#idk if i will post my design of the characters who appear in the story because i got most of their design done

[kray-zay]

designs for a Transformers horror AU thing I was working on but shelved for the time being to work on my other main tf au project.

Thought I just shared these freaks without context. rest of the art and writing for this project prob not gonna be posted until/if I start working on it again.

Bonus little dude, he a part of a diagram explaining some lore but it doesn't make a ton of sense without knowing other lore from this AU I haven't shared.

[shinyzango]

Just curious, opinions on the different nutcrackers that you know of from all kinds of media and stuff?

Sorry if anyone asked this before I wouldn't know

Love your art and characters by the way keep it up!

Hohohohohohohoho, we be opening the Pandora Box here. Not that I'm complaining~

So, this is going to be a very long post as I've seen a lot of the movies. I also have a couple books which I can give my opinion, and I'm familiar with various apparitions in videogames and such. So yeah this is going to be a loooooooong post.

So buckle up, grab a drink and enjoy the ride into my personal madness o7

[ CAREFUL, VERY LONG POST UNDER THE CUT ]

So, let's start with movies as those are easier to grab and talk about for me. I'm gonna go with their year of release ot keep things organized.

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Shchelkunchik (1973)

Small silly dramatic guy, I like him! The animators did a great job animating his design and make him incredibly appealing. As for his human appearance, eeeeeh I don't really care for him. Definitely a shock the first time you see it lol But yes, adorable silly guy

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Nutcracker Fantasy (1979)

Li'l guy. It is Sanrio so it's bound to be on the cute side. The Nutcracker itself doesn't do much in the movie, but as for Fritz himself, I... honestly don't care about him. He looks pretty, but personality wise he needs to work on it pff Idk he just comes out as plain and a little arrogant... Still a fine fellow, though.

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Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (1986)

One of the two ballet-based movies I've seen, and definitely the better one of the two imo. And good lord I love this guy. He may look terrifying but good lord if he's silly. And I actually don't mind his human appearance as simple as it is. Silly man, this one.

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The Nutcracker Prince (1990)

HIM. MY BELOVED. THE GOOD LAD. Definitely my favorite, and not because this was my most beloved childhood movie. He is such a sweetheart with a hint of awkwardness but who can still kick your ass. And the final scene in the castle in the Italian dub is just *chef kiss* 10/10 lad.

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The Nutcracker (1993)

The other ballet-based movie... it's just Macaulay Culkin. And his nutcracker costume looks hideous lol. Nothign to say. Surprisingly, he's not the worst one.

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The Nuttiest Nutcracker (1999)

Ripoff Ken. He is incredibly dumb, and a tiny bit of a freak, but could be worse honestly kdjng They did Barbie before Barbie did it lol that's p much it.

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Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)

THE OTHER GOOD LAD. I love Eric so much he's such a sweetheart wanting to fix his mistakes. It's so easy to root for him. As for his human appearance... he's just Ken skjngf 10/10 lad #2

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The Nutcracker and the MouseKing (2004)

Oh boy what to say about this one. Very hateful in the first half. At least he learns and becomes bearable at the last third of the movie. But I do like the nutcracker form, they made the blocky design work as well, like later on it's actually very nice to see him move. Still, horrible personality. Needs a slap in the face.

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Nutcracker in 3D / Nutcracker: The Untold Story (2010)

Hellspawn. Nightmare fuel. Abomination. Who the hell approved to that design?? And why did they pitch up his voice like that?? At least the kid playing human NC is not as bad, but good lord. 0/10 Just burn that puppet with fire, please.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

This one just pisses me off. This one had so much potential, and the actor is actually good. It's just the way his character was written that is dog awful. They made him basically a dumb side character who barely does anything despite everyone in the movie treating him like he's a big shot. And the the fact that this was made by Disney just makes this worse. Just so much lost potential.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Nutcracker (???)

I actually don't know who made this movie or in which year, but I do like this one. The movie is comedic so he's a bit silly, but he's still quite enjoyable. And for some reason he reminds me of Waluigi.... Still, silly guy.

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That's all for the movies. There are a bunch more that I've missed or that I can't find anymore so my list of opinions on them is not complete. But one day...

---

As for other medias, hm... I have a couple books that are just the original story by Hoffman and the retell by Duman (of which I don't have much to say) and the graphic novel by Natalie Andrewson.

He's just a li'l guy, silly kid but enjoyable.

---

Lastly, while there are no actual nutcracker based games, I do want to mention a few skins and characters I am aware of for the hell of it. I'm pretty sure I will be forgetting some but eh.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Terraria

Silly guy that speeeens. I wish I didn't have to kill them skgjfn.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Overwatch

As much as I now despise Overwatch for many reasons, I still love Zenyatta's nutcracker skin to death. Look at this silly guy. Definitely my favorite skin in the game.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Saints Row IV

SR4 had a Christmas themed DLC, and among all the xmas reskins of the enemies, one was the terminator-like enemies being turned into Nutcrackers. And their design look so sick.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Fortnite

I don't play Fortnite, but I do have to admit that the nutcracker guy looks neat. The crazy look fits the look quite well. If I would ever get in there (I doubt it but still), that would definitely be the skin I would use.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Lethal Company

I don't play LC neither but I've seen videos of the nutcracker enemy in action, and yeah he looks silly. I love how he moves around.

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That's all of the apparitions that I can think of. I'm also aware of the point-and-click game made by Big Fish Games, but I have not played it myself. I really should do that one day...

---

Aaaaaand that's a wrap. I'm definitely forgetting a nutboi or two somewhere but these are all the ones I can think of at the top of my head that are officially published and all.

If we start talking about folks in social medias I've come to know over the years... I'm gonna be here for 3 months trying to talk about them dkjfgn

Well, hope you enjoyed this personal spiraling into nut madness :V

[ganondoodle]

not sure if i have talked about this before but i also really hate how gorons are treated in totk

they are one of my fav and i know they are unpopular and were always kinda slot into the "big fat stupid rock people" role, but i do think totk is one of or the worst case yet; all regions get some life threatening event (ignoring how stupid it is to put the issues you need to solve in the exact same spots as in botw with most changes being also reversible so the actual changes to the environment of the map are largely some small rocks sprinkled about) and they get .. drugs (haha)

like i dont wanna downplay anything but their problem being that they are obsessed with eating (>_>) some drugged rock that makes them mean and lazy (even if the reason is fine ... if i remember right and didnt make up that they had to dig elsewhere for food bc of death mountain losing its lava flow, the execution is my problem -like the vast majority of this game is a ok to great idea with passable to horrible execution of it) and arent even a danger to you (which i thought at first when you approach goronia the normal path and two gorons start to walk towards you if you come near saying creepy shit- i thought they are gonna attack me or lure me into a trap but again .. only to find them wanting me to pay to be let through (i think??) and all other drugged ones are largely just ... eating or lying around ........

like it would have been cool if that drugged rock stuff made them actually agressive, like the friendly easy going rock people being turned into something akin to a starved animal after eating poison bc they were at risk of starving sounds alot more .. impactful and scary (even if it would still be about food, which idk about you but the only kind of fatter npcs, even if non human, being made all about food is .. hm, aside from other possibly bad implications from this, but im trying to roll with the idea of it)

and then poor yuno being put in a stupid (stereotypical?) wrestler outfit and hes LITERALLY being mindcontrolled is so ...... ugh (again, idea is ok but- you get it) and then him being told by two CHILDREN that that obviously not zelda might not be zelda and it not only being the only time that idea is openly said until its "revealed" that hhhwhat?? it was a fake one?? in the mid battle of the "story" and he doesnt even believe it (both bc haha hes stupid and cant understand such a thing and also link not being able to tell anyone ... even his friends ....... ) is just so disrespectful, its ok not to be the smartest guy in the room (tho in totk pretty much anyone is made so much dumber for no reason...) but it being so clearly the gorons that get treated like this just annoys me so much, you know no one of the other races would be treated like that

(not to reach a little but it also plays into how koga is portrayed, like i love him to death and there are things that largely the gameplay only implies of him not being that incompetent, but hes clearly meant to be laughing material, the boss of the band of 'evil' assassins being lazy, incompetent and 'childish' is funny right?? and although i hc that the either super thin or super beefed up appearance of yiga members are just an appearance like their disguises of normal people to seem more unified and less indentifyable- that is still only a hc and then koga being the only character that is visibly fatter (aside from ... the gorons and .. king dorephan??) it puts a pebble more onto the pile of pebbles of little annoyances)

also yuno saying, post mid "story" battle, that no one actually knows anything about ganondorf aside from him being evil and it going complete ingored and never mentioned again feels like the type of thing a games does when they are critized for soemthing and instead of changing it they put a line in the game essentially saying "yeah we know but we are not gonna do aynthing about it lol" (like thinking of the line ashe from league of legends, whos design has been critized alot bc shes running around in a stupid tiny dress in the snow lands of their world, got when her dialog was updated that made her say sth like "yes im wearing a little dress in the forever winter land, deal with it lol" which perhaps was supposed to be a joke but it just feels like a "lol we know, fuck you")

[manysketchbook]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[ihm-bread]

March and his popularity

hiii ive seen a lot of people question why March is so popular so I'm here to put in my two cents no one asked for

note this is just my assumption based on many many other characters like him out there

Hes a tsundere. And in the event you dont know what a tsundere is they basically swing between a more negative attitude towards someone (usually their love interest) and a sweet personality. usually they might appear harsh but deep down they care and have a soft inside

id say theyre the most popular -dere type next to yanderes

some people have that "i can fix him" desire, or even make him worse, depends on who you ask

as for similar characters in other farm sims id say shane and haley in stardew (ur free to disagree), and ive seen him compared to gray from story of seasons (i assume wesley from sun haven counts i havent really played since he got added as a romance option) and probably a lot more

i see some people dont like him bc they know guys like him irl and thats fine, i cant say youd get the same experience irl with someone that you would with fiction when it comes to tsunderes.....but maybe ur built different idk

theres plenty of characters people enjoy in media that they wouldnt irl....

personally im not too big on tsundere types, the trope can be over the top at times...tho i do like march and am going for him (i also have like two ocs that can be called tsunderes i guess but thats besides the point)

id say thats probably the main reason

as another would i guess be design but like a lot of characters in mistria have nice designs....ive seen the posts talking about how attractive everyone is

its still early enough that we dont know everything about him but knowing other tsundere types hes probably only going to get nicer the closer you get to him

[blighted-lights]

because of course im gonna ask: first aid? —cmofirstaid

(Based off of this post! TFP Soundwave, IDW Sunstreaker, IDW First Aid, IDW Ravage, and IDW Cosmos have all been asked for! Feel free to send in an ask for any character that isn't one of these five 🌸❗️Not limited to followers or mutuals, so go wild!)

First Impression: Oh shit, First Aid! I read MTMTE before I read most of IDW, and I was fucking stoked to see him appear in the Delphi arc- ESPECIALLY with how he was introduced with his report that doubled as the issue's intro narration. Aside from that, though, I didn't focus on him much during my first read-through. Pharma and Ambulon immediately stole the show away from him, and it wasn't until my second read a few months later that I really focused on Aid. Aside from being happy to see him, I LOVED how he was drawn in MTMTE. He's always been cute, but something with how he was drawn in the first half of MTMTE really cemented for me that he has one of the best designs. He somehow manages to be boxy and round at the same time and I love him for it.

Impression Now: You are ENTIERLY responsible for how much First Aid means to me now, I hope you know this. One of my top ten IDW faves. His design remains one of my favorites, and I wish we got more canon content digging into his POV of things pre-mutiny. I wish he stayed on the Lost Light instead of being called away, too! There is so much focus on Ratchet passing over the title of CMO to First Aid, but then Aid leaves so quickly after. Idk, I wish we just got to see him more pre-mutiny. Aid is such a tragic character to me but he's another background tragedy and it makes me want to shake my screen a bit when I think about him. A somewhat vaguely odd thing to say, but I wish we got to see more of First Aid's grief over Ambulon and his feelings towards Pharma. Honestly I wished we got to see more interactions between Aid and the rest of the medical cast in general- including Ratchet, Velocity (ESPECIALLY Lotty (is not biased)), and Rung.

Favorite Moment: Speaking of Pharma, my favorite moment of First Aid is this one right here:

I think Aid should be shown like this more often. I NEED him to be angry. I need him to be murderous. As a treat for myself. I hate the idea in media where the good guys refuse to kill a villain because they'd be "letting the villain win". It's good to see that narrative challenged by Aid here.

... Even if the consequences aren't easily forgotten.

Idea for a Story: Someone put First Aid and Rung into a therapy appointment, I need to pick their interactions apart under a microscope. I do not thing going to Rung would be able to help Aid. In fact, it might just make an already shitty situation worse. But I want to see First Aid sit down and talk about what he is experiencing. And maybe I want to see Rung unintentionally making his grieving process more difficult. We already know from Rung's own admission in Lost Light that he does not know who he is without his patients. He banks his entire identity and self-worth on trying to assist other people. But what happens when nothing he does seems to help First Aid, and therefore his own self-image begins to crumble for it? How does his own perceived failings affect his treatment of First Aid?

Unpopular Opinion: 🤔 Not sure if I have one. I'm allergic to the idea of Aid being really nice and nervous 100% of the time, ig. All things considered, the First Aid we have in IDW isn't nervous at all. But I don't actually know how prevalent this is in fandom or if this is even an unpopular take 🤷‍♂️.

Favorite Relationship: Canon-wise? It's a toss up between him and Ambulon and then him and Ratchet. It is devastating how hard Aid takes Ambulon's death, and his desperation to help save Ambulon when Ratchet wouldn't let him was heartbreaking to read. At the same time, I NEED more of First Aid and Ratchet arguing with each other and Aid calling Ratchet out on his bullshit. It is rare that anyone steps up to Ratchet like that and succeeds in affecting him. I would like more, thanks.

Non-canon relationships? Another toss-up between Velocity and Ravage. Put these three in a blunt rotation, I'm sure they'll be fine.

Favorite Headcanon: First Aid is extremely tactile. There is not a word or phrase that could properly describe how touchy First Aid is. He has the capability to turn someone who is touch-starved to touched-out in the span of thirty minutes. While this is in part due to just him being an affectionate person in general (or at the very least, more physically affectionate than most other Autobots), it is also partially because of his intense focus on Autobot brands. He is so used to checking everyone he comes across for their brands in the case that they might have a bullet shot through them that the process of checking someone over is compulsive. This extends to people who fall outside of the Autobot ranks who do not even have brands, like Ravage, Cyclonus, and Ten. It's earned him more than a few strange looks and awkward silences over the course of being on the Lost Light.

[oh-my-may]

I'm still alive omg!

Lots of irl things happening atm, BUT I managed to play through Penacony 2.2 (stretched over 3 days, no less)

Woah. Just ... woah. So much happening, so many characters interacting, so much lore, IT WAS GOING ON FOREVER but I loved it nonetheless. Of course they had to make the finale of Penacony long and epic.

FIRST OF ALL I KNEW IT! I TOLD Y'ALL!!! Literally in my post about 2.1 I talked about how Misha definitely has some close connection to Mikhail/the Watchmaker. I suspected him to be a child of his or something but the actual thing was close enough, I guess. My sweet boy. I love him. Mikhail being a Nameless was so cool. I'm really glad we're finally getting more lore and info about Akivili and previous Nameless, but I feel this was only the beginning.

I'm still madly in love with Sunday and Acheron. Robin is such a cutie too. I'm not gonna pull for her because I need my savings for Mr. Boothill and then Jade but I'll try and pull for her on a rerun. Sway to My Beat in Cosmos is such a banger. Caught myself constantly singing "riiise into my wooorld" (ofc much worse than the one and only lol)

On the topic of Boothill... my god. Love him. The way they can't make him swear so they just make him say??? Whatever??? Whose idea was that 💀 mother loving instead of mother fucking?? What the fork?? Wubbaboo?? I would die for this man. He looks so hot too. Again I have to say that HSR never misses with male character design. THEY'RE ALL SO PRETTY.

On the topic of pretty men... SUNDAY. My little radicalized bird man. I cackled when Sparkle called him chicken boy. She's just a hater, love her for that. Serious question... is he straight up dead now? I have only played the main quest so far so in case it'a mentioned somewhere in game don't spoil me but if it's not... tell me will I get to see him as a playable character... pls...

The whole thing with Ena the Order was so interesting to see. The fact that they made Order so similar to Harmony... AEON LORE. Love it. Resurrecting an Aeon is possible, you say? Kind of? The way they make Sunday'a motives understandable... he's just a boy

So I had the feeling that facing the boss Dominicus was a bit too easy the first time around. Wdym he has only one phase. I should have known there was more to it. Nevertheless loved to see IL and Jing Yuan cameo. They slayed (literally)

But then the eerie feeling I got when Black Swan talked to us on the Express... the way she makes us question everything that happened... GENIUS. I did kind of get flashbacks to Sumeru act II. The line between dream and reality, who is dreaming, what happens outside of the dream, the repetition of events... not critiquing or hating, but the concepts were just similar to me and I liked it :) Penacony just put a different twist to it.

The final fight was still very cool. The several toughness bars to break is really interesting, and the fact that you get a shield value the more bars you break. Also the Astral Ecpress literally crashing into Sunday??? I barely realized what I had just watched ghe first time around. Idk why, but the concept is hilarious to me. And the question remains... is Sunday dead now??? What about Robin?? Are they both dead??

Aventurine isn't dead either?? What about the present that Sparkle gave out to several people? What was it and what did it do? Is there smth I don't remember about that rn? Did I miss it? Also if Robin didn't actually die, how come we saw her body? If she just got transported to Dreamflux Reef, then there wouldn't have been a body, right? ALSO is Firefly dead too? She didn't make an appearance throughout the second part after we see her leave and she talked abput the way that the script said she would die 3 times in Penacony... I'm so eternally confused. It's part of the reason I think there's still gonna be more in the next patch... They're not gonna give us playable Firefly without at least a Story Quest for her, right? And Jade, too? She had one appearance in a throwback during the story, the Trailblazer hasn't interacted with her in person yet so the IPC probably hasn't finished their business with Penacony yet?

And since I mentioned Trailblazer... HARMONY MC??? LOOKS SO GOOD? LOVE THE MOVES?? THE HAT? The Significance of it had me 😭😭 my MC obsession ks back y'all. He looks so good. Caelus ily. The silly little dance with Clockie 😭 Can't wait to build him, I heard Harmony MC is really good.

I also briefly have to mention my girl Acheron. So they've literally just casually confirmed that she's Raiden Mai? I actually don't know what Bosenmori means or it's significance BUT RAIDEN MEI. And her whole flashback with Tiernan... I had my suspicions about his identity but the reveal was interesting, anyway. I've got the feeling this is not the last we've seen of Acheron. I never played HI3rd far enough to fully understand Raiden Mei's story, but I'm really intrigued with the whole thing. How come her and Welt exist in noth universes, how did they end up in HSR and what's their motive?

One thing I'm also still hung up on is the Annihilation Gang... no more mention of them? We don't get any real eyplanation as to why Acheron killed Duke Inferno? No little animation of the scene? I'm guessing it's gonna play a role later? The reason they talked about it is probably to tell us that Acheron was dangerous but like... idk what to think of it. No question the other members of the Gang are gonna appear later and maybe then we'll get more background? But if they don't play a large role in Penacony, why introduce them to the players prior to it in such a grand way?

Anyway, I judt have lots of questions still but no doubt the game is gonna answer them when the time is right... I had a really good time playing the quest, went through a whole lot of emotions during it, fell in love with even mlre characters... the new maps are GIGANTIC and look so cool and let me just say rhe music was so so epic too. Can't wait for the OST for this to get released.

I also wanna mention here (outside of discusaions about the story) is that having a fully leveled Acheron with pretty decent relics paired with a tank Aventurine feels like playing the game on easy mode. Nothing can penetrate a fully def stacked Aventurine, and Acheron's damage is straight up insane. Gonna take a while before I get tired of using them. They helped me clear basically all Stage V of every SU World I hadn't done yet... legends.

Now we wait for Boothill... The grip that Hunt characters have on me is unbelievable. Meta wise I know I should invest in Harmony characters... Ruan Mei or Robin but... HAVE YOU SEEN BOOTHILL? HAVE YOU???

Alright, that's it for now. Really excited to dive into exploration and events and quests of the new maps. Might post a little about it.. or maybe not. I still have to tell you about my thoughts on the Arlecchino quest and Remuria exploration, I began a post about that and never got around to finishing it.

As always, have some cool screenshots from the story!

[bk-179]

Introducing… time!Skater Cookie!

aight so anyone remember this post I made a while ago teasing a character? HERE HE IS!

(full body design of time!Skater) “What a boring timeline… I’m gonna go find someplace better!”

‘Meet time!Skater Cookie, an alternate timeline version of our beloved Skater Cookie! Originally set to follow Gingerbrave and friends in his timeline’s adventure, time altercations caused him to be trapped in the oven. When he passed out from the heat, instead of being eaten by the witch, he found himself laying in the fabrics of time as courtesy of a certain TBD director. After a long while of life under the curious time cookie, the spunky time!Skater Cookie effortlessly skates through timelines with his elusive candy board time scissors. Many TBD employees are warned about the shenanigans of this eccentric boarder!’

(time!Skater’s Candy Board Time Scissors, a hybrid of canon Skater Cookie’s skateboard and Timekeeper Cookie’s Sonic Embroiderer.)

Headcanons/fun facts + notes below cut!

time!Skater is the Skater Cookie from the post season 6 story mode universe. As stated in his fake description, this Skater Cookie never met gingerbrave and friends, instead being raised in the space-time continuum by Timekeeper.

I used “raised” pretty lightly. I love Timekeeper but bro is NOT fit to be a parent imo 💀💀💀 I feel like they did the thing mums do where they throw an iPad at their kid instead of raising them but instead of an iPad it’s a time scissor Yk what I’m saying? Also Tk is an insane god idk how they thought parenting was a good idea

as a result of this, my man has issues. He needs a hug

anyways 😜😜😜

prime!Skater (what I’ll be calling the normal pre-6/my universe’s skater) is around 12-13, and time!Skater is vaguely 15-16.

time!Skater is surprising tall. Probably around 5’10. He’s one of those teens that went from “small :)” to “TALL 🤯🤯🤯” during puberty; he sprouted up like a fucking weed somehow despite having horrible nutrition as a teen with nearly unlimited time power and no bedtime. He drinks monster energy from twizzly gummy’s world and eats from the abandoned vending machines in cookie wars’ timeline

Like prime!Skater, time!Skater’s eyes are very sensitive to light (bright lighting is overstimulating and painful due to this) so they’re always covered by the hair + hat

this Skater takes after his parent. Namely, he is a bastard lmao. He’s much less soft than his canon counterpart, and definitely on his way to becoming a mini tk without outside intervention. He travels to cookie Pompeii to skate alongside the volcanoes

SGUgYWNoZXMsIGtub3dpbmcgdGhhdCBwcmltZSFTa2F0ZXIgd2FzIHdobyBoZSB3YXMgc3VwcG9zZWQgdG8gYmUuIEhlIHdhcyBzdXBwb3NlZCB0byBiZSBzb2Z0IGFuZCBraW5kIGFuZCBzbWFsbCBidXQgaGXigJlzIGZvcmNlZCB0byBkYW5jZSBhbG9uZyB0aGUgZ3JhbmRpb3NlIG9mIHRpbWUgYW5kIHRoZSBkZWNheSB0aGF0IGl0IGxlYXZlcy4gTW9sZGVkIGludG8gYSBiYXN0YXJkIGJ5IGNpcmN1bXN0YW5jZSBhbmQgZW5kbGVzcyBleHBhbnNlIG9mIGdvbGQuIApIaXMgc2Npc3NvcnMgd2UncmUgc3VwcG9zZWQgdG8gYmUgYSBub3JtYWwgc2thdGVib2FyZCwgYnV0IHRoZXkgYnVybiBhbmQgY29udG9ydCBoaXMKZG91Z2ggaW4gYSBzaWNrIGF0dGVtcHQgdG8gaW1pdGF0ZSBwb3dlci4

my bastard son. I love him

some design notes:

for those who were my mutual in 2021 when I was a edit+hc request blog, you may remember time!Skater actually. shoutout @foggymud cuz they developed the idea with me and it was really fun! He used to look like this:

(A sprite edit ver of the design I was going for)

(And a drawing of what I had in mind from ALMOST 3 YEARS AGO⁉️)

After getting back into cr 2 years after loosing interest, I wanted to develop time!Skater using the og concept and cleaning up the design.

I would come to forego the pink icing hair. I really like pink and liked his hair, but in practice, it didn’t fit at all with the modern design. It was too jarring and out of place, so for my modern skater renditions I give him brown hair.

The og time!skater also wasn’t older than prime!skater, evidenced by his youthful appearance+usage of the canon sprites as a base. I decided to age up the modern incarnation of the character for both character and design motives; I wanted to portray a sharper, more weathered cookie while still keeping the youthful air that prime has. Making him a preteen felt like a waste and making him a young adult felt wrong character-wise, so a vaguely teenaged skater felt best.

speaking of sharpness, I incorporated real shape language and balance into this modern Time’s design. (for simplicity, I’ll refer to time!Skater as Time, and the regular/pre-6 timeline Skater as Prime.) I used a balance strategy of “thin center with large, flashy sleeves and pants”, where the og design had the large sleeves + tucked-in shirt and it ended up feeling too middle-heavy. I also added some sharper points to Time this time around to balance out all the round and give a slightly more “edgy” appearance I suppose?

Big pants :)

I liked the old Time design’s outfit ok, aside from the aforementioned issues, but it felt a tad bit unoriginal. I wanted to keep the essence of the old design, but also incorporate more interesting colors and thought-out shapes.

The use of CookieRun’s signature time-coded gold was one major thing I wanted this time around, adding little splashes of it in the hair and outfit. Trying to show both Prime’s essence and the affects time has had on Time’s personality.

the eyes are different too! in the og design they were this weird multi-color gummy colors? It had the same issue as the pink hair; too clash-y imo. So modern Time’s are a cryptic yellow sclera with blue pupil (if you saw the teaser post Yk what I’m talking abt).

and uhhh yeah‼️‼️‼️ if u read this far TYSM! I’m very autistic about him

[daka-d3monb0y]

1- What's the name of your AU if there is one? If no official name what would you call it?

Time Variant Authority/ Time Travel AU

2- What is the most prominent differing factor between your AU and the original source Material?

Time travel was discovered by The Creator, though he deemed it too powerful and catastrophic to use. Eclipse got his grubby little hands on it and just had it. Monty discovers it and is the first to use it.

3- What is your favorite character in the source material and who's your favorite character within your AU?

In canon I Miku is my favorite character xD, I just like the chaos she brings. In this AU my favorite character in this is Eclipse. He's more of an evil Solar actually and that's what's interesting to me.

4- Are any of the characters in a relationship (QPR, Romantic, Emotional, ect.)? If so what are the most defined ones you've built so far, and within the universe how did their bond come along?

There are canon romantic relationships. But I go into Eclipse's relationship with Puppet a lot, we see how they fell apart by his actions when he's time travelling. Monty and Moon's relationship is vital to the story, Moon is a kind of key character to the universe itself.

5-What 'fanfic tropes/fanfic tags' does your AU use?

Uhhhhhh I have no clue.

6-Do any characters within your AU have any disabilities (mental or physical)?

Monty has ADHD, Sun has anxiety and OCD, Moon is "eccentric", Eclipse is a sociopath, and Puppet has PTSD. Uhh idk what else.

7- Do any characters have familial bond amongst eachother? If so how strong are their bonds, and how did they come about?

The family bond is very important to this story. Eclipse is Lunar's father in this so their relationship is important. As the AU progresses Eclipse becomes addicted to time travel and the power he has being able to change time itself, he ends up isolating himself from Lunar and the rest of his family.

Sun and Moon were made by Creator, separating made Eclipse, he made Lunar, Earth is made by Creator. Bloodmoon and KC were never made/born, instead Moon, Eclipse, and Lunar have parts of the homicide code.

8- What are the ages of the characters in your au? Or are the ageless/immortal?

Robots (for the main variant of this AU). Everyone is adults except Lunar.

9- what's the general world like? Is it futuristic, modern, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, does it take place mainly in a coffee shop or something of the sort?

Starts out in the Pizzaplex, they're just doing their jobs. Moon dies actually, Monty time travels Eclipse follows him. Eclipse keeps doing it, changing the dimension as he pleases.

[Moon never invented portal travel, or doesn't until later. So nobody knew there were other dimensions, it was kinda just a theory Moon had.]

10 - are you working on any fanworks (fanfic, askblogs, rp blogs, animation, comics, ect.) about this au? If so link them!

I'd like to make a comic-type thing for this, but it will mostly be written out and released on Wattpad and AO3.

11 - What is the worst thing(s) that happened to a character(s)? Did they have a tough life, a loss, or anything of the sort? If so what? How did it affect them?

It starts out "happy". In the way of there isn't the craziness and adventures the canon has. There's just the Pizzaplex. I'll explain later in the story how the homicide code was an important thing earlier but is no longer as much anymore. Moon never fully trusts Eclipse, especially around people.

12 - what's the best thing(s) that happened to a character(s)? How did it affect them?

Uhhhh July 16th never happened. So yay. Maybe I'll add an adult Evelien. Creator doesn't appear as bad as he is in canon.

13 - Did you take any unique design choices for any of the characters? If so describe or show them off!

I plan to draw but for now have Gacha designs (the designs can/ might change)

14 - What character(s) in the AU have been worked on and built up the most and what are they like?

Eclipse is the main character, and kind of the villain in the story. I go into Lunar a lot too.

15 - What is your least favorite character in the source material, and what's your least favorite character in your au?

Vegeta. I love him, but I hate him. He's so cringe. Probably in the AU too, because I need some chaos.

16- Is there any major personality changes you made to the characters?

Lunar mostly. He's considered a kid but he matures a lot throughout the story. He's a lot more like his dad than he should be.

17 - What is the most 'out of character' thing in your AU?

Idk I try to keep them pretty close to the original scouse material?

18 - How long have you been working on this AU?

A few days tbh xD.

19 - Is there any OC's or self-inserts? If so what are they like and how do they affect the story?

I don't use OCs in fanfiction media.

20 - What inspired this AU?

There's somewhere in an Astral Spiff video (I think in a few) where he explains when doing tasks out of order in SB you have to be careful to not skip one of Moon's segments or he jumpscares you. That's been called TVA Moon, and the inspiration for this AU.

21 - Has your AU steered off of your original plan for it at all? If so do you like how its changed? If it stayed the same what's the base idea for it exactly?

I accidentally started writing it as a Human AU variant, so throughout the story you see two parallel dimensions. Both the Eclipses will technically meet.

22 - Do you have any variations of this specific AU? If you do how do they differ amongst eachother?

Oh. Well, yeah, the human variant. And later when you're at the TVA you see hundreds of people time travelling.

23 - Does this AU bring you comfort/was it made for comfort?

No. It's very angst heavy. It starts with Moon's death, there is nothing comforting about this.

24 - Is this your only TSBS AU or do you have any other ones? If other ones is this one your favorite?

I have a bunch. I mostly write for my Main Human AU. I enjoyed working on it.

25 - What parts of the AU are you proudest of?

The reveal of TVA Moon. He just throws Eclipse on the ground and drags him through a portal. It's really funny, and the whole AU has always been about him even tho we follow Eclipse.

26 - Do you keep this AU mostly private to yourself? If so why?

No. I just have only been working on this for a few days lol.

27 - would you consider this AU to be dark, light, fluffy, or what would it fall under and why?

Dark probably. It's got angst, Eclipse destroying his life and dimension, hurting his family. Yeah :P

[puffyducks]

DCRC Week #20 (Part 1)

Guys how has it already been 20 whole weeks time isn't real. Anyways speaking of, we're reading PKNA #16: Extraordinary Repairs which is a huge deal cause it means that after waiting 20 whole weeks I CAN FINALLY DOXX CAMERA 9'S FULL LEGAL NAME AND ADDRESS!!! IT'S S-

Okay FINE I guess I'll wait to say his name until we actually get to the right part in this post. And idk why I've even prevented myself from saying his real name in front of my friends that are going through this series for the first time cause it's not even like a secret or revelation, they literally tell you his name at the end of Day of the Cold Sun in his character sheet, but nobody reading the English fan translations would know that because nobody has uploaded translated versions of the character sheets (yet...) ANYWAYS

Just as a heads up to anyone who is reading this comic for the first time, the English translating here is a little scuffed (I assume whoever translated this chapter wasn't a native English speaker) so there are occasional grammatical mistakes but nothing too severe that it limits the effect of the story!

Angus I can PROMISE you do not want to start doing research into Everett Ducklair, do you know how many fuckin doomsday weapons he kept "accidentally" making??? You don't want the smoke.

What kind of fucking idiot steps into an elevator shaft without stopping to see if the elevator is ACTUALLY THERE omfg I hope he hits the bottom and dies

GUYS HE SAID THE- HE SAID THE TITLE OF THE CHAPTER!!!

ALSO HDL MENTION 🔥🔥🔥

guys.... there he is.... the man of the hour

shoutout to the way the other guy is drawn in this panel btw (his ears fell off I guess)

OHOHOHO TRENCHCOAT REVEAL!!! GUYS I AM GIDDY AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY I JUST THINK HE'S NEAT

HE SAID THE THING

why he ourple

OHHH YEAHHH IT'S YA BOI STEFAN MOTHAFUCKIN VLADUCK!!! Who appears to be constantly having a series of PTSD-related war flashbacks but ummm let's not worry about that right now

It's really interesting to me that Donald is a fan of Stefan's work. I mean media was obviously different in the 90s but still, when's the last time you heard someone bring up their favorite photographer? Either Stefan is FAMOUS famous or Donald is one of like 10 people that like to read the credits under newspaper photos.

This panel makes me laugh cause out of context it looks like Stefan is running away from PK (on account of his huge torn up fucking evil looking cape) bro is literally FNAF 2 jumpscaring at him

I FUCKING TOLD YOU

Coolest character design of all time (literally just a duck in a trenchcoat)

What have you seen WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN. 200 page comic docuseries covering all of Stefan's horrifying past experiences NOW!!!!!

You're telling me Ducklair was in his basement building fuckin DINOSAURS??.... ok I can't lie that's cool as fuck good for him

So close except actually not close at all. Granted PK does hang out in Ducklair Tower all the time, but it's not like Angus knows that 😭

Love how much this laser gun just looks like a regular pistol

Me reading poorly written analysis posts of DT17 sorry

I love evil fucked up PK can we keep him like this actually

PAPERINIK MURDERS ANGUS FANGUS IN COLD BLOOD (REAL)

Nvm we just gave him a concussion. also hi Stefan ���

Also we drugged him. Y'know just for good measure!

NO FUCKING WAY YOU GUYS EYEBALL REVEAL 🔥🔥🔥 HE HAS GREEN EYES. or at least one green eye... I guess he could have heterochromia or something whatever

btw this is the most we'll ever see of his face so SOAK IT IN FOLKS (at least, the most we'll see in PKNA, there's like one singular comic from 2016 that shows his entire face if you're curious. You can just google his name and the photos will come up.)

SHOUTOUT TO THE LITTLE CAMERA 9 END HERE IT'S SO SILLY.

I love this issue, Camera 9/Stefan is probably one of my favorite characters. He's just fuckin cool man idk what to tell you. He's fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things but I like having him around, he's a fun character to add as a little bit of flavor to a series with so many ongoing narratives. I do wanna highlight this bit of text from the bottom of his Paperpedia page (which has been auto-translated from Italian and might be a bit off):

I'm so incredibly intrigued by the analysis here because, if true, I wanna know whose idea it was to start referencing classical Luigi Pirandello literature in a Donald Duck comic. I'm not saying I don't want my duck comics to have commentary on media sensationalism and alienation, but I am saying that it's certainly unexpected. Still a welcome topic!

I used most of my image limit covering the main comic so I won't be able to add a lot about the bonus comic but I will say: WAHHH WAHHHH THIS IS THE LAST TRIP COMIC 😭😭😭 at least for a while anyways. There are the Trip's Strip comics but I haven't seen anyone translate those into English and they also start at like chapter 40 so

Is the Raider just fucking allergic to dressing normally like what's going on here. Also HAHA TRIP THOUGHT HIS DAD DIDN'T COME TO THE GAME BUT HE WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING THE WHOLE TIME, EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH 🫵 YOUR DAD LOVES YOU HAHAHA LOSER

Goodbye Trip, my sweet summer child... my child who sucks so fucking bad. He's the worst I'm gonna miss him. And ummm see you later with more spooky Carl Barks!

[justasensitiveplant]

As promised here is a post about the blorbo of my own making, Niki! I'll go into a bit if a trip with this so buckle up. Details under the read more

@the-great-old-grump here goes

Stats

Age 30

Married

(Ex) Navy

Idk what else

While I adore the boat design and want to continue and develop it further, Niki is originally a human. Her story aims to restore a bit of faith in humanity and help me understand it as a whole by answering what exactly is the human nature. The AU premise generally assumes that vehicles have a human origin and their personality is an imperfect mirror of what humans perceive as themselves. Now, to some backstory.

Niki, in both HAU ( Human AU) and CAU (Carstober AU) is somewhat mysterious in a sense that her past is not really known by anybody. She has served in the navy for a good amount of time and has seen a thing or two, and she has also taken part in recon missions. More so in HAU she has managed to go up in  the ranks quite a lot, and in both she has managed to get herself quite a reputation. After some significant jading and general no-fucks-left-ification we can assume she falls solidly in the aloof mentor type. She's a solid and calm person, very dependable and, with a matter-of-fact quality, its hard to find a situation she'd be embarrassed by. She generally devoted her time to protecting her found-familly, since it consists of generally very traumatised people ( and that way she can project and avoid her own issues !! Yay!!). With a series of complicated events she ends up meeting and falling in love with her husband (major "cringe" warning here)

Her husband originally ( as originally Niki was an oc insert in Cars 2) was Siddeley the jet (humanised). The thing is, nowadays the characters share a name and appearance, but the backstory, personality, and any other thing of substance is changed. So much so that his appearance in the movie barely makes sense. That's generally not a problem when I'm staring at a wall daydreaming but this is a public space, so we'll say the character has been switched with an original one of similar make. Idk man. Do I know how I got here? Yes very much so. Can I explain it? Not really....

No matter who represents her husband, they are irredeemably in love, and together they heal past trauma, learn to be vulnerable and whatever other tooth rotting fluff you can imagine. Someone told them that to love another you must love yourself and they both went like "bet" and aggressively got to work.

Another important part is that she is disabled! As a human she has had and over the knee amputation and is using a prosthetic, most days with a walking stick.  The scar across her face is a mystery one, she'll tell a different story every time sb asks. The dragon one was an all time favourite.... I'm working to figure out a way to translate that into her boat design....

I want to also make kind of clear that she's usually not so murder happy as the Carstober artwork suggests. She can do it, and probably has tbh, but there exists an exaggeration for spooky purposes, and the victims are usually past antagonists.

Anyway, here's a little thing of info for Niki.... She is a work in progress for the last 10 years so there's much more than this. I don't even know if this has a coherent train of thought.  My asks are open if there's anything that doesn't make sense or isn't touched upon

[ryuichirou]

Replies

TWST related: about Idia’s designer choices, Azul’s Jamil-related fantasies and other stuff.

Anonymous asked:

Are you going to draw more genderswap twst soon? My bisexual heart enjoys the men but craves the females. I'll even take writing.

Anon!! Thank you so much for enjoying the ladies~ 🥹 They’re very special to me as well.

I actually draw them quite often these days, this is why we post them a lot on our Ko-Fi and 🔑🔞twt… Maybe I’ll finish up something and we’ll post it. Eventually. At some point. Knowing that you’re waiting for them. 💪

As for the writing, we have at least one ask prompting hcs about them, so maaaybe I’ll write some pretty soon.

Anonymous asked:

thank you for being one of the sole people feeding the shroudcest nation. i will lay my life down for you

We’re happy to do our part, Anon 🫡 The only nation I am willing to serve.

In all honesty, I am very glad you like our interpretation of these two and their relationship <3

Anonymous asked:

I just want to say as a robotfucker Ortho’s appearance with his bondage gear inspired look that is canonly built by Idia just carries the ship by itself. Why is Idia such a weirdo degenerate pervert lol

YES LOL

I love that the majority of sus decisions in Ortho’s gears are the result of Idia’s design. And we’ve heard a couple of times that Idia is all about aesthetic + functionality, so…. Idia, mister, sir, please explain this…. Or rather, show your inspiration board. Come on, don’t be shy, we won’t judge👀

Anonymous asked:

You know those femme fatale characters that are as dangerous as they are beautiful, but who also seem completely devoted to the big villain of the story? I think that's the first thing that comes to Azul's mind when he imagines a romantic partner, except instead of an elegant and mysterious lady it's Jamil.

Azul, don't you know that those types turn against their boss/partner as soon as it's convenient for them? (something that is also true for Jamil, oh!) Realistically he knows that he would hate to be in a relationship with someone like that, but he can still let himself fantasize from time to time

This is actually quite a good point, Anon. I think this is exactly where Azul would put Jamil in his fantasies: this way they end up being a power-couple, but Jamil is still his pretty trophy snake. He is also probably aware that Jamil would never be fully and genuinely devoted to him, but yeah, just like you said, that won’t stop him from fantasising lol

Actually I think in Azul’s mind he would always outsmart Jamil somehow. Like Jamil would try to backstab him, but Azul predicted that he would, and therefore Jamil’s plan would backfire… hey, this is actually their dynamic in Ch4, sort of, at least in the Snake Whisper scene. So yeah, Jamil tries to betray him, Jamil gets overpowered and outwitted, they have a fight and then they have passionate sex during which Jamil can’t help but give in because he wants Azul so much and finds his intelligence and cunningness very sexy.

Of course, those are the fairy tales Azul tells himself as he falls asleep at night… who knows what the reality of that scenario would be.

m1lk-n-cook1es asked:

I saw you talking about twisted Shrek & Donkey and I've been thinking about making a DreamWorks-based fan school (but idk if they'll have a rivalry with NRC and RSA since it'll be a company feud, but I'm referencing the fact that DreamWorks was founded by a former Disney employee) so maybe their twisted versions can be from there

That would actually be funny lol Not sure what role they would play in-universe, but yeah, a mage that used to work at RSA/NRC suddenly opening up another school for those who deemed too unfit for these two schools? Or something like that.

Anonymous asked:

There are, surprisingly, or maybe not, a lot of mushroom themed household objects.  Do you think Jade only uses objects shaped liked mushrooms?  Is he trying to replace the utensils in the Mostro Lounge with mushroom shaped cooking ware?  Do you think any of the other boys have similar...fascinations?

I think Azul wouldn’t allow that… He is a meanie and doesn’t understand just how much it would boost everyone’s morale if Jade used mushroom-shaped cooking ware! But unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to fit the Lounge’s theme, even if it’s just for the kitchen…

In reality, I think if Jade were to try to sneak in some mushroom-themed stuff, he would do just for the sake of subtly being a menace lol

Also, there are surprisingly little mushroom-shaped things in Jade’s own room and accessories. What if he only acknowledges the real ones? 🤔 But then again, I could easily see him having an obnoxious collection of ceramic and plushy mushrooms in the future. It all started with a mushroom-shaped salt and pepper shakers…

[paytato435]

Snapper and Stinkpot Character Ref: Casey Junior!

Oh look, the main character appeared! Info dump about Casey under the cut!

Casey Jones Junior - 16, he/him

Birthday: November 23rd (Sagittarius)

Casey is trying his best to adjust to his new life after stopping the Krang invasion, but he has a few wrinkles to iron out before he can sleep soundly at night. Most notably, he hasn’t told his family that he’s also a mutant turtle, and now he’s been blackmailed. Yikes! Wait why would he hide that, that’s so cool?

Some head canons I have about Casey for this au: Knows sign language! Donnie is the only other turtle proficient with it in the family, but maybe it will be useful somehow? Casey also has a bad habit of confusing the younger turtles with their future counterparts, and is often disappointed by the way they act or their lack of experience in dangerous situations.

Despite all his troubles, Casey puts his family before everything else, and would do anything to keep them safe and happy.

Songs that remind me of Casey: Tomorrow Comes Today by Gorillaz (I’m very funny), Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit, and Cover of Me by SUGR?

Casey’s design: Imma be honest, his apocalypse outfit in the movie is trash, I only kept the parts I really liked; his knee pads, hockey stick chainsaw, and face mask. Coming from such a dangerous upbringing, I figured he probably has the scars to show for it, and pretty early in the story it’s established he has a hard time looking at the scars on his legs. So unless it’s otherwise stated, this boy wears leggings under his shorts, lmao. Of course he rocks the man bun occasionally, and even a ponytail in my sidewalk comic. He’s a practical boy. <3

The jersey is a reference to Leo, who also has his own #1 jersey. Gave it longer sleeves to be more hockey/ football shaped over the basketball cut tho. I had an earlier design with him in a tank top and I just don’t vibe with it that much now. His number is 6 because 4 turtles + April + Casey jr. = 6. Finally, we have his red boots. I stole them from Deku in MHA, and they look fucking good on his turtle form, which I will be posting very soon!

And uhh, just in case the totally normal jpeg above isn’t working for you, here’s the picture again. I don’t know why it would be broken but like, idk… I just feel like things haven’t been appearing the way I thought they should lately 🤷‍♀️

P.S. if anyone knows if there are any references for human feet in Rise please let me know or send me some because I totally just threw those piggies out there and had no intention of looking for something so suspiciously specific. 😳

Masterpost Turtle Casey? Angel’s Reference sheet! Sunshine's reference sheet!

[eegasleega-will-change-this-l8r]

Sooo I wasn't planning on doing this post just yet and I don't have a good digital drawing of her yet, but

Ana!!

So my take on her is very different from how I think most people imagine her, I wanted to go in a different direction that made her more than just the girl one/ninten's girlfriend/nicher Paula and she's become one of my favorite characters to play around with ^^

Design details and a giant wall of text detailing her character and story below :3

So like the entirety of my interpretation of Ana stems from one thing

That face

T_T

Very prominent eyebrows (Invasion From the Unknown actually mentions the same thing!!! the illustrations don't show it though and there's not really any other similarities between that version and mine), mouth usually spread in a frown, she's not a happy person Pink dress with a white collar and frill at the bottom, pink hat with a black band (or maybe cream with a red/pink band? i might play around with that idk), red shoes and white stockings She almost always wears her hat when she's out, having to leave it behind in Reindeer was very frustrating but she knew she'd get it back eventually at least (And yeah, she's fat. Her sprite doesn't look fat, I haven't seen other designs that make her fat, I didn't really take inspiration from her model because I hate it and it's not really fat either, I just wanted there to be a fat girl who's not, like, a mean-spirited joke, and since MOTHER's sprites are suuuper vague I decided to take advantage of it and design the characters however I wanted. thank god i'm on tumblr and not posting these to reddit or something, they'd crucify me)

Now her character!

Basically, Ana is grumpy and sour Constantly

You can contrast that with Ninten's 24/7 positivity

In general, I see the world of MOTHER 1 being very bleak and gloomy, with Ninten being the sole exception who helps bring light to the places and people whose souls are being crushed by the weight of everything Ana's sort of the final boss of repressed emotions and pessimism for Ninten to tackle (besides the actual final boss, who completely blows anyone else's emotional repression out of the water - I have a Giygas post in my drafts but I honestly have too much to say about him, I need to trim it down ><) It alllllll plays into the themes I wanna play with in my M1 interpretation :3

So Ana was a young girl living with her mother and father in Snowman's local chapel. Even before the Invasion she was pretty well-known for not being particularly upbeat. She was super reserved, pretty much never smiled, and preferred reading and praying to other people's company. She got some of it from her father, who was a priest and raised her to value proper behaviour and following God or whatever, but she's also just kinda like that. Her mother was much warmer, loving her daughter and never judging her for being less outgoing than the other kids, and Ana was always happiest curled up with her next to the fire, listening to a story.

Oh, and of course she's psychic, powerfully so. Bad news if you tick her off. Her family regards it as a miracle from God. She's a little clairvoyant, but not enough to know exactly what the future holds. Just short little confusing snippets and hints of what to do and expect.

One day, everything suddenly changed. The town was hit by an earthquake, everything was covered in darkness, the animals on the outskirts of town went berserk, and people went missing. The sounds and the shaking jolted Ana awake, and she ran down the hall hoping to be comforted by her mother. Opened the door, standing there with a candle, staring at the empty bed and a shattered window.

Ana buried her feelings and set out to try and find her mother (her father just stayed home and prayed, never leaving the chapel), but the monsters and creatures that had appeared were too strong for her alone, and she could only get as far as Reindeer before she had to turn back. But she heard a little voice in her head that told her to leave her hat behind, and she knew that whoever returned it to her would be the person she had to follow to rescue her mother. She waited impatiently back at her home, praying with her father, obsessively reading the news (similar disappearances all over the country, especially in Easter, interesting), and hoping that the hero, "Ninten," would show up soon.

Eventually, after FAR longer than she was happy with, he showed up and. Is this really the hero? This is just some bucktoothed kid and his geeky friend. She shoved down her frustrations along with everything else (at the very least she appreciated finally having her hat back) and told him that she needed to join him. He's happy to meet her of course because he's Ninten ("New friend!" "We are not friends.") And so the trio gets to set off on their journey!

In the completely wrong direction. Why are we stopping in Halloween.

For some reason, Ninten doesn't seem overly concerned about the fate of the world. He and his stupid friend just keep goofing off and hunting for these useless melodies. This isn't a scavenger hunt. The world is gonna be destroyed. She's furious, but she bottles it up. This is the person who's apparently fated to save Earth, so she has to stay with him, no matter how annoying he is or how much time he wastes.

So Ana spends the whole journey getting progressively more ticked off as they keep getting distracted by the hunt for the melodies. Ninten's shenanigans and his relentlessly positive attitude continue to get on her nerves, and she refuses to engage with them. This is a SERIOUS mission, and she's not gonna stoop to their foolish level, even if she has to stick with them.

So I'll be able to get more into the fight among the group when Teddy joins when I do his post, but short story is that Ana is against Lloyd staying. If they're actually gonna see this mission through to its end, someone strong like Teddy's gonna be far more useful, and they've wasted far too much time to let Lloyd slow them down. Her anger's really starting to boil over at this point. They've been together for ages, and they've barely gotten any closer to saving the world.

This all finally comes to a head on the Mountain (I love the Mountain, everything happens on the Mountain). Ninten's starting to lose his cool as the stress of their journey starts getting heavier and heavier, having to leave Lloyd was incredibly painful, and he's angry with her for not having their backs. She snaps that they aren't friends, they're just allies on the same mission, and they can't afford to waste time goofing off and making pals, and the fight gets more and more heated until everything Ana's been holding in finally bursts free.

She's terrified, and she's been terrified ever since her mother disappeared, and she doesn't know if they can really win or if she'll ever see her mother again, and having to just stay bottled up while they just wandered around seemingly not doing anything has been awful, and infuriating, and she can't stop herself from crying anymore.

Ninten quiets down and lets her have what she needs for a few minutes before he tries to comfort her. He didn't realize she was keeping all this inside, and he feels horrible that she was dealing with this the entire time. Once her tears die down, he rests his hand on her and assures her that they're gonna save her mother, and everyone else, too. He doesn't know how, and he's terrified sometimes too, but he also knows that for whatever reason, they need the melodies if they want to win. He apologizes for just ignoring all her feelings for the entire journey, and tells her that even though she's been so firm about not liking them, he doesn't want her to be alone. She can tell him anything, she doesn't need to keep everything to herself. That's what being friends is about, right?

So this is huge for both of them, and it's when Ana finally starts to warm up. She finally sees that it's good to be open and have friends, and that they'll be stronger for it if they're close. And, as they climb further up the Mountain and continue being friends, she starts to realize some muuuuch more uncomfortable feelings, too. Of course she pushes them down at first, but when they reach the cabin, they're alone together, and who knows if she'll have another chance to open up like this, she comes out and asks Ninten to dance.

I flip-flop a lot on whether Ninten actually feels mutually about her (you can choose yes or no when she asks if you like her back, I don't think Ninten's really ready to figure that stuff out for himself), but goddd I love this scene so much, for such a simple, clunky game, its tender moments hit so hard ;-;

So by the end of the story, Ana's reunited with her mother, she finally has friends that she loves and cares about, she's discovered new things about herself, and she's developed a new sense of hope and brightness for the future. A happy ending :)

So that's my version of Ana, I think she's very different from every other version I've seen of her so it's not like I'll ever see content for her that'll really speak to me unfortunately, but I love her and I love thinking about her dynamic with the other characters ^^

[seraphirism]

hi, anon that woke up just from post with belen and shiro is here!!

to be honest, i don't play favourites (at least i try...) all butlers are my sweethearts and i'll die for them🫶but if i'm really forced to choose... *whisper* don't tell others i said that but my top-6 are (not ranked, just in random) berien, teddy, belen (🥴i'm a weak woman, i won't deny it...), amon, lamli and lato. i'm really chasing after that sweet flavour of being wanted carnally/hj

but of course the only butler that holds my heart fully is muu! he's my baby💖

i'm really glad that my ask made your mood better! we all have hard days sometimes and it makes me happy that my ask managed to help you a bit during tough times!! pls take care of yourself, stay hydrated and sleep healthily :)

sorry idk if that's ok but if it's possible can i be a 🐈‍⬛anon?

i totally get your taste (maybe a bit too much?) lol, i love characters that are head over heels kinda crazy for MC or smitten with them at least ✨

but yes, all the characters are so well written and well-designed that it’s very difficult to have solid favourite. for me it gravitates between which character’s content i most recently consumed. there’s a lot of Bellen and Shiro fan content (on twitter which i highly recommend checking out!) so I’m crazy for them right now 💞

also man, Bellen has me so weak—because that voice actor? that appearance?

lastly, i have a very, very weak spot for characters that are the reliable and calm type (who also like calling themselves MC’s or the other characters older brother-figure ✨) Bellen did that in one go 😭

like that conversation on the home-screen where he tells MC/the player that if they would like it, they can treat him like an older brother, even call him ベレンーお兄さん—that did things to me okay?

(he’s similar to Caleb from Love and Deepspace in this regard—and yes i love him too ✨)

i can simply not wait to read his card stories this weekend〜especially the card where he’s in a bar. like my mind is running wild with ideas about what’s going on in the card story. ahem, i got too into it—

i love Muu as well! I’m really glad he’s included in almost every story content we get from the game. I’d really love it if someday we get an option to use him as a butler on our homescreen and he can have cute voice lines (๑>◡<๑)! the summer event story of this year where we got to see him in the background feature was definitely a step towards maybe getting him on the homescreen?

i mean, story wise Muu is incredibly relevant! i hope we continue seeing more about our lovely cat butler 🐈‍⬛

and thank you so much, I’m doing a lot better (≧∇≦)! sleep and time really do wonders on making you feel better 💕

by the way, anon, are you planning on pulling in gacha for our elf and cat boys? or are you planning on saving up?

I think the devs will do a huge Halloween event this time you know with our new addition of butlers too \(//∇//)\! I think I’ll save up for Halloween because I have a feeling the cards will be fantastic!

and of course, it’s completely alright! you’re my first anon (you know who asked for an emoji to refer to them as! i…don’t know what this is called 😭, an emoji-anon?) anyway, you’re my first so this feels really nice! it’s a pleasure, 🐈‍⬛–anon!

i hope you have a great day, 🐈‍⬛–anon! make sure eat and sleep well 💞

i wish there was an option where we could add friends in aknk—I would have love to add some of you there. but it’s lovely conversing on tumblr as well (๑>◡<๑)! the eng-fandom isn’t too active on other platforms, at least from what I’ve seen.

[queensparklekitten]

I've been scrolling through minecraft worldbuilding and lore posts and it's got me thinking about like... the sort of scale a lot of it exists on in terms of treating it as a digital world in-universe?

Like. You've got people who approach it as closer to a fantasy world, whose lore is full of in-world explanations for game mechanics, everyone is flesh and blood unless they're like a ghost or something, the world existed long before the player(s), and there's little to no video game terminology because that's not relevant here. For all intents and purposes, this story does not take place in a computer.

And then you've got people who use terms like code, server, admin, etc. but come up with their own definitions for them. Or when people make up a pantheon and call them the Devs, with that just being basically a synonym for "the gods" and leave it ambiguous as to whether these gods are actually real. And there's still in-world reasons for things but they'll at times involve, say, whatever mysterious world-forming element is referred to as code, just as often as they'll be indistinguishable from something you'd find in the above take on Minecraft.

And on the other end of the spectrum there's things like using code in worldbuilding without making up a fantasy definition, or outright using the term NPC, or players being able to see their health bar, or that fic I read once where the characters downright take off (and wash) their minecraft skins to reveal that everyone is some kinda humanoid-shaped featureless amalgamation of code or something underneath their appearance

like. the difference between referring to updates as such in-universe and using the version names for them (ex. minecraft people casually talking about how a world was created in 1.17), versus the "world is slowly healing" theories that generally involve it doing this naturally (instead of the Devs being involved), versus "updates aren't happening in-universe the bogged have always been here"

fanart that sticks to a blocky artstyle, fanart that's basically "what might this look like in real life", cube people with round elements in their designs

idk it's just. interesting to think about? the different ways people approach minecraft worldbuilding and how much meta stuff they incorporate into their lore. I've run the gamut of these over the years and i could do a whole separate post about how the area my creations tend to fall on this scale has evolved over the years and also observations i've made in regards to this scale and how other things that vary in minecraft fanworks tend to intersect with it