winter, Yang Xiao Long’s arm.

Plot relevance- major players for the tournament arc appear in the OP, STRQ photo will be important when STRQ are, Cinder looks ominous in a few shots, Pyrrha flying away at the end of the OP references her death, Grimm surging through Beacon is fairly obviously shown with the Fall of Beacon..

Grimm count: We literally open with the Grimm stomping on a rose. This is symbolized in the show- the Grimm are the writers, the rose is fans of the show who had resulting trauma from it. OP chock full of Grimm.

Much like the Volume 2 OP there is an extended sequence of RWBY and JNPR in freefall. The end of the sequence sees the heroes scattering, with Ren and Pyrrha being the first and most visible characters to split off. Ren’s departure is seen as a reference to Monty’s passing between volumes, while Pyrrha’s is foreshadowing her death. Personal rating: 9/10, great OP and great song. 

Volume 4- Let’s Just Live

First appearances: Ghira and Kali Belladonna, Fennic and Corsac Albain, Salem, Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows, Hazel Rainart, Klein Sieben, Whitley Schnee, Jacques Schnee.

Recurring- RWBY, Jaune, Nora, Ren (henceforth called JNR for ease of typing), Qrow, Cinder, Ironwood, Taiyang, Adam, Raven (bird form), Sun.

Last appearance of: Ironwood, Taiyang, Ghira and Kali, Whitley, Jacques. 

Teased battles: Ruby vs Tyrian (happens in Tipping Point), Yang vs Taiyang (Happens in Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back), Adam vs Blake (”Happens” in Volume 5).

Grimm Count: Again, open on a Grimm. We actually see Grimm getting fought in this OP which is quite new. Just the normal Grimm of Beowulves and Ursa, none of Volume 4′s fun Grimm make an appearance.

Plot relevance: Surprisingly relevant, most plots get at least a second of teasing, even Raven gets a brief appearance. RNJR are going to Mistral, Yang is recovering, Blake is going to Menagerie and Weiss is stifling in her father’s house.

Personal rating, 6/10. Love the song but the animation in the OP is very janky and unnatural, particularly during the Adam vs Blake part and whenever people are fighting. 

Volume 5- Triumph

First appearances: Ilia Amitola, Oscar Pine, Vernal, Leonardo Lionheart.

Recurring- RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Cinder, Raven, Hazel, Watts, Salem, Mercury, Ozpin, Sun. 

Teased battles: Blake vs Ilia (Happens in True Colors), Mercury vs Yang (Rematch, animation lifted from OP during Battle of Haven), Hazel vs Ren and Nora (Animation lifted from OP during Battle of Haven).

Last appearance of: Fennic and Corsac, Vernal, Leonardo, Raven, Sun, Ilia.

Grimm count: Barring a Seer’s tentacles in the shot, no Grimm at all in the OP. 

Plot relevant: All relevant scenes are referenced in the volume proper, most prominently the Menagerie and Haven battles. Weiss never rides her Knight’s sword though so this is the worst OP for the worst volume. 

Personal rating: 4/10. Triumph’s my least favorite opening song, animation gets blatantly recycled in the show proper from this and Volume 5 remains... sub par.

Volume 6- Rising

First appearances: Neopolitan, Maria Calavera, Ozpin’s Past Lives. 

Recurring: RWBY, JNR, Oscar, Qrow, WTCH, Adam, Salem, Ozpin, Emerald, Mercury.

Teased Battles: Cinder vs Neopolitan, Qrow vs Grimm. 

Personal rating, 9/10. Love the little synth hints in the opening of the song, smoothest animation in any of the OPs to date and contains some very stimulating shots that sparked a lot of discussion post-release. 

Hello death flags my old friend...

General notes:

Of the heroes, RWBY and JNR are the only characters to have appeared in all six openings. Of the villains, Cinder is the only villain to have the same feat. The Grimm technically do this too, but different Grimm are in each opening. 

Of the heroes, Ozpin is the most prolific character to appear in openings without having a perfect record, only being absent in Volume 4. Funnily enough, the same can be said of the villains- Mercury is the second most prolific villain seen in the OPs barring Volume 4.

Qrow is the only character introduced after Volume 1 to appear in every OP since his introduction.

Barring Volume 5 where only the Seer’s tentacles were seen, the Grimm have been in all six OPs.

Neo has had the longest delay between introduction (Volume 2) and appearance in an OP (Volume 6).

Hazel vs Renora and Yang vs Mercury (both from Triumph) are the only times fight animations have been recycled and used within a season. Some shots and animations are reused (such as the shot in Volume 1 of RWBY standing in a circle as the camera pans around them), but this is the first time entire segments of the OP are reused in such a manner. 

This Will Be The Day teases the least amount of fights of any of the OPs. Rising is second. 

Time To Say Goodbye introduces the largest amount of characters. When It Falls introduces the least. 

Tyrian is the only member of Team WTCH to miss an OP after his first appearance, due to missing the Volume 5 OP.

Watts is the only member of Team WTCH to never be part of an opening credits fight scene. 

Outside of the group fight against the Grimm in Let’s Just Live and the charge against the Grimm in When It Falls, Jaune has never been part of an opening credits fight and is the only member of RWBYJNPR to never fight a human in any of the OPs- unless we count him strangling Oscar.

Adam and Emerald are tied for most prolific villains in third place after Cinder and Mercury.

Ozpin is the only character to appear in an OP after his death. 

Summer is the only character to have died before the show began and still appear in an OP barring Ozpin’s past lives.

The heroes with the least amount of appearances are Penny, CFVY, and Winter at one each. Regarding the villains, Neo is dead last at one appearance, with Tyrian just pulling ahead with two. 

With the exception of When It Falls where she is part of a group shot, Ruby has been the first human character seen in every OP.

When It Falls is the only opening where Jeff sings. 

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this and wish to see more analysis posts, please hit that follow button and share it. 

[invokingbees]

I finished Dark Souls 2

So you know what that means!

Absolute fucking Biblical CUBIT of text under the break.

Dark Souls 2 is an oft-maligned game. Once a radically different product, its director was fired half way through and replaced, and the game pretty much rebuilt from scratch using already existing assets, story included. The first time I played DaS2, I didn't like it. I played a caster and had much less experience with the series than I do now, so suffice it to say that I gave up and respecced into a pure strength build because of Fume Knight and vowed to never play the game again because I found it so unenjoyable. But after being disappointed with Sekiro and needing a Souls fix, I reluctantly picked it up again, and with much more experience under my belt, I found myself actually really enjoying it, even more so than my three playthroughs of Dark Souls 1, which to some people, is tantamount to blasphemy. So let me talk about why I feel this way.

In Dark Souls 1, you are the Chosen Undead, with only a scrap of legend to lead you on a quest to save a world on the brink of falling into capital D Darkness. Of course that's all bullshit and is basically a conspiracy against humanity by the gods of fire who feared an age of humanity, an age of Dark. In Dark Souls 2, things are a little different. It appears to have been many many ages since the first game, so much so no one remembers Lordran, no remembers the gods, or Anor Londo or anything. It's been possibly hundreds if not thousands of years. You are again an accursed Undead, who has found themselves in the decrepit land of Drangleic, which long ago was brought to its knees by a war with the Giants from across the sea, after Drangleic's king, Vendrick, took something from them at the bidding of his mysterious queen, Nashandra. Vendrick sought a way to cure or circumvent the Undead Curse which turns all undead, eventually, into mindless Hollows. Alas, although Vendrick was close, he didn't make it, and fled from his queen and his kingdom after learning of her true nature and reason for sending him off to conquer the Giants. You, the Bearer of the Curse, like in DaS1, must collect powerful souls, but instead of linking the first flame and becoming glorified firewood, you must prove yourself a worthy monarch, traverse the continent, gather the Great Souls and take the Throne of Want, to inherit the Fire and conquer the Dark, to overcome the curse, or to leave it and seek something else.

Dark Souls 2 has a more personal scope and is actually the main reason I really liked it. You arrive in Drangleic 'without ever really knowing why' but find your objective fairly quickly. You're gently nudged by the Emerald Herald (the level up waifu) to seek the king and eventually discover he was looking for a way out of the curse. In DaS1 you're fed a grand narrative about the fate of the world and the gods and how you'll be the hero to save it all, but in DaS2, you're the bearer of a curse, a lost soul who's stumbled upon possible salvation and has no real other option but to pursue it. It's a salvation with a lot of responsibility, and you must ask yourself (and are asked by the King's brother, the nefarious Aldia) if that's really what you want. In the end, taking the Throne of Want inherits the fire and links it, takes the power of the gods and keeps it all running, but Dark Souls 2 gives this action a much more personal angle. You could have easily been fed a tale that the king needs a successor and that you must prove yourself in his trials, but no, Vendrick went hollow a long time ago and there's just nobody left to pick up the pieces. But it's all there, if you want it. And Nashandra does so hope that you do.

The idea of Want plays a great part in Dark Souls 2, which really cements the personal angle the game takes. The curse of life is the curse of want. The desire for power, security, knowledge. Vendrick wanted a way out of the curse. But this want factors into the game's real antagonists, the Shards of Manus, Father of the Abyss, who fled through the world and became the queens of four lands, all of which fell to ruin. They were weak creatures, they sought safety, they were envious, fearful, and Wanted. And you have to wonder, are they even to be faulted for what happened? Perhaps. But what about you? Your journey isn't a necessity, it's a want, you rail against fate. You kill and take souls because you want a way out of the curse, to surpass Vendrick's failures.

Dark Souls 2's atmosphere has this almost fairy tale-esque, mythical feel with kings and queens, giants and castles, crowns and thrones, but with the weird and dark twist of Souls lore. There is nary a mention of Gwyn, the first flame, I don't think the game has a single demon outside of the one in Shrine of Amana, and for all the complaints of the game calling back too hard to DaS1, I never felt it was anywhere near as intrusive as people say it is. DaS2 almost could have been its own thing. The different approach to its fantasy feels refreshing, moreso than Dark Souls 3, although truth be told I love that game's idea of an exhausted world being artificially forced to continue and falling in on itself. Dark Souls 2 doesn't even present a world ending threat, because there's other lands out there, Volgin, Forossa and Mirrah come up numerous times and seem to be doing just fine. Drangleic is a ruin to pick through for answers. There is no rush to link the flame, everything is placed upon your want to succeed. Quite meta, in a way.

Lore and atmosphere-wise, I'm very fond of Dark Souls 2. I love the whole lead up to finding Vendrick, hearing about this king, going through the land, fighting your way through the castle, feeling like your hot on his trail, fighting his royal guards, his personal bodyguard and then...you find a mindless husk wandering an empty room. That's a fantastic reveal.

Gameplay-wise, though, it's now time to get tough on DaS2. The game has issues, I won't lie, and they're just enough to bug me.

One thing that really bothered me are the weapon movesets which are, for the most part, abysmal. Nothing feels particularly satisfying and most of the choices just feel janky and awkward. Combat in the game is perfectly serviceable and at time it does feel good but the combat, really, is just fine never anything more. It never feels particularly meaty, but sure, Souls games aren't combat games and this isn't Bloodborne which required a more in-depth combat system. Casting is another matter, Souls magic never felt very good but DaS2 has a pretty good amount of variety to its spells.

The main game has some great areas, but also really just terrible ones. The two most glaring areas, for me, are Black Gulch, a frankly bullshit almost straight hallway lined with poison shooting statues that eat your weapon durability like no one's business if you want to be rid of them (also, this game's durability is a joke). It also has OHK grab enemies and worm enemies designed to just completely block movement. It's a bad, bad area with a shit Dirty Colossus rip off boss as one of its Great Souls bosses. Of course there's also Shrine of Amana, an area that was once nearly unplayable and was reduced to just frustrating and unenjoyable. Instant death drops everywhere, a near constant movement penalty, ranged attacks coming from all sides, all the time. Bad fucking area. There's certain sections of other areas that stick out, too, like the run to the boss in Huntsman's Copse, or the foggy forest in Shaded Woods with almost literally invisible enemies.

As for the bosses, they're mostly forgettable. They range from pretty cool gimmick battles like Looking Glass Knight, to complete fucking trash like Royal Rat Vanguard or Authority. I really appreciate DaS2's amount of DeS-like gimmick bosses, especially since DaS3 went real hard with the JUST LIKE ARTORIAS stuff but shit like Executioner's Chariot, tone it down for fuck's sake. At least take out the necromancers if you must have skeletons. I wil say, DaS2 gets flak for having lots of dudes in armour, but to me, it fits the tone of the game, even if some of them are a bit crap. The base game's final bosses, though, are a shame. Nashandra is barely a fight and Aldia even less so. He's immensely tedious and there's just nothing fun, interesting or satisfying about it. He sticks out as one DaS2's worst moments and was clearly added as an afterthought.

The DLCs, I'm actually not the biggest fan. Most people say the DLCs are better than the main game, but Brume Tower? Kinda sucks. It's drab, its boss is frustrating, there's not much to do, Maldron the Assassin is there. Shulva, Sanctum City? Much better, great aesthetic, nice level design, but then it throws in LMAO POISE enemies all over the place, and not just that, but the constant threat of poison and the return of Black Gulch poison statues. Eleum Loyce? Has the best bossfight in the entire game, that's for sure, my heart aches for the Burnt Ivory King, but there's little things here and there and that sour a mostly fine experience. The return of Maldron the Assassin, for one, and of course the fucking spiky rat fucker Wheel Skeleton 2.0 bullshit enemies who can and will kill you in seconds.

Also the intro where you meet the Firekeepers is just fucking awful, oh my GOD.

Overall, Dark Souls 2's bad moments are bad, they're terrible, but let's not forget Dark Souls 1 had the entirely of Lost Izalith, the Demon Ruins and Blighttown, and Dark Souls 3 has TWO poison swamps. The good parts of Dark Souls 2, its amtosphere, its art style, its general tone, are sorely overlooked and sometimes outright ignored in favour of, in my opinion, overbloated nostalgia for Dark Souls 1. Dark Souls 2 has a lot going for it, it has combat mechanics like power-stancing which is great, it has a totally overhauled NG+, it has variety and weird gimmick weapons and armour the ass, it has fantastic fashion, it's a good fucking game and deserves praise for the good things it did. And like the other Souls games, criticism for the things it fucked up on. But regardless, I'm glad we have them, and I'm really glad I've played through Dark Souls 2 again. It deserves to be played.

[pwnyta]

...So ya know Pokemon Quest and how theres Pokemon in it and how I get attached and then create characters for my Pokemon!?!?!?!?

AHH I dont have to do this... but I GOTTA.

This was the first draft of my main 2 teams... vvv more

I still dont have a good Ghastly to make my Gengar but w/e... I replaced my garbo Dratini with a Kabuto. Kabutos pretty dope but I shouldnt get attached because I still want Gengar and I already have a rock...

Second go--

Adio- A resurrected fossil Pokemon

Belladonna Raider- A former teacher turned fighter.

Danielle Acorah- A bored socialite who gave up bein fancy to kick some ass.

Etna Caldera- A former Silph Co inventor

Jupiter Dorje- a security officer for Silph co who left with her charge Etna... so I mean technically shes still doin the job she was hired for.

Robin Tilo- A FUCKIN DEAD GUY. ?????

Etna aint too big on the touchy touchy especially his wings... but Aerodactyl intrigue him so he lets Adio get away with shit. Jupiter is a little put out by it because shes been workin for this asshole for years and he still gets mad at her when she goes near his wings.

As I was doodlin... I tried to flesh them out a bit more.

Etna as Charizard usually do... has been trained as a fighter but he had no interest in battle as a sport and much preferred to invent things for the betterment of... people(specifically other Pokemon people rather than humans but also humans too if hes feelin generous)... Hes always known Silph co was shady but hed always hoped it would get better... but once it got worse he got tired of it and bounced. Hes got a target on his back now because he knows so much and also destroyed a fossil lab that was mistreating people like Adio who get resurrected and experimented on(they have no families to come looking for them).

Jupiter was hired to first protect Etna because he was a valuable asset. Shes always wanted to protect and serve and although she would have rather been a detective an more physical (or so she thought) job was better suited for her high energy. She spent most of her time just hanging out and chatting with Etna when he was busy... until one day he just kinda snapped and she was commanded to capture and destroy him. But seeing the labs she was never allowed in made her realize how fucked up the company was so she bounced with Etna and now protects him from anyone out to get him. Shes lost an eye protecting him.

Adio was resurrected fossil of Aerodactyl.  Resurrected fossil Pokies can have crazy skin colors thats why hes purple (the tint of the liquid hes in makes it look not purple in this pic IDK. Dont worry about it.) Back in the ancient times before he was a fossil he was an eccentric philosopher most other ancient people thought was crazy.

When he was resurrected he was prime for experimentation being a Shiny Aerodactyl... both of which are super rare and kind of looks like a missing link between the Zubat and Charmander lines.

Hes freed when Etna destroys the lab he was kept in and followed Etna and Jupiter. Hes a smart guy and picks up the language fairly quickly with Jupiters help even though she hates him a little for bonding so easily with Etna.

^^^ Three of the scientists that worked on Adio.

Doctor Regina a Mandibuzz who was very eager to be a biologist only to become really jaded when she found out the company she worked for was so janky... she stuck around because this is all shes trained for in her life so fuck it.

Doctor Kubao a Liepard who only really gives a fuck about getting his job done perfectly but as quickly as possible. Hes a little amoral on a small scale for  betterment on a larger scale... he’ll do fucked up experiments on  creatures to find cures for debilitating diseases and sleep easy at night. He dont give a fuck.

Doctor Roussel a Shiinotic whos got a crazy level of curiosity. Her desire to learn as taken her down a pretty dark path but she dont care. She unnerves her colleagues but shes just too damn good at her job no one would ever think to fire her. Kubao and Regina are the only ones who will work with her because they just dont give that much of a fuck.

The gives no fucks trio.

(Kubao will give a fuck if her curiosity gets in the way of his research though.)

Belladonna was a teacher and lost her job because... reasons. Being part Poison type she kinda gets some flack for being a ‘bad‘ type like Dark Pokies. She became a fighter because shes got bills to pay and shes good at it (something about a sick spouse I havent thought too much about oh well?). Shes the technical leader of the party because it was her idea and dealing with students most of her life... shes good at organizing groups of people and if that doesnt work she can just sic Jupiter on them.

I thought about making Danielle a pop star turned fighter... but I like the thought of her being a bored rich girl who decides to downgrade so she can get some proper glory by kicking ass. Although she first wanted to be a fighter on her own merits to spite her family shes swayed to join Raiders party... because shes got a thing for girls with a little beef on them and Jupiter and Raider are super hot. Being an Alakazam is kind of a drag for her because she really wants to be on the front lines but shes happy to show off her crazy special abilities and guard her team (and be saved by Jupiter and Raider if she gets cornered.)

Shes not really trained, shes young (the youngest of the team), and tends to be more bark than bite... but shes fun and playful and enjoys the thrill of battle and will go as far as shes needed so shes earned the respect of her team. Even if she is a goofball.

And although she kind of comes off as a dumb blonde she is an Alakazam and her intellect is good for strat.

...I didnt think much about Robin yet.... other than his human self died an unpopular nerd and isnt like most Ghosts who crave the memories of his past... hes havin fun in the now baby. He doesnt got time for the past. Maybe hes attracted by the high energy Psychic powers of Danielle.... or something IDK yet. He kinda has a FerrisBueller energy to him which means hes kind of a careless asshole... IDK.

[baphelon]

Spice & Wolf - The Solitude of Immortality

What is time for an immortal being? What does it mean for said being to fall in love with a mortal? Holo the wise wolf of Yoitsu is a pagan goddess of harvest and she has seen humans come and go for countless years. Her journey to the north with the help of the merchant Lawrence is a simply stunning tale of gentle beauty. Two people growing closer over the simple joy of travelling to new places and of course making money within a percisely crafted medieval world.

Spice & Wolf is now at it’s ten year anniversary and it is time to look at back at this quiet masterpiece (full review that is mostly free of spoilers underneath the ratings and pretty picture).

Story: 10/10 Characters: 9/10 Animation: 7/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall: Season 1: 10/10 Season 2: 9/10

Classical Mythology often tells stories of immortal and mortal beings falling in love with one another. But it is always tragedy that strikes within these stories. Those relationships are generally plagued by misfortune and suffering (not least because the mortality of mankind is a burden for immortal beings). Wether it’s Aphrodite desperately trying to hinder Adonis from leaving her because she already knows about Ares’ plot to kill him or Zeus transforming his beloved Io into a cow to hide her from his wife Hera; the theme stays strong within the canon of old tales. Spice & Wolf, in that fashion, tries to spin its own mythos and give it a twist.

Holo the wise wolf of Yoitsu is a part of old pagan folklore within the world Spice & Wolf immerses the viewer in. Right from the get go the narration tells old myths about her blessing harvests and residing within the fields of wheat that her faithful cultivate. The paganistic villages down south are part of a change: The portrayed society is overtaken by the church. A historical evaluation of medieval Europe it seems, allthough the world itself is fictional. But is this religious powerstruggle a main focus of the show? No, it is only one of many subtle themes. The focus of Spice & Wolf rests more on the various transactions and interactions of medieval economy aswell as the relationship between Lawrence and Holo.

Speaking of this relationship: these two remarkably well written characters form a dynamic that is just exceptional. The writing of this show is -at some points- out of this world with witty banter, clever metaphors and emotional slow conversations. It is almost hypnotizing how well Spice & Wolf handles the hurdle of having mostly dialogue rather than action (Especially since there is much talk about oddly specific economy). But the dynamic shifts a lot between the two seasons since the two become somewhat of a couple. Sadly the Anime was canceled after two seasons and nearly ten years later I think it is safe to say that there is no hope for the rest of the novels to get adapted.

One of the driving themes this show deals with is solitude in multiple facettes as it is experienced by different persons. Lawrence as an ambitious peddler focuses on economic endeavours and often loses sight of his acquaintances and social connections on a private basis. Holo on the other hand knows a different kind of loneliness that is more derived from her being somewhat of a goddess and with that immortal as long as there is wheat blessed by her divine presence. This aspect of her character is the most pronounced within the drama aspects of the show and is dealt with quite intensely. Holo can be seen as the personification of the fleeting pagan beliefs of the world that are driven out by new religion. This theme already starts in episode 1 when the village elder tells Lawrence about how he wants to change vassalage to a new Lord who worships the new god. The village is shown to be in the process of abandoning the old rites and the festival for Holo turns more and more into just an old festival that has no longer any religious meaning for the people conducting it. Peculiar how Holo reincarnates into human form at the evening of the festival when the freshly reaped wheat is being stored. The god whos faithful stop worshipping them starts a journey back to their origin. Holo is driven back to the far north where she can find her old home where she belongs.

The clash of immortal loneliness versus selfinflicted solitude of a mortal drives the chemistry of the main characters. Holo tries to keep her distance to Lawrence since she’s seen so many men whom she loved die or be broken by the idea of her being a goddess. But Lawrence as the goodnatured man with the heart of gold does not try to win her affection. It is always a balanced back and forth between the two full of flirting, teasing and understanding each other on deeper level than pure physical attraction.

Holo and Lawrence as two beings who meet each other and learn how to end their solitude with each other, even if it is just for the moment, is a strong symbol the show uses from start to finish (even the OPs focus on this aspect) and it is excecuted in perfection.

Back in 2008-2009 the animation of Spice & Wolf must’ve turned some heads because it looks very good for the time but by modern standards it has aged visibly. The movements often seem a little janky and the backgrounds sometimes seem a little washed out and they are so unanimated that big sweeping shots look more like slideshows of people rather than a look around in a big city. Also the overall style of the designs seems outdated and quite rustic. However this is not something that distracts from the outstanding editing. The scene compositions, the direction and the framing in general and how they play of the well used soundtrack makes the show such a blast to watch. Even the english dub is actually very good, it could even be called on par with the original in some places.

The setting and its integration within the story works perfectly since the medieval world is crafted with utmost care and precision. One of many examples for this is the cathedral of Lenos which resembles the cathedral of the german town Speyer in an earlier state without the chorus being finished. To even see the attempt of creating an historically accurate depiction of a Romanic church in an Anime is such a rare sight and here it is done to perfection (The arthistorian inside me is more than just pleased with this show).

Spice & Wolf became one of my favourite shows effortlessly. It blew me away and actually moved me to tears with some of the more somber moments. The strong narrative with its many facettes grips the viewer tightly and immerses them into this wonderful world and its (rather humble) wonders. A fantasy show that has no dragons and big heroes but economics and merchants sounds boring on paper but Spice & Wolf can easily keep its head high within the genre as truly one hell of an underrated masterpiece that is far too often forgotten for louder, faster or even dumber shows. I do love it to death and I would STRONGLY recommend anyone who hasn’t at least tried to get into it to watch it. It is just that good. The only parts I would see as a little weak are the rather dated animation, the lack of development for some of the sidecharacters and the weakpoints in the somewhat forced drama narrative of the second season (which sounds worse than it actually is). 

Boy oh boy this review took some time. I know I announced it quite a while ago but University had me rather busy and in total I wrote this review like 4 times. Two tries were just utter garbage and the third, finished verion got deleted by accident. I truly apologize for the delay but these things simply take a lot of time to come up with (especially since I am german and my english skills are not the best as you might’ve noticed while reading my shit).

If you have any suggestions as to which Anime I should review next, hit me up! Maybe I have seen the show you suggest or even plan to watch it in the near future. Also if there are any question regarding the review or my ideas stated in it please let me know. Also I am always open for a discussion so put some comments under this post please!

[poisonflamegames]

No one knows what they're doing

Today's blog is a tad different, it's more of a story-time kind of thing. Hope you enjoy it~

One of the highlights from when I was back in game dev university is how we always had professionals of the industry around; most of the time they were our teachers, but in others, they came themselves to give us talks about their experiences. I'm now going to share the one that stuck with me the most:

The person that gave us the talk, we'll call him Michael, was a man in his late 20s or early 30s. He was spunky and very visibly passionate about gaming in general. His story started off with him getting out of college and wanting to make games, so he got together with a group of friends and opened up a little game studio to work on their dream project.

Eventually, at some point during development, the game spawned enough interest for a group of investors to come in and finance the game; that way, Michael and his studio could work full-time on it and deliver the best product possible.

From what he said, development went well for a good number of months, but the deadlines given by the investors were so tight that the people in the studio began feeling extremely worn out, to the point in which some began parting ways with the project entirely.

In the end, Michael had a meeting with the investors, saying that the conditions they presented were too harsh for them to work on. The investors threatened to sue Michael for a ridiculous sum of money if the project was terminated; they owned the rights of the game, so if development wasn't going to be completed, Michael and the rest would have to kiss their project goodbye entirely or be taken to court.

Even today, Michael was subject to a pretty strict NDA around the game, put in place by the investors, so he was very picky with what he'd show us about it. From what I saw, it was an incredible-looking game: The artstyle was delightful, the story was very light-hearted and the game mechanics were solid and very creative.

It is worth noting that it all seemed pretty finished, too. A complete shame that a game at such a developed stage had to be shelved for a legal/economical dispute, which must've been heart-breaking for Michael, and it showed.

After giving up on the project that they had been working for about a year and a half, Michael and who was left of his crew started working on a second game. Given that this one lacked investors (and pesky NDA's), Michael was way more liberal about showing us game assets. This second project had a very similar level of polish than the original, granted they were totally different games, and it showed a lot of potential.

I won't go into details about it, but it was a very unique-feeling puzzle game; with a cute story and very tight, simple, yet expandable mechanics. Hell, Michael told us that in a day, he'd whip up a number of levels, and they were all quite different. It was a very promising-looking game, and quite finished too, but due to disputes with Michael and the rest of his team, it unfortunately had to be scrapped too.

Two consecutive failures of this calibre left Michael in quite the financial pickle, him having to move back to his parents' place; he was just about ready to give up on his dream of being a dev, but not without one last shot.

Everyone that was left of his team aside from himself was one another person, and the two decided to work on their last project.

Michael told us that he and the other guy made the game in record time, about two weeks if I recall correctly. They used mostly leftover assets that they had from their past projects, and even repurposed some of the music. After that, they spend the following weeks polishing up everything in order to bring it to a showcase event.

These events are quite popular in the game development scene; as practically anyone can show up and present their game, even have a little demo for the attendees to try out. They're a great chance to socialize, or if you're extremely lucky, get your game out there.

Michael and his partner set up a janky-ass setup for their game and people lined up to play it. One of them was this middle-aged man, and he had a trolley suitcase with him. After doing the line, he tried the game and it brought a wide smile to his face. He said "Thank God; all the games I've tried today have been awfully disappointing and I was about to leave to catch my flight home, but this game is truly something else! Here, have my business card". The man ended up being a publisher for a fairly relevant game development company that I won't name.

To not drag this any further: Michael's game made in two weeks ended up being a top hit; hitting the #1 charts for the most downloaded games on iOs for more than a dozen different countries. He actually made it, despite all the mishaps that happened along the way.

He then wrapped up the story with a single point, and that is that in the game industry, no one knows what they're doing.

No one can guarantee that their game will be successful, not even the largest companies. Everyone has amazing ideas, but who can guarantee that people will like them, or that the game will sell at all? No one, really.

Companies don't want to risk most of the time, and that really gives indie developers a chance to shine, because they're the ones that are willing to risk it all believing their games will be amazing and pull through, much like Michael ended up doing.

I suppose that this all boils down to having the adequate mindset while making a game. You must develop a game that you'll be proud of, one that you would want to play if you were just hearing about it; with that, the rest is unimportant. You shouldn't be seeking success, but rather bring a memorable experience that as many people as possible will play.

If circumstances don't allow your game to be completed, or your game doesn't end up doing well, those are things that just happen, and you can't say that you didn't try. Failing is what gives you the insight to not make the same mistakes again, so keep trying and perhaps you'll make something great that'll inspire many people to create, too!

Every professional has their own pile of failures behind their back, and you can bet that they're damn proud of them, because they're the reason they made it so far.

Hope you enjoyed the read! I know it's a little different from my other posts, but I want to try new things for the blog. Hope you have a nice one! 💖

[statusreview]

A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER!

There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there…

… but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started:

All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or added back as much original charm as we could – like the metal porch roof, larger operable shutters, square porch columns, corbels along the roofline, wide brick steps, and those diamond windows that give me cartoon heart eyes.

We’ve already shared a lot of the big exterior decisions that we made as we went, like choosing our siding, roofing, and picking the color for the shutters, so today we’re gonna cover all of our front porch updates.

UGH BUT FIRST LET’S ADRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM… or should I say the mouse on the porch?! Those tiny postage stamp doormats are so ridiculous I can’t even explain how I thought they were regular sized and then they turned out to be doormats for ants.

So yes, we’re getting bigger ones (they would DEFINITELY make Marlo cringe – Atlanta Housewives… Anyone? Bueller?). So let’s all try to look past those tiny little rectangles and appreciate some of the other stuff that’s giving me life. We have mailboxes! And house numbers! And lanterns to illuminate said house numbers! And composite decking (no rot! YAY!). We even have potted plants and teak benches! SOMEBODY HELP ME CALM DOWN.

We don’t have great before photos of just the front door area itself, but you can sort of see it (including the mismatched storm doors that we got rid of immediately) in the photo below.

But as artsy as John thought he was being with the “SOLD” sign in the foreground of that picture, it doesn’t really demonstrate how deteriorated the old porch had become.

The entire front porch was also so rotten when it came to the actual support beams and structure of it, that we had to tear it off of the house and rebuild it from scratch, being careful to maintain the original transom windows above the door.

Let’s just say that it feels like we have taken a very significant leap forward in the last year and a half.

After we ditched the mismatched storm doors we decided to embrace the original front doors (figuratively speaking, I didn’t actually hug them, but we LOVE them and wanted to save them). You actually have to get approval from the town’s historic review board to change the style of your doors, so we’re really glad we liked them from the get-go. At one point we considered painting them the same mint color as the shutters, but realized that color got a lot of “stage time” thanks to having so many front windows (and therefore, double the amount of shutters)… so we both thought it would be nice to introduce another tone or color on the doors.

Our next (and longest-standing) idea was to make them some sort of wood tone – just clear sealed or covered with a light stain. You know we LOVE AN ORIGINAL WOOD DOOR (we stripped & waxed all the interior doors at the pink house, and I can’t even tell you how happy we are with them). So we had our contractor strip and sand our duplex front doors to get them as raw looking as possible. Lead paint = we hired them to do it safely in their shop, and they stripped and sanded them as far back as they could without compromising their integrity (they’re thinner than standard doors that are made today, and they had a few cracks and repaired portions they didn’t want to make worse).

But even after we spent $400 to get the doors professionally stripped back as far as they could take them, we just couldn’t get them where they needed to be. From the street (and in the from-a-distance-photos we shared) they looked pretty cool, but up close you could see a lot of stubborn paint in the cracks and recesses that we just couldn’t remove – even after another pass at sanding.

And as you walked closer you could see other general jankiness – like a large crack and some glue bubbles that would be hard to disguise with sealer or stain alone.

We knew that we could still get a wood look using a dark gel stain,like we did over on the pink house. It’s got thicker coverage than a typical stain – almost like a paint – and that certainly would’ve helped hide some of the issues.

But once we installed the porch lights, mailboxes, house numbers and door handles, we both kept thinking…. what about a rich charcoal-y paint color? One that ties into that gorgeous metal roof above the porch? It just felt like a nice balance to the cheerful green shutters – sort of grounding and adding some nice contrast. It was also slightly comforting to notice that all of our other neighbors who have original doors have painted them too (they’re all 100+ years old so I think that’s the plight of being so worn down and in need of various repairs over the years – raw wood isn’t nearly as forgiving).

We’ve loved Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze ever since we used it our garage doors at home. It’s a really rich and layered color and we’ve always loved how it walks the line between a true black and a warm dark bronze-y brown tone – just like the tin roof we chose for the duplex!

Long story long, even though it was our lifelong (ok, yearlong) dream to leave these doors a light wood tone, we’ve mourned the loss of that idea and are IN LOVE with the final result. We both stepped back and thought: THE PAINT DID THESE DOORS A TON OF FAVORS!

Not only does it hide the cracks and glue bubbles along with all of those tricky paint remnants, it also looks great with the dark porch accents we added, like the operable shutters, the oversized porch lights, our wall mounted mailboxes, and our new house numbers. And the nice thing is that we were able to bring that wood tone in with other things, but more on that in a second.

As for installing the address numbers, they’re just simple off-the-shelf house numbers from Home Depot that can be mounted flush (like we did) or floating. They come with a template on the back of the package, so we trimmed the templates a bit so we could space them the way we wanted, and taped them to the siding exactly as we hoped they’d look in the end – being sure to triple check that they all had equal spacing, were all level, and were centered.

At one point we had planned to just get some subtle number decals to stick on the mailbox, but then we learned it was actually code that they were at least 4″ tall and “visible from the street” for emergency personnel. And by “learned,” I mean that we almost failed our final inspection because we hadn’t installed any yet, so we rushed to get them up and passed by the skin of our teeth (I would like to have a word with the inventor of that gross expression, btw).

Since we lost some of the warm wood tones in the doors, I brought them in with a few other things, like the basket-looking planters (they’re really a ceramic-like material), and the big teak benches on the far ends of the porch. And once we get bigger doormats (maybe a single long one that runs under both doors and up to each planter would be cool?) that’ll add more of that warmer tone to the mix.

Of course I have to shout out our go-to faux outdoor trees. They inject some much needed zero-maintenance greenery to the front porch. We’ve got the same type on the beach house front porch and the taller versions at home in Richmond. They’re awesome, so yes, we are now the proud owners of six of these babies. Please note that I didn’t floof these before the photos (yes, that’s a technical term), so their shape in the picture below bugs me to no end. They’ll be looking 100 when I get my new mats, landscape the front, and share the updated pics though – mark my words.

If you’re subscribed to our newsletter, you got a peek inside with the doors open last week. We painted the stair risers on each side the same color as the interior doors on that side (Sherwin Williams White Truffle on the left, and Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay on the right). I also really love that we didn’t do mint on the front doors because it’s a fun reveal to swing open the dark bronze doors and be greeted with a different happy & beachy color inside each one.

This is the before photo, which I now realize is funny because it’s almost like we switched sides – the greenish risers are now on the right, and the red/pink ones are on the left (we chose the colors for each side based on lighting and where they read the best – the pink tone read a little more gray and less pink on the right, so that’s how it ended up on the left).

So that wraps up the whole duplex porch update… but if you could kindly cross every last appendage that the groundhog was right in his call for an early spring, we’d really appreciate it. Because you know I can’t wait to get the front of the duplex landscaped and mulched and add a path to the back and plant grass and ALL THE THINGS! WITH ALL THE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!

We need to get this thing whipped into shape so we can get it all photographed and listed for rent thing spring (rentals will start this summer and it should hit Airbnb this April or so! AHHHHHH!). Oh yeah and we have to finish the inside. And the backyard. Details, details.

P.S. To see how we have fixed up this house over the past 1.5 years, there’s a whole category dedicated to duplex progress.

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