#i really enjoyed thinking about what aspects of their designs to swap

[stellar-collective]

Hi, I absolutely adore your art! Keep up the amazing work!! Also if you’re still taking requests, I’m curious what a role swap between Phoenix and Reginald would look like in your style? Thank you!

thank you so much, i’m glad that you like my art!! this roleswap is funny to me bc Phoenix and Reginald are already so similar that i really think the only significant change would be the number of quips that Zor has to deal with

[miminmimikyu]

Episode 7-8: so, one day after drinking that coffee + espresso abomination Dal thinks diving into a Borg transwarp conduit to save travel time is a good idea. And later starts admitting that he has a tendency to forget about everything else when there’s an important mission to focus on. Who does that remind me of?

So the death racing episode that disabled Zero is simultaneously a breather episode lmao

Of course the Kazon Maje wasn’t the big bad in this episode, that would ask for some unprecedented competence from them :’D love how so far they’ve been relegated to “child abductors for a despotic slaver” and now “doing kidnapping for a rogue ai that’s channeling world’s worst tutor”. Not even that really, this Maje pretty much is forced into an “NPC who makes you do a racing sidequest on pain of death” role.

Ohh I really love the personality swaps in the holograms! The voice acting is so good! Brett Gray’s version of Zero was so spot I had to go back a bit just to listen if it wasn’t actually Angus Imrie imitating Brett Gray’s voice @_@ Same for Angus Imrie’s Dal!! Rylee Alazraqui’s Jankom shouting at the Doc and Jason Mantzoukas’ Rok Takh being so sweet and innocent are so funny! Also, taking the Gwyn hologram out is such a convenient way to prevent Murf’s personality from talking

only just realising the Maj’el - Majel Barett name connection!!

Ovidia IV is so pretty and the designs of the corporeal non-corporeal aliens are so cool but it’s a trap it’s a trap it’s a trap, it’s giving me Star Trek TOS vibes of “Faustian bargain aliens” or “planet with a death ritual masquerading as a incredible party”.

After watching the whole episode, setting aside the scenes on Voyager-A, episode 8 really really felt so much like a TOS episode with a modern twist to me! It had the uncanny idyllic planet, the race of telepaths enthralled by their senses, the weird euphoric call to death, culty death festival, the inability to leave once you’ve made The Choice.. but then it has the emotional arc you see in NuTrek and also includes a beautiful, thrilling scene flying on top of the Nazamon (very Discovery). And obviously without the gruesome deaths and madness that would have accompanied a TOS episode. (Ok maybe TOS deaths aren’t that gruesome compared to Disco/Pic//SNw but when I was 9-10 and watching TOS repeats with my dad on Sunday afternoons against my will it was terrifying so that’s what in my brain now). And despite the weird vibes they weren’t actually bad people, just dangerously secretive.

Zero’s arc is also so interesting. Their desire to obtain corporeal body is such a contrast from S1 Zero, who waxed lyrical about life with other Medusans, how they miss it and how it’s like nothing the others can imagine. It figures that now they’re liberated from being a living torture device and have had time to spend so much time enjoying freedom with their corporeal friends, they are able to put into words something might be missing. The joy on their face and in their voice after the transfiguration was so sweet! Also I like these shots through Zero’s cracked visor

I think it’s also an interesting juxtaposition that the previous episode, which ended in Zero performing a self-sacrificial, disabling manoeuvre, started with the gang diving into a Borg transwarp conduit and Zero voicing discomfort (fear) at that. Zero did stop talking less about their Medusan physiology post-Borg encounter (also after injuring Gwyn?) iirc. There was that fear of hurting others just by being Medusan. But this episode talks about fear being an essential aspect of life (ok. corporeal life i guess). Also interesting that Prodigy is framing the corporeal/non-corporeal thing as a binary. I hope it's going to delve a little deeper into that and go a little more complex. I can't wait to see if Zero’s new body lasts and what its possible deterioration will mean for Zero and their feelings about living as a Medusan among humanoids.

Another thing that I like about this episode is that the gang only cares that Zero was properly informed about what choice they were making and that they were safe during the process. They are sure that Zero knows what’s best for Zero.

Poor Gwyn can't catch a break, even her hologram is traumatised now.

Can’t believe how strong this first half of the season is already. If season 1 is anything to go by it’s going to be a hell of a two parter for the midseason finale!!!!!

(I’m still in doubt about the Entity being a time-displaced Chakotay, because in the second message it called Janeway “Janeway” and not “Kathryn” or “Captain” or “Admiral”. Even if he was trying to hide his identity for timey wimey reasons I can’t imagine he’d call her just Janeway and not “vice admiral Kathryn Janeway” or some other more businesslike title.)

Oh no these posts are getting so long OTL

[aleeyenn]

Hi i just wanted to say I love your works and profile sm, I love how you represent fireafy and coinpin and each of their respective characters, and I especially love how you represent Coiny. I feel like from what I've seen people don't see how Coiny really is, they usually just reduce him to a jerk or a firey slapper. But he's so much more and so different from that lke in canon he's so driven and serious but then fun and chill when needed, and how he can be fun and silly but then empathetic and sweet when given. and I feel like the way you represent him is so accurate and takes evey aspect of him in canon as well as headcanons that just FIT HIM SO WELL and idk it just makes me so happy. I also LOVE your headcanon of him being able to pull both masculinity and femininity, I love it so much it emulates the essence of him so well so be so comfortable in himself and not have a shred of toxic masculinity or anything like that. And I love how you make him adore pin like YES HE ADORE AND LOVES and does whatever pin wants it just makes me so happy esp with how gorgeous she is and as someone who is also plus sized and having issues with self image seeing coiny adore pin like that makes me believe in myself more idk how to explain it but YEA hahah just really like how you depict his charcater as a whole

I also love all your designs for every character

But ye I just want to say that hahah

i saw this when it was sent yesterday and i was in school and i was SOOO HAPPY i was telling all my friends with tears in my eyes and squealing over how sweet of a message i received LIKE I HAD TO FORCE MYSELF NOT TO CRY AND I KEPT GETTING UP AND PACING AAHH😭😭😭 i have waited for when i have free time where i’m not super tired to respond better than i would tired But! THANK YOU SOSOSOSO MUCH!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME!!! YOU REALLY DONT!!! thank you thank you so much!!! i’ve been struggling with forming my thoughts and feelings into words recently so forgive me if this is a messy reply but AHH!!!

coiny is one of my favorite characters he’s sooOOO FUNNY AND CHARMING! i love expressing his silly side and how dumb he is sometimes so i do it in most of my work (because it’s lighthearted almost every time) and it makes me so happy to see him being so.. coiny! he is genuinely such an amazing character and the perfect balance of cool, kind, and idiotic(affectionately) he’s so nice and so compassionate and i appreciate that about him so much and I AM SO HAPPY THAT YOU CAN ENJOY MY PORTRAYAL OF HIM BECAUSE HE IS SO AWESOME! I LOVE EVERY PART OF HIM!!! and you like my headcanons!!! i forget what kind of coiny headcanons i have represented on this account but YESSS!!! COINY PULLING OFF FEMININE CLOTHES IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT! he is SO proud of it. he will put on a pink frilly dress and walk with confidence and feel as pretty as can be! i’ve been meaning to draw him in a dress for months actually (i have so much i want to draw all the time but i’m either really busy or i have zero motivation But this message gave me the motivation to actually try soon KEEP AN EYE OUT! maybe ill draw pin and coiny with their outfits swapped 🤫) he is one of the most positive and caring contestants on bfdi and he makes me so happy!!! he can wear both girly clothes and masculine clothes HE CAN WEAR WHATEVER HE WANTS and he will look TOTALLY AWESOME IN IT! and OMFGGG DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW MUCH HE LOVES PINNN SHE IS HIS WHOLE WORLD AND COINY IS HERS AS WELL! coiny will do anything for her he loves her so bad… AND!!! AHHHH!!!! I AM SO SO SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY MY PIN HUMANIZATION MAKES YOU FEEL THAT WAY!!! BRINGING PEOPLE SELF-CONFIDENCE AND EMPOWERMENT THROUGH MY DESIGNS AND REPRESENTATION IS MY ABSOLUTE GOAL WITH WHAT I DO!!! it seriously means everything to me that i’ve Actually been able to achieve that and help people with how they feel about themselves indirectly. my eyes are watering while typing this ARGHH i really just want everyone to know how beautiful they are no matter what their size or weight or height or color or LITERALLY ANYTHING is. and as someone who also struggles with their self-image/esteem it means even More to me because i know how it feels!!! seeing yourself in a design of your favorite character or a character you enjoy in general feels SO GOOD so i strive to do that as much as i can. body diversity and diversity in all aspects is incredibly important to me and i want to sprinkle it everywhere in whatever i do!!! everyone is so beautiful and different and i think that is a blessing!!! whoever is reading this is beautiful and whoever in the WORLD is too just how they are now!!! EVERYONE IS GORGEOUS!!! it may take a while to feel it and that’s okay but just know that you are!!!

in short i am happy i was able to touch your heart and make you smile and give you at least a little bit more confidence in yourself. you are amazing and so kind for sharing this all with me!!! i think you can tell now how much this did for me by how much i wrote (SORRY ITS HUGE BLOCKS OF TEXT) and i can’t thank you enough for liking my work from characterization to design. every time i get a message like this i will not stop thinking about it and i hold it close to me every time i draw Like those other messages about my pin gijinka from months back I STILL GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER. i’m really glad i can make you feel that way and i hope i have made many others feel the same way too. THANK YOU!!!💖💖💖🫶🫶🫶

[chibivesicle]

Current manga[ish] reading list in no particular order

Neighborhood Story (Gokinjo Monogatari) by Ai Yawaza - I now own up to volume 3 of the English release of the manga. The four volume set is based on what I believe was the 10th Anniversary reprint of the manga in Japan. The French edition also follows the four book format but I think the German sticks to the original seven. I have the original tankobon editions for volumes 1-3 where when you line them up, it creates a long dinner table with the entire cast.

I read the entire manga in the early 2010s via scans and had spent the late 90s to that point praying for an official release after Paradise Kiss was printed by Tokyopop. The series was old enough that in the late 90s early 2000s no one was out there doing the line by line translations that I used to use to read manga. I read all of Wish that way with the original manga and the speech bubble guide. e.g. page 12 panel 5 Overall impressions - this was a white whale for me - I likely bought the original manga when I was sixteen or seventeen based on the art style alone. I would say it falls into your standard dramatic shoujo manga with high school students but the lives of ones in counter-culture, outside the norms of usual expectations. When I read the scans I enjoyed it and while it was nothing mind blowing it is a rewarding read. The various individuals sporting alternative fashions is one of my favorite aspects of it. You have a MC who leans mostly towards mod style (Twiggy from the 1960s) with a strong vintage twist, punk, lolita, generic 90s alternative dude, preppy and your designer brand girl.

I look forward to getting volume 4 and completing the set, just it will be likely 28 years later than I would have wanted. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda - I sprung hard for the recent English hardcover editions. One of my friends lent me her roommates 2 volume tankobon set of this series in 2000, but it too lacked a good translation to find online and read along to it. I watched the anime in 2014 and bought the DVD box set. Of course, I couldn't say no to this classic shoujo manga. I'm through the first three volumes and slowly working my way through it. Seeing that I already watched the anime, nothing in it is overall surprising.

I have noticed that early on the level of gay is pretty high and this current "twist" of Andre getting closer to Oscar is much stronger than I felt in the anime. The entire loss of Rosalie and her fawning over Oscar was a disappointment, also toned down in the anime. There is a lot more questioning with Oscar's character as to who she is, what she desires and how to fit into her world. I really wish it pressed those questions more but alas, I'm really starting to feel the Oscar x Andre pressure ramping up. In the anime I felt like it sort of came out of nowhere and in the manga it is more like - okay Rosalie's crush was cute but real adult relationships need a man. lols. Even with my different opinion on the manga compared to the anime, I cannot stress how owning such a fundamental manga series is. I don't think I'll ever attempt a meta on this - more than enough already exists about this with how long it has been around. Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama - An impulse purchase at The Comic Swap on Allen Street. I'm pretty sure some of the individual volumes of X and other early 2000s manga were on the shelf when I was in university.

I'd heard some good murmurs about this manga and a friend kept recommending it. I can't explain how blown away I was this series. The art style is amazing with little use of screen tones and the emphasis on line art. With the author's previous work for DC and Marvel it shows but in all the good ways as far a composition and again that line art. And we haven't even gotten to the story itself! I have read through volume 3 and the pacing is excellent. It doesn't info dump how magic works and the world building is natural and unforced. It already has brought up great questions about who controls knowledge, disability vs accommodation, dealing with trauma, what is your purpose in life/goals. It has the right amount of whimsy that you feel cozy but at the same time you know when shit is serious.

What I feel the most is that Witch Hat Atelier is intentional with everything in it. It is a carefully constructed story and comes together naturally with a good balance of young pupils and adults. And the character designs! Oh my goodness, I love them all.

The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga - Can't skip my gal Mao Mao. I mean I cosplayed as her back in April because how frequently do you get a pragmatic female lead with deadpan humor and is a scientist who likes plants? I also watched the first season of the anime loving every moment of it and how it really shines with its focus on women navigating a world not made to really benefit them. I decided to read the original light novel instead of the manga based on the light novel. I think by time I finish volume 2 I will have caught up to season 1 and hopefully, pull ahead of the eventual second season which comes in 2025, I think.

Out of all the titles, this one is likely my biggest guilty pleasure as a plant biologist; Mao Mao as a character has a lot of common scientist traits which make her very relatable and fun to see in any sort of media. Her obliviousness to certain things not because she doesn't have an eye for details but because she can't be bothered is realistic but rarely given to a female character in most forms of media regardless of cultural context.

Will I dive into the rest of these series for a meta? I'm honestly not sure. I may do a "quick" review of Gokinjo Monogatari when I complete volume 4 but it isn't the sort of manga that feeds into deep critical analysis. It is a coming of age story about artistic kids and looks cool.

I'd likely be more inclined to tackle Witch Hat Atelier but sometimes I just want to read something and not deep dive into it even if it intellectually feeds my curiosity. My current plan is to catch up on the manga and I'm relying on my county library to read volumes 4-13. If I really like it, I'll probably become a sucker and buy it at some point but I need to be a little more mindful of my manga purchases for the sake of my overflowing bookshelves. I took one of those surveys about how much manga you own and I wasn't expecting to clock in at almost 200 volumes when I've given away/sold/donated them from time to time.

I've got some thoughts on Kekkai Sensen but I'm waiting for the next chapter to drop since it ended on a cliff hanger with that plot twist where the "Count" from previous statements in the manga was not some old frumpy classic Dracula like Blood Breed but instead in a teenage form as Edgar. I liked the twist since I was suspicious of his character but didn't think he might have been the true mastermind of things. But we'd be lazy readers if we'd forgotten that Blood Breeds can easily shapeshift as demonstrated with Girika and Tonio. I will always give her ultimate cougar cred testing out her boy toy before committing to making him a Blood Breed instead of snacking on him.

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp 5/6

Just like John Cusack, hoo hoo hoo is a universal constant.

I was so excited for her conversations :( And thank you very much! This comic's a slippery one, but that's part of the fun!

I do like the idea of pairing every Homestuck ship with a political ideology. It'd be the perfect storm of discourse, from about five directions at once!

Thank you! I don't think I'll even be in the country for my birthday this time around, so it'll be a quiet celebration.

I think it could still fit as a kismesissitude, even if they aren't all that unfriendly with each other. After all, Karkat's antagonism towards John is only skin-deep, and wears off fast.

FEFERI: There's no reason to be scared! They are not as terrible as they look. FEFERI: When Derse is destroyed, I am going to go to sleep and prove it. FEFERI: I will prove it to you, and to them as well. KARKAT: THEM? FEFERI: Our new friends! [...]

Oh, that does make more sense. Dang, I really liked the idea that the Horrorterrors were scared of Players.

Karkat made S-Tier for a reason. He's on fire this Act, and it's been great to watch!

You don't even get to examine your surroundings!!

I'm even more glad now that I'm using Homestuck Collection. It's clear that I'd have missed a lot without it, and it's a sad state of affairs that the comic's official website seems to butcher it so badly. Definitely recommend checking out the Collection, if just to play the walkarounds yourself!

Underutilized aspects of the trolls: Feferi Edition! [...] I do have to say that, when I think about her, I don't generally remember the Horrorterror connection. But Gl'bgolyb is a Horrorterror, after all. Feferi may be legitimately bubbly and sweet, but of the two races she is meant to unite, it might just be the Horrors and Humans. She's an eldritch Disney princess. Remember that now. ~LOSS (19/5/23)

Does that make Gl'bgolyb her Fairy Elder Godmother?

Ugh, tell me about it. It looks normal when the post is in my drafts, but breaks when I publish it.

I could go back and fix each post manually, but I don't have the time or the patience. Maybe I'll write a script to do it when I release Wertsearch: The Director's Cut.

Thanks! I've had Cat send a transcript over, and I've been copying it for quotes. There was a risk of mild spoilers if I accidentally read ahead, but if it means I can stop quoting entire conversations manually, I'll happily take that chance.

Damn it! There goes my Sollux Was Swapped At Birth theory.

I like these ideas! It's fun to speculate about what our species 'thing' would be, since we don't have any alien species to compare ourselves to IRL.

The idea of NPCs as Player templates is awesome, too. That implies an absolutely wild session in Sburb's past, featuring the Sleuths, the Midnight Crew and the Exile squad as Players.

What would Sburb even look like without Carapacians? Would the chess match in Skaia still exist, just without sentient pieces? I kind of love this idea.

Yeah, it's always nice when a story's really kicked into gear.

Beginnings and endings are difficult, and I usually enjoy the middle of a story more than either. By my count, we're about one-third of the way through Homestuck, and it's definitely found itself.

Thanks! I have a couple of ideas about which of my ships will be supported by canon, and which won't - but we shall see what develops. The comic might surprise me!

Canon Equius design.

It's a big question, and I don't know if I can fully answer this one, given how much of Sburb is still shrouded in mystery.

That said, the first thing I'd change is how Players are assigned. Instead of creating people who have no choice but to participate, I'd look for volunteers in the planets I've seeded. If Players have to be born in the Veil, then those volunteers would have their timelines rewritten, retroactively turning them into meteor babies - but only after they've volunteered for the role.

Also - does a session have to destroy the planet it's seeded on? If it was me in charge, I'd redirect the Reckoning's portals somewhere else. Literally anywhere else, actually. As far as I can tell, the only reason they were pointed towards Earth in the first place was for thematic reasons. The Sallyverse has different themes.

Yep. No special reason why - I've just been pretty busy lately, especially on the weekends. They've also been rolling over onto Mondays more often, too.

I get to 'em when I get to 'em - but I always get to them in the end.

Ooh, that's a deep cut. Possibly coincidental, but I wouldn't be too sure - I wouldn't put anything past Hussie.

I've heard of Higurashi, but I know very little about it. It is my tenuous understanding that it's a murder mystery starring several wealthy families - or is that its sister story, Umineko?

I don't want to look them up, because I might actually check them out at some point, and it is apparently very important to go in unspoiled. Potential future liveblog material, indeed.

I've speculated that the Knight is a protector class - and maybe Knights also protect themselves, hiding behind a particular trait or emotion which serves as their 'shield'.

Puréed puppet, unfortunately.

Now that I've seen all the troll typing quirks, I'm pretty sure I've actually encountered some of these people in the wild! I've definitely seen Terezi's leetspeak, or something very similar, on an anime forum or two.

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

5 & 6 with Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose for the fmk alternatives ask game! (Which looks really fun, by the way!)

Aaa I know, right?? Lots of fun!! Thanks for the questions! :)

5. go on a six hour road trip with (no car radio, you choose who drives), sit next to on a six hour plane flight, sit across from on a six hour train journey

This one is not easy, haha. I love traveling, but only if I can do my own thing while moving around 😅 so company isn't ideal, in general! That being said, let's see...

I think I'd take Rose on a six hour road trip, if there's no car radio available. I know, I know -- it's not ideal, but when I'm driving I usually need to listen to something to keep my brain entertained enough to stay focused, and if one of the trio can talk/sing for a full 6 hours, that's certainly Rose. At some point I'd stop actively listening to her and just pretend I'm listening, I think, but it would still be helpful -- and if I get tired of driving, I'm sure I could ask her to swap with me and she'd be happy to help!

I think I'd sit across from Blanche on a train trip, for the very practical reason that she's short and that would give me some more space for my legs 😂 If we already knew each other before the trip, I'm sure we'd manage to find something to chat about, even if maybe not for the whole six hours. If she was alone and a stranger, considering my track record I'd probably offer to help her with her luggage, and then keep my mouth shut and text my friend about the gorgeous lady that just sat in front of me on the train, haha.

I ended up with Dorothy and a plane flight by exclusion, but that sounds great, honestly! I'm sure she'd be very respectful, mindful of her and everyone else's space and tranquillity. I figure she'd have a book to read on the trip, and if so we might end up comparing books and sharing our impressions. :)

6. go clothes shopping with, go to ikea with, go grocery shopping with

Hmm... alright, I think I'd go clothes shopping with Rose. I don't much enjoy shopping and I get frustrated very quickly when I have to buy clothes, so it would be lovely to have someone as patient and caring as Rose is to comfort me and keep me company while I try stuff on. I'd treat her to something tasty and sweet to thank her afterwards, of course. :)

Blanche is the best among the trio at interior design, but her taste seems to be way more expensive than ikea 😅 besides, I usually have very strong opinions about what I like and dislike when it comes to furniture, so I think we'd just end up clashing! I'd much rather have someone who points out the practical aspects of the pieces I like (stuff like 'will I manage to take this home and build it' or 'do I have enough space for this' or 'is this actually the thing I need or do I just think it's pretty'), and Dorothy is perfect for that. :)

That leaves Blanche for grocery shopping! It's nothing glamorous per se, but I bet she'd make it into a great experience -- she must have an anecdote for just about anything she buys! I might have to keep track of what she gets just to stay within budget, but we'd manage, eventually (I hope!). Although I'm sure she'd convince me to take her out to dinner afterwards. 😅

[fmk alternatives]

[waugh-bao]

@thebedroomblues I think Keith’s thing with the drum kit and staying centered on Charlie as much as humanly possible is maybe the best microcosm for understanding the band dynamic as a whole, or at least the dynamic between him and Charlie.

It all essentially arises from three avenues ->

1. The way they worked in the early years, and where they worked, forced Keith and Charlie into close physical proximity on stage, and Keith came to rely upon it as a way to be centered and a source of comfort.

Which are both aspects of that relationship he’s been very open about:

"I'm probably the most drummer-influenced guitar player around. Over the years, Charlie and I developed a style between us, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that for many, many years I couldn't hear us onstage at all. The chicks are screaming and the band has no P.A. So we developed a way of playing where it didn't matter if we heard the voice or the bass-it was just Charlie and me. I'd be forced right up against Charlie's kit with my amp right next to him. My playing would have been totally different if I hadn't gone through that with Charlie. I developed more and more of the rhythm things and licks because he was really all I was playing to."-1989

“When we're up there it's just like a little cocoon. I'm just with my man here [Charlie] and we make this row together.”-2006

2. Keith sees Charlie as the person who has had the most impact upon his playing and his particular, rhythm focused style. As his source of inspiration, really.

To the extent that he credits him with being his greatest strength:

“I'm tied to a drummer, Charlie Watts, loyal as a rock, and that's enough for me. It's with him that we've built an art of rhythm that's very much our own. Everything I've been able to invent over the years is based on this strength that he brings to me. We know each other so well that we can take every risk.”-2010

And the one who had given him his riffs, which are the basis of his musical character/his most famous skill as a guitar player:

“Also, when you play with Charlie Watts, you've got that amount of swing and rhythm behind you and it's very easy to surprise yourself. Because from my point of view I'm bouncing off Charlie Watts, we're both swapping rhythms, cutting it up, and when we get really cocky we even try and fuck each other up. ‘Aha! Got you, just this once!' You can't do it on your own in an isolated thing. To come up with those sort of riffs you've got to have the drums there, 'cos that's the inspiration. So what do I say? 'Monkey Man', the riff, I got it off Charlie Watts and he doesn't even know it.”-2002

3. He just really loves watching Charlie.

The man literally begged Marty Scorsese to include footage from inside Charlie’s bass drum in Shine A Light:

And he has zero problem bragging about how much he enjoys doing it, nor any hesitance in admitting that that’s how he spends most of his time working:

“He plays with humor too. I love to watch his foot through the Perspex. Even if I can't hear him, I can play to him just by watching.”-Life (2010)

“I've spent half of my life standing just in front of that drum kit…”-2002

“Charlie is the beat I listen to when I play the guitar. His drum pedal kick hole [in the drum kit] is the only thing I see when I'm on stage. He is the only beat."-2012

Watching him, it’s easy to see he’s not exaggerating:

Nor is it hard to see that he’d get a little (or a lot, depending upon who was doing it) violent when someone tried to interrupt his Charlie time:

With regards to Mick often trying to stop him from doing it/redirect him, my educated guess is that it arises from a fundamental difference in how they value the aspects of a ‘great’ rock show. Keith is all about the music first and aesthetics second. That’s why he was always happy to concede stage design and all that stuff to Mick and Charlie, and only insist that it didn’t interfere in their ability to sound as good as possible.

Whereas Mick, while he obviously believes the music is important, is much more focused on the showmanship and business aspect of tours and shows. He wants them to be musically solid and visually entertaining, so that the audience feels that they’ve gotten their money’s worth. So having the famous guitarist in the band show the audience his back for most of a concert, rather than play to them, is a problem.

Plus Keith has a tendency to get carried away (to put it lightly) when he’s left to his own devices with Charlie for too long, and make decisions that might comes across as…odd.

I mean, he bit him.

"I was shooting Charlie from the side of the stage at the Müngersdorfer Stadium in Cologne [in 1982] when Keith decided to join in, eventually biting Charlie's neck whilst both continued to play to an audience of 50,000. Back on the band plane, Ronnie Wood drew a pen and ink drawing of the mimed vampiric encounter that had been spontaneously staged by Keith for my benefit."-Denis O'Regan, 2012

[bahamutgames]

Afterthoughts Story : Cyber Sleuth

Game: Digimon Story : Cyber Sleuth (March 12, 2015)

Console: Nintendo Switch

Alright, let's do this. So, my last RPG that I played through before taking a break so I wouldn't have anything overlapping with the most important game ever coming out this Friday Is Digimon Cyber Sleuth, obviously. I got this game for Christmas a few years back now but didn't end up playing it until this year, and finally beat it right at the end of October. So here I am, telling you about my wonderful digiexperience!

Like always, not a review, just my thoughts. Please don't take my word as gospel, just my impressions while playing. Play anything I talk about you that interests you.

SPOILERS FOR DIGIMON CYBER SLEUTH AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION! THERE'S NO SPOILERS FOR HACKER'S MEMORY THOUGH!

Opening

So, honestly, as much as I enjoy Digimon from afar. I've never been a hard core Digimon guy. I've seen a bit of Adventures, I always liked the designs, and I follow that Digimon a day twitter that has shown me a lot of AMAZING creatures from it. But truth be told, I just never really got into the series. However I saw how popular this game seemed to be, and knew it was a turnbased RPG, so I figured it'd be a great jumping in point for me. And honestly, I was right! I had a fantastic time with this game!

Stuff I liked

I was very pleasantly surprised by this game. I really wasn't sure what to expect since Digimon is a little out of my wheelhouse, but honestly I think this was a really solid RPG with a lot of high points. I think the graphics are nice, it's not the most mind blowing thing visually outside of EDEN but when you go into digital worlds I think the game looks SUPER cool and felt like playing Summer Wars. Which makes sense, but still lol. The soundtrack is also REALLY good, much to no one's surprise, I particularly enjoyed the battle themes. The boss theme and the Eater themes were my favorites, but I also enjoyed the song that plays in the Digital Shift dungeons and the Digital World.

The gameplay was very good too and honestly really surprising to me. I know they're wildly different series, but I HAVE been playing through the Pokemon games lately, so I couldn't help but draw comparisons between the two. And while this is a monster collection game, they play NOTHING alike. In fact, Cyber Sleuth plays a LOT more like a traditional JRPG. And personally, I really like that. Things are a little linear which is fine for my lizard brain. But particularly I think the combat helps this game feel a lot faster than Pokemon can at times. Since every battle has you with 3 monsters that you can swap out during combat, and fully deck out with multiple pieces of equipment, and even completely change their movelist to your liking whenever you want. I think it works very well and while it is SIMILAR to Pokemon, and it might be more my style, I think it's good that they're so different, I don't know if I'd want Pokemon to straight up rip this off even if I think there is some convenience and maybe even some polish it could borrow from this?

In regards to that polish, I do love that every Digimon is like a full fledged party member in a more traditional RPG sense. But something I was REALLY shocked by was the amount of animations each Digimon has. They all have a standard attack, signature attack, buff, damage, death, and victory animation totally unique to themselves! From what I noticed, they're not even copied between evolutions. AND your current party follows you on the map, it's really cool! I also enjoy that digimon you aren't using can be put on the farm to gather items and sidequests, or even be fed to your other Digimon for EXP. It's small but it's a neat addition.

And as long as I'm on the subject of the monsters themselves, if you've seen my thoughts on the Pokemon games you know a HUGE aspect of those games for me is the Pokedex of the region. The monsters really make or break the monster collection game for me, of course. They're the main reason I'm playing it! And while it might be unfair to give it praise for this, since it's had years of monsters to pull from. As an outsider of the series, Cyber Sleuth MORE than delivers on its monster catalogue! There are SO many monsters to meet and recruit through the game, and so many of them were brand new to me! Obviously I had the classics I know like Agumon (one of my personal faves cause, dinosaur) but there were SO many new Digimon I had never heard of before that I fell in love with. Stuff like Pumpkinmon, Geckomon, Lekismon, Zubamon (who I just learned can turn into a sword!? SO BAD ASS!!), and my new personal favorite: Groundramon! It seemed like there was ALWAYS something new to find even when I digivolving the same creature over and over, I was always finding new creatures and still didn't get most of the catalogue filled.

Outside of that stuff, I enjoyed the story a lot. There were a lot of turns and twists that kept it interesting, and I always really enjoy plots about the relationship between the real world and cool MMOs. I think the Eden Syndrome stuff is probably a little tried but it worked! I thought the Eaters were mysterious and freaky. I liked how the plot was framed around solving cases as a detective, it was a very unique format for an RPG. I liked a lot of the characters, they were all very fun. Nokia and Yuuko were funny, I liked Arata, and Kyoko was SO hot! The game is also hilarious! It sometimes gives the energy of like "we weren't given a proper script to translate so we went a little nuts" but honestly I think it worked. The game is serious when it needs to be but is still super funny when it can be and is generally very unhinged at times in a good way. Overall it was a very fun and funny experience!

Also, the ending where you're rebuilt from the memories of your Digimon team was SO cute, I loved that, what a cute little detail as a final goodbye from your party.

Stuff I didn't like

However, as you can probably tell from the translation thing, this game is a little rough around the edges. I'd say overall the quality is very high, but there's a couple things here and there that make it feel not 100% there, if that makes sense?

So, a small one that didn't come up a lot but came up more than you'd expect was text formatting issues. This makes sense because Japanese text can probably fit a whole novel into the textboxes, while English text can be a lot longer. But sometimes text would go off screen, or there would be times where I could select lines in a dialogue box that was CLEARLY not a dialogue choice? Or sometimes I felt like they'd attribute the lines to the wrong characters. It never massively got in the way, and most of the time it's not an issue. But it's still odd and something I've never seen before.

Then there's the character designs. I like the protagonist's design. I like Kyoko and Yuuko too. And obviously the Digimon rule. But like Arata and the detective and Date all kinda look basic? Like I maybe couldn't pick them out of a crowd? And it weirded me out the WHOLE time that Nokia looked almost identical to me. Was us being separated at birth removed from our memories too? I felt similarly about Jimiken, who really didn't look as cool or noticeable (despite looking like Jimiken) to be a reoccurring threat through so much of the early game. Overall I don't think any character designs are bad, just some of them are underwhelming among the humans.

The only real issues I have with the Digimon are that there's too many Vaccine types. I ended up having tons that turned into Vaccines in the end and basically had no null types. It was very odd. And also, I do kinda wish you could digivolve for the stats without having to change the Digimon's designs. Some of them have great designs but their digivolutions kinda... suck. Like Geckomon's evo looks really stupid imo, so I had to turn him into Whamon. Who changed from Virus to Vaccine. Stuff like that genuinely got under my skin sometimes. I don't like Zabueagermon. That name is stupid. I like Zabumon. Give him back to me!

However, my biggest problem with this game. Is that it can kinda drag sometimes. In a few ways. Some smaller ways are like, when you need a new mission. Instead of just giving it to you, sometimes they make you leave the office, get a call, then IMMEDIATELY walk back inside the office. Or worse, you have to walk all the way somewhere to get a job, then go back to the office to accept, THEN GO BACK to where you got the job and continue. Or sometimes characters will just kinda talk on and on and on forever until I'm totally lost from the conversation. I know it's kind of the joke with Kyoko, but it happens a lot and especially towards the end of the game. Genuinely took me out of some story moments where I couldn't keep up with what long-winded comparison she was going on about.

And that ties into my final thought on this, that the game kinda starts to drag in general towards the end. Like, it feels like nothing is happening for a large portion of the game, then the portal opens and things get exciting. And then things just kinda stop and start dragging again. Even story relevant stuff just didn't feel exciting or sometimes out of place. The worst example being when you travel to an alternative reality to get a character who died off screen to come help you because he's still alive in this world. Was that world a reference to a Digimon series I should've been aware of? This new character who joins you from this reality just shows up out of NOWHERE and realistically this whole situation is kinda meaningless? Like this didn't need to happen, it just does for some reason and then kinda never gets addressed again. WE WENT TO AN ALTERNATE REALITY? Idk it just feels very odd. And then some late game dungeons just kinda go on or are kinda repeats of earlier dungeons with tedious copy/paste puzzles. And then you finally get to the end and you have to fight the same security system over and over until you FINALLY get to the final boss. Again it's not the end of the world, but after a bit I really like feel like the game was just overstaying its welcome a little.

Final Thoughts

Honestly though? Overall I think this game was FANTASTIC and a really good introduction to Digimon for me! I didn't even fully go into some other systems and concepts I enjoyed like crossover attacks, how you recruit digimon by scanning them, the theming of dungeons using firewalls and you actually having to hack stuff using computer functions. It's cute!

Color me intrigued, I'm certainly interested in Digimon now. I know there's a remarkable amount of RPGs and Fighting games in the series, so I'll probably check out some of those. I might watch some of the anime. I'm a little card game crazy and Groundramon has a few cards in the TCG! I'm even working on my first Digifake and joined a Digimon Discord with some of my friends. There's a whole new digital world for me to jump into!

===

Thanks for reading! I totally understand why Digimon is so beloved by people, and it was genuinely really fun to finally dive into something from it full on. SO MANY COOL REPTILES IN THIS SERIES! You can see my full team right here (x)!

As for Hacker's Memory. I'm not gonna play that right now. It's longer than the base game. That's not DLC, that's a sequel!! Which is a great deal for sure! But, sheesh! I'll be sure to play it later!

I also want to give a shoutout to Helryu on Deviantart! Usually for the game cover banners at the top of posts I'll take banners from online stores, twitch, or news sites. Stuff that's probably game assets already. But they actually didn't have one for JUST cyber sleuth, they all came with Hacker's memory. So I was very happy to see Helryu did the dirty work for me. Thank you! They make lots of twitch game banners so go check them out if you need any.

That's all from me! Go out and play a game from a big franchise you've wanted to check out!

[heyletsgetbuzzed]

Finally the halfway mark of our lovely neighbors, and who better than to introduce the dreaming Sally Dreamer! She's 5'3 due to her horns and her name comes from her innate ability of seeing visions, a very creative imagination and telling fortunes of what she dreams about. In Doghouse, since she's not our usual fallen star, she instead has a deep connection with the stars, like reading the future, different constellations meaning different signs, etc. Not to mention, Sally herself is generally used to help toddlers sleep in between segments and helps them use their imagination.

I really wanted to change her design drastically, but also wanted to keep the theme of stars as well with Sally- so I gave her Julie's monster puppet form and made her a dreaming fortune teller. The rat little slippers are just a nod to fortune tellers having an apparent theme with rodents- you wouldn't believe how often it happens. Another thing is also color swapping Sally to purple and blues, instead of her usual brighter color palette to fit the sleeping time persona- but I did keep the yellow skin. She is still a puppet, after all.

Onto the facts about our dreamer, her eyes are very special and usually Sally keeps her eyes closed due to sleeping all the time. However, in the daytime she has normal eyes but at night her eyes act like nightlights in a way. Her pupils glow a soft purple, if she's still awake at that point of course. Personality wise, she has a wild imagination and like to play pretend most of the time with Julie, and sometimes Barnaby or Howdy. But mostly, Sally is very mellow and moderate company to have, especially when it comes to serious conversations about the future or concerning the stars- which is why she's very close with Poppy, Howdy and Frank. Mostly Poppy, since she feels protective of the sleepy gal and quite enjoys her cozy home.

Another important fact about our dreamer is, at random, she does pass out for short periods during the day and usually is knocked out for the entirety of the night. During her sleep, she dreams about snip bits of the future or certain aspects of her neighbors lives. Mostly little things, like if their milk is rotten, what another neighbor will say or do to them- similar to that nature. Which is why Poppy and Frank are very close friends with Sally, warning them about Barnaby's pranks if she sees them. However, one thing she dreamed about was concerning our spaniel and his Doghouse- which scared the daylights out of Sally and she barely interactions with him now because of it.

Lastly, one more fact about our for dreamer is about her and Howdy. She likes to think of him as an older brother figure, and is the only neighbor she doesn't dream about strangely enough.

Hope y'all enjoy my fortune teller Sally! She is very important to the lore, and her whole schtick is pretty interesting to say the least. Next will be Eddie, so stay tuned!

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

Chimata if you feel like it!

General opinion/How much I care about them: i dont remember if it was really soon after or if it took some time for it all to click, but i've really come to adore all of th18's cast, and that includes that Chimata who has one of the best designs ever and I am being completely sincere! 🌈 i love everything about her. Her concept as a god of markets and how that was clearly inspired by real life doujin conventions yet still making it make sense in the setting of touhou, and her personal journey of rising back up to power thanks to the really complicated connection she's struck up with Megumu is so compelling and instantly had me and so many other fans running hamster wheels in our brains for years to come...

Also the majority of her dialogue is just really really funny, between bragging about how amazing markets are (She's right) or getting so offended when the player characters insult her card... She's kind of a mess even moreso than the usual touhou character, and that she's also a final boss and super powerful god makes a fun contrast i like a lot.

A ship I love: the obvious one is chimata/megumu though its a bit weird to talk about in this context because personally what i love about the marketeer quartet polycule is how Megumu is at the center and how the other three reflect and bring out different aspects of her (Although at the same time i also think Tsukasa can easily be the 'center' pov if needed to, because they all think the scheming tube fox is cute!). Going into detail on all that would probably steer the topic away from Chimata too much so i'll just say for now that I think Chimata and Megumu, without either really meaning to, brought the 'best' out of each other. Its just that their 'best' in this case meant giving them the means and confidence to take everything for themselves 😄

(also kind of a tangent but ive also always kinda thought megumu/chimata is similar in superficial ways to how i see yachie/keiki from just the previous game maybe with the dynamics reversed a little. But then following on that thought, momoyo is kinda similar to saki, and then i have no choice but to say tsukasa like some inverse mayumi... Its just nonsense but its funny to me think about)

A non-romantic relationship that I love: as of right now, she's gotta be reeeeeally ticked at Marisa right? Chimata had gotten over that whole thing of attacking her market as a robber and turning her bedridden, but then the stuff with the black markets had Marisa being trusted to stop them and then putting it off to enjoy collecting cards instead 😂

But despite all of that, I think Chimata ultimately would still acknowledge that avariciously human spirit which is vital in those who seek to do exchange, and will probably take Marisa off her personal market banlist eventually....

The NOTP: I actually think Chimata would get along surprisingly well with Momoyo but ive no desire to make something romantic out of it. although... maybe if megumu was somehow their driving motivation???

My biggest headcanon about them: i actually dont have anything too substantial this moment if only because her actual canon has been already so substantial and fulfilling... Though i think after becoming bedridden after UM's ending, she was resting at Megumu's place and was helping herself to the fridge and stuff without any hesitation or remorse 😊

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: well i'll just say for now that i definitely want to do a specific story featuring the market quartet sometime.

anyhow, something about her makes me feel like shes a prime candidate for those AUs where she swaps roles with another character (like megumu or kanako) yet somehow retains mostly the exact same personality and mannerisms.

Something that makes me think of them: i will always think of chimata now whenever i purchase goods and services, and remember to thank her for keeping me alive 😊

[xiadz]

When I was in highschool, art class was my favorite with computer class being a close second. In 9th grade I was so excited to be able to spend an entire hour dedicated only to art. My teacher didn't like me, I don't really know why cause I wasn't an asshole kid and was mostly just quiet. I suspect it was because I wore death metal band shirts and she was heavily christian, but I don't know. Every single project I did and turned in, it was an instant fail. I mean every one, not even a D mark, everything was a failing grade. I began to think maybe I just fucking suck at this but still, it was the only class all throughout highschool where I didn't miss a single assignment. The kid that sat next to me that year thought it was bullshit and even he asked her about it and she said I just simply didn't meet the required expectations. That solidified it, I'm just terrible at this. Until one day, the same dude - suggested we switched projects for the turnin and see what happens. I thought it was dumb and it would just ruin his grade but I agreed, and the exact same thing happened. Teacher marked "my" project with an F and marked "his" with an A. I couldn't believe it, I still don't believe it. That someone in a position of power like that would just fuck with a kid for zero reason other than disliking them. I wish I could tell you that I was motivated to continue art out of spite, but something about it really ruined every aspect of it for me. Despite our little experiment of swapping projects, that year ruined every perception I had of my capabilities. I stopped drawing completely, I barely painted, and anything I created I kept to myself. The idea that I would ever show anyone else things I was working on was insane, so I kept it to myself for the next 15 years. Every great once in a while I'll maybe post what I consider a shitpost equivalent of something I made, but for the most part everything else is destined to live covered in dust away from the world. & Having any piece that is associated with me and not just some random weirdo on the internet? Not happening ever. I'm trying to change that about myself, in some sort of symbolic sacrifice I took this final project we made in that very same class, which mine was a large ceramic pumpkin, and about a year ago I walked outside and just fucking smashed it against the ground. I saved it all these years sitting in my closet but I fucking resented it. I hated associating with it, I hated that teacher for making me feel that way. I hated even more that I thought about her while she probably has no recollection of who I even am. I'm still kind of unsure about publicly showing off things I've made that can be associated with me. But for the last 2 years I've been creating, and I've been enjoying it. I've been showing some friends my poster designs, I've sent a few discord strangers my works in progress, I even entered a competition a while back. I didn't win, but it isn't the point. I'm just kind of mad at myself for spending all those years doing almost nothing at all, but I'm over it. I bought a new notebook a few months ago and it almost never leaves my side. A step forward is a step forward, no matter what cunts try to block your path.

[jin-enjoji]

ey yo seth! do you recommend the new fire emblem game? bc i ADORE FE but ive seen absolutely nobody talking about it so i have like. no reference from people who actually LIKE FE playing it, its just dudebros bitching bc "eww a new fire emblem and the protag is toothpaste lmaoooo" which is NOT helpful. also about your fic: dont feel bad, you write from PASSION as it SHOULD BE, grammar be DAMNED

thank you for your comment about my writing, it means a lot!! im glad u think so!

anyways, here is my Honest Opinion(tm) about Engage (under a cut bc its long):

yes, there are many unhelpful biased comments about the designs, the life sim aspects, and the story. ive seen the fucking "lolol toothpaste haha COLGATE heehee PEPSI lmao" joke over and over again with no end in sight. its not that funny anymore, guys.

BUT

to me, as a fire emblem fan (mind you, my first game was path of radiance when i was in ???middle school??? but the first fe game i FINISHED was awakening, when i was about 16 or 17), i think that Engage is fine as it is. :) the gameplay is what REALLY matters in a game, and the gameplay is VERY fun and challenging, so if nothing else, i'd recommend it for its unique playstyle. the story is kind of a rehash of awakening, with some details swapped out, and to me, the writing is actually sliiiiightly better here than in awakening. if you like awakening: great!!! you'll like the story in this game too! its a bit more in-depth, and the villains are focused on much more than in awakening, which i personally appreciate.

alear, the protagonist, reminds me a lot of robin, in that: they make their OWN choices, NOT the player's choice. for instance, in the first few minutes of the game, they decide to RUN from enemies instead of fight! they want to protect their stewards, vander and framme+clanne. i thought that was interesting. so far (and im almost finished with the game), i havent had a prompt about what i, the player, want to do in regards to a story beat. alear does the decision-making for you. even robin had a few player-driven choices to make, but not alear. alear is their own character. which is nice!!!

as for the life sim stuff, its very limited. the somniel is almost entirely optional. you can s support, but only alear can s support, and even then, NOT all of them are romantic in nature (see: pandreo and ivy, who both have romantic endings with alear regardless of their gender). if you choose, you can build and grind supports. the support convos arent always interesting, similar to awakening or fates, but they are cute and serve a purpose. but all that i just mentioned in this paragraph is not integral to the story AT ALL.

the story. the story is good, with some twists and turns here and there! we are supposed to get more characters and a new story option in wave 4 of the dlc (i am unsure when that is coming out!), and so the story might deepen with that dlc option. right now im doing a vanilla run with no dlc and ive been enjoying it thus far.

in short, im not DONE with the game, but i am REALLY enjoying myself so far. the battles are engaging (lol) and challenging (ive died on some skirmishes before :P), and i LOVE the characters, even if theyre not super deep. i hope the game has a satisfying ending and i suspect the replay value will be amazing, with all the unlockable classes there are :)!

id recommend you play it if youre a fan of fe, even if youre not crazy about the designs or the story. of course i cant dictate how others feel, but i actually enjoyed myself very much and remember to HAVE FUN and NOT CARE what ANYONE else thinks !!

[postgamecontent]

'8-Bit Adventures 2' Switch Review

I'm a bit tired of love letters. I'm not saying that love letters ought not to exist or anything. People can and should make what they want. But as a player and a critic and all of that, I'm getting somewhat exhausted with games that "pay homage to the classic 8- and 16-bit RPGs". Some of them are too ironic. Some too on-the-nose. Most of them are so busy trying to offer tribute to their objects of adoration that they forget to be their own thing. That's what I was expecting from 8-Bit Adventures 2, a sequel to a game I have yet to play.

I won't say that it completely bucked that prediction, but 8-Bit Adventures 2 is actually really good. It almost makes me wish that some of its more obvious winks to other games had been left out, because it makes it occasionally read as an imitation rather than the legit experience that it is as a whole. What I'll say first is that if you're in the same boat as I am, you don't need to worry about playing the previous game to understand this one. It follows up on that game, but it does a decent enough job of catching you up on what you need to know. I will probably go back and play that first game now, though.

A hero has gone missing, and the search for him kicks off this quest. It turns out he has fallen prey to something called a Glitch, and he's not quite himself as a result. It seems clear that if the Glitch is left unchecked, the entire world could be at risk. That Glitch has a story to it, and it makes for an interesting character in its own right. Indeed, if I were to highlight one aspect of 8-Bit Adventures 2 above all others, it's the character writing. This game's dialog is a pleasure to read, and while the plot sometimes wavers the moment-to-moment story remains engaging all throughout. It's a very sincere game, and it shows.

In terms of gameplay, not many molds are being broken here. Battles are turn-based and allow for three active party members at once. Similarly to Final Fantasy X, you can swap party members in and out during combat, and you'll often want to do that during more difficult encounters. You'll have access to a basic fight command with three different levels, trading accuracy for power as desired. You also get a number of additional abilities and magic that are tied to AP/MP. Defending not only lessens the damage you take but also restores some HP, which is a fun strategic choice. Eventually you'll unlock Chrono Trigger-esque combo moves, and there's one party member that beeps to its own beat just to keep you on your toes.

Things outside of battle follow the usual traditions, with dungeons that have treasures and visible monsters to get into scraps with. Some puzzles here and there spice things up. You have towns to visit, a world to explore, and lots of gear to upgrade with. There are, perhaps befitting a game aimed at evoking a particular era of RPGs, some very clever bits that help break up the usual loop. It threads the needle between adhering to traditions and doing some new things very nicely.

The solid writing even extends to the NPCs, to the point that I enjoyed my usual process of talking to everyone. One thing that really surprised me is the length of the game. I'm used to this kind of game running in the ten to twenty hour range, but this game runs way past thirty hours. Even more surprising is that it doesn't drag. It ramps up at a good speed and seems to know when it needs to throw in curveballs to keep things from getting repetitive. It's a well-paced ride that I think most RPG fans will enjoy.

Visually it is more "8-bit in your memories" than actually 8-bit, but it's consistent and I think doesn't egregiously betray the vibe it's going for. I really enjoyed the enemy designs in the battles, as they're detailed, cool, and very much old-school. Probably more 16-bit than 8-bit, but I'm already getting tired of being a pedant about that so I'm not going to bring it up again. The soundtrack sticks to the rules and it actually rules. Very good tunes in this game, which I think is vital to a good RPG.

Overall, I was genuinely surprised by how good 8-Bit Adventures 2 was. I've played tons of RPGs, and thanks to my work as a Kemcologist I have devoured more generic RPGs than any human ever should. I initially feared that this game would be one more, so imagine my delight when it turned out to be one of the more satisfying indie games in the genre that I've played. If you like this genre, I highly recommend 8-Bit Adventures 2.

Switch Score: 4.5/5

[fruit-future]

WEEK 3 - TONES AND GROUP SWAP

Above is a a page of warm up observational drawings from the beginning of the class. I usually draw using my ipad and procreate, buy I've been wanting to try something new so for this class I restricted myself to a ballpoint pen and paper.

This class we were instructed to think about the tones of our world, especially in our layouts and backgrounds. We were asked to choose a prop or character from our world and draw a tonal study of them - drawing them in different lighting conditions. I really enjoyed this exercise! Lighting is something I haven’t really thought about, or experimented with in my animation practice, so this exercise got me thinking about how lighting can impact the tone and atmosphere of our work. Especially with this group project, atmosphere will be very important.

We also were instructed to experiment with line more, which is something I was already considering. I wanted to work on our main character, Sasha’s character design, to simplify his shapes down to a more recognisable silhouette and to make him easier to animate. I made a few different versions, I would love to work on him further (because I’m still not quite happy with them) and made a short animation using this version.

We were also asked to compile frames from films which inspire the lighting and layout of our group project. I want to take particular inspiration from German Expressionist film, the dark, long shadows, and heavy contrast between light and dark to make characters pop, and to differentiate foreground from background. I particularly like the shot in F.W Murnau’s Nosferatu, of the city through the pane of glass, it’s a shot I definitely want to replicate in this group project, with the eerie, crumbling city-scape being something very relevant to our project.

Me and Sarah were moved to group 1 to work on a their project. I enjoyed some elements of their pitch but I felt there was so many ideas in one it was hard to parse and imagine actually making a short animation out of this. I felt like the ridiculousness of the pitch could have worked if it was intended to be humorous but it seemed that wasn’t the intention. There didn’t seem to be a lot of communication or cooperation within the group and I think this is what led to the mix of ideas. We tried to refine the idea further but I feel we have no solid concept yet, I want to work on it and refine the idea further, but I don’t want to go ahead without the approval of the group as a whole.

The idea we’ve settled on for now is a gothic western with Sci-fi elements. We’re thinking of focusing on the action aspect of it, a lone vampire hunter traversing the desert planet, fighting vampire spawn until he eventually makes his way up to the head vampire, Nosferatu. I liked the Mad Max and vampire influences of the previous version and wanted to keep those, will making this version more stylistically focused.

This project really reminds of the film Near Dark, which follows a vampire family living in the American desert. I would love to implement the gritty and dark, but also comedic tone of the film in our project.

Made some rough character designs, I need to work on them more :(

With the group I was put in, it was difficult to get communication going. There was very little work done as a group so I was unable to finish the homework for this week, the thumbnails, as there was no solid concept to work off of. I hoping to work on them more in the future.

[jeramewrites2]

Coming to terms with my bad taste.

I like it dumb.

What is it? Honestly it's everything. I don't have good taste. Or what other people say is good taste. I work in a hyperbaric oxygen clinic and there are TVs attached to each chamber. So for the ones that I am not actively treating a patient in I will throw on some of the worst movies I can find. I am talking Crabs (2021). I tend to stand and watch at least the first few mins of the movie while I get the beds ready. I know that is very different than actually sitting down and watching these movies with popcorn and no phone.

HOWEVER. I do find myself wanting to watch these movies. Something that I know other people are doing. There are subreddits dedicated to watching bad movies. I tend to swing by at least once or twice a week. I don't bath in bad movies but I seem to enjoy the bad ones more than the good ones. When I read the best books of a genre I am usually disappointed also when I listen to "Great" music I am not moved.

Then I will have my music on random and really enjoy a band that sounds an awful lot like The National. And I hate The National.... but... DO I? I am so confused. I like what I like and I am going to explore this much more.

I know that this will be a path that I walk alone. I have been enjoying bad movies and music my entire life by myself and this will be nothing different.

In that vein I watched the re-imagnining of Black Christmas. I am not a neck beard who believes that the original version of a movie is sacrosanct. I think that there can be remakes and changes that can make movies much better. I think the remake of IT (2017) proved that. I think that was a great rerun at ideas. That being said.

There are a lot of problems with Black Christmas 2019. The following will have spoilers so stop reading if you are still thinking you are going to watch it. The original movie was a slasher. There was nothing strange or special about it. It is fun to watch Margo Kidder in a movie that is not Superman but it was just a slasher at Christmas. It had a Italian Giallo aspect to it. in fact the killer is never seen on screen. The kills are first person if I remember. I have not seen it in a few years so my memory is hazy. The women in the film are sorority sisters and enjoy running around in their underwear and talking about sex while smoking pot. As all women did in the 70s before women's lib ruined everything. (THAT WAS ALL SARCASM.)

The tactic of BC 2019 is to set the women as fighters and survivors. There are two final girls and I do buy their friendships. There are trials that I enjoy watching them navigate. Within the first 15 mins we are introduced to Riley. She is a SA survivor. She was not believed when she was assaulted and by one of the many white privileged dick bags that populate this movie. All of them are pallet swaps by design and writing.

The usual way that this is done is that I summarize everything that happens in this movie and write my thoughts on it. I am not going to do that. If you want to watch the movie and then come read this then fine. If not then just read on.

There is a point in this movie were the murderous frat boys are said to be under the influence of a supernatural force. The spirit of the founder of the college is leaking out of a statue in the form of black goo. This goo when put on the forehead of pledges makes them stop thinking for themselves and just follow orders. I get what the writer/director was going for here but it feels like a half step. It feels like a producer said we need something to give us some cover for a critique. We don't wanna say that FRATs are inherently evil... SO um GHOST????

I would have preferred them just being evil. I hate to be that guy but I will be. The original had no supernatural influences, and it seems tacked on here. Just like the final battle scene. The frat vs the sororities battle scene offered no catharsis to me because I don't know these characters. All of the characters I was introduced and cared about are dead... Who are all of these women? It doesn't seem to matter. In this universe there is only one traitor woman and she is killed by the evil frat guys.

I did enjoy this movie for the most part. I think the supernatural influence makes all of the actions of the frat fall flat even though I understand the point that is being made. I would say it is defiantly worth a watch if you are interested in social commentary horror. At the end of the day I feel like this style of commentary was done better later with the re-make of Slumber Party Massacre.

As always thanks for reading.

[pkmnomegaverse]

not to be That person but if you have any more info on lynn you wanna share, anything at all random as can be, pls take this as the sign to do so 🙏

Lynn as a character is somewhat vague to me since she really does exists as an extension of the Lonan/Rosette story. The bff of the protag (Rosette) in a shoujo manga who gets kind of shafted in terms of development to let the heroine and her love interest shine.  But here’s some disjointed thoughts about her.

- I’m sure this one is obvious, but Lynn’s friendship with Rosette is meant to mirror their mother’s friendship, but with the roles swapped.  Whereas Whitney is the extrovert to Jasmine’s introvert, it’s flipped with Lynn as the extrovert to Rosette’s introvert.   I liked the idea of Jasmine and Whitney each having a daughter that probably reminds each of them of their closest friend.

- Similar to Rosette, Lynn’s father kind of doesn’t matter, since she was designed more as Jasmine’s daughter vs. as Jasmine/Chuck’s daughter.  But I’m committed to the affair angle so it’s here to stay!  As such, while Lynn does spend time with her father and step-mom, it’s always kind of awkward for her.  She has a hard time connecting with Chuck due to having no shared interests with him and while her step-mom is kind enough to her, there’s still always a distance between them.  Doesn’t think of her as Mom #2 at all.  Admittedly, Lynn really does stay with Jasmine much more than Chuck which contributes to this whole thing, but in some ways, her dad is the relative she’s obligated to see when she’s younger, but never really looks forward to visiting.   

- Part of me thinks it would make sense for her to have a younger half-sibling on Chuck’s side but I have no desire to design another kid for him at this point (bonus point if it was a kid into martial arts to really drive home how much Lynn can’t connect with her dad, but I digress), so something something those two either not choosing to have a kid or maybe even being unable to have kids probably adds to the off--ness in their dynamic.  If their relationship improves, it wouldn’t be until Lynn is older.

- All of this leads to Lynn having underlying baggage with her family situation that she 100% acts like she’s not bothered by in the slightest!  What are you talking about, she’s just a young women in her prime enjoying life!  Out on the town enjoying shopping and eating out with the girlies!  No hidden sad feelings or anything going on at all!  She’s very much the type to cover things up with a smile and hide her more negative feelings.  Even with Rosette, she doesn’t like revealing her insecurities, which is why whenever Rosette is having problems, she latches on to helping her out with those.  Truly because she does deeply care for Rosette, but there is a part of it where she takes what distractions she can get to not focus on her own issues.

- Rosette isn’t unaware per se that Lynn does this, but she doesn’t realize the extent Lynn is doing it.  On her end, she does notice her friend seems to downplay her own problems or insecurities, and Rosette of course lets Lynn know she can come to her with anything and she’s always willing to listen and help her out.  But Rosette is also a pretty passive person and really does rely on Lynn to be the leader and the decision maker in their little duo.  Perhaps a dramatic event could shake things up in regards to this aspect of their friendship.  Playing off the Lynn almost getting killed by a UB angle, I think this would be an event that flips their dynamic in some sense.  There’s the basic flip of Rosette becoming the one taking care of Lynn for a while vs their usual dynamic of Lynn looking out for Rosette, but I can also see Rosette finally getting upset at Lynn for downplaying how everything is all right just because nobody died.  How if Lynn is scared, or hurting, or in any kind of pain, can’t Lynn please just confide in her.   If Lynn is always going to look out for Rosette and have her back, why can’t Lynn accept the same from Rosette?  They’re best friends after all, aren’t they? The UB attack aftermath stuff is still vague in my mind, but that’s some of the vibes for those two I’m feeling.

- Personality wise, Lynn is pretty cunning and observant, but doesn’t typically draw attention to this aspect of herself.  She likes to play up the pretty face who is kind of ditzy angle.  But I think her and Lonan would actually make for a pretty good team if they were ever put in a situation where they needed to work together to investigate and figure out something.  Able to bounce ideas off each other while Rosette is offering gentle encouragement from the sidelines since investigation is not her strong suit.  Like no way would Lynn ever want to work with Interpol officially, but doesn’t mind getting involved unofficially if it’s through Rosette’s secret agent not-boyfriend.

- I genuinely have no idea what Pokemon she might have at the moment, but I know she’s like Rosette in not being battle oriented.  Has a few Poks who are beloved companions (and maybe one OP ace like what Rosette has with Gelanla) but neither of the girls are living up to their Gym Leader Moms’ legacy.  Of which both of their moms are fine with this (Chuck might have some opinions on it with Lynn, but as noted already, that relationship is a bit strained anyway).

- Random fact but I’ve always pictured most of Rosette’s outfits as picked out by either Lynn or Whitney.  Whitney for sure was the one dressing up Rosette when she was younger, but once Rosette is older, it’s Lynn often picking out cute outfits she thinks Rosette would look great in.  Cue shopping montage but all the things they’re trying on are what Lynn is picking out for the both of them.