#illager arc

[asktotallyhuman]

"Let alone more than one?"

@orchid-151

[powdermelonkeg]

You know what? I'm gonna make a Minecraft movie

This is a plot I banged out over the course of like three hours at work so bear with me.

Movie starts. Main Guy just got fired from his job or something. He goes home to his house, greets his dog, agonizes over how he's going to pay for said dog with this development. Dog comes up wanting to play fetch, has a mcguffin in its mouth. Main Guy takes it and fiddles with it that night.

Mcguffin activates.

Guy winds up in Minecraft world. Spends a day freaking out about everything. Finds a dirt house someone else made and spends the night there to escape the monsters.

There's a map there. Takes that to a village

Meets Alex. She doesn't speak.

Alex is in the middle of saving a village from an Illager raid. Main Guy helps.

It takes a turn into a rescue mission for captured Villagers. The Illagers are hunting for a Trial Chamber with a legendary weapon (the mace).

After that arc is complete, Main Guy has an Allay as a pet and a new friend in a Villager he saved. Gang's all there, all adventures from here on out will be with MG, Alex, Villager, and Allay.

They go to Alex's home base. It's neat, but it's very clear she's not the only one that's lived there.

MG manages to convey to Alex that he needs a way home. And she's got the Ender Dragon egg, but doesn't have the rest of the equipment to get to the End and make the portal home.

Trip into the Deep Dark, ancient city, Warden fight while getting diamonds.

Villager takes the diamonds and makes a pickaxe for them.

They get obsidian and make a Nether Portal. Trip to the Nether to find a fortress and get blaze rods and ender pearls.

While they're in the Nether, they come across the Wither Briar. It's a new biome that's spreading, wither roses everywhere, with a Wither at the center.

They get the supplies they need, but the Wither catches them and attacks. They barely make it out alive; Villager gets zombified.

Rush to a witch to get Villager healed.

It gets revealed that Alex and her friends once took on the Wither, but it turned out too destructive and they lost the battle and several friends. They split up then. The Wither's been terrorizing the local Piglins and spreading the zombie infection ever since.

MG gets up, determined, gearing up and reentering the Nether. Epic battle against the Wither. The Wither Briar dies, the Piglins rejoice.

MG, Alex, and Villager start gearing up to find the Stronghold, with help from the village, Piglins, witch, etc. MG gets a unique armor trim that's not in the game.

Melancholy travel. Alex and Villager are gonna miss MG a LOT, and he's considering whether or not he wants to leave.

Stronghold leads to the End, End City fight for an Elytra.

Final fight with the Ender Dragon, hesitation, then final goodbyes. The group all jumps into the portal together.

MG winds up back home in his bed, in the real world, but he still has his gear and the sword he used to slay the Ender Dragon with.

He gets the mcguffin that sent him to Minecraft in the first place and is about to destroy it. He second-guesses it. Epic montage of him grabbing the things he needs to go.

He puts on a blue shirt and dark jeans. He packs his bag with apples, a slice of cake, and a map. He grabs his dog, a fluffy gray one with a red collar, then he activates the mcguffin again.

End poem plays, followed by the credits rolling.

Post-credits at the end with Minecraft music playing, Steve rolls up to Alex's house as she and Villager are building a beacon out of the Nether Star the Wither dropped. He helps them finish it, the beacon shoots into the sky, then they go into her house.

Alex looks at the map hopefully, waiting for her friends as the sun goes down, but all it shows is hers and Steve's icons on it…then someone else's shows up, just barely at the border. It's one of the other "default" players.

End of movie.

[odiabonecessario]

I like Minecraft's way of storytelling but I can't deny its arbitrarily of whether something is gameplay/game design or lore related makes me pull my hair out. For example, is experience a actual thing in-universe? We have Mending which only works with experience and Bottle of Experience, yet for me it doesn't feel clear enough to conclude if it's either game or lore related

Don't even get me started with Mobestiary because its premise was about being some kind of guide to mobs written by an in-universe researcher — except it confirmed that the only Minecraft book to be canon is The Rise of The Arc-Illager. Like, what are we supposed to do with it then?

For example, I know it's merely a gameplay choice to eat enchanted golden apples because no human could ever eat approximately 154 kg of raw gold - let alone in less than two seconds. But what about Evokers being unable to use a Totem of Undying while other beings can use it - including undead beings? Should we think it's also a gameplay design since a Evoker round 2 would be quite stronger or it's to imply something else but in-lore?

I also think Minecraft lore suffers from the fact it's a sandbox. Knowing it has endless potential to create endless combinations, it's also terribly hard to decipher if something's not only lore-related or gameplay related but also the fact Mojang didn't think about it

[lynnbeck-smithingtable]

Ok so I agree that the Minecraft movie looks bad. But also like almost every alternative idea I've seen including my own one feel more like fanfilm ideas than something I can imagine a major studio making. So, here's how I imagine a good (or at least not terrible) "mainstream" Minecraft movie could work (please bear in mind that I'm thinking from the perspective of what I, personally, believe a studio would approve, while also trying to make it at least somewhat Minecrafty, also sorry if this sounds bad, I'm not a writer or director or whatever):

Make it animated, obviously. Go for the Minecraft trailer style, but - and I cannot stress this enough - make it have dialogue, like yeah a movie with no dialogue might sweep the film festivals, but cinematic releases of dialogue-free movies are rare. In regards to face animation, they could just flap around the characters' mouth-pixels or whatever. No 3D modelled mouths, like I'm probably in the minority here but I do not like how Minecraft characters look with 3D modelled mouths.

Keep the isekai aspect. You can do a lot with that, especially if it has an ensemble cast (more on that further down), since you can then have some of them actually know the mechanics and have like. A character arc of teaching their parents or whatever how the game works. And there's maybe like two live-action sequences? Like one at the start and one at the end.

Make. The antagonists. Illagers. Other people have said this and I agree. It makes more sense than Piglins and also it means that the Nether could be saved for a potential sequel. However,

The movie should break away from just including stuff that exists in/works like the game, like this is the one criticism of the Minecraft movie that I 100% disagree with. Like people are like "Lol, this thing isn't in Minecraft! This isn't a real Minecraft movie!" then turn around and go "Minecraft Story Mode is the real Minecraft movie!" when like, that game has so much fucking stuff that isn't in the actual game. Let the Minecraft movie have made up stuff in it, but make it actually good made up stuff (and not like. Ghast hot-air balloons or chained buckets or whatever the Minecraft movie actually has in it). Give us whales and giant smashy-smashy Illagers and one (1) Redstone-powered mech and stuff.

I cannot stress enough. Ensemble cast. It could just be my bias but I do think it should have an ensemble cast. Like maybe two and their parent(s). Like a lot of the Minecraft Movie overhauls/preemptive rewrites I've seen are all like "it's just Alex and Steve surviving" and like. No, that would be too "boring" for a feature-length mainstream animated family film.

The soundtrack is cool cinematic covers of the Minecraft soundtrack, but specifically the more recent tracks for rights reasons or whatever.

Herobrine shouldn't be referenced.

"Defending the base" sequence during the first night in the Minecraft world, and then at some point later on there's a brief bit where all the characters are using the skills they've learned throughout the plot (e.g one of them is really good at Redstone and has set up like piston traps or whatever).

Sculk is used as a Chekov's Gun; there's a vein of it growing under the main village, and as the characters fight and defeat Illagers, it grows, and then when the protagonists are on the ropes, the sound of the Illager leader unsheathing their sword or whatever alerts an entire chain of Sculk Sensors that activates a Sculk Shrieker, which then causes a Warden to appear and save the protagonists.

I am mostly out of ideas but uhhhhh the Ender Dragon is also saved as a potential sequel thing. Ok bye.

[nixtheredfox]

What the hell. 💀

[ninjacat1515]

Matias does end up reforming. I've always wanted his character arc to go in an unexpected direction and @vee-vee-the-starchild helped me flesh him out over the years through various interactions.

He's an old beast of an illager that finds himself a much better place in Overworld. Decades of wars with rival illagers, battles with Heroes, and untold hardship and loss Matias finds healing not only for himself but he works to repair the damage he and his kind have wrought. He is never forgiven for what he has done in the past but he is not seeking to be forgiven.

Matias reforms for himself and to show other illagers that another kind of life is possible and worth doing.

[lil-purple-mouse-writes]

Hantengu Clone Modern Day AU Headcanons Part 1, Aizetsu

So I re-watched the Swordsmith V illage Arc recently and had an idea; what would all the demons be like in a modern setting?

So here we are. We are starting off with Aizetsu.

Please ignore spelling/grammar mistakes.

Personally I don't follow the headcanon that the Clones would be quadruplets in a modern AU, but I do agree that they would be siblings. Aizetsu is the third sibling, around 18-20 years old.

I'm sorry but this guy seems like his favorite animals are rabbits and axolotls. He thinks they are adorable and had a secret pet bunny he hid in his room when he was a kid, due to Sekido being allergic. Sekido eventually found the bunny and Aizetsu was forced to get rid of it.

Aizetsu will be getting a rabbit or axolotl when he gets his own apartment.

Aizetsu babysits for extra money, though he will never babysit any of the Shinazugawa kids. They bite.

Aizetsu prefers quiet places but can't find them very often living in a house with Sekido, Karaku, and Urogi. So, he prefers to sit in his room and listen to music or play video games to decompress.

You may use your imaginations to think of what games Aizetsu plays, but I think Stardew Valley and Minecraft are definitely on that list.

I think Aizetsu would be a fine arts student, specifically studying music composition and conducting.

Aizetsu is planning on moving out of the house the moment he gets the chance.

He prefers Urogi to his other brothers.

I plan on doing something like this for all of the demons, so I will eventually get to all of them at some point.

Hope ya liked this one, what are some headcanons you all have about the clones?

[askasherthornburn]

Alvar vs Asher (The Great Mob War 2 Arc)

Alvar Thornburn returns to get his revenge for the first war, he faces his own son, Janis, his great grandson, Asher, great granddaughter, Lovina, Daughter-in-law, Beatrix and granddaughter Tobi. After Alvar seems to have defeated Janis, he goes on to Asher for revenge on Asher's mother, Natalie getting with a Illager and destroying their pure Nether-Being royal bloodline.

[orchid-151]

Karl I think an endersent is somewhere in the woods can you please find it the villagers are scared of it

"With sword in hand, I shall slay this beast that terrorizes The village..."

"You mean like the monstrosity I made when I was the Arc-Illager?"

"WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT! DON'T YOU HAVE A VILLAGE TO TERRORIZE?"

"I'm sowwy, I'm no longer Evil... Remember?"

"DO YOU ALWAYS SAY STUFF LIKE THIS WHEN I'M MONOLOGUING!?"

"... maybe... 😏"

(reformed Karl likes to pose and sound like some super hero... And Archie sometimes likes to sometimes play devil's advocate.)

[spectrum-studios]

Vono the Smithery "hero" (she acts more like a mom with a justice filled villain than a hero)

Vono's son ARCHIE <3

Vono dispite looking like an illager is not one but she took the time with her personal villagers to learn their tounge way before Archie even ends up at her smithery base.

She was ditched by her camp as a child and built her own house. She's not one to trust others but with assisting younger folk who are traveling the world.

She lives in a world before illagers even existed and has never met or was told of them. (Heros who hop between vanilla and modded worlds)

So she just scooped up the disoriented Archie and just took him in. Her appearance probably made this encounter less stressful.

At some point after a year passed, Archie was dragged back to his world without warning, and Vono started her true villain arc to reunite with him, and she dragged her two besties who 100% who wanted save her kid. (They are the badass aunties)

Also, Smasher (Karl) gets his ass whooped by her so hard that he didn't even know she was a "hero."

The others caught on that Vono is a "hero." But it is just an interesting one.

Also fun fact about Vono!

She works with dangerous metals that could explode at any given minute. So she has a huge fire resistance. And she is strong!

[asktotallyhuman]

//I feel obligated to let y'all know I am workin' on stuff.

So here's an out of context preview

[veevee-the-artist]

Now that the Arch Illager Arc is over, the gang is trying to figure out what is the next big adventure by eavesdropping the meeting room of Mojang Inc.

[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach - Name Games

Not a family by name or blood, but a kind of found family. (at least the way they were originally presented)  This time I’m tackling the Visored! And while I’m at it I want to address some of the broader thematic elements going on with their original character designs.  Buckle up, this is a long one... 

Hirako(平子) Shinji(真��)

Shinji’s name is actually kinda of a false start to this one.  His names read as “Flat-Child“ and “Real-Child“ but that’s keeping in mind that -ko(子) for “child” is actually just a really common suffix for names, and not one generally used to ascribe literal meaning.  (Typically because of its diminutive implications it denotes a female given name, but it applies neutrally to family names, and even generally is not uncommon in male names.)  So his name kind reads as “Flat Reality“ or “Flat Truth.“

But this one isn’t actually about the meaning of the words, it’s a different kind of name game.  As we all remember, when Hirako introduces himself to Ichigo’s class at Karakura High during his original entrance at the start of the Arrancar Arc, he writes his name on the board mirrored and mentions how he’s “good at doing things backwards.”  At the time it was a reference to him being a hollow (Remember that when Ichigo’s inner hollow was given a chapter cover, his “name” was Ichigo’s but written mirrored) and would later influence his zanpakutou, Sakanade(逆撫)

As an aside here, Sakanade(逆撫) has been kind of erroneously translated as “counter stroke” in English, which is technically accurate as a literal translation but is kind of needlessly vague; For one the word “Stroke” here specifically refers to the act of stroking as in petting, patting, or smoothing over, and not something like a sword stroke; secondly the “counter” here should read more obviously as “reverse,” “opposite,” or “inverted.”

Moreover, Sakanade(逆撫で) is an actual verb already, so it doesn’t actually need to be broken down in the first place.  The word actually means exactly what it sounds like as well as having a colloquial use as, “rub the wrong way.”  Yes, other than just meaning to literally “pet in the opposite direction” (as with petting a cat or dog from tail to head) it means “to irritate” or “to annoy,” (which the former action invariably does) and that is an apt description of Sakanade’s powers.

Anyway...  About Hirako’s name not being about the meaning: the joke is that whether you write the name forward or backwards 平子真子 -vs-  子真子平, you still get Shinji(真子) out of it.  As in, his name is still legible both forwards and backwards.  Plus both kanji, 平 and 真 have horizontal symmetry, so they don’t change when mirrored..

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Okay... let’s do an easier one...

Sarugaki(猿柿) Hiyori(ひよ里)

My personal favorite Visored, has a nice straight forward name Saru(猿) as I’m sure anyone amply familiar with anime knows means “Monkey” and the Gaki(柿) is the word for the fruit “Persimmon.”  The image of a monkey in a persimmon tree references an old folktale present in various east-asian cultures about a greedy monkey who cheats other animals before eventually receiving its comeuppance at the hands of the animals it has wronged.  In this case it’s reflective of Hiyori’s general image, sandles, track suit, decidedly tomboyish and unladylike; the “mountain monkey” is a poor, rural character type in Japan, not dissimilar to the American hillbilly of the Appalachia.

In that same vein, the name Hiyori(ひよ里) has a peculiar rural slant to it, in that it uses hiragana in place of the first component.  The ri(里) is a common place indicator in surnames meaning “village” or “hamlet” but like many Japanese surnames that reference landmarks like -kawa(川)“-river,” “-yama”(山)-mountain,” and “-da”(田)”-field,” the important part isn’t actually the locale but the descriptor preceding it; Which mountain?  Which river?  Which field?  Which village?  In the case of Hiyori, it’s not clear...  The fact that the village she appears to be named after doesn’t have a kanji again lends to this impression that, like the peasants of Soul Society’s Rukongai, the person who named her didn’t know how to read or write kanji.

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Muguruma(六車) Kensei(拳西)

I think this one has gotten pretty good visibility in the fandom already because of the relation with Hisagi Shuuhei.  The eventual explanation of Hisagi’s 69 tattoo would be that it was copied directly from Kensei’s, and that Kensei’s comes from a mix of his name Muguruma, and the fact that he was captain of the Gotei 13’s 9th squad. (Personally I don’t like this explanation, and I think there’s pretty reasonable cause to assume this was a later decision and not a part of Kensei’s original conception or design.)  But the reason behind that being Muguruma(六車) Mu(六) which is the Japanese numeral “6″ and Guruma(車) meaning “wagon” and later updated to mean “car.”  In the Turn Back the Pendulum sidestory, this name is played upon in how Kubo styled Kensei’s 9th squad as a Bousouzoku(暴走族) the term for a Japanese biker gang (although they often include sports cars), where the “Six Car” reading becomes emblematic of his gang.

There’s a lot about the Bousouzoku that is culturally specific to Japan, but much of the familiar American cliches do actually carry over.  One distinct aspect of how the Bousouzoku opperate however, is that they are predominantly a youth culture phenomenon, as any wide spread, organized criminal activity among adults quickly steps on the toes of the much better established Yakuza scene.  For this reason it is very rare for Bousouzoku to persist in direct group activity into their adult years, although often bikers become easy recruitment targets for Yakuza.

Kensei(拳西) is actually an odd one for me.  It’s both super straight forward yet somehow together really obtuse.  Ken(拳) for “Fist” and sei(西) for “West;“ both are pretty singular in their meaning, so it’s not like there’s any uncertainty to what each one means, but I can’t make heads or tails of the two together.  For one,  Ken(拳) is usually something you’d see put on the end of a compound, and when it’s used that way it tends to denote a kind of martial arts style or technique.  It might still be meant to read as “Western Fist” or essentially “Western [style] Fist” and Kubo just liked the sound of Kensei over Seiken.  It might be a reference to the fact that Kensei’s original design was largely reminiscent of a kind of military look and feel, with a combat knife for a zanpakutou, short hair, combat boots, and pants that look like they could be part of military fatigues. (the tank top sorta throws the look off, though.)  But this was a theme that was dropped by the time the Visored got reincorporated into the story after their long absence.

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Yadoumaru(矢胴丸) Risa(リサ)

...is another odd one.  Her surname, Yadoumaru(矢胴丸)  has pretty clear implications, Ya(矢) means “arrow” and dou(胴) means “hull” as in the part of a ship, and maru(丸) doesn’t actually have an explicit meaning.  The kanji does generally mean “round” or “whole” both in reference to a circle, but it is most notably a suffix used in naming both naval ships, and frequently boys.  Given the rest of the name the imagery seems clear, Yadoumaru(矢胴丸) is meant to read as “Arrow-Hull Ship.“*  And although the uniform has heavy ties to school girl aesthetics and fetishism (which in turn link to her preoccupation with adult books) the tie here actually seems to be to the origins of the Japanese school girl uniform as a modification of the European naval uniforms introduced to Japan in the 1800s.

*edit: I’m an idiot.  A Yadou(胴丸) is the sleeveless chest plate and skirt piece in traditional samurai armor, which also carries over into kendo sports armor.

Adding to this, the name RISA (sometimes romanized as LISA) being written in katakana and not kanji or even hiragana works together with the naval associations would seem to imply she’s of mixed birth?  Possibly the daughter of a foreign naval officer stationed in Japan, hence a Western name and a ship as a surname?  In fact, most Japanese ships would be named after some mythical figure or indeed named like a person, so the literal descriptor of “Arrow-hull” actually sounds like what someone would call a ship they didn’t know the name of, tacking “-maru” on to the end.

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Let me also take a moment here to complain about the fact that Kubo originally wrote Rabu(ラヴ) and Roozu(ローズ) as katakana, pretty clearly denoting them as the English words LOVE and ROSE and while those seem pretty implicitly like nicknames it also implied in conjunction with their designs that they were both foreigners.  So the fact that he retconned them to being nicknames based on more conventionally Japanese when he decided to make them previously SoulSociety shinigami names bugs me...  But that being said

Aikawa(愛川) Rabu(羅武)

Man, what is it with Kubo and black people and “love” gimmicks?  Zomarri’s Amor, and PePe’s The Love, Love’s whole thing...  The name Aikawa(愛川) means “Love River,” and Kubo’s clever shorehorning of kanji into the phonetics for Rabu that he’d already used for the nickname Love use  Ra(羅) for “silk,” but specifically a thin or sheer kind, and bu(武) for “warrior”/”soldier.“  The associations with sheer silk and negligee seem very intentional, so his name really is basically “flowing love, [sexy] silk soldier.“  And that’s it, it’s actually super straight forward.  I dunno why he looks like an unemployed slacker, in a tracksuit and sneakers, lounging around reading manga, though.

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Otouribashi(鳳橋) Roujuurou(楼十郎)

This might be my favorite as far as name games within the Visored.  The given name Roujuurou(楼十郎) means “Watchertower 10 Son;” Rou(郎) being an exceedingly common suffix in boys names meaning “son.” (this is incidentally how anyone with a rudimentary familiarity with Japanese knew for certain Yuushirou(四楓院) was a boy at first glance, where as a bunch of other people thought he was a girl.  In case any of you were around certain fandom circles for that whole drama...  More on him later though, because he’s got a fun name too.)  It’s not super clear if the arrangement here denotes the “Son of the 10th Watchtower [family],” or the “10th Son of the Watchtower [family].”

The surname Otouribashi(鳳橋) is a great little work of poeticism, where Outouri(鳳) is the Japanese name of the Chinese Feng(鳳) which in the most colloquial sense could be translated as “Phoenix,” but there’s a little more to it than that...

See, the Feng is itself the male half of the mated pair of mythical birds together called the Feng-Huang(鳳凰).  The Japanese pronunciation Outori is actually directly taken from Ou(王) meaning “King” and Tori(鳥) meaning “bird.”  The mythical Feng-huang is in fact king of birds, but more broadly represents a union of yin and yang, and is a common visual element of Chinese weddings evoking harmony.  As a part of this theme of unity it is said to share features of many different birds, and also of the 5 fundamentally opposed colors associated with Chinese daoism and fengshui: Red, Blue/Green, Black, White, and Yellow.  This particular feature has been tweaked over time to depict the Feng-huang as more broadly multicolored, and associated with the rainbow.  (it’s also the basis of the Pokemon Ho-oh, if that wasn’t apparent)  For a number of different mythological similarities, the Feng-huang have become erroneously thought of as “the Chinese phoenix,” but I’m not going to get into all that here...

So, getting back to the name, Bashi(橋) means “Bridge.”  The, again false equivalence based, but more easily understood translation of Otouribashi(鳳橋) thus being “Phoenix Bridge.”  But what is shaped like a bridge and directly associated with the Feng?  A rainbow.  His family name is just a really fanciful and kind of poetic reference to a rainbow.  In conjunction with the “Watchtower” referenced in the name Roujuurou(楼十郎) I’m tempted to take to the meaning of “10th [Floor of the] Watchtower Son” as it implies a high floor, and in the common mythological motif of rainbows as actual physical structures, a high tower would be the sensible entry point to a rainbow bridge. 

Also this is why he has a bird mask.

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Kuna(久南) Mashiro(白)

Let me just come right out and say that I haven’t got a damn clue on this one.  Mashiro(白) means “White.” Ku(久) means “long time,” na(南) means “South.”  She dresses like a super sentai character, specifically one of the original Himitsu Sentei Goranger team, and her mask is a nod to Kamen Rider, with its antenna and big round bug-eyes.  I don’t really see a connection with the name and the tokusatsu theme though.

Small aside, Tokusatsu is a genre of Japanese TV and film that was originally named for its emphasis on special effects like camera tricks and editing in post, used most noticeably in children’s shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider.  That distinction became less and less relevant as special effects became more widespread, and so it is now used mostly to refer to live-action costumed super hero shows.

Super Sentai is btw the source material for the American franchise, Power Rangers, from which Saban Entertainment originally bought the footage that they would cut together with their own original footage, and later from which they would buy the costumes in order to shoot their own shows from scratch.

Also of note is that Ishinomori Shoutarou, author of the original Cyborg 009, was also the original show creator of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.  His work created the transforming(henshin) hero, the body suit and helmet aesthetic, and the heroic billowing scarf, effectively inventing the Japanese superhero almost single-handed.

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Ushouda(有昭田) Hachigen(鉢玄)  

Another funky one...  “[To] Exist [in] a Shining Field” might be the best way to read Ushouda(有昭田)?  Its really the U(有) that gives me trouble here, as it just means “Exist”/”Existance.”  And Hachigen(鉢玄) seems to read Hachi(鉢) meaning “bowl” and Gen(玄) meaning “deep,” “mysterious” and in certain contexts “occult.”  I’m not sure if that “deep” is really a physical deepness or just a sort of “profoundness” that would fall more in line with “mysterious” and “occult.”

Either way I think the general meaning is actually pretty clear, “bowls of rice from a shining field” evoke an image of kind of mythical field of magical produce, eating from which grants a kind of magical quality and sustenance.  In other words, his name is saying that Hachi is such a huge guy and so gifted at magic because he ate a lot of food that grants magic power.

I have no idea why he has the tux or the shaved hair though.  Stage magician?  Fancy gourmand?  But again then why the shaved head and the cross bones?  And Kubo did eventually come up with for him is strangely Balinese looking?  It seems reminiscent of Barong, king of spirits; A benevolent lion/bear monster that defends mankind from Rangda, the demon queen and master of blackmagic.  But apart from the superficial appearance and broad ties to magic, there’s not a lot really tying the two together.

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It’s hard not to just go off on all the weird little design choices, and loose ends, dropped plot points, and retcon’d details that surround the Visored in Bleach.  They really were just such a great concept utterly wasted by terrible pacing and some truly confusing priorities as far as publication goes, eithe ron Kubo’s part, editorial, or both...  But that’s a story for another time...

[toukatan]

Uhm... aha.. hey beni 😳 you might not remember but it's me 👉👈 potato. Your neighbourhood friendly Jean simp 😳😳 I've been dead for a while but the S4 trailer resurrected me and I was wondering if you like the style? I feel like the MAPPA touch hits way harder than WIT style, I'll be honest. The tone is so serious! The camera work! Colours! Effects! Chef kiss 👊😩

ayeeeee issa my favourite jean stan! how are you?!? and why the @ change?! AND OF COURSE I REMEMBER YOU, I COULD NEVER FORGET YOU 🥺😭💗

imma be honest, the preview was only 2:16 seconds but holy shoot that ish slapped so hard. i most definitely like the overall aesthetic and art style, i say the way mappa coloured and toned everything matches well with the upcoming arcs, the arcs hella dark so i say go off mappa do your thing! like i highkey like mappa’s style since ive watched other series from them! so big chef kisses on what they’re doing and how they made ur best boy this illagal—

[lava-pops]

Various mine craft monsters and how I feel about them, in order of how long I ranted about them

I have strong opinions and time on my hands, and so I will subject you to the entire fucking essay. Please understand that in an unobserved, socially distant singleplayer state, and wielding god-like powers, some less palatable aspects of my personality have emerged. Rest assured the end credits told me I played the game well.

Slimes: I fucking love slimes. They don’t do anything particularly amazing but the fact that they exist delights me.

Phantoms: Beauty. Beau-ty. Fucking love these guys. All glowing like. Majestic. 10/10. Gorgeous night sky. Delight of the heights. Need 100x more of them.

Blazes: Love. The drama. The decadence. The burning ethereality. The alien geometry. The wicked Fortress. Fuck me up.

Zombies: I’ve accepted them. Sometimes you’re just going to get attacked by zombies. They used to be you. So you need to be more understanding. Mild stress and disgust mixed with grief and concern, but if there are more than one zombie, emotions are cancelled out by adrenaline and sheer bloodlust.

End Dragon: Fuckin sick!!!!!! What a beautiful creature. I just wish I could spawn a bunch of them, and baby dragons, and unleash them on the world. I’m still disturbed by how it eats Endermen. It could also eat them in a less bloodcurdling way, but I’m not complaining.

Ghasts: Morbid fascination. I find them really interesting. It’s interesting how huge they are and their odd little noises. Don’t judge me but I like to spawn them inside walls so I can hear them all screaming at once. It just sounds weird okay. I think I might do that with my sound up and see what my roommates think of it. Really makes you feel like you’re in Hell.

Wither: I don’t really mind the Wither at all, just because it helps me make places look authentically exploded. This would be a different story in Survival. I would probably shit myself at that doom sounding gong, then be so upset it literally ripped limbs from trees just to hurl pieces of itself at a pig until it was dead that I would quit the game and finally keep Minecraft uninstalled for more than 24 hours.

Creepers: I have cursed these aggressively many times and on my blog and really, I don’t hate them. Rather, I am in awe of them and the bottomless well of terror they have shown me I am capable of feeling in a split second. I’m in awe of the way they have demonstrated to me the brutality of nature. When I see one I hear the Metal Gear yeet sound, but there is no bloodlust here. I am but a prey animal who knows how to run. And sometimes I don’t know how. Sometimes... I just watch.

Vexes: Get it!!!!! Kill it!!!!!! *Fly swatter sounds* These horrible little mosquito bitches!!!!!! I love the wings and how it can phase through things, except without the murderous intent. During a sleep-deprived chaotic rampage, I was amazed to find that after all the mobs that had fought the Wither, this one was actually doing damage to it. How did I feel as I watched the Wither succumb to an eternally rising swarm of Vexes? I’m not really sure on that one. It was kind of like watching something die horribly on the nature channel.

Witches: I love them in a critical way. I totally vibe with them. I sometimes fantasize about living in a hut in a swamp alone with my ominous cat. However, my feelings were really hurt when they helped the Illagers attack my swamp village. It’s like, why would you hurt a Villager? Just why? If you have a functioning brain -- Zombies and Skeletons don’t have that -- how could you? On the one hand, I love how they use Minecraft First Aid on themselves, but it’s fucking stressful in a fight. It’s like, STOP DRINKING THAT STUFF!!!! I DON’T KNOW HOW HEALTHY YOU ARE!!!!! *knocks McDonalds cup out of your hands*

Drowned: Blessed. Listen. They’re so pretty and blue. One of the head motherfucker ones with the trident ruined everything, shoved me out of my boat just to fight, knocked my stuff over everywhere, hurt my cat and fucked my wife, and also I died and searched for my devastated livelihood in vain for three days, but I love that there are mini Poseidons everywhere. They’re basically mermaids to me. I don’t mind if they kill me a bit. I trust the ocean to be vaguely threatening to step into. And you know the guys with the little shells? Really. So pretty. They have everything... ancient little houses... magma... treasure.

Skeletons: Whereas Creepers activate my primal prey animal instincts, Skeletons just really offend me. I feel like every time they give me that shady squint and shoot their arrows because they won’t face a move I call Raw Mutton Persistence, they are saying, “Bitch.” They have faces that beg to be slapped. What kind of skeleton doesn’t grin? Be grateful for your bones. The fact that I am not galaxy-brained enough to have diamond bling and usually don’t last long enough to actually slap them leaves me with all sorts of simmering resentment that violently surfaces when I see them in Creative Mode. I think the most distinctive flash of indignation I have experienced at their hands, or rather, their shitty little bitch arrows, was when one followed me into the water and still tried to shoot me as their arrow went super slow in a pathetic downward arc. What is your fucking problem?!!! 

Illagers: Malevolence. Vengeance. They are certainly fascinating, compelling, and realistic, but god damn I hate these guys. They can eat my entire ass. I made a blue wool sculpture Illager style on top of their Outpost in the shape of a dick and balls and made a waterfall pour out the tip of it, and then I zoomed out feeling both smug and bad about myself. In fact if there’s a war crime you can use against an Illager, I’ve done it in Creative Mode at 3am in a quarantine-enabled inner void, hoping I’m not going to hear about it in the afterlife. Have I always hated them? Perhaps. You must understand that back in the day, when they first went grunting pompously around my swamp, I had no idea what the fuck I was looking at. I just knew it had to catch these hands. I didn’t know what a Raid was either and thought Minecraft had just become sort of intense for a little while. But I will always remember when they were standing under my Giant Wharf Prismarine Vaguely Religious Rectangular Condos shooting at my adorable Villager with his precious leaf hat (all of my Villagers are gay men) sitting in a boat not hurting anyone and I’m still mad, bro. They shall know my wrath

[ninjacat1515]

I'm going to write illagers how I want. Complex and with redemption arcs. I am going to write them being gentle and loving with eachother, humans and Villagers. Yes they can be evil but for fuck's sake that's not the only thing I want to write about. And besides, aggressively writing what I want to be reading and the type of story I want to tell, is how I broke free of a multi year writer's block.