#i'm gonna continue using that tag because it's unique to them DESPITE them not using the double a by default now

[leaffiii]

rough wip but i decided i wanted a more unique weapon for Sinclair since they're more magic focused. they have a bell now.

[wickedcriminal]

HELLO AGAIN I'm glad to see you got my ask (it was important to me that you knew how much I ADORE this au) but now I've just gone back through the tag, I have some questions, if you don't mind! There's a good chance you've answered some of them before but I wanted to ask anyway:

First of all: with both Snotlout's being one character, and in Elder's age group, how does that work with some of the book specific scenes where Snotlout is being cruel to Hiccup during training (as the older ones have already gone through pirate training)?

Also slightly related: are either Adelaide or Gustav in Younger's pirate training programme or is it just the book people we hear about?

Also also slightly related (and you can tell I have a bit of a theme to my questions): what is Adelaide and Snotlout's relationship like? And what is Adelaide like full stop since she's barely mentioned in the books after all, so if you do have anything characterisation wise, that would be quite cool?

AHHH THANK YOU 😭😭 ALSO I LOVE THESE QUESTIONS SO MUCH BECAUSE I GET TO DRAW ADELAIDEEE WHOO

So Snotlout basically did all the book bullying to Elder back when they were both in the Pirate Training Program, (including the sabatoge and attempted parricide,) and he continued to do it through the Dragon Training Program and up until Elder saved everyone from the Red Death. Ever since starting the Dragon Academy, Elder has been receiving much more respect from his peers, and Snotlout has been having to draw back on the bullying to save face. Elder and he still have that chief-heir rivalry, of course, and it becomes a gag that Snotlout casually tries to kill him and Elder rolls his eyes like "oh, you" and then everyone laughs it off. Through RTTE he'll mellow out, and by the time of HTTYD 2, the murder theme will pretty much be gone with Snotlout having begrudgingly become real friends with Elder.

As for Adelaide!! I made a post about her a few years ago, but I decided I wanted to give her a bit of an update since I found a better slot for her in the larger story! (And also because I wanted to redesign her agahagah)

Adelaide is indeed in the Pirate Training Program! She pretty much becomes Younger's book!Snotlout, sans the murderous tendencies. Unlike Snotlout, Adelaide has nothing to gain from killing her Hiccup, but she has seen Snotlout heckle Elder enough times for her to mirror that onto Younger. Taking book!Snotlout's place also gives her all of his book lackies, like Dogsbreath! (Gustav is also a Pirate and one of her lackies, though he's less of a bully to Minicup and Fish and moreso just a mild annoyance 😂)

Adelaide and her friends' usual up-tos around Berk include sailboat racing, hunting rats and fish with their hunting dragons, basheyball, and other mischievous preteen activities (though never quite as destructive as what the Thorston twins get up to.)

Adelaide's relationship with Snotlout is amicable enough, though they probably bicker thrice as much as the Hiccups normally would. Snotlout likes to embarass Adelaide around the other Pirates and it annoys her to no end, but despite this (and she'd never say it to his face) she's often heard praising Snotlout up and down for being the coolest person ever. She likes to taunt Younger about how her cool and awesome big brother is gonna clobber his wimpy crybaby big brother. Even after Elder defeats the Red Death, she still has a habit of talking him down in favor of Snotlout, and continues to do so even through Race to the Edge and HTTYD 2.

She'd get some skull tattoos in RTTE, and her riding dragon would be the Devilish Dervish that Snot had in the books! I also wanted to give her a unique weapon, so she uses a flail mace!

Her role gets bigger from book 9 onward, as she and Snotlout's relationship with each other as well as their differing thoughts about who deserves to be King become extremely relevant.

Let's just say she's got a good throwing arm.

[irawhiti]

gonna clarify a few things that i've noticed in the notes instead of replying to everyone individually. i ended up cutting out a fair bit of information to make this post initially since i was focusing on the US history of nuclear imperialism, this was (vaguely) about oppenheimer, but this seems to have confused some people and i'm a bit um, annoyed, at some of the other responses, so:

1. while i was specifically talking about the US here, i should clarify that the entire imperial core has, and still actively continues, to exploit the pacific for nuclear testing and waste sites. this is NOT something that is unique to the united states, it never has been, and i would like it if people didn't act like this is a "dumb american thing" on my post as if american citizens weren't being fucking bombed by their own government. japan has been trying to dump nuclear waste in the pacific for years and is still attempting to gain permission, despite fierce backlash and outrage from pacific islanders. france and england were allied with the US and were testing their own nuclear bombs in the pacific during the US tests.

pikinni specifically has been under colonial rule by germany, japan, spain, and the USA. this is not unique; the entirety of the fucking pacific has been colonised, sold, overthrown, and handed back and forth between global powers for centuries.

it is convenient for the imperial core to designate the pacific as a nuclear waste site, just as it is convenient for the imperial core to shift blame. i would recommend people look more into these topics on their own time since if i were to list every war crime the imperial core has committed against pasifika? i would be writing this post for months.

do NOT make this into a weird little thing about "uniquely horrible/genocidal/ignorant americans" as if americans (almost exclusively native americans and people of colour), weren't subject to the same horrors. as if part of the issue this post is TALKING about is the erasure of the voices affected by nuclear testing. as if the US government was alone in the act of decades-long nuclear genocide.

2. again, this post is focusing on the war crimes the US committed against the pacific as i am a pacific islander and feel comfortable speaking on and am affected by this topic, but while the pacific was ravaged by testing, other regions were absolutely being used for horrific nuclear tests. tests on US soil continued well after the war. england detonated at least 12 nukes on australia, which was quite convenient for them as colonisers as this made a large swatch of Aboriginal land uninhabitable and allowed the racist myth of terra nullius to further take hold. the soviet union conducted at least 715 nuclear tests in various countries and territories during the cold war. i could go on but i know less about these events frankly and i feel like it'd be inappropriate for me to try and act like any kind of authority. so, again, i'm going to recommend people do their own reading here.

a couple much less/tangentially related additions will be under the readmore, mostly just answering a few things that have come up repeatedly in the tags that aren't really the point of this post.

3. this is... obviously tangential, but i saw it mentioned a few times and people seem confused about the history there so: yes, the word "bikini" for swimsuits comes from pikinni, but the clothing has absolutely nothing to do with the atoll, its people, or its culture. pikinni roughly translates to "coconut place/surface" in kajin m̧ajel‌̧ (marshallese) and "bikini" is the german transliteration, given when pikinni was under colonial rule as part of german new guinea. the modern bikini was designed by louis réard, a frenchman (as a reminder: the french were among the countries actively and openly bombing the pacific with the US with nuclear tests). there was no actual connection to the atoll and he named it that because of the nuclear test which had been making headlines.

4. just as unrelated and frankly not something that i'd really want to put on such a serious post lmao, but it was brought up a few times in the tags so... yeah. yes, "bikini bottom" comes from bikini atoll. it obviously goes without saying that a lot of imagery taken from pacific islanders is used in spongebob. there's no actual connection to the atoll in the show, just like the "tiki totems" in the background and stuff like squidward's mo'ai house are just generalised "tropical island" imagery ripped from any cultural context. it's a little sucky sometimes, sure, but it's REALLY not related to the topic at hand and this is on such a different scale that it feels a bit... ehh. to bring these up together.

since it's been brought up i might as well mention that they actually use real footage of the nuclear bombs being dropped on pikinni as Funny Gag explosions in the show. which is uh, extremely fucking tasteless to put it lightly, but i truly Do not think it's worth including shit like "very tasteless imagery is used in a children's show sometimes" in a serious post about fucking... mass nuclear genocide being used as a tool for imperialism lmfao. for the love of god PLEASE don't let your takeaway of this post be that these are somehow on the same or some even remotely similar level here or that i'm comparing them i swear to fucking god. it just got mentioned in the tags a few times so i'm clarifying please god. look me directly in the eyes here.

while everyone's rightfully talking about oppenheimer and its flaws regarding the erasure of japanese and native american voices regarding nuclear testing and detonations, i'd like to bring up the fact that pacific islanders have also been severely impacted by nuclear testing under the pacific proving grounds, a name given by the US to a number of sites in the pacific that were designated for testing nuclear weapons after the second world war, at least 318 of which were dropped on our ancestral homes and people. i would like if more people talked about this.

important sections are bolded for ease of reading. i would appreciate this being reblogged since it's a bit alarming how few people know about this.

--

in 1946, the indigenous peoples of pikinni (the bikini atoll) were forcibly relocated off of their islands so that nuclear tests could be run on the atoll. at least 23 nuclear bombs were detonated on this inhabited island chain, including 20 hydrogen bombs. many pasifika were irreversibly irradiated, all of them were starved during multiple forced relocations, and the island chain is still unsafe to live on despite multiple cleanup attempts. there are several craters visible from space that were left on the atoll from nuclear testing.

the forced relocation was to several different small and previously uninhabited islands over several decades, none of which were able to sustain traditional lifestyles which directly lead to further starvation and loss of culture and identity. there is a reason that pacific islanders choose specific islands to inhabit including access to fresh water, food, shelter, cloth and fibre, climate, etc. and obviously none of these reasons were taken into account during the displacements.

200 pikinni were eventually moved back to the atoll in the 1970s but dangerous levels of strontium-90 were found in drinking water in 1978 and the inhabitants were found to have abnormally high levels of caesium-137 in their bodies.

--

i'm going to put the rest of this post under a readmore to improve the chances of this being reblogged by the general public. i would recommend you read the entirety of the post since it really isn't long and goes into detail about, say, entire islands being fully, utterly destroyed. like, wiped off of the map. without exaggeration, entire islands were disintegrated.

--

as i just mentioned, ānewetak (the eniwetok atoll) was bombed so violently that an entire island, āllokļap, was permanently and completely destroyed. an entire island. it's just GONE. the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested on this island. the crater is visibly larger than any of the islands next to it, more than a mile in diameter and roughly fifteen storeys deep. the hydrogen bomb released roughly 700 times the energy released during the bombing of hiroshima. this would, of course, be later outdone by other hydrogen bombs dropped on the pacific, reaching over 1000 times the energy released.

one attempt to clean up the waste on ānewetak was the construction of a large ~380ft dome, colloquially known as the tomb, on runit island. the island has been essentially turned into a nuclear waste dump where several other islands of ānewetak have moved irradiated soil to and, due to climate change, rising seawater is beginning to seep into the dome, causing nuclear waste to leak out. along with this, if a large typhoon were to hit the dome, there would be a catastrophic failure followed by a leak of nuclear waste into the surrounding land, drinking water, and ocean. the tomb was built haphazardly and quickly to cut costs.

hey, though, there's a plus side! the water in the lagoon and the soil surrounding the tomb is far more radioactive than the currently contained radioactive waste. a typhoon wouldn't cause (much) worse irradiation than the locals and ocean already currently experience, anyway! it's already gone to shit! and who cares, right, the only ""concern"" is that it will just further poison the drinking water of the locals with radioactive materials. this can just be handwaved off as a nonissue, i guess. /s

--

at least 36 bombs were detonated in the general vicinity of kiritimati (christmas island) and johnson atoll. while johnson atoll has seemingly never been inhabited by polynesians, kiritimati was used intermittently by polynesians (and later on, micronesians) for several hundred years. many islands in the pacific were inhabited seasonally and likewise many pacific islanders should be classified as nomadic but it has always been convenient for the goal of white supremacy and imperalism to claim that semi-inhabited areas are completely uninhabited, claimable pieces of terra nullius.

regardless of the current lack of inhabitants on these islands, the nuclear detonations have caused widespread ecological damage to otherwise delicate island ecosystems and have further spread nuclear fallout across the entirety of the pacific ocean.

--

while the marshall islands, micronesia, and the surrounding areas of melanesia and polynesia were (and still are) by far the worst affected by these atrocities, the entirety of the pacific has been irradiated to some extent due to ocean/wind currents freely spreading nuclear fallout through the water and air. all in all, at least 318 nuclear bombs were detonated across the pacific. i say "at least" because these are just the events that have been declassified and frankly? i wouldn't be shocked to find out they didn't stop there.

please don't leave the atomic destruction of the pacific out of this conversation. we've been displaced, irradiated, murdered, poisoned, and otherwise mass exterminated by nuclear testing on purpose and we are still suffering because of it. many of us have radiation poisoning, many of us have no safe ancestral home anymore. i cannot fucking state this enough, ISLANDS WERE DISINTEGRATED INTO NONEXISTENCE.

look, this isn't blaming people for not talking about us or knowing the extent of these issues, but it's... insidiously ironic that i haven't seen a single post that even mentions pacific islanders in a conversation about indigenous voices/voices of colour being ignored when it comes to nuclear tests and the devastation they've caused.

[thekaijudude]

Ok, before you release your review of Blazar… I’m going to send you mine. Correction: I already have. I sent it to you before I’ve even finished writing the first paragraph of the qn.

Basically, I want you to tell me your thoughts on my review.

Additionally, I want you to tell me, in as much detail as possible, why you felt Blazar had a boring plot. Please try to give me at least 7 major reasons and 5 minor reasons why it was boring for you, and here’s the thing: not one of them can be just ‘it was episodic’. If you can’t do that, then I want you to tell everyone why you think episodic seasons are so bad, when the Monster of the Week style has plain and simply worked for Blazar.

(Also, I feel like I’m being overly aggressive. Just understand that I liked Blazar a heck of a lot and don’t understand how you were going ‘it’s a boring show’ the whole time.)

Oh hell nah I ain't reposting that whole thing here, I guess mainly your review kinda makes your standards kinda ambiguous? Cause you said it's better than Trigger, Decker and Mebius but how exactly? Or what even were the positives and negatives of the aforementioned series that you're comparing Blazar to, that Blazar did better neccessarily? That you're even giving a rating for in the end?

Something like what I did for RB here:

Otherwise the entire review was just you talking about Blazar as a series alone despite you trying to do a comparative analysis which was what you tried to do in an incomplete fashion in the beginning as the analysis never really came, so this bascially made your entire 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th paragraph entirely moot to begin with

As for your 4th paragraph, that dosent neccessarily make both of our stances mutually exclusive tho? Like of course most would prefer a clear and consistent theme, but you do realize that both an episodic and a non-episodic narrative can achieve that no? So that point was neither here nor there

As for your second question, i aint gonna do all that since ive done it oftenly prior, think I attached a link to an ask which I covered in the review, plus the said review itself.

Best I can do is link said post here for u to read yourself:

Plus, episodic series is essentially just a preference, it can "work" for ANY series, but what I said specifically, is because if its episodic, this puts a restriction on each (or 2) episode having to focus on something different, with little sense of continuity and more often than not, takes the focus away from the Ultra itself, which again, is another preference I have for series. It all depends on what story you chose to tell for an entire season, which I personally felt it could be better for Blazar since he comes from a new origin (M421) with a unique species characteristic that we've never seen before (Being able to fuse with entire kaiju + using kaiju powers on their own, unlike X, which has to go through an intermediary), so I felt that Blazar, having a unique character setting was utterly wasted in this series (again, focusing on the Ultra is my personal preference)

I think u can search for commentaries in the first 8 episodes where I went in detail into this and more, plus iirc, I got alot of asks about this from different followers giving their own perspectives on and raising this issue very early on as well if u want more context

Also I was asked quite a few times about my thoughts on Blazar even prior before that, can check those out via the #asks tag, which I created for purposes like these

Otherwise can just check out all of the commentaries I have for every episode throughout the series if you really want that much details cause ain't no way I'm gonna do that much just for an ask

[sunseteyes]

FLUFFVEMBER DAY 10: INOSUKE HASHIBIRA

prompt: netflix binge (prompts are by @jojosmilktea)

word count: 1,329 words | themes: gen!reader. inosuke being tough. horror movies but not graphical anyway.

tags: @kacchanori @chickynn @todominica @sparkleswritings @brinthie @patricia-ceballos @giyuus-wife @bitchtrynafck @astrxrism @animatedarchives @deephasoceanmagic @strawberrysalwa (send a dm or ask to be added!)

rv: i just finished the haunting of bly manor by the time i was writing this so yeah it’s what i wrote here but there’s no sort of spoilers anyway.

✒︎ it’s not a competition

it's a thing for you and the rest of the "kamaboko squad" to always have a gathering at least once or twice a week to watch movies in netflix for one night. it's either going to be at your or tanjiro's house but usually, it's gonna be on the siblings' abode.

however tonight, it's just you and inosuke in your flat. apparently, nezuko is sick and tanjiro is taking care of his sister. and of course when zenitsu has heard of it, he wanted to go to the siblings' home, to which lead to the situation that you are in now. coincidentally, inosuke was looking forward to the weekly netflix binge since you were scheduled to watch the haunting of bly manor that day. inosuke is a huge fan of thriller, horror and crime movies or series, of course he’d be looking forward to such.

as for you, you're not that much afraid of horror stories but you could say that you hate jump scares the most, that's for sure. so yes, inosuke's company could help you, you just hope he wouldn't notice it and tease you to the ends of the earth.

"so what are we gonna watch, (y/n)? it's horror, right? you're not backing down are 'ya?"

you scoffed, "of course not, are you?"

inosuke laughs sarcastically, holding his chest up high. "why should i be?! it's you who's gonna be scared tonight!"

a pout appears on your face as you pressed the play button on the remote control, eventually having the first episode load on the screen. you settled comfortably next to inosuke, instantly feeling the warmth that radiates from his body even if you were only seated beside him, merely inches away. you've never sat beside him before actually, considering that you were much closer to nezuko compared to the other three. inosuke is probably the least closest to you than zenitsu and tanjiro, so this night will probably out of your comfort zone.

still, it is a good sign for the both of you. at least now, you won't get to play favorites. and you're quite sure inosuke's not that much of a difficult person to get close with—you think.

"why are their faces turning like that it looks so weird." inosuke complains the minute the opening started showing on the screen, the array of characters and specific casts in the beginning of the episode. you couldn't help but let out a short chuckle from your chest, unconsciously snuggling further next to inosuke as you brought your legs up to the couch, reaching under the comforts of the blanket that you laid on top of you two—to which he surprisingly agreed on.

inosuke noticed your movements though. the boy flinches on his seat and turns his head to look at you with eyes wide, yet you had yours glued to the television screen, too focused on what was happening in the scene without any clue that inosuke has his attention solely to you.

above everyone, you were the only one who he cannot read at all. to have you and only you here sitting beside him is something that came out of a clear blue sky. it's not that he didn't want to interact with you, he just has no idea how and it frustrates him how much he doesn't know what to say to you most of the time. of course, it’s not like he’ll ever admit to that out loud.

unable to identify why his face was burning up, he automatically looked away, also in fear that you may notice him looking your way and misunderstand it. his gaze may be directed on the screen and the subtitles, but his mind was flying like a bird elsewhere, flapping its wings to the thoughts of you.

as time passes by, inosuke eventually composes himself, his focus now on the television screen as the film and its plot slowly processed in both of your minds. reactions and opinions were shared between you and inosuke like you were pros, used to how you both do this with the others. with how the conversation just falls smoothly like the wave of a water, you certainly felt how natural the talks were and you were liking it.

maybe all too much.

"hey i thought this is horror where are the ghosts?"

"oh calm down, nosuke. we still have eight more episodes, you know? of course they'll have to build the plot first."

"aw man this is so boring i need to see the monsters!" inosuke whines loud like a child but he continued watching, earning you a shake from the head with an amused face. you just know that he was only keeping up a front just to make himself look tough. you're beginning to feel excited of what's to come as you two watch further into the scenes.

and when the dreaded jump scare scenes arrived, you certainly did not expect them. and neither did inosuke.

"what the hell was that?! did you see that?!"

"y-yeah, i did." you tried not to stutter but your voice was too weak to conceal it. it did not left unnoticed by inosuke, immediately recognizing that expression of yours.

"what's that? are you scared?"

your eyes narrowed as you faced him, "i'm not scared! and don't pretend that you're not!" you argued, frowning at the way he was trying to act tough. but at the same time, it was not because you felt irritated by these kind of antics. you were actually having fun by these small banters. it just makes you think of the reason why you hadn't done this before.

"you flinched." you say without looking, the corner of your eyes catching his previous and current reactions.

"s'just cold, that's all!" he spats, making you scoff in almost an instant as he pulls the blanket further to his form.

you never had foreseen for someone like inosuke to be affected with the way you tease them but the more you had gotten reactions from him, the more you were beginning to feel competitive to see until the end of the movie marathon.

but alas, everything has its end and it's all because you fell asleep, as well as the said boy. the morning you woke up, it was like you were greeted with a birthday surprise even if it was not your birthday and you should have expected it because you were the one who insisted to yourself to continue watching despite having your eyes already drooping and begging to be closed.

by the time you opened your eyes, you were greeted by the sight of the living room, with the television still on and the sun peeking through the gaps of the blinds on your windows. you barely had the moment to register the living being beside you because your eyes were already wide when you turn to look at inosuke's still-sleeping form, head rested rather uncomfortably on the backseat of the couch and his lap all open for that's where you previously were.

you were about to look away but you found yourself staring at his face; openly and without any sign of embarrassment and shyness. you do admit that inosuke is beautiful but damn this is probably the time you truly believed in it.

the length and curl of his lashes that could match guys and gals alike, the softness of the look on his face even while sleeping and awake, the hue of his hair complimenting his skin complexion and texture, the way his fringes smoothly decorate his face like it was meant to be there.

damn.

you felt that familiar beating in your heart, almost some sort of drum that beats so uniquely than how it normally would. and for you, you knew what it meant.

it meant that even if it's not a competition, it was clear that you lost.

[retphienix]

It's been 6 years :)

On March 30th, 2015 I decided I wanted a gaming side blog. (so we're early, but shush, it's the month for me)

I didn't know what I'd use it for exactly, but I had ideas- something I always have even if most of them only get as far as daydreamin' or writing out before closing them :P

For proof on the lack of direction the blog initially had- the March 30th date is the anniversary of my first post, an in-depth and lengthy review of Dragon Warrior Monsters for the GBC.

If you know the blog then you know "Extremely long and in-depth reviews" aren't the norm around here. As a matter of fact, that first post is the ONLY one I've done!

The closest I've come to ever repeating that would be the (word of the day) Directionless video I put out on Hades to get a grip on the concept of making videos, but that wasn't nearly as much of a 'review' as that first post is.

Tangent, definitely planning on trying my hand at videos some more for the foreseeable future. Probably not gonna use the tagline Full Impressions that I tossed as a whim for the Hades video but yeah- I'm excited to try my hand at a few videos :) tangent over.

It didn't take me long to come up with what I'd like to do for the blog though :)

A few months later I liveblogged a challenge run of FFT where I used only Ramza- a solo run. - Which maybe only happened because I tried a nuzlocke run a year prior on my main account-

(Nuzlocke | FFT challenge run)

Thanks to that haphazard liveblog experiment I started to realize a couple things which became the primary motivators behind this blog.

1) I LOVE sharing experiences. No brainer, I'm sure, but being able to share my experiences, and compare them with others' experiences, and just that mutual sharing is uplifting and feels good to do.

2) Liveblogging is an EXCEPTIONAL motivator to buckle down and play all those games I said I'd play (cue everyone laughing because I'm still way behind and have an immeasurable backlog).

But I mean that, on both respects. I have plenty of motivators toward the blog today, but if I were to be concise it's pretty much "It's easier to beat games if I liveblog them- otherwise I get distracted and play other games" and "I love sharing experiences and thoughts with people about my favorite thing- games."

Since 2015 I've tackled around 70 games as full playthroughs, and an untold ton as one offs or just to ramble about for a bit.

I've had a lot of highlights over the years, and I don't talk much about it as an overall experience so I thought for the anniversary I'd try to do just that. Not everything- I can't say I have photographic memory that would bring all of it up without prompting after all :P But whatever comes to mind as I browse some of my old stuff- as well as some thoughts on what I'd like to see in the future.

It's gonna be a bit self-centric I assume as I type this preamble to it, so let me say outright that this blog wouldn't be half of what it is without all the people who've given it the time of day over the years.

From recommending games they love or appreciate, to comparing thoughts, to offering kind words for analysis I've done over the years, to pointing out when I'm dumb and misread a situation :P- to, yes, even the people who decided "Fuck this guy's ramble" and deleted my captions before reblogging my gifs way back during Hamtaro (Of COURSE I remember that! It's amusing lol).

This is better because of others, because of the interactions and the people I've gotten the chance to chat with or befriend. It's just a liveblog more or less, my own little bit of fun I toss out for myself if for anyone- so seeing others enjoy this or that from the work I put into sharing my experiences or thoughts is always a joy in itself :)

Anyway, onto selfishly rambling about some tidbits of the past :)

Also sorry but no, opted to not shove a ton of photos in, it does have a handful of links to old posts though :P

This'll be disorganized as heck as I'll add to it over time before I feel it's worth posting (or the tumblr post editor becomes a hassle and more or less forces me to).

First~

FFT Solo Ramza Challenge: Considering it was roughly the first thing this blog has done, it's also something that's stuck in my head a lot more clearly than most of the other stuff I've done to be honest lol.

In truth, this is partially because FFT is my favorite game, bar none. But it's also because the whole experience was pretty new to me. Prior to it I had really only done one self-imposed-challenge that wasn't requested by the game in some manner and that was a nuzlocke run of Blue version.

So adding a challenge to my favorite game was a fantastic experience!

Notes I just wanted to say today about that run: If anyone enjoys FFT I honestly recommend giving it a shot for the unique story it lends itself to. I do recommend skipping the rules until after the second battle but that's up to YOU to decide.

My first post on the subject is me complaining about spending 4 hours grinding out the second fight and, despite hyperbole being my natural state, that was NOT hyperbole.

It DID take 60~ restarts to beat. It DID take 4 hours. The reason is that that 2nd battle is RNG as HECK, you HAVE to have Delita do some meaningful actions, you HAVE to have the enemies miss and make poor plays, you damn near HAVE to crit a few instances to save yourself from taking too much damage.

It's a numbers game to the extreme, so I wouldn't fault anyone for 'cheating' and skipping the 2nd fight for the ruleset lol.

The memory that stands out the most for that run is actually isolated in a post in which Ramza (Purrick in this run) talks like a total badass as just ONE DUDE running into a room full of enemies. I just think on that as a great encapsulated view of what it was like. The run started off face grindingly difficult, but because FFT is a game that offers so much freedom to the player it was extremely easy to 'break' the game into making Purrick overpowered as hell.

That's something I love about some tactical RPGs, I love having the ability to play smart so that I can play stupid later on, and breaking the game into making him one shot god is certainly a good payoff for playing smart early on :P

RetQuick: I miss RetQuick, it was primarily a short experiment I did in 2015 where I'd play a game for a short span of time (REALLY short, like 10-20 minutes) and record that for the purpose of making gifs and saying a short piece on what I thought.

It's one of those formats where the purpose was pretty shallow- but had a reason. I wanted to try making some gifs with some tools that existed online, so I made an excuse to do just that.

I also wanted to play a TON of games, usually through emulation on my sister's PSP, and this let me do that.

These two minor goals came together and so I spent a while making RetQuicks which were honestly more fun to make than they had any right to be. I mean the gifs were tedious but the playing? The thought sharing? The end product ocassionally having more appeal than just a photoset? It was fun.

I'm thinking whenever I have trouble picking a game for the blog I'll revisit the format... sorta.

I already reused it for a short stint to show clips I had no plan on expanding into a playthrough, but that died as well as it was too similar to Tidbits posts (another tag I no longer really use).

My thought is to rebrand retquick as something of a tryout for what game comes next. Play a handful of my backlog games for an hour or so each and say some thoughts before saying which one I'll continue as the main game for that period of time.

Old Tag Stuff: One of those things that only sticks to me since I made the decisions but it's always funny for me to look back on my old posts because I was apprehensive as hell toward making my posts visible. The reason my early playthroughs on the My-Tags page are variants of Ret instead of just "The name of the game so people can find this post" is because I felt like a liveblog would just spam the tag to hell-

Something I don't remotely feel bad for doing anymore.

So I avoided getting any sort of spotlight for quite a while on the blog for little reason.

Why Retphienix?: This is just a dumb thought I wanted to share and I'm sure I've said before.

It stands for retro!

Yeah!

Ain't that dumb and also not a real shorthand? lol

I think I have some sort of deer in headlights anxiety towards naming things, I mean do you think I think Full Impressions is a good summation for a video? I don't. But perhaps that's overshadowed by the other inexperiences and anxiety driven decisions that had- doesn't matter.

Retphienix is Retphienix because I sat there in 2015 and thought "Well... what do I name an alt account?"

My main is Redphienix, which yes, is ALSO a terrible name AND is misspelled. But it's that because of sentimental reasons. As a kid I misspelled Redphoenix when making my gamertag (I knew how to spell Phoenix back then as well, I was too excited about xbox live and misspelled it) and it's become something of a sentimental misspelling.

So I wanted to make a mix on that for my game blog, but I had no idea what. In the end I thought "RetroPhienix? I don't know. Retphienix is closer to Redphienix. I'll do that" and so it was done.

And just like how Redphienix is both bad and misspelled but exists because of sentimental reasons- Retphienix has acquired the same 'flavor' in my eye lol.

Aspirations for the blog: I have no immediate ramp up plans or road map or whatever, and in truth I'll be happy if the blog stays just as it is forever- up until tumblr ends- I cry over lost posts- and I reopen it on another platform.

But I do have blurry half-considered daydreams that I'd like to see happen for the blog through some hard work or shifts on my part.

One is something I'm already doing kinda, hence my embarrassing means of bringing it up a lot lately. Videos- I want those. I wanna make some looks back on series people don't talk about that I enjoy, I want to make videos sharing my thoughts on games I beat for the blog (like what full impressions kinda was, but I don't think they'll have a unified name from here on out). Maybe retrospectives, but mostly when I think of making a video tied to retphienix or me in general it's me looking at a game that said something to me, and saying it louder with my own interpretations on it.

You know the kind, videos where they talk about a video game but not the whole thing- just a singular message they really heard loud and clear from it intentionally or not. I dig those and I know I end a lot of games having plenty to say that could be directed into such a format.

We'll see.

And I'm along for the ride on that one as well- currently I'm keeping my eyes on whatever is directly next, which happens to be "I plan on playing Omori, if it clicks as something to talk about I would like to take a shot at that in a video too!"

The other is that I'd like to build a small community. Wouldn't know the first thing on doing that in a modern sense, but just a little online friend group to chat with and play games together. Something that could open up multiplayer and coop experiences being better shared on the blog and would just in general expand my gaming to what it used to be back on the 360 when I had a large group to play with.

Since the 360 era ended I've pretty much closed off- stopped playing competitive games due to lack of interest- and slowed down to playing all games either solo, with randoms (and no mic usually), or with my cousin. It's a rare instance when I play with some good people like @gamesception or another friend of mine, John.

When I diverted from playing competitive games nonstop toward other genres I didn't intend to also cut out all my online gaming buds, it just kinda happened, and I never really put any effort into rectifying that.

So more or less I'd like to one day sit down and work on a discord server, and then buck up and put the leg work in to make some gamin' buds again, but that's such a vague concept anymore.

Sounds all sad and what not but it's more ambivalent, I made decisions that

changed how gaming worked for me after the 360 and this is just where it landed for better and worse- I'd just like to see if I can make it a little better :P

General things I think when I think retphienix: Honestly? I think of how much fun I've had over the years and how thankful I am to have had an outlet that encouraged me to explore more of the medium.

I REALLY love games. I went to college for games, I've written LEAGUES about games, I've played countless games, my childhood was games, my adult life is games- games games games yada yada yada.

So when I think of retphienix I think of how without it I probably wouldn't have explored a lot of the corners of gaming that I have.

I genuinely, and I mean this, might not have sat down and beaten FF7 for myself and would have considered the amount I played as a kid to be enough.

I might not have played Chrono Trigger yet, and I KNOW I wouldn't have played Chrono Cross, and I'm happy as hell to have played both of those. CT was a mind blowing moment for me that showed me just how good an RPG can be, and CC gave me miles to think of in terms of innovating an RPG and how beholden to the narrative a sequel should be (I don't feel CC should have been chrono at all lol).

I DEFINITELY wouldn't have given New Vegas another chance. And I know I'm a sourpuss on NV, I've been that way since I maxed my achievements on the 360 for it, but replaying it really did reveal to me how exceedingly negative I was being.

My memories had become "It's brown and a boring location >:(" and "The factions all suck and it doesn't do anything with the idea of bad factions >:(" and became "It's... a little brown guys, not a big fan of the area" and "They didn't do enough with exploring the gray factions" while adding "Wait. This is pretty damn fun. And 90% of the additions are stellar. And I forgot about Dead Money, my favorite dlc in any game ever with a story that tears at my heart every time I think of it, NV good actually?"

Faxanadu would have remained a cool game I saw on SSFF and not a game I played to the end and fell in love with the aesthetic feel it has!

Also that's a game I cheated like crazy on lol, I would do it again! Save state scumming games meant to be rudely difficult is only fair :P

I probably would have never sat down to play through Windwaker which was such a positive and uplifting experience that I now get the most relaxed and warm feeling in my heart when I see those blue waves.

There's so many experiences I would have left on the table in favor of like... putting more hours into a live service title or something.

Maybe, and no offense to my cousin or anyone else playing it, but maybe I'd be no-lifing World of Warcraft nonstop just stagnating my interest toward the skinner box mechanics of an MMO?

Some offense, actually but lightheartedly lol.

But beyond the entire games I've played for the blog, when I think retphienix I picture all the time making gifs, all those games I played on the PSP for short stints, buying a retron 5 to add to what I could explore and being stoked when they shipped a freebie box of old controllers to go with it, getting angry at the retron for being a Piece Of Shit lol, crying at the end of damn near every game with an emotional story because I'm a big emotional mess of a person who finds investing and crying at a story way too easy thanks to empathy pulls, oh!-

Getting excited whenever I found that I had a "*controversial*" opinion that no one would care about lol. Like the one that comes to mind is that I thoroughly believe that Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza!! for the NES is WAY better than the fandom recognized and appreciated sequel/remake Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan!

How many people do you hear talking about either game, let alone saying the NES game that is roughly half of the SNES remake is the better one :P But I stand by that! The SNES one is a remake of DBZ1 and 2 for the NES but it loses all the charm and some of the fun of the NES ones by being a lackluster SNES game!

lol

I admitted wholeheartedly that this post would be a lit-

little directionless (gotta love the new tumblr poster making me break sentences like that), but to sum things up.

It's been 6 years. It's been an untold amount of work to be honest- liveblogging a game, at least for me, hasn't been the easiest thing. It's a lot of thinking out my thoughts (heh), it's a lot of learning tools to make the capturing process possible, it's a lot of experimenting, it's a lot of writing and editing, and, well, sometimes it's just tough.

I mean I went to school for coding, not video editing, not writing, not image processing, not this or that- but this hobby has introduced a lot of things even if only at a VERY base level (I admit fully to using online alternatives to make gifs for instance).

I learned a lot about, well, a lot of things in order to use this blog to learn more about games- and all that work has become part of why I've loved all 6 years of this blog.

6 years of gaming, work, and you all- and it's been worth the investment :) Here's to many more and all of you whether you stumble upon this post or not- literally anyone who's interacted in these 6 years, thank you, and anyone who hasn't I offer you well wishes as well.

<3