#ie cool laser swords

[tecceran]

alrighty, never really done this propaganda thing before, but here goes nothing!

why YOU should vote for the monado

(with as few spoilers as possible)

it’s pretty freaking cool. i mean come on, it opens up like a jaw and shoots out a laser beam!! that’s some good sci-fi shit right there. not to mention how there’s this sick blue energy running through it and the glass panes where “mysterious” symbols appear. these are actually chinese symbols (i don’t have enough experience to be more specific than that) that correspond to what power is being used. the main symbol means “machine” since the monado is the only weapon that can destroy the mechanical mechon that are killing off humanity

it gives the wielder the power to see visions of and change the future. it’s basically like the monado and its wielder exist outside the pre-determined timeline, and their actions are the only thing that can change how the future unfolds. and this is even cooler because it’s a major part of both the story and the gameplay. you can have “visions” of dangerous upcoming attacks in combat and actually find a way to prevent them instead of them being a cutscene-only thing that realistically would be used a bunch in combat

the monado is also the “sword of the bionis,” ie, the giant sleeping titan whose body is the environment the game takes place on. meaning it was also wielded by a giant fucking titan as a giant blade of light. it’s sick. the monado’s appearance changes to best fit it’s wielder, which is why it is seen in multiple forms, and how it can be wielded by both a massive titan and a normal-sized (OK, short) guy

the monado is also a bit of a picky sword, both in what it stabs and who it lets stab. while the monado is very good at destroying mechon, it is less good at cutting people. as in it can’t. which is good, because no friendly fire! it is bad tho, because if you have to fight anything it considers a person, it just bounces off of. it also can’t cut this special talking mechon with faces. weird…

anyways, vote for the monado, and play xenoblade. it was recently remastered for switch, and take my word for it, it is an amazing game. it’s a long ride, but the characters are really loveable, the story incredibly memorable, and the combat is really fun and not too difficult to master.

Round 1, Match 32: Monado vs. Mortal Blade

Monado

(Yet another display issue, the final link probably.)

From: Xenoblade Chronicles

Wielder: Shulk

The Monado is an energy blade that can make use of different abilities, called arts. These include Buster, which deals double damage; Enchant, which strengthens all weapons in the party; Shield, which creates a barrier; and Speed, which increases a party member’s speed; among others. The Monado also allows its wielder to see the future. This sword is extremely important to the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles, and as such any further descriptions would heavily spoil the plot of the game.

Mortal Blade

From: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Wielder: Wolf

The Mortal Blade is a sword forged specifically to slay immortals, and is given to those who complete the Senpou trial. It is used to sever the ties of immortality on several bosses in the game, including Lord Kuro, the final boss of the game. Additionally, here is a gif of the sword in action.

[artsy-hobbitses]

Hi! Apologies if you’ve already answered this, but how does each member get their names? Like, I know u mentioned how bee and op got their code names, but is everyone else’s picked for them or do they choose? Love ur stuff, ur awesome!!

Ayo and thank you for your kind words!

On the names:

Hound: Obvious reason

Prowl: Nickname given to him while he was a policeman because he never really slept and ‘prowled’ the streets late at night. Nickname was in Mandarin, adopted to English when he joined the team.

Jazz: Nickname given to him by his dockworker colleagues by virtue of his taste in music and side hustle.

Mirage: Based off his Outlier powers

Kup: Based off her nickname of ‘Kop’ (from her given name Kopisha) given by her Wrecker-mates.

Ratchet: Doctor man fix things. Also partially because he was a habit of calling dumbasses getting preventable injuries ‘fucking wretched’ esp if they tag him in his day off.

Springer: Jumping/leaping prowess

Hotrod: Worked in a forge, has an affinity for fire and hotheaded. Rod a slight corruption of ‘Riord’ from his surname, Riordan.

Strongarm: Buff lady bench press team mates for breakfast.

Sunstreaker: Color of choice and speed at which he moves in fights means what most people saw was a ‘streak of sun’ before they had their shit rocked.

Sideswipe: Ooops knocked you off your feet in battle oops did it again.

Drift and Blurr: Boys go nyoooooom on the track field.

Megatron: Given to him at random by owner of the Pit he fought in.

Starscream: Loud shriek of his suit’s engines bearing down on those below sounded like the heavens/‘stars’ were screaming.

Shockwave: Nickname from his time in the Senate.

Soundwave: Hearing ability.

Skids: Given to him by Tarn when they were littles and Tarn challenged him to learn how to drive Shockwave’s car with his Jack-Of-All-Trades power, which he did and two eight/nine-year olds ended up GTA-ing for ten miles-ish from the Institute before being caught and hauled back by Bajyai Kup.

Skywarp and Thundercracker: Outlier ability.

Windblade: Dances With Swords

Chromia: Lady strong as steel

Lightbright: Lady is the light of her people/a beloved pop star.

Ironfist/Broadfist/Impactor: Getting your shit rocked in different Wrecker flavours.

Ironhide: Shrugs off blows like NBD.

Blaster: Calling out shitty governments/authorities as his hobby ie. Putting them on blast.

Barricade: What it feels like when you try to shouldercheck him.

Ravage: Small cat man very vicious if pushed.

Laserbeak: Asked to give herself a codename, any codename she likes, and thought lasers were super cool

Glit: Her stage name she was fond of ie. Glitter.

That’s all I can think of for the moment, the rest will hopefully come to me soon!

[secret-engima]

I blame @talisward for this but like-

Before I get way into this, tagging @wolfsrainrules​ and tentatively @north-peach​ because FFXV isn’t your fandom but this is also part Star Wars and who knows you might find it funny.

What if in a Star Wars/FFXV crossover, a ship takes damage to the hyperdrive (pirate attack or unexpected meteor shower something) and the hyperdrive yeets them waaaaayyyyyyyyy into Wild Space and it crashes on the jungle islands of an unknown planet and the crew is killed in the crash.

But the crew weren’t the only ones on board.

The Galahdians of various Clans, for once all united, swarm over the strange thing that fell from the sky very warily, scuffing and chirping at each other (because this is totally an A/B/O verse, maybe even an a/b/o spin-off of Thrown to Wolves verse who knows) and they finally pry open part of it to look inside and- dead bodies. Dead bodies of strange adults and non-human ... beings that still looked vaguely humanoid and didn’t dissolve like daemons. Sprawled over in what was clearly death from the crash. They explore and find no survivors or even anything familiar. The letters on the walls are strange, the technology is strange. Everything is strange.

Then one of them finds a body dressed differently. Rather than strange, unpleasant smelling synthetic fabric, this one is dressed in spun clothes, rough and simple and practical. The body, not human but very humanoid, is curled up near a door, an expression of odd serenity and determination on their face even in death.

It’s one of the Ulrics that notices the area AROUND the body is miraculously untouched. There is destruction and crumpled metal and sparking wires in the hallway leading up to the spot, but the door behind the body and whatever is beyond is undamaged. Protected.

One of the Ostiums sniffs carefully, stiffens as he finally catches a scent other than sparks and foreign metal and strange blood, “There’s something alive on the other side,” he whispers.

An Arra presses her ear against the door for several seconds before growling, “I hear pups.”

And that’s the only incentive they need to start forcing the door open, because pups are sacred, even in a place like this, a metal ship that fell from the night sky and is filled with the dead bodies of human and non-human beings alike.

The door finally gives way with a scream of metal, letting the light spill into the room.

The collection of Jedi Younglings stare at them with wide, frightened eyes, some human, others not, all smelling of sadness and terror and the need for reassurance.

The Galahdians glance at each other meaningfully at the sight of non-human pups, then carefully set about coaxing them all out despite the language barrier, soothing the tears that come at the sight of the dead protector (who must have been protecting the pups with magic, surely) and herding them out into the jungle sunshine. While some of the Clans start working on removing the bodies for as proper a funeral as they can make (they hope star people don’t mind being burned and released to the winds, but it’s all they can do), others start trying to figure out what to DO with the new children. They can’t separate them, but these are a lot of strange children and that will be a lot for any Clan to handle. They settle on giving them to the more famed and long-standing alliances, the Ulric-Ostium and the Lazarus-Furia-Arra because the joint clans will have an easier time raising the kids and figuring out ... well. Non-human biology.

One of the Ulrics meanwhile is carefully distracting the poor scared kiddos by trying to establish some rudimentary communication. She finally coaxes their names out of them and smiles when one of the humans (human-like? If he’s a star person does he really count as human?) in the group, a boy no more than eight if she doesn’t miss her mark, steps forward and shakily bows in greeting and carefully enunciates “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Some other notes on this AU that I apparently have now: a/b/o is an Astral fiddling thing that happens over time and all the Jedi younglings are young enough that THEY develop it too as they’re raised by Galahd.

Galahd guards their Star Children zealously. Keeps them secret and treasured.

If this is not a Thrown to Wolves a/b/o spin-off, then this is still an AU where “magic” (ie the Force) can be used by almost everyone to some degree or other, just for simpler things than the specialized and extremely powerful magics of the LCs and Oracles because of Bahamut’s Blessing. Other people can still do amazing stuff with their “Magic” but it’s not armiger or Walls or superhealing/purification and it’s not as overwhelmingly powerful as LCs (who are all like- up there with Anakin Skywalker Force-power wise).

The younglings are Obi-Wan’s crechemates, they were on their way back from Illum or something when the hyperdrive yote them to Eos. They quickly figure out they’re on a planet so far away no one knows Galactic Standard and that no one has space travel. Eventually they settle in their new lives.

Everyone picture Feral Galahdian Jedi bbys. It’s like- Feral Mandalorian Jedi bbys but without the helmets and heavy armor XD.

They did end up splitting the creche between the various Clans, but tried to keep at least two kids near each other at all times so that they wouldn’t feel abandoned and organized regular “play dates” for all their Star Children (with the added benefit of the adults getting to share their meltdowns over the weird things their Star Children do and need). Also Ramuh is watching from on high and running damage control, which is why no Galahdian falls over dead from space viruses and no youngling dies in spasms from Eos viruses. He’s also the one to tweak the kiddos to fit into the a/b/o dynamic.

Obi-Wan would like you to believe he’s an Ostium. He is not. He’s an Ulric. Bant is his long-suffering Ostium braincell.

Other members of the creche include: Bruck Chun, who after multiple hard lessons on bullying is actually a pretty decent (if aggressive) bby Furia. Quinlan Vos because I find him fun (or, in this AU, Quinlan Ulric), and a couple OCs because I can’t remember who all else is in Obi-Wan’s age group/creche. There’s a Togruta in there somewhere because Togruta are cool.

Meanwhile in the Galaxy at large the Jedi are searching for their lost ship of younglings with more than a little alarm, but they don’t find them. While wandering for clues even years later, one Qui-Gon Jinn stumbles across a slave woman and her year old bby on Tattooine. The bby is extremely freaking Force sensitive so he Qui-Gon Jinn’s his way into buying both of their freedoms and taking them to Coruscant to introduce the woman to the Jedi so she can decide if she wants her bby in the Jedi or not. The woman is Shmi, the bby is Anakin.

Obi-Wan uses the schematics found on the ship (it was a ship for building lightsabers and stuff like in that one Clone Wars episode), his own instincts, and bits of the Elemency crystals/meteor shards lying around to “re-invent” the lightsaber. All the Galahdians are enamored and immediately figure out how to make their own.

Niflheim was Not Prepared to tackle a jungle full of Feral Galahdians with Laser Swords. Galahd does no fall and the Kingsglaive are still formed but not out of refugees. Instead Regis approaches them hoping to form an elite force of laser sword wielding jungle maniacs warriors. The Galahdians agree after some haggling for extra autonomy/privacy to hide their Star Children.

I feel like Obi-Wan joins the Kingsglaive. Just- because OBI-WAN. He’s curious and interested and he doesn’t particularly like war but he has that very strong Protecc instinct and people appreciate his diplomacy.

Years and years later, when the Star Children are teens/young adults, either they figure out how to repair their old ship or somehow another Republic ship finds Eos and all the Jedi proceed to collectively lose their minds over finding their Feral Galahdian former-Jedi younglings and their culture of laser-sword wielding jungle Packs.

Also the secondary genders is NOT a thing outside Eos so all the Jedi are ALSO freaking out over that and trying to figure out how their younglings have it (BECAUSE IT’S A THING. THERE ARE HORMONES AND VOCALIZATIONS AND STUFF THAT NORMAL HUMANS/MON CALAMARI/ETC CAN’T PULL OFF). It ... it never occurs to the Jedi that the Astrals did it because no matter how many times the Galahdians say it’s an Astral-granted thing, no one believes them because everyone “knows” that must be their primitive mythology and culture. There is no such thing as beings who can materialize out of thin air and are made of pure Force. Pssh.

Ramuh the Troll, Bahamut the Drama Queen, every other Astral who is professionally insulted that their existence is brushed off by the idiots who should know better: Behold, we shall ruin these arrogant space monks’ entire careers.

Also Palpatine tries something funny near the Galahdians and is murdered discreetly via an Arra because they can SMELL the madness and near daemon-like corruption on him kthanks.

Also also all the Galahdians take one (1) look at Anakin and go BBY SPACE ULRIC and promptly adopt Shmi and Anakin both while the Space Monks look on and sputter in confusion.

[gffa]

How much of our real world concepts and rules can we apply on gffa? Issues like mental illness, therapy, age are they same in gffa? Does the worldbuidling of gffa cover these subjects? Ahsoka at 14 fighting is argued as Jedi using child soldiers but Padme at 14 being a Queen and ruling a planet is accepted. Anakin didn't get therapy, but does mental therapy exist as a concept in gffa? Is it okay to simply accept the gffa's in-universe machinations, treat it as separate from our world concepts?

Hi!  This is a really fascinating subject that I enjoy a lot, because a lot of elements go into consideration for these things–writers often having an imperfect understanding of the concepts they’re drawing on for influence, the lack of desire to be a perfect match to realism rather than the thematic elements they prefer, even whether or not you follow narrative intention or instead go by Death of the Author.Let’s take physics as an example–if we try to jam real world physics into the world of Star Wars, we’re going to be sorely disappointed because the creators don’t have a perfect understanding of physics (NO WAY A LIGHTSABER WOULD EVER WORK IRL, THERE IS NO SOUND IN SPACE, etc.) but also that that’s not the point.  They’re writing a story to be entertaining, to follow themes, to have exciting and dramatic moments.  Those laser swords work because realistic physics is a far, far secondary concern to, “Does this look iconic and will make our property unique and sell a shitload of toys?”Does this stop people from yelling about how SWORDS DON’T WORK THAT WAY!!!! in��“this expert analyzes the fight scenes of Star Wars” on YouTube?  No, it does not.  And I can yell back, “THEY’RE LASER CHAINSAWS, OF COURSE THEY’RE ALL BOUNCY, ALSO FUCK PHYSICS THAT’S WAY LESS IMPORTANT THAN THEMATIC INTEGRITY.” and then we’re at an impasse!  It depends on which way you want to go, if you want to aim for a Doylist or a Watsonian view on the stories you’re consuming.I want to establish that clearly–one of fandom’s biggest draws is that you get to choose whether you want to abide by Word of God or if you want to embrace Death of the Author (though, in that case, I don’t think you get to claim narrative intention, if the authors specifically say otherwise), that both are valid options.  Beyond this point, we’re going with Word of God because I think that’s the aim of this ask, but I want to be very clear that this is not a judgment of people who subscribe to Death of the Author!Within a fictional world, there is such a thing as narrative intention and narrative structure.  What I mean by this is what you mention with Ahsoka and Padme–the idea that the Jedi use “child soldiers” isn’t really backed up by the canon narrative and is directly contradicted by Padme being an elected Queen of her entire planet and being trained for combat, by the same age, which is treated as awesome.  We see Ahsoka being awesome all the time, there’s no narrative arc where she has to deal with being a “child soldier”.  The Resistance also uses younger people of that age and we’re not meant to think that the Resistance is a horrible, evil organization for that, either.I think realism has its place, because the authors and creators are influenced by realism, but if you can’t back up an assertation with reliable in-universe evidence and the narrative supporting it, then you’re not meant to think that that’s what’s going on.  Star Wars is a fictional space fairy tale, one with laser swords and psychic powers and spaceships, it’s not meant to be 100% realistic.  Not in physics or in psychology!  Not only is it okay to accept the GFFA’s in-universe machinations on their own merits and treat them as separate from real world concepts, I think that’s the best path to understanding the narrative!That said, that is a separate issue from potential criticism of a narrative for including the tropes it does–ie, if we want to, we can criticize the narrative for putting for the idea that having a 14 year old Queen (who many mistake for being much, much older because of the way she’s costumed and made up) is totally cool and that it puts pressure on people of that age to be more world-ready than they should be, but saying that the GFFA intends for us to find this horrifying and that the people around Padme are super judgmental and right about this–or Ahsoka fighting in a war or the Rebellion and the Resistance doing the same–is not accurate.  Because it’s not backed up in-universe by reliable narrators reacting the way they would if such concepts were intentional.It gets further more complicated when we start assuming things that make utter sense to us, but aren’t necessarily intended.  For example, Anakin Skywalker’s various diagnoses by different people (sometimes professional, sometimes not) can be used to say, “This is why his actions are understandable!” or “This is why his actions are inexcusable!”  You can map anxiety disorders behaviors onto him just as much as you can map domestic abuse/IPV behaviors onto him.  You can say, “He should have had therapy!” and I can say, “An actual professional paralleled the Jedi teachings as analogous to therapy, Anakin WAS going to therapy.  He did not want it.”  How much of these were intentional by the narrative and the authors?  We have to look at the characters in-universe’s reactions–ones we know to be reliable, ie, not villains who have an axe to grind or are shown over and over and over to be lying liars who lie for evil purposes, like Palpatine, like the First Order–and take our cues from there.Examples:  Everything in Dark Lord of the Sith shows us that Anakin cannot own up to his mistakes, that he lets his fear rule him, that he is shown better options and rejects them over and over and over.  (“No, this is all there is.”)  Or, in From a Certain Point of View, Obi-Wan says, (“Anakin became a Jedi Knight,” Obi-Wan interjects, a thread of steel in his voice. “He served valiantly in the Clone Wars. His fall to darkness was more his choice than anyone else’s failure. Yes, I bear some responsibility—and perhaps you do, too—but Anakin had the training and the wisdom to choose a better path. He did not.”)  It’s clear that the narrative is saying, yes, Anakin had access to tools that would help him make better choices, but he still rejected them.Ultimately, no fan is obligated to take one path or another, Realism vs Thematic Intentions, Word of God vs Death of the Author, Doylist vs Watsonian, or even a mix of the two, all are our choices.  But when talking about narrative intention, real world influences can be important, but they are inspirations, not a direct, literal correlation.  George Lucas did research on history, so the prequels follow certain structures, but his understanding of them was often imperfect, so I draw on his comments and what’s in the actual canon and books like Star Wars: Propaganda to make my conclusions, because that’s what was built into the foundations of the story.For me, I find it far more satisfying an experience, because my understanding of the story then tends to align a lot with the intentions of it.  Intentions are only as important as any given person wants them to be (Death of the Author is a perfectly valid approach to stories, if you want!), but that is still what was going into the story and I think it’s important to recognize that trying to cram hyper-realistic concepts into a story that wasn’t intended to have them isn’t always going to work out very well, because they aren’t narratively intended.  Padme’s not intended to be a child soldier, trying to cram that into her story can be an interesting thing to explore, but it’s not going to be reflected in the rest of her story.  Same for Ahsoka and the Resistance and the Rebellion, same for the realistic physics of lightsabers.

[monoredwarlock]

Ikoria felt like a fine magic set. Actually Adventures in the Forgotten Realms felt the least Magic to me by default just due to being not Magic IP. I feel the crossover mtg concepts should stick to fan creations or non-standard set promos.

Most Magic is harder, but I think any of the main premiere sets of a plane worked well for me. Exploring a new world and diving deep into its mythology and how it functions within but apart from the greater multiverse is the most enticing part of mtg for me.

Personally, the recent set that to me felt the least like Magic was actually Ikoria.

This is an interesting question. In the last five years, what set was the most Magic to you and what set was the least?

[spectrumscribe]

Okay, I just thought of this since I only actually got around to watching the other rottmnt episodes yesterday but like since they look like they'd love it (well at least Raph and Mikey) maybe have the turts spend a night with April dressing up all cute and like putting on makeup and nail polish (Maybe with them wearing old big clothes April found or owns? Or after acquiring a whole bunch of clothes through whatever means). (Mikey and Raph just really loved dressing up and I loved it too)

this one was too cute a prompt to pass on. and congrats on joining the brand new rottmnt fandom! we’re growing in numbers with every day that the proper release date draws closer. :3c

“It’s making my eyes itchy.”

“Shh, you look great. Now- keep holding still, I have tocurl them.”

“Is it gonna hurt?”

“Not if you hold still.”

“Those look like they’re going to hurt me.”

“They won’t, promise.”

“You sure?”

“I’ve used them on myself, Leo. They don’t hurt.”

Leo’s lips stay in a bracing grimace though, rigid all overwith tension as April gently curls the fake eyelashes. She giggles at howscared her friend is, considering that Leo walks around with a giant sword mostdays and has faced plenty scarier than makeup tools. He’s a total dork, justlike Mikey, who is watching the process with wide eyes; leaning on his armsover the side of the bed, looking up at the both of them.

“Soooo… does ithurt?” he asks, poking Leo’s leg.

“Nnnnooo…?” Leo says slowly, blinking as April takes awaythe curler. He’s still grimacing. “Still super itchy, though.” He blinks rapidly,testing out the lashes. “God, how do humans livewith hair on their faces like this?”

“Haha, you look so weird, Leo. I wanna go next.”

“I think I might stick with eyeliner, April,” Leo says,touching the tips of the lashes. April smacks his hand away before he canunstick the glue.

“Take a look before you decide,” April says, holding up acircular desk mirror. Leo takes the mirror from her, examining himself in it ashe turns his head side to side. The thick black eyelashes stand out against thestreaks of red markings on his face, accentuated further by the eyeliner they’dalready applied earlier; before April convinced Leo to give eyelashes a go.

“I look… soweird,” Leo says after a moment. “Turtles really aren’t supposed to have hairon their faces. It’s… kinda a nice-weird, though? Itchy, but nice.”

“My turn,” Mikeyproclaims, clambering onto the bed and shoving Leo out of the way. He percheson the comforter with an expectant expression, eager as anything. Leo grumblesand unscrunches himself from between Mikey and the wall, climbing off the endof the bed and getting some space.

“Can I have the reallythick ones? They’re glittery,” Mikey asks, pointing at the costume eyelashesApril saved from Halloween one year. “If I’m gonna have itchy eyes, I wanna getmy money’s worth out of things.”

“Sure thing, hon,” April says, opening the packet. Mikey isless fidgety than Leo had been, probably by virtue of having seen his bigbrother go through the experience first. April’s started to realize that aslong as at least one of the brothers has done something before the rest, theother three will gladly follow lead. Even if whatever they’re doing is a badidea.

They also, sometimes, feel more comfortable doing somethingafter April’s done it first. That factmakes a strange squishy spot of warmth in her chest. Her relationship with thebrothers has really started to feel closer the past months; easy andcomfortable.

April doesn’t have any blood siblings, so in a way, it’s beena novel experience having the brothers in her life. More and more, they… feellike actual little brothers to her. Sitting here in her room, her small makeup bagspread across the bed and having spent the past half hour delicately painting eachother’s faces- it feels familial and warm in a way, like they’ve doneit a hundred times before. And that’s proof enough of how close April’s gottenwith the brothers.

The appreciative noises Mikey makes to himself when he getsthe mirror, after the job is done, makes April smile fondly. “I feel like abird of paradise,” Mikey says, fluttering his new eyelashes.

“You definitely look like one,” Leo says from the floor,having moved into the same spot Mikey had been. He laughs when Mikey winksexaggeratedly, still showing off his new look.

April uncurls her legs, sighing in relief as blood flowsback into. “Aight, I’ve been sitting too long. Up, up. I gotta check if theother two haven’t made the microwave sentient yet anyway.”

Her friends do as she asks, getting out of the way andfollowing April from her room. There’s no smoke coming from the kitchen, orsounds of laser blasts, which April is steadily becoming familiar with viafriendship with Donnie- but there isthe sound of someone lecturing someone else with a frustrated tone.

“Do you see this? It’s a vegetable. You have a mouthful ofcanines. You don’t like vegetables.Carnivores do not eat carrots.”

Mayhem’s crickety voice responds with a rolling chirp.

“You. Are a carnivore. I aman omnivore. I eat carrots. You eat meat. I saw you inhale fivehamburgers in one sitting just last week. Go steal someone’s fastfood and leave my carrots alone.”

“Oh my gosh,” Mikey giggles. Leo is laughing into his palm,and April feels herself grinning. As they come into the kitchen, Donnie isstanding in front of the counter with his hands on his hips, sans his battleshell in a rare instance of vulnerability limited to only specificcircumstances. IE: spending time with his family and April in a safe setting.

Mayhem sitting in front of the scowling turtle, tailflicking back and forth playfully as they give an innocent look. There’s acollection of chewed on and spat back out carrots littering the counter aroundtheir paws.

“Are you berating my pet, Donnie? Seriously?” April laughs.

“They keep stealing the snacks,” Donnie accuses flatly,pointing at Mayhem. “They are. A thief.”

“Ohhh, and such a cutelittle thief,” April coos, coming over and petting Mayhem. They purr like alittle engine, chirping as she squishes their cheeks and scratches their big ears.

“You’re biased,” Donnie scoffs.

“They do keep my feet warm at night,” April admits happily.Leo and Mikey both ignore Donnie’s disgust with the veggie snatcher, joiningApril in giving Mayhem the attention they’ve probably been trying to get.

“Guys?” Raph asks from the next room over. “Hey, there’s afew good movies on Netflix and I dunno which-” Raph’s shell scrapes the wall ashe tries to squeeze through the doorway, and he cringes and cuts off. “Oh,shit, shit- April, I’m really sorry.”

April sees the damage done, a deep gouge into the whiteframe along with a few other smaller scratches. She just sighs, picking upMayhem and cradling the strange little creature. “It’s alright, Raph. It’snothing my cousins haven’t done already- or me, too, actually. I got up to someserious shenanigans as a kid.”

“I either bump my head or I hit the wall; your home is so tiny,April,” Raph complains, though he still looks deeply apologetic. April noticedfrom the get-go how careful her large friend has been in her home. Despite the excitementabout April’s parents being away for the weekend and the five of them gettingto hang out here, April suspects Raph is actually fairly uncomfortable movingaround in such a small, breakable space. Thus, his expression of regret and howhe’s holding all his limbs close to himself.

“It’s cool, no worries. They probably won’t even noticeanother scratch,” April promises, handing Raph Mayhem for a cuddle. Now thatthe two of them have gotten warmed up to one another, they get along just fine.After the third time Mayhem attacked Raph- back when the little creature firstcame to them- they’d come up with the hypothesis that Mayhem was mistaking Raphfor the big muscly monster guys that’d been chasing them. Some treats, a calmspace, and Raph sitting down instead of standing over them fixed that easily.

Mayhem purrs contently in Raph’s arms, easing the slightdiscomfort that’d been in his expression. Donnie, through the conversation, hasdrafted his two younger siblings for busboy services, and is sending all theirmovie snacks into the living room.

“Nice lashes,” Raph says to Mikey and Leo as they pass.

“Nice hat,” they chorus back, and Raph grins, still pleasedwith his wide sunhat. When the brothers had first arrived, they’d stumbledacross the bags of clothing donations April’s parents have been collecting fora community event. Raph, for obvious reasons, hadn’t fit a single piece ofclothing.

While the other three had been playing dress up, and while Aprilhurriedly bullshitted an essay so they could really start the fun, Raph had saton the couch and tried not to act too disappointed about being left out. Donnie,who’d been sporting a nice work jumpsuit and ill-fitting rain boots at thetime, was the one who fixed that.

“It suits you,” he’d said with purposeful kindness, placingthe sunhat on his brother’s head. It hadn’t been a beat later and Mikey and Leooffered the wealth of chunky necklaces in addition; finding a way to includetheir oldest brother in the dress up game.

Raph put the necklaces back in the end, but hasn’t takenthat hat off since it was put on his head. April has a feeling she’ll just giveit to him permanently, because Raph keeps touching its brim with a happy littlegrin.

“Can we watch this one?” Mikey asks, selecting an animatedmovie from the trending section. “It dropped like, yesterday, and I didn’t geta chance to watch it yet.”

“I saw the trailer, it looks decent,” Leo says, floppingonto the couch next to Mikey. April takes the third cushion of couch, while Donnietakes the loveseat. Raph sits on the floor, leaning carefully against the armof Donnie’s chair, so he doesn’t rip the fabric of it.

“What’s it about?” Raph asks.

“The future and robots and a generic rebel girl,” Donnie replies.“From the looks of things, at least. It’s pretty obvious from the title card.”

“What? I sent you a link, Don,” Leo says, vaguelydisgruntled. “You didn’t watch it?”

Donnie shrugs. “You send me a lot of links, Leon. I can’tclick on them all and keep up with myprojects.”

Mikey pats Leo’s shoulder as his brother sulks momentarily. “I’lljust play the trailer right now for everyone, ‘n’ then we can decide if wewanna watch.”

“No!” Donnie abruptlyshouts, lunging at Mayhem on the coffee table. He unsuccessfully picks them upand drops them on the floor in order to save the carrots, as Mayhem canteleport and tends to ignore people trying to put them where they don’t want tobe.

The trailer starts playing as Donnie tries again to shooMayhem off his carrots, only for the creature to teleport out of reach and landin April’s lap. Purring and holding a baby carrot in their mouth. Donniemutters, “I give up,” and slumps into his loveseat as his brother laugh at him.

“You are a very bad baby,” April tells them seriously, thoughshe’s smiling indulgently. They just chirrup in a distinctly unrepentant wayand spits their chewed carrot on the carpet. She’ll have to clean that uplater.

April scritches their ears with a roll of her eyes, settlinginto the squish of being on the couch with Leo and Mikey; ready for the nexthalf of their hangout night.

Commission info & Kofi link.

[lasorciereviolette-blog]

Why I love Madou Monogatari Saturn despite its flaws (spoiler free)

First, what is Madou Monogatari Saturn?

Madou Monogatari Saturn is, well, Madou Monogatari for the Sega Saturn, meaning a late 90s turn based RPG for a system that really didn’t get all the love it should have because of bad business decisions on Sega’s part. It was released at the tail end of Compile’s control of Puyo and imo when they were doing some of their best work on the franchise (see Tower of the Magician, which is probably the best Disc Station game and arguably one of the best Madou Monogatari games period).

Okay, but what’s it about?

Once upon a time, there was a great paladin known as the Golden Hero who fought an evil interdimensional creature called Yoggus. He fought to the very limits of his power, pouring his own life force into his holy sword to defeat the creature. He thought he vanquished his foe and was glad despite his imminent death, knowing his world was safe... When he was surprised by Yoggus’s power to exist in multiple planes of reality at once. With no power left he was swept into a dimensional tear and his fate left unknown.

... Except that was just a story a wandering bard came into Arle Nadja’s hometown saying. Or is it? Not long after hearing the story, Arle comes into contact with some of her friends, who are behaving erratically around a strange smoke. Carbuncle’s gem laser seems to be able to disperse the smoke and return people to normal, so Arle and Rulue (the smoke’s first victim) decide to look into the source of this smoke. Along their path, they come across Schezo, who sometimes has answers and at others doesn’t remember what he’s been doing and antagonizes the party. The search for the truth takes Arle and Rulue all over the Madou world encountering a great deal of the major cast members and getting into a bunch of silly situations, while still maintaining some seriousness of the older Madou games.

You can find a translation for story events here, as well as links to a playthrough on Youtube: http://cw.nanako.moe/wiki/Log:MMS_Translation

Now that we’ve gone over that, we can continue into why I love Saturn.

First of all, I get that it’s probably not for everyone. Different strokes for different folks and all. But to me Saturn is very nostalgic; it’s a very 90s RPG and very Compile-style if you look at any of their supplemental materials.The characters are pushed to great comedic sociopath heights while remaining in character. It’s kind of like watching an anime where everyone’s a jerk of some kind and getting toyed with in slapstick fashion. Again, very 90s Compile, so expect some raunchy humour, thirst, and violence from almost everyone in some way. It’s not really a kids’ game, more like a teenager game.

However, it also features Rulue at what I find to be her best characterization; She’s a haughty and vain noblewoman, yes, but she’s still friends with Arle and still determined to do what’s right for the world. She’s in love with Satan, but it doesn’t devour her whole character; hell, she recognizes when Satan’s caused too much trouble for once and decides to sock his face in as a result!

For someone used to the one note Rulue found in current Puyo, this should be a massive improvement. It sure is to me.

Satan’s also doing something unrelated to Arle for once! Again, massive shocker if you’ve come in from recent Puyo and have never seen Satan doing anything apart from chasing her. Without going into spoilers there’s not much I can say except that he’s his usual irresponsible self but tries to clean up his mess when things go too far. He’s still a goof, but overall more serious than in most Puyo games. I’d say the closest comparison here is probably to his characterization in 15th or 7, where since he was not the one causing chaos he’s a lot more stern and unamused with people. 

This game features Lagnus Bishasi as one of the main characters. And he’s so adorable. In Puyo, Lagnus doesn’t really have much context to him. You’d have to go into old ass untranslated Madou Monogatari novels to find out who he is, and even then you’d probably be kind of confused because of immortality and time travel shenanigans. And why is he turning into a kid? What’s his deal? Here he’s explained in a way that’s fine for newcomers to understand; He’s the Golden Hero, a hero from another world tasked with beating up Yoggus. Like we found out in the beginning, he tried his very best to defeat Yoggus but failed and got thrown into a dimensional portal more spoilers yadda yadda tl;dr he’s stranded in the wrong world and been shrunk down into kid form. Due to Arle’s backstory in Madou Monogatari in general I like to compare him to Arle if Arle was a cute paladin rather than running away from a demon’s advances... Anyways. Again it’s quite hard to talk about him in much detail without spoilers but he’s just so sweet and that stands out in a game where most people are out for themselves.

Look, he can’t even properly sass Schezo without resorting to a ‘no u’, and Schezo’s been bothering him for a while. He’s that nice.

Some people call Lagnus a Mary Sue, which I don’t understand at all, but that’s not really important for this post. Maybe I should do a “On Lagnus” at some point, huh...

Okay, back on topic. 

The dialogue is pretty great. Because Rulue is out in all her haughty authority we get quite a bit of great dialogue coming from the characters. Arle is not a mean terror for once, she’s closer to how she acts in Yon; more of a straight man for the wackier characters to bounce off of. I talked a lot about Rulue before and again, I think she’s at her best in this game. I also quite like Schezo.

Now, here Schezo causes contention sometimes, because he’s straight up a arrogant twat. But going with the above, I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. He definitely gets treated like an arrogant twat and though the narrative presents him as powerful and dangerous, he gets about as much respect as he deserves (ie none). He’s used for comedy and that’s not a bad thing when the game is just that; a comedic JRPG.

Here’s just a few choice Schezo moments:

Oh yeah, and Schezo’s a definite pervert in denial in this game, but I’ve kind of been over that in past posts so anyone who’s gotten this far in this post probably already knows that. This just adds to the 90s anime comedy feel I get from the game. I really do like the humour in this game. 

The game does have its problems, I’m not going to lie. The characters could be better utilized rather than showing up for a few minutes and then leaving again and not being seen, for instance.

Some of the character designs are also... 

Yeah...

Look, I don’t even hate it, it’s definitely better quality-wise than The Final Test, but those shoulder pads that all the guys have are just silly. I can admit that. The girls have much better designs (Rulue’s and Draco’s are probably my favourites of all their designs period, and Witch’s at least has some cool details even if it’s otherwise boring).

Other than some weirdness, the art design itself isn’t too bad. The in game sprites seem to be similar in style to Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon’s regular art and the actual attack animations and spells are pretty cool! Not as cool as Tower of the Magician, but the artists were definitely not slouching on this game (again, unlike in The Final Test).

This was a pretty rambly post. What am I saying here? Well, I guess just that you should at least watch a playthrough of the game for yourself or download a ROM and see if you like it rather than just listening to the common crowd. I really like Saturn! Other people don’t. It’s going to come down to your personal preference and sense of humour and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just give it a chance. You might end up enjoying it.

[realstarfarts]

Hard Reset Redux

"Old school" is as much an industry platitude as "rogue-like" or "early access open world survival crafting MMO with photorealistic graphics made by a one-man team (in Unity)." But what does that even meme mean? I started playing PC games in the mid-'90s and experienced Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Unreal, and all the others when they were still the biggest of big deals. Shit, I still have a magazine with the legendary John Romero bitch ad, though I remain undecided about framing it. In terms of FPS, old school can mean lots of things to lots of people, but to me a few stick out: health and armor packs (no fuckin' regen!), secrets, limited narrative, fast gunplay, lots of gore, plenty of guns, and some cool things to look at. Apparently, Flying Wild Hog found a similar checklist and made sure to scream the list at their designers every single day at 8am.

Unfortunately, they're obsessed with a newer fashion of old school than most people prefer (citation: critics and user reviews, also my ass). Serious Sam, Painkiller, and Will Rock were not "le olde school" games, they were interpretations of old mechanics as a counter-trend to casualization conceits forced on developers who had to produce multiplatform games for children. Wolfenstein and Doom, as examples, did not rely on mini-arenas with spawned waves of enemies; they had coherent, progressive levels carefully built for fluid, consistent gameplay.

I make this point because Hard Reset plays like a scaled-down sci-fi version of the Serious Sam games: you walk into an area, the laser doors and terminals deactivate, multiple waves of enemies spawn in, you kill them, the doors and terminals reactivate, you move on. Between most of these sections you'll need to find and either activate or blow up a generator for a future laser door.

That's it.

That's the entire gameplay, and I didn't even water it down.

There are two weapons at your disposal, if you don't count the sword which was added with the Redux™. Why would I count the sword? Because using it will get you killed nearly every time.

The gun-y gun shoots like a gun, and can be upgraded to do more gun-like things, such as a grenade launcher (useless, since enemy hitboxes are pixel-perfect and 85% of the time the grenades will fly right through a gap and go into the fuck dimension) or a rocket launcher. A rocket launcher? That's a staple of the FPS genre. Surely, as a proud Olde School FPS™, Hard Reset must at least get that right!

Wrong.

This upgrade is the most anemic example of a rocket launcher I've seen since...ever? The damage is fine, as is the splash radius. The issue is the projectile's speed, which is somewhere between your grandmother driving home from the supermarket with a car full of eggs in her Buick and a legless child "walking" backwards through a minefield. All of the enemies here move fast, so you'll need to strafe fire to stay alive. ...but the majority of the spawned foes you'll face are the melee type who will follow you in close. Strafe fire + akbaring melee enemies + the slowest rocket speed ever = no fun.

The other weapon is a space plasma gun, which is super fun to use, but sadly pretty pointless against everything except the mob-type basic enemy. That is, until you unlock the rail gun upgrade, which is the only weapon Hard Reset at least gets right. My only complaint here is that it's mildly underpowered to what I feel it should be.

To cap it all off with a poophat, all the upgrades are linear, so don't even worry about having player choice at any point. Switching weapons is tedious as well. Whereas in a normal (ie, fun) game, you can press the button and directly get the weapon you need, here you'll need to first select the weapon and then select the fire mode. For example, I'm killing a few zombies with the sword (the only enemy safe to use the sword on), then a flying guy spawns in. I press F3 to switch to my plasma gun, but it's still on the mortar mode I was using last time I had it out. So now I have to press 5 to change over to the rail gun, which of course takes time because of the animation.

Fun!

Enemy variety is shit too. 95% of bad guys are actually bad bots, with the other 5% being zombies. The undead are, in keeping with the game's theme, the most fun thing to kill because they explode in showers of blood and body parts--but you'll rarely see them. Everything else is a robot, big or small; bosses aside, you'll have seen all of them by the end of the first level.

Fun fun!

Aesthetically, environments are top-tier, and I mean that with full conviction. I don't want to spend more time attacking lunatics for misusing terms (in this case cyberpunk, which the game is not), so I'll call the style something like hard sci-fi with a good deal of '40s diesel and retro-futurism tossed in. Ugh, labels are dumb.

I won't talk much about the aesthetics because the video should cover that, but it is important to point out that almost every zone overstays its welcome. I own Hard Reset on Twitch (through the very generous Prime service) and thus can't see my playtime, but I figure I spent about twelve hours beating the game and shooting the video. Even then, the base game's environments were tedious and used far too many of the same assets in each area. The DLC levels are a notable exception.

Music is shit. I have 147 tracks between the OST and ripped music, and it took all of my patience to find suitable songs for the video. If the style remained consistent, or was similar to "The Way to Haven" or "Smietnisko" the whole way through I would have loved it, but the overwhelming majority is shrill or generally obnoxious. Ymmv, but as my taste is superior I doubt it.

The proverbial elephant in my dickhole is Hard Reset Redux' use of simulated mouthbreathing and/or endless fapping. The screen is constantly shaking/moving and there is no option to disable this "feature." Googling reveals many people have the same problem while the developers refuse to respond to any and all complaints about the issue. I did my best to stabilize the footage I captured, but even then it looks rather shitty. I would have skipped playing the game or making a video entirely if I didn't like the aesthetics so much.

Lastly, Hard Reset's story is totally ass, told by ass actors talking through ass microphones about ass. Truthfully I have no idea what it was about, but I'll do my best to summarize:

Major Fletcher is an alcoholic/psychotic detective who really hates robots. His boss, a filthy woman, sends him to fight robots. He gets pretty mad while chasing down the Robot King, but his anger subsides when the Robot King teleports inside his head and becomes his new boss. This really pisses off the cops, who now try to kill him. Also the robots still try to kill him because apparently the Robot King was trying to help humans beat all the robots. Fletcher kills more robots, then a really big robot. The end I guess?

Hard Reset is a shit game.

But the aesthetics are amazing.

[cihojuda]

TSS Project Part 6: Equipment

Warning: hella long

So.

While doing some screenshot-taking for Part Five- specifically s1e24/Where Lies the Engulfer- I started thinking about the Claw. Doc tells us in s1e1/The Kur Stone that the Claw has “spring-loaded cable, telescoping shaft, grappling hook, vaulting and retrieving functionality.” I’m not really concerned with any of that, because we see that it does what it’s supposed to do. My nitpicking has to do with the fact that, in this kids’ show about animals that don’t actually exist, I have a hard time suspending my disbelief about the function of the Claw. Take a look at its various functions:

You get even more than is listed on the package with the Claw. It does everything Doc says it can do, plus some things that Zak thought of himself- helping him throw things, letting him cut things with the talons on the Hand of Tsul Kalu (and probably the bird head thing on the other end too), etc. But mostly, what we see are the grappling and dragging functions.

Zak rescues Doyle from the demon lake. (s1e24.)

What am I saying? Well, basically: when in non-combat situations Zak just uses the Claw like one of those T-rex shaped grabby arms.

I mean, wouldn’t you? He is only twelve after all.

T-rex grabbers aside, I have serious questions about this thing. Namely the spring-loaded cable and the telescoping shaft. Let’s look at the first time the Claw is introduced.

Doc is very proud of himself. (s1e2) This is the Claw in its most basic form, ie without the Hand of Tsul Kalu in it. We never get a reference for how long it’s supposed to be exactly. It looks to be around the length of Zak’s arm, but that’s before the changes in the length of the shaft. Which raises these questions:

How does it do that?

Where does the extra length come from?

Where is the cable stored?

Where is the cable-retrieval mechanism?

Can it get even shorter than we see it in this picture?

How do the length of the shaft and the cable mechanisms interact?

It seems that it can get shorter, as we can see by the way Zak can hook it to his belt when not in use.

If it was the same length it usually is, it would swing all around and whack him in the knee and it would look decidedly less heroic. Or, alternatively, the shaft would go up his shirt; and given the amount of times this child falls over that would be a bad situation for everybody. How he never got a puncture would from that ridiculous bird on the other end is beyond me.

However, that doesn’t mean I have answers for the other questions. The shaft of the Claw is too skinny to possibly house a cable-retrieval mechanism strong enough to move a person, much less Zak and Doyle like in s1e24/Where Lies the Engulfer.

Whee! (s1e24)

There’s simply no room in the interior of the Claw for that fuckery to go on. There have been attempts to re-create classic grappling hook type things in the real world, and they all look similar to this:

which could be a real grappling hook gun or it could be a promo image for the newest spy movie coming out this year. I’m inclined to think it’s real because it has a humongous storage area for cable and fictional depictions of grappling hook guns apparently just have portals in them with unlimited amounts of cable, except when it runs out just short of where they need to be for comedic effect. The Claw has no place to house a reeling mechanism. Unless the cable inside the Claw is thinner than thread and stronger than steel, I just don’t see how there’s any room for it to be able to forcefully launch and retrieve.

Speaking of no room, let’s look at the telescoping shaft. How u do dis?

For the Claw to be able to expand and contract at will, I’m assuming that Zak has to press one of those buttons at the top. We don’t actually know which of the buttons does what on the Claw. Thing is, there are only two buttons as far as I can see- and as far as they showed us with the toy.

weird bird head and all.

Is that red bubble a button too? It could be, I don’t know. That still doesn’t answer the “what button does what thing” question. The functions that should be button-controlled are:

Opening/closing of the Hand of Tsul Kalu

Extension/contraction of the shaft

Launching/retrieving of the cable

I would think that you would want some functions and their opposites to be controlled by separate buttons, but I guess Doc is just a minimalist or something. Again, I don’t know what button controls what thing. It’s really too minor of a detail to be shown in the show at all, but I really wouldn’t mind having an overview of how it works. (I’m used to not knowing how things work. I watch Star Trek and everybody just mashes random buttons when they’re told to do something.)

But back to my point about the telescoping shaft.

The problem with the shaft works on a similar principle as the problem with the cable: Where does the extra length on the shaft come from? Usually, for something to be expandable, either there’s another layer hidden inside it or it stretches. I don’t think metal staffs can stretch, so in this case we’re using the dictionary.com definition of telescoping: “adjective: consisting of parts that fit and slide one within another.” Going off of that (and a single cursory Google search), I’m assuming that the Claw works on this principle:

which leaves even less room inside the shaft for the cable to move around. Also, it probably should make the Claw more unstable the closer it gets to its maximum length, because telescoping poles are notoriously collapse-prone. Unless the Claw can extend and stay there permanently like a police baton,

which it may, because this is Doc Saturday’s handiwork we’re talking about. I still don’t understand how circuits/mechanics can be so small and fine as to control the telescoping function without being destroyed and replaced pretty often. Is it tiny hydraulics? Computer? Air power? I don’t know! Plus, it still leaves a big question open as to how it auto-retracts. How in the fuck does that work?

I have no idea. My last big question about the Claw is about the interconnectedness of the telescoping shaft and cable/reeling functions. Since by the dictionary definition of telescoping the Claw has to be made up of smaller, sliding parts somewhere in the interior, how does the cable fit in there at all, much less a pulling mechanism? Does the Claw require a power source? I want to know these things!

Moving on to my next topic: the Firesword.

This, apparently, is what the Firesword would look like in real life.

As opposed to this- which, I know, is a hokey plastic kids’ toy; but that look could easily be achieved with the right color of materials. I guess I’m just going to have to accept that not everything in my life can be shades of orange. (No i’m kidding i accepted that in the 4th grade when my mother refused to buy me anything else orange after the horrible orange turtleneck and corduroy pants I made her get for me.)

All pedantry aside, the people from the website where I got the picture did a really good job. I think their Firesword looks really cool; but it’s not the one I’m going to be talking about.

History lesson, for those who never read the Cartoon Network website and may not remember the throwaway line about how Drew got the Firesword: it was given to her by the monks in Tibet who took her in after the Yeti killed her parents. We learn about the monks in s1e7/Van Rook’s Apprentice, but we don’t see them until s2e9/And Your Enemies Closer. That’s also the episode that tells us that V. V. Argost was actually the Yeti in disguise the whole time, which was all very convenient plot-wise. How do we learn this? Drew, Doyle and van Rook- and, for some reason, Zon- go to visit the temple where Drew grew up.

pew pew (s2e9)

The monks fire on van Rook, Zon and Doyle because they’re strangers whose intentions are unclear. We can infer from the fire that either the monks have laser weapons or they also have Fireswords like Drew’s. Most of us had probably assumed that the Firesword was a completely unique weapon, but this shows us that there’s a possibility of there being more. I mean, what’s more likely: that Drew’s Firesword is the only magical fire-shooting sword in existence and the monks just happened to give it to a magical orphan child they adopted (Jesus Drew you’re so anime) or that a remote religious sect that has little contact with the outside world has a security system that they probably commissioned from Tony Stark?

So the monks have their own Fireswords.

Now, I don’t really have any issues with the way the Firesword works. I can accept the fact that it’s a magical sword much easier than I can accept the lack of space in the Claw for a reeling mechanism. Why? I’m like Zak. I know how to toe the line between magic and science. In science you have to look for rational solutions to things, and with magic there’s sometimes an explanation and sometimes you just have to accept that it’s just “because magic” and move on. (see also: the entirety of the Harry Potter series.) We’re never going to know how and why the Firesword can do what it does. But don’t think that that doesn’t mean I don’t have questions!

How does Drew tell it to shoot fire?

Was it blessed by a god or cursed by somebody?Was it consecrated by the monks?

How old is it?

Where do the retractable blades at the end come from? How does Drew tell the sword to retract the blades?

Are there other, similar weapons?

Is there any real difference between using light from the sun vs. light from the moon or is that just aesthetics?

Does Drew know the answer to any of these questions besides the ones about making the sword do what she wants?

I also wonder about the circumstances surrounding Drew being given the sword.

How old was she when she first started learning to sword fight?

Did they start her off with a wooden dummy sword first?

Was the Firesword a going away present? We know that she left the temple to go to college, and obviously then got married to Doc and had Zak and whatever whatever.

Unfortunately we aren’t ever going to get to know anything about Doc, Drew or Doyle’s backstories. *sad trombone* I need to know these things, dammit. For science.

This post is going to be long, so I’m going to cut it here. Coming up next: Doyle’s jetpack and the Power Glove.