#it IS tough to go thru but it's also interesting

[moonlight-tmd]

Honestly, Idk about those “character suddenly turns into something” cuz it feels off about the whole “plot” aspect but I kinda wanna see Bee becoming a child (I saw your dadimus prime AU and I love it SO MUCH)) and seeing 3 new faces that he definitely does not know

Omg i actually thought about it before.

Like imagine a freak accident with the allspark happens... Sari has been showing her childhood pictures with her dad to the team and Optimus decided to also show them Bee's baby pictures. Bee was very much embarrassed when everyone cooed at how cute and smol he used to be, although he did look a bit unhinged in the first few photos, just staring blankly straight into a camera.

Then came the fun photos, the ones where Bee is clearly enjoying himself like a normal sparkling, Op had few where he caught Bee mid-disassembling some small device saying "And this is where Bee's passion for tinkering began." He had few with himself, with Bee's teacher Arcee- one of the absolute favorites was the one where a young Bee's grinning wider than ever with Ratchet half wrapped in bandages, rolling his optics with a smile. Old docbot had a fair share of babysitting bee in the past and this one was when he was teaching Bee first aid. Sari promptly called him Bee's grandpa which Bee happily agreed.

That whole event made Optimus nostalgic and he spend the rest of his day just looking thru the albums remembering how his bitlet was when he was so tiny. He wished he could go thru that phase once more, to have his tiny little sparkling again just for a day or two...

Well, cue the surprise on his face when an unstable allspark appears and they end up chasing a tiny yellow bitty.

They couldn't contact him after the explosion and saw something skittering away and ended up cornering a tiny sparkling Bee. Bulk, Sari and Prowl were so confused, Prowl wanted to take a closer look but as soon as Bee saw him crouched next to him he started crying.

"SIREE!!" He cried as he ran towards Optimus who just arrived on the scene with Ratchet. He was so stunned he almost missed kneeling down to pick his bitty up for comfort.

So now they are stuck with a way too young Bee and not knowing how to fix this. Optimus obviously fell into the role without issue, no one really seen him be so fatherly with Bee before, except Ratchet of course. It was a little weird to get used to it, Bulkhead was so scared of hurting Bee cuz he was so tiny, smaller than Sari almost. Bee didn't really seem interested in making friends with them saying the only friend he needs is the old stuffed toy Optimus kept and gave him just now.

With time Bee became more social, Bulky was still having some issues with Bee not really liking him but he loved doing paintings with him. Sari was having so much fun cuz Bee was a whole lot more like her, it got especially chaotic when Bee ran up to his sire, Sari in hand and proudly asked if Optimus can adopt her too. It was a tough internal fight for Optimus as he awkwardly explained that Sari already has a dad. They were so disappointed, Sari was all for it, seemingly forgetting she did in fact had a dad of her own.

Ratchet was noticeably less grumpy than usual, Bee often stuck around him when Optimus was busy and always called him "Ratchy". it was quite cute to watch them interact while Ratchet worked.

While it seemed everything was good, during the time Bee was a sparkling it became incredibly obvious Bee was deadly scared of Prowl. They didn't know why, just that when Bee saw him he'd try to hide and if Prowl got close or even held him he'd burst into tears and try to get away. Prowl was so sad, he didn't want Bee to be scared of him, he tried his best to appear as friendly as possible but it had no effect. One time Prowl was supposed to check if Bee was okay and he ended up in a chase with him, trying to get him off the high shelves and counters. They had a little argument with Prowl begging him to stop and that he's a friend. "THEN STOP BEING IN MY NIGHTMARES!!" Bee yelled back and only climber higher, eventually Ratchet got him down but Prowl was stuck feeling like the absolute worst.

Eventually the story made his way back to Optimus and he had a talk with Bee. He admitted that he wasn't having nightmares about Prowl but he still didn't like him. "He's all weird and creepy- and he has no eyes!!" being how Bee described him. He didn't like Prowl, he felt like a total stranger and Bee didn't want to change that. Optimus managed to make Bee go apologize to him, he was right outside the room when Bee got in and saw Prowl feeding the birds under his tree. A small sound gave away his presence and Bee did everything he could not ot flinch when Prowl saw him.

"Uhhmm... I'm sorry for saying you're in my nightmares, you're not..." Bee was visibly nervous but his words were honest, Prowl smiled and accepted the apology, also saying sorry for being so scary to him. He offered to show him how to feed birds when he saw Bee glance at some pigeons descending from the branches, Bee glanced back at Optimus standing behind ajar doors, he gave him a thumbs up and an encouraging smile and Bee agreed. This was the first interaction they had that didn't end up in a disaster, Bee even giggled when the pigeons came to eat out of his little servo.

While all of it was fun and games, they wondered when is it gonna wear off, if at all. Would they be stuck raising Bee all over again? It seemed to answer itself- one day Bee, Sari, Bulk and Prowl were playing knights vs dragon, where Bee and Bulk were knights trying to protect a princess from the dragon. Sari insisted she'd be a dragon instead of a princess so Bee pulled Prowl from his room to be the princess cuz "he's already pretty like a princess" as he put it, making Prowl blush a little. So there they were, Bulky mostly giving advice to Bee on how to "defeat the dragon" while Prowl sat in a makeshift fort build out of big plastic blocks with a fake flowercrown on his head, watching the two wrestle. Sari finally performed the dramatic death act and Bee was so happy he won, they both clapped. Then Sari came out with the whole "the princess must give the hero a kiss for his deeds" tradition and insisted Prowl do it. Bee was somewhat reluctant in that moment but Prowl did it anyway...

In that very moment Bee began to rapidly glow and a small dusty explosion happened. Next thing they know is a full grown Bee sitting up in a way too small knight costume, halfway on Prowl's lap.

He didn't remember anything that happened. They had to tell him all about it, he was so embarrassed. Optimus was glad Bee was back to normal, Sari still made fun of the comedic timing of the thing and said that the kiss undid it all like magic, Prowl obviously didn't believe such things but he couldn't help but feel flustered at the thought.

While things have gone back to normal, all of them couldn't get the image of little Bee out of their head and sometimes still treated him like a sparkling for fun. Also Bee has come to apologize to Prowl again for being so scared of him to which Prowl told him it was fine, sparklings are scared of many things and he was glad he got a chance to befriend little Bee so he wouldn't see him as scary.

[helianthus21]

let's gooooo

every new thing i learn about armand makes me more obsessed with him

[itadooori]

I desire to see more of Hyun-ju in your style, please (and tell me more about your oc's as well, I like people's oc's)

hyun-ju the most beautiful girl ever (⸝⸝⸝• ω •⸝⸝⸝) ♡ i love her sm!!! thank u for giving me an excuse to draw her haha

as for my squid game ocs, i'll put my ramble under the cut as i have quite a bit to say lol

so! my ocs :3 as i previously mentioned before, they are a father and daughter pair! (i also finally came up with names for them, adhika is the daughter and dakila is the father)

much like geum-ja and yong-sik, i think that they both joined the games separately and only knew abt each other when they arrived. their family is def struggling, with adhika's father in debt and having a hard time finding work while her mother takes care of her younger siblings. adhika just turned 18 a few months ago, and has been working odd jobs here and there in attempts to support her family and pay off their debt, but the money is just a drop in the bucket.

adhika feels a very strong sense of responsibility towards her family, and wants to help out. she even refused to leave to go to university, despite being very smart and having a bright future in academics, to help out her family. but also sometimes, she also feels...burdened? it's a very conflicting feeling. she loves her family, but she'd be lying if she said didn't feel a twinge of resentment at this situation. i hope that makes sense lol

i haven't yet decided if my ocs are gonna just be fun little canon inserts or if im giving them their own story. both options seem rlly fun to me so kjssdkfjh im having a tough time deciding

some fun little tidbits about dakila and adhika's way of going about the games:

adhika is locked the fuck in. she's already at a disadvantage being a young, 5 foot tall, non-korean girl, so she's working twice or thrice as hard to get thru this shit

as i said before, adhika is very smart. she has good people-reading skills, and the ability to kinda morph into whatever people need her to be, or fit into whatever dynamic she believes people want her to fit (a skill that she picked up from just. life experience as the oldest sibling in a struggling family LMAO)

dakila is trying to look out for his daughter, but the games put a strain on their relationship

adhika has lowkey manipulative tendencies. they come out and worsen during the games. honestly, just think of her as a nasty mix of sang-woo and mi-nyeo. absolutely FOUL things coming from this girl i love her

this isnt really important at all nor does it really come up within her story but i still want to mention adhika is a lesbian. she joins the doomed squid game lesbian roster with sae-byeok ji-yeong and young-mi LMAO

akjfhdskjhf sorry this is so jumbled i just have a lot of thoughts. i'm still ironing out dakila and his personality so unfortunately i dont have as much on him as i do with adhika. but i hope that this information is interesting enough for now!! thank you SO much for giving me the chance to ramble abt my silly guys

[jadeazora]

Champion's tierlist. Mostly ranking on initial battle, memorability, and personality. Lance and Geeta have better rematch teams, but you have to pay $30 for Geeta's (I personally enjoyed SV, but the games do have a mixed reputation since they were fairly glitchy, so not everyone was willing to do that), and grinding in HGSS was still kinda a pain, so I only ever bothered doing Lance's rematch once.

Trace, honestly, is memorable only for the Cubone, but has a rather lackluster team that doesn't even have full movesets and is just another friendly rival. He's very bland, especially considering that he's replacing the iconic OG final rival battle for that game.

Geeta's team is AWFUL. Using a trapper last? Using a Kingambit not last? Veluza, Gogoat, and Avalugg? Girl, why do I have to pay THIRTY DOLLARS for you to use your Pokemon correctly? What are you doing?

Diantha has zero story presence, but her team is pretty cool. Tyrantrum, Goodra, and Mega Gardevoir are all pretty solid Pokemon. She's not a hard battle, but in Gen6 they hadn't balanced the EXP Share yet, so it's easy to be overleveled if you use it.

Wallace, Steven (particularly in ORAS), and Iris are all better type specialists than Lance. Steven has two Sturdy Pokemon including one with Toxic, Wallace has Milotic (a Specially bulky Pokemon in a Gen where the moves strong against it are special) and Ludicolo (it probably won't kill you, but Double Team is annoying, and Flying and Poison weren't common attacking types back then. Fly is also inaccurate, and it's pretty much the best move you likely had access to. Unless you went for Dodrio as your Flying type and had Drill Peck, but it's a very late option when your team was probably set), and Iris at least demands a Fighting type in addition to the Ice/Dragon coverage. All Lance needs is Feraligatr with Ice Punch/Ice Fang, and Ampharos with any Electric moves for Gyarados.

Leon is a better battle than Alder, but how the game handles him just ticked me off. Like, it's good having a proactive Champ, that's why I like Alder, but I hate how the game uses him to sideline you until it literally can't anymore. SwSh was a boring game for me, and when anything interesting would happen, he was literally there to just shoo me off into doing my Gym Challenge. It feels like it goes against the "it doesn't matter if you're a kid or adult, anyone can be good at battling!" mantra of Pokemon, and having him be the face of that just made me kinda resent him. The player still feels relevant with Alder.

N, Kieran, and Nemona are some of the best rivals/Champs in the series. I like the story aspects to N and Nemona's fights more than finding them tough, but N had such a cool role in the story, and Nemona's love of battle and enthusiasm makes her a really fun character. Kieran basically has the best of both worlds in a tough battle since they use actual strategies in the DLC, and he's one of the most interesting rivals we've had for a story perspective.

Cynthia has the most aura of the Champions, and, especially with BDSP, has the toughest non-DLC added battle of them. Her roster also has very hard to get Pokemon like Milotic and Spiritomb. The physical/special split made Milotic easier to deal with, but back in Gen4, Spiritomb had no weaknesses and could usually live at least one hit. Garchomp is always strong, but in BDSP, has a Yache Berry and hits like a truck due to being properly EV'd. In Platinum, she's also pretty proactive, going thru the Distortion World with the player.

[kathairoette]

Hey! I love the yandere-ish puzzleshipping au, and the comic about Yugi giving Atem a collar made me love it more.

If it's okay to ask, would Yugi's other friends be aware of Atem coming back or that Yugi's acting strange? Would it result in Atem being isolated or something?

Super excited to see where the au goes (if you choose to continue it ^^)!

hehehe thank you very muchhh~ Yes! yandere-esque puzzleship with Yuugi being the yandere for once? Ugh I Love 😩 😩 I'm so happy this comic's gotten more of us who enjoy this flavor of Yuugi and Yami to come out of the woodwork (Dances with joy)

Hmm you mentioning about Yuugi's friendos gave me some ideas... If I get the time later, I'd love to draw em haha. So for now, I'll just mention what I'm not going to be drawing instead, cause I think the friendship gang feat. gramps can add an interesting dynamic to this AU!

I'd say that since this AU's big main point is Yuugi being terrible at dealing with grief, he's probably a bit more distant from his friends than he was in canon. Ofc he's still friends with them, but he's likely built up a bit of a wall that makes him seem standoffish. It's different from his "I'm being bullied" S0 quiet tho, it's clearly something tinged with grief, and since his friends want to be understanding, they back off for the first couple of weeks and just focus on making him happy.

Only... Yuugi seemingly isn't happy. At least, not in the way he used to. He can still laugh, cry, and get angry like anyone else, but there's a pervading sense of tiredness in him that worries everyone. Grandpa tries to get him help, but Yuugi rebuffs him, and since they no longer live together (Yuugi works in some game dev company and thus had to live somewhere else for commune reasons He also can't stand the idea of living in the same place where Atem once was) it's hard to make him go.

Jou and Honda are a bit more tough love about it, staging interventions and everything, but no attempt, therapy or otherwise ever seems to stick. Even Anzu, who had moved to America, tried to do some reverse-shovel talk thru their video chats to essentially guilt-trip Yuugi to take care of himself. Though that blows up in both their faces when Yuugi takes offense, and they get into a big fight about it. It takes them months to patch things up, and an actual in-person meeting later on for them to hash it out properly. Yuugi does feel guilty about being as harsh as he's been to his friends, but the void Atem left behind in his heart can't ever seem to close, no matter what he does. Jou and everyone else in turn, decide to do the "I can't tell you not to do it but I prefer to be next to you when shit hits the fan" approach, and instead just try to be there for him and support him when the tides are rough. Eventually, Yuugi just decides to accept that he probably can't ever be whole again, and sorta just coasts through life trying to enjoy it as much as he can with his friends by his side.

And then Kaiba comes to visit, with a short Egyptian man trailing behind him. And when the gang hear the news, they laugh and cry tears of joy, all while hoping to everything they know that Atem's return won't spell further hurt for their dear friend.

[rainbowsky]

Hi RainbowSky,

I am a very new turtle and your masterlist and YiZhan community has been a blessing. Thank you for your continuous hardwork.

I several of your articles, you have mentioned or hinted that DD was very overworked in 2020? Why was that? With GG going thru a tough time, it must have been a difficult time for him too. So was he overworked too on top of the stress?

Hi new turtle! 💛🐢💛

Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog! 😊

This was a very long time ago, I'm not sure it really matters anymore. As you can see now, both of them have built a strong work-life balance into their lives and are focused on projects and activities that suit their interests and needs. I talked about that quite a bit in this post.

No one can say for sure why DD was so overworked in 2020 (and to be fair, even the idea that he was overworked is a matter of opinion - although it would have been hard to miss). Plenty of people claim their theories are correct, though, and there are many theories ranging from exploitation by management (a bit of a 'victim' mentality and unlikely, IMHO) to DD trying to compensate for GG's lost revenue/work (too clownish for my tastes, and a bit disrespectful of GG, like he needed DD to pick up his slack or something).

I personally think it was likely a combination of a few factors. For one thing, he was in high demand at the time. Smart people in that industry will want to 'strike while the iron is hot' because one can never know when things will shift. He simply took the opportunities he had (and which appealed to him/fit his schedule). These were good opportunities, and he was still building his career at that point. Success/big popularity was still relatively new to him back then, and by no means a 'sure thing'.

Another factor is that he was trying to add new work to an already pretty busy schedule. Remember that he was hosting DDU every week, and often doing other related projects with that team (special events, etc.). This had a huge impact on his availability and meant that no matter what he was doing (after quarantine ended) he'd have to take a couple of days out each week to fly to Changsha from wherever he was, and then fly back.

In 2020 he was filming Legend of Fei, SDOC3 and Being a Hero, and had piles of endorsements. Throw in 7 magazine covers and miscellaneous appearances like Summer Surf Shop and before you know it, the guy is flying all over the place working his ass off all year long. He was busier than I ever remember seeing him.

I want to be clear when I talk about his 'being overworked' back then, that it's not an attempt to paint him as a tragic figure. He was anything but. 2020 was a huge year for him on many levels, and there were many happy, bubbly moments with him. He was by no means miserable. The opportunities he had back then were good ones that moved his career forward.

And he would have had input in most - if not all - of those choices. Let's not try to paint him as a sweatshop idol or something like that. It's just that at that stage in his career it didn't seem like he had developed strong boundaries and work/life balance, and he hadn't risen to the level of success yet where he could afford to pick and choose in quite the way he likely can now.

And let's not forget to factor in DD's INTENSE work ethic. He is very serious about everything he does, and he works hard to make sure he is putting out his best effort. That would have also been a major driving factor in why he was working so hard that year.

The downside of all that work was that he was spread very thin, often sick and tired, and went through long stretches of time without a single day off.

And I want to remind everyone again that this is my opinion based on what I saw. No one knows for sure what the lay of the land really was for him back then.

But like I said - this is all ancient history, and nothing to worry about. Water under the bridge.

[son1c]

sonic not knowing how to ice skate when he first gets to snowpoint and not really being interested either cuz frozen lakes are orders of magnitude worse than regular lakes irt drowning in them. but then jack mocks him for it like, you can't even skate? and you think you're better than ME??? as if! and sonic is like oh, ok. it's on.

and the people of snowpoint teach him how to skate and he's a fast learner so it doesn't take too long... but he wipes out a lot, mostly cuz he just wants to keep going faster and faster, but ice is, well, slippery! and jack is keeping a tally of the amt of times he's wiped out like man, slow down! you're making it hard to keep count! LMAO

but she'd also be the first person to jump in after him if he managed to cut a hole thru the ice with his reckless speed... cuz it's not like anyone else is tough enough to save his sorry butt!

[johnslittlespoon]

ok 1. these are my tough and sweet drafting docs, i have never been this insane about outlines in my life this is what getting on adhd meds does to a man. someone sedate me (i have also Never drafted out a fic until i started writing for this fandom jfc) (also sry i forgot to mute spotify b4 making the vid and i cbf to reexport)

and 2. i think i've mapped out the whole storyline for TAS gahhh my heart already hurts. i'm pretty set on an ending and it's gonna rip my heart out to write (in the best way) but leaves space for a long epilogue (or possibly even a second fic lol we'll see if my interest holds, i either fixate for a few weeks on an idea or i'm locked in for a year). as of now the fic will be set from july 2005 to june 2006 + the epilogue aughghgh but i gen have sm more i could write if i were to do a time skip and write a second fic, i just have so many other aus i wanna write if i can prove to myself i can commit to chaptered fics like this so :')

all the major events are plotted, most gaps in between are filled with the scenes i've been brainstorming in my docs, but i'm sure i'll come up with plenty more as i go knowing how i operate rip lol. esp going thru asks, i still have so many to get back to regarding tas i'm sorryyy!! honestly sometimes i read them and have to go straight to my doc to plot and then i forget to respond to the actual ask lol y'all are cooking <3

this fic is gonna be sooo long, def longer than yadiym. i'm thinking minimum 12 chapters if i end up sticking to this stupid long wordcount per chapter but the story/plot keeps expanding as i write so i'm probably gonna eat my words and idm as long as i can keep myself fixated/inspired lol :')

also don't mind me i'm just yapping to myself atp bc it helps me to post my progress somewhere other than in my notes app so i can refer back easier and also bc it makes me hold myself accountable if i speak it into the universe lmaoo i'm peer pressuring myself xoxo

[roguephenon]

I had a class on diplomacy during my undergrad and I’m just amazed that one of the best representations of how complex it is, can be found in your fic with Numbuh Infinity. Like you really have no choice but to think about the bigger picture that would benefit who you represent the most & it takes a LOT of tough calls, especially in the crazy world building within the knd with several factions . I know the other characters gave him a tough time (tho I also get where their coming from), it’s a miracle that this lil guy’s head did not explode and honestly his crash out on the gknd in the near end was very valid. What inspired you to write him that way? And on a side note, did another character ever take over his job after he “retired” from it? And which sector (aside from his own in the past ofc) did he like the most (had less of a headache dealing with)? I have a hc that maybe it’s the Amish sector cuz those kids just mind their business lmao.

On another note, I love how you expound on the knd world building, always love seeing a fellow lore head unpack all that. Speaking of which, have you ever watched a bit of craig of the creek? It has the knd equivalent of kids having their own rich inner world and systems that they take seriously albeit, most of them can just leave it all when they get home.

I’d have to look up who said it, but a quote I think about concerning diplomacy is, “…it is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.”

I’m flattered you enjoyed it thru the lens of Infinity! I wanted to convey the complexity and just awfulness it can be, especially for a kid.

I’ve always liked Infinity. He’s definitely my “that one character that showed up for one episode now I have to write a novel to fill in alll the gaps”. I was inspired to write him the way I do because of the terrible nuance his job must entail, especially from a perspective of a kid.

Is he an alien? More than most likely given what we know of gKND. So far. But even if he is, he’s an alien KID. This show and medium is about kids first and foremost. I think that must come first before science fiction tropes of “they must have different biology/psychological views of morals and etc.”

I wasn’t interested in doing that. So the contrarian in me saw a character most of the fandom (as far as what I see in my feeds) writes off as an “evil alien” and instead wanted to make him a human boy who is very still much a kid and I’m going to SHOW how much he is hurting.

There are a LOT of scenes for this I wrote that tore me up and made me cry for various reasons. But one of the most gut wrenching? It was when I had to write to see whether or not “Numbuh Infinity would raise his hand.” Iykyk.

Idk if you read the epilogue yet, but I believe I put in a section that confirms that 74.239 became the “new” Numbuh Infinity.

If we’re talking about sectors we’ve seen into show? I also think he liked the Amish sector the most. They do just mind my own business. You’d think he’d like dealing with sector J, but no. They won’t stop sending him vacation pamphlets. Also, he’s not much of a mango smoothie guy. Just isn’t his thing.

I love Craig of the Creek. Amazing show!!!

[raphaellight]

One scene to break us all

I grew up on Star Wars. I'm more of a new era fan, with prequels being always a part of it. Also, as a kid I was watching Clone Wars series on television. It definitelly made both my idea of the world and humor more dark than psychologist would consider healthy, although I have my own opinion on refusal to expose children to tough themes in media, but thats not what I want to write about. I want to write about a scene that I can't really recall having much interested in when I watched it as a kid yet now, I can watch it over and over with tears crumbling every time I see it.

Why didn't it affect me? Affect us? Why was it that in the past it felt like an exposition? We can account it to my small brain not really comprehending what's going on, waiting for a cool duel between Anaking and Obi-Wan among the fires of hellish landscapes. But I think there can be a deeper cause. One that was explained in quote accounted to Joseph Stalin. "One death is tragedy, thousand is a statistic"

Execution of Order 66, without any Star Wars uniwerse background, is about the scale of events that happens in the movie. I heard that scenes used in that sequence were primarly planned to be at the begining of the movie to showcase scale of Clone Wars, notify a viewer about how all of galaxy is raging in fights between clones and droids. They scrapped that idea and used it to showcase the scale of Palpatine's victory over Jedi: all around the galaxy, with one sentence, Sith Lord wiped out hole Jedi Order we came to know thruout the prequel trilogy. That's what I mean by exposition. It's shocking and terrifing on it's own, but ultimatly, those were just the events. Emotional weight was put in the Jedi temple.

So what changed? Why is it now that I watch order 66 I can't help but shed at least one tear?

As I said, I was watching Clone Wars on television. But it was occasional, when I have the time and hit the right channel at the right time type of watching back then. Then I watched it preety much from beggining to an end when I was a bit older, but it still didn't feel that close to home, as it was way back when it was still ending on Yoda and his little journey. Even then tho it already altered my perception of the movies.

Then came the time, the year 2020, everyone will remember as the year pandemic hit. But fans will know it was also a year of the finale release, Clone Wars season 7, featuring phew side plot-lines, Echo, Bad Batch, martez sisters and Darth Maul. But most importantly, it finally got to that point. It finally allowed us to hear "Execute order 66" in the show. And as it did, it did justice to what Order 66 represents. The end of an Era.

By connecting the Clone Wars show, by putting it right into the events of ROTS, it symbolically made all of that happen thru out the show part of the Prequel Trilogy for good.

Now we don't see sexy, blue alien chick getting blasted in the back. We see Ayla Secura, kind yet tough master that helped carrying Anakin after he took explosion onto his chest, getting shot multiple times by Commander Bly.

We don't see weird looking brown Jedi getting shot down by clone pilots on some airy planet, we see Master Plo Koon, the one that brought Ahsoka to Jedi Temple, dying before he could blink.

We don't see a long headed man, concerned about wookies in previous scene, confused at clones. We see Ki Adi Mundi, man that almost died in the second invasion on Geonosis and bickered around with Anakin and Ahsoka, terrified of the sight and feeling that his clones are out here to kill him.

Thousand deaths is a statistic. It's the exposition of scale. It's how the history is written in the book. The war took thousand of innocent lives. That is important on it's own. But you won't cry over it. You will cry over a death of the ones you cared about. Over the ones you got to know.

At the beggining, when I said about watching Order 66 scene, I lied a bit. I ment watching the extended edit, fan made, connecting all the scenes happening in the universe that were ever made for screen. I'm still waiting for any cinema to release the Revenge of the Sith movie that starts from that episode in season 7 Clone Wars, then follows both story lines of Anakin and Ahsoka together and when it gets to Order 66, it puts all the scenes possible, even cut scenes from Jedi Fallen Order, as it too crushed my heart, when I realised what's going on when Kal high fived a clone on his way.

Order 66 started as a statistic about thousand deaths. Years have passed however, allowing us to witness characters truly involved in it to the point where the scene, being not far from two decades old now, is more heartbreaking than ever before.

Follow for more star wars content and may the force be with you

[breakbeatbun]

hi!! i was watching the BalloonSMP vods and first off, i love your avatar in minecraft, esp the ear twitches, its very cute. second, how did you get the water to look like that??? i've only fucked around with mods so idk anything about shaders or resource packs, is it one of those? if so, is it one you downloaded or made?

also thank you for the vods bc i never knew about the little frog mod and now i have it in my game and im never deleting it, i love them, they're so cute

have a good day/afternoon/night!!!

thank you! that model evolved a bit over the course of the SMP (you'll see if you can keep up w/ it all of course haha) and i'm STILL adding and changing and cleaning things, but i'm pretty happy with where it's at! everyone seemed to be real impressed with the live expressions i was doing and it felt nice to add that to our interactions ... (customizable player models mod if you're interested!)

second: yup, shaders! depending what modloader you're using you can grab either Oculus (forge) or Iris (fabric) and then browse for some popular shaders on modrinth! i'm assuming you're still early in my vods, at which point i was definitely still using Complementary Unbound. they most notably added the warm lighting, the clouds, the clear/wavy/reflective water, and some hand sway! unfortunately though those got to be too heavy for my aging PC and i switched to either Super Duper Vanilla or Sildurs Enhanced Default at some point, before ultimately turning them off midway thru the SMP because they broke some custom stuff that was made for us. (i've still yet to find a new shader that actually does everything i want & doesn't make my computer frow up ... still looking)

regardless what you end up going with, some of those shaders will take some tweaking to get them to behave right. minecraft w/ shaders has always been notoriously a little tough to run, & YMMV. also i recommend picking up the Modrinth Launcher if you can! it makes searching for & adding mods/dependencies/shaders/resource packs/data packs easy as fuckk.

I'D ALSO NEVER HEARD OF RIBBITS BEFORE BALLOON & IT'S SO PRECIOUS ... the little song they play never gets old to me. it sounds like home. thank u 4 the kind message & hope you're well yourself ! ^^

[ooooshetriesss]

Announcement/Update Cat parents of MALE CATS SPECIFICALLY! If their under 8 &/or u’ve yet to learn about ‘the possibility of obstruction (something that CAN & WILL happen to certain genetically predisposed cats; swap them to wet food for their safety & PLEASE READ)

Hey guys💔 Todays rope had to be canceled. I had to rush one of my boys to ER. It was pretty serious, pretty scary & after 2 days I was finally able to bring him home but, I’m gonna have to keep an eye on him.Because of his size & the meds he needed; they hit him heavy so, he needs help going to the bathroom & using the water bowl.

Thank you to everyone whose reached out via IG as this was going down; if I didn’t get back to you, my apologies; it’s been a bit hectic but Im sincerely grateful for everyone’s concern.

IF U HAVE MALE CATS; SWAP THEM TO WET FOOD FOR THEIR SAFETY if u wanna spare a 1k vet bill,

(I was so shocked to hear both the vet & a lot of my fellow cat owners say “yeah it’s common, most ppl just don’t find out their cats intolerant till the worst happens; & because cats mask so well; at that point, it can truly be serious…)

I know Miami is densely populated but not everyone is 10 mins away from a vet. Also times are tough; I cannot stomach the idea of someone losing their cat cause they didn’t have 1000$ on standby (which who the fk has that these days)

I want to make this last part exceptionally clear..,

I am someone who has had a job since before I was legally allowed to obtain one… I’m one of millions of Americans who couldn’t afford college nor qualify for financial aid… I have worked to the BONE In everything from service industry, to blue collar, to maintenance(both in terms of house keeping & even assembling & maintenance of salt water aquariums..was even a groutsmith) like most Americans, I’ve never had insurance & lived paycheck to paycheck + have made just enough to get by since I was 15.

I didn’t have ‘luxurious purchases’ I had medical bills I couldn’t even afford a regular minimum payment on… I didn’t save for ‘exuberant trips’ … I saved to get a weeks worth of groceries…

I never bought a car..: but some days I spent just as much as I made just to get to work ..(& while the men were praised for riding their bikes & showing “that type of initiative…” I was berated for showing up to work “in such a condition” “It doesn’t matter u come in early /before we open to “fix urself up”

When YOU WALK IN THRU THAT DOOR, U WALK/TALK/COME IN LIKE UR ALREADY ON THE CLOCK… U SHOULD BE COMING IN EARLY ANYWAY (just for them to yell at u for actually coming in early)

The ONLY REASON, I (someone who would literally run into a burning building & d*e for their animals; for animals who weren’t even mine) someone who would miss meals so they could eat THE best food…someone who LOVES & is DEDICATED to their creatures, who would do ANYTHING for them, & MOST importantly..

Someone who was DUMB/NAIVE ENOUGH to be ‘the hardest worker in the room for souless companies/selfish ppl for 30+ yrs was ONLY CAPABLE of getting my baby THAT care NOT because of a “traditional (what yall call ‘honest days work’) IT WAS BECAUSE OF WHAT IS CONSIDERED SW. full fucking stop.

& because I had a women who had both a virtually non interest credit card AND my back♥️ (I’ve told u once, I’ll say it again; Grandmas a gangster)

I know SM likes to frame SW as an option for women who “don’t feel like working/ want expensive luxuries things & are looking for a free ride..”

What we’re lookin for is a career that allows us to still man the ship the way we need to, we’ve been expected to..

It allows us not just means for survival, but the capacity to do so WHILE we continue to be the caretakers of our family & (for some particularly exceptional women) the caretakers of our community…

I wanna make it SO clear this is NOT A DIG to ANYONE, ESPECIALLY the vet& staff that helped us & are appreciated SOOO DEEPLY. These are ppl who are overwhelmed, burnt out like the rest of us, expect unlike nurses, they usually aren’t given a 1/4 of the respect other medical professionals are. PLEASE be kind to them. (I know it’s difficult when emotions are high)

But while this was not my regular content, I know ALOT animal lovers on here… times are tough, there only gonnna get tougher… information is invaluable..

1 week before this happened; 1 woman made a video sharing how she JUST lost her MALE CAT (due to this)

Because of THAT video, I was aware this could even happen…

Because of a incredible vet & her team who TRUSTED me when I said “I will figure out the money, u have my WORD” my boy is safe & while expensive; they made it as affordable as possible…

And because of another woman who had my back w/a piece of plastic at the drop of a hat, I was able to bring him home.

And because of some incredible supporters & community like yall who like my content & share it, push it into the algo, find me on other platforms s & interact, even if they can’t financially contribute.. because of being lucky enough to be supported; I was able to make that happen for my boy. Every single variable is what came together to keep him here today & my heart… can’t even think of how to properly thank you all.

The community looked out for me.. & while this post may be all I have to give back ATM.. it’s what I got..

MALE CATS=WET FOOD TO BE SAFE!!!

(Also, CONSTANT FRESH WATER SOURCE BOTH BY & away from their food ; by their food so they have some to access while eating & some away so it stays fresh & can help them pass more easily.)

Love u guys xoxoxo.

We’ll be resuming to our regular scheduled content next week lol

Till then, xoxoox - hummingbird + ‘Fil’ @ooooshetriesss

[hautsreadsmarvel]

"The Fantastic Four" (1961, issue 1)

Not every issue deserves its own post, but I think the very first one does. It's a goldmine of insight into this age of comics.

Lookit that, our very first comic book cover! I dig it, except for the part where I didn’t realize where the Human Torch was in this image immediately and so it briefly looked like the monster was speaking. And also the part where the Invisible Girl turning invisible doesn't seem like it will help her. And also also the part where the depicted scene doesn't happen in the story.

Going into this, I should probably clarify that I know next to nothing about the F4. I do know their names and powers:

Reed Richards, under the alias "Mister Fantastic", is the leader who can stretch any aspect of his body to incredible lengths. He's also a really smart inventor, to the point that the Reed Richards Is Useless trope is named after him

Sue Storm, alias "the Invisible Girl", can... turn invisible. And get captured a lot.

Ben Grimm, aka "the Thing", is super strong and super tough.

Johnny Storm, aka "the Human Torch", is Sue's brother and can burst into flame for a limited duration, gaining flight and pyrokinesis.

Also, Sue and Reed will be married and have two kids (one of whom is nigh-omnipotent?), the Thing is divinely mandated to never return to human form, in the multiverse there’s a “Council of Reeds” and also an evil Reed called the Maker who can elongate his brain to get smarter, and the F4 used to be the most popular Marvel heroes. All that out of the way, let’s dive in!

Huh, you could buy this for 10 cents. I wonder how expensive that is in today money…? $1.03. Wow. Also, does anyone know what that M C label between the CCA stamp of approval and “10c” means? Is that just an abbreviation for Marvel Comics?

Love the artwork, including the way that the mysterious guy who totally isn't Reed Richards is colored in the bottom right. That flare gun is pretty cool too, what with its ability to form words. Could you imagine having a flare gun to signal your friends like that? Damn.

On the other hand... the cops. Le sigh. I get a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of cops for a long while as symbolic shorthand for justice and goodness. Blech.

First part of this story is the F4 all heading to the flare's location while demonstrating their powers. Basically all of them cause some trouble for the unsuspecting citizens of New York - Sue bowls people over running invisibly thru a crowd, speaks and frightens someone into thinking there's a ghost, and causes a taxi driver to flee for his life after attempting to pay him while invisible; the Thing busts out of a clothing store and wrecks the door, scaring the passerby and causing the cops to shoot him (w/o resulting in harm); and the Torch slags a car on his way over... we'll talk more about the Torch's intro in a bit.

There's no way doors keep being unwieldy for the Thing. It begs the question of how he got into the shop in the first place (possibly he squeezed thru carefully or used a larger entrance, but in his haste just plowed thru the wall), and it's not a particularly interesting antic to show whenever we want to show the F4 unintentionally causing havoc. The whole Thing intro is a pretty effective introduction to his character - actually, they kind of all are. This intro sequence showcases their potential to be menaces and positions them as fantastic oddities within the hustle and bustle of New York; Sue is a little careless, the Thing is grumpy about hiding himself from the world but also doesn't enjoy his strange body drawing attention from the public, and while the Torch may love working on hot rods, he's also a hothead so excited by the prospect of the first F4 mission that he bursts into flame INSIDE the car and melts parts of it into slag before taking flight. A promising start for characterization, I suppose.

Also, again, the flare gun is SO COOL. You can pre-program it to form sequential messages? Fuck having powers, I want one of those.

Back to the Torch's intro. His appearance in the skies is so disturbing that the government sics fighter planes on the "unknown flaming object over Central City", and here begins the silliness in earnest.

You know how fighter aircraft engage their targets by swooping in like a pack of orcas, to savage their foes in melee combat? Yeah, me neither. Why are they getting close enough that he can saw straight thru them, when he wasn't even able to melt more than a torso-size hole thru a car he was in? It’s that shit in action movies where it feels like the jet pilots are trained to try and bull rush their targets, and it never ceases to irritate me*. That's just the appetizer though. The real silliness is...

You know how governments LOVE firing nuclear warheads at hostile targets? You know how they LOVE firing nuclear warheads at targets directly above ONE OF THEIR OWN CITIES? Look, I get it was the ‘60s. Of course everyone had nukes on the mind. Of course if you want to shorthand “really powerful kablooey” you just say “nuke”. But what immeasurable stupidity this is! Why, they oughta sack the officers that gave that order! Now the obvious fix would be to just... not call it a nuke. But our task is not to control, but to see, and so we bear witness to the first of many terrors running rampant in the Marvelverse - nuclear weapons getting used all the damn time.

…And then Reed stretches his arms up, catches the warhead, and flings it into the sea to explode. Thus starts the long trend of “safely” disposing of nuclear ordinance by lobbing it into the water. Thus also appears an unstated but consistent property of Reed’s super-stretchiness: he can arrest the momentum of things much stronger and faster than he by grabbing or grappling them, and then throw them the fuck away despite lacking the apparent necessary leverage to do so. Unlike my prior umbrage re: jet fighters and nuking one's own cities, I actually have no problems with this - as long as it’s internally consistent, I don’t really give a shit that a superhero-verse has different physics than ours, and I find the insistence that their physics MUST match ours to be nonsensical. If that really upsets you, I got bad news about basically every superpower.

After that follows a flashback to the origin story of the F4 - they stole aboard a rocket and piloted it to space so that AMERICA (THE BEAUTIFUL, GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE) could defeat the vile commies (better DEAD than RED!) and make it to space first... but they hit some sort of radiation zone... crashland back to Earth... and discover they've all mutated in some way. After that comes their actual first adventure: Reed has discovered that nuclear powerplants across the world are being claimed by sinkholes, they fly to the mythical "Monster Isle" to track down the perpetrator, fight some random monsters that aren't really worth writing about (and Reed again demonstrates that he can lift really large objects and throw them into the sea), they fall into the center of the Earth and meet "the Moleman"... the Moleman, who I vaguely recall is going to reappear in some future Marvel comics, is apparently a hideous-looking guy who was shunned by society, fell into the Hollow Earth and became the blind leader of its monstrous creatures, and now plots to overthrow the surface world by first depriving them of their powerplants. He also has a "radar sense" that makes him an exceptional hand-to-hand combatant - basically spider-sense. Yeah, not a great villain, and not a particularly compelling adventure if you're looking for anything more than cheap thrills.

Nevertheless, the story is a fun read, and justifies its price (which is admittedly 'free', in my case...). It's pulp for kids, OJ optional. It makes for a great introduction into the Marvelverse, and if this was your first superhero story ever I think it would be pretty neat, but the actual adventure is bleh (weren't threats from the Hollow Earth already getting stale by the 60s?), and Sue and Reed don't have much character beyond "heroic do-gooders".

*What bothers me is not a lack of fidelity to actual military operations. What gets my goat is the lack of conception of distance that this particular cliché indicates. It’s why I also get pissy when fiction treats different celestial bodies as practically next door, trivializes what travel distances are like for people who don’t have cars or commercial jets at their beck and call, etc. Distance matters! It's an important factor influencing human history and our individual lives, and it can greatly enhance the texture and stakes of a story! Don’t just foo-foo it!

[yanderu-deredere]

Hello!! Ive been slowly working my way through your ocs and can i just say!!! They are soooo tasty, your brain is very big, also linking the profiles is soo nice im terrible with remembering stuff so its a nice refresher

Anyway i was just wondering how do you think Ayaka would be with a childhood friend darling 🤔

a/n: SORRY ANON BUT YOU'VE HIT THE JACKPOT this is literally my SPECIAL INTEREST i absolutely DIE AND LOVE THE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS TROPE

ayaka yamato ★ profile

being childhood friends with ayaka means getting to know the social media super star before she became popular girl material

before, her hair was pitch black and she also had a lot of acne. like now, she wore thick rimmed glasses but they were always plain black. she also wore a lot of formal clothes, chosen by her nanny. stuff like button ups, long pleated skirts, etc

as a kid, ayaka was basically caged so, to be her childhood friend, your parents had to have been really good friends with her parents

ayaka's parents often scheduled play dates with their good friends' children as a way to gain more social power among the rich

unfortunately, that's really the only way you could've met her before she began her rebellious phase

like frfr ayaka was basically isolated as a child. i cannot stress this enough lol

her little brother was doted on by her mom and her older brother was coddled by her father (since he's the heir) so, often times, she was left to her own devices

she, of course, had nannies and tutors but none of them really truly treated her like the child she actually was

to everyone she met, she was a yamato. and that was the only thing that mattered about her

this made her very hungry for affection and she took whatever she could get

and if you gave her any sort of affection? when she's starving? she'd eat that shit up and praise the ground you walk on LOL

though caveat to that is that you'd have to be in the same boat as her LOL becos she's always been easily jealous, especially back then, and if you were more free than she was, she'd resent you too much to get attached to you

she'd definitely use you as her guinea pig when she starts experimenting with fashion and make up too lmao

when she does go thru her transformation from goody good daughter to how she really wants to live her life, she brings you with her

but she won't let you become a socialite like her. no, you're only allowed to be with her, to be close to her, to be her friend

anytime you start slipping from her grasp, she starts isolating you until the only person you feel comfortable clinging to and depending on is her

"Do you think there's more to life than this?"

You looked up from your homework to see Ayaka staring intently at you, her head resting in her arms. She was pushing around one of the fruit peels that she'd left on the desk but it was obvious from her expression that she'd been serious about her words.

You considered her words for a second before cocking your head a little to the side "What do you mean?"

"I don't know... more to studying. More to being the kid of a CEO. More to all of this." She just huffed in reply before leaning back and crossing her arms "Feels unfair that we live like this."

I don't want you to live like this. She wanted to say but the words just stayed lodged in her throat.

Unfortunately, she didn't inherit a lot from her parents but she did inherit their inability to express affection. The sweetness, the love, always felt awkward and tough on her tongue.

She wanted so desperately to tell you about her feelings, to let you in and let you know, but all she could do was peel you clementines and sit by your side, hoping and praying that you'd notice her.

Certainly, if not her, you found yourself thinking about her words. You'd never really thought about that before. You were always following your parents' rules that it felt blasphemous to consider going beyond them, to see what it was like beyond the rules and the gilded cage.

Because you were aware. You knew the life they had you live--the life Ayaka's parents had her live--was one of imprisonment, doomed to never do what you wanted to do.

But you'd lived the life for so long that imagining what life would be like any other way left you drawing a blank.

"Let's start living life our own way." Ayaka suddenly uncrossed her arms and took your hands into hers, that eager grin on her face infectious "You and me. Nobody cares about me like you do, anyway."

"And nobody cares about you like I do, right?" There was something dark to her tone right then, like there was more to her words. But she looked so mesmerizing, so sweet, that you found yourself nodding.

Ayaka only beamed even brighter "We'll decide how we want to become, not our parents."

[stars-and-magic-swords]

Jwcc for the fandom ask thing!

Thank you for the ask Shadow! Camp Cretaceous deserves all the love and attention, fingers crossed that we see the gang in chaos theory (darius and ben already confirmed let's goooo!!!!)

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): damn this is tough. It's really, extremely close between yaz and darius, but I'll have to go with yaz (why are 90% of all my favourite characters emotionally repressed?) But yeah she's super cool and strong and her character and development are super interesting and together with sammy they're just cuteness incarnate

scrunkly (my "baby", character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): darius my baby dino nerd i will never let anyone hurt you (i want to turn him into a plushie and squeeze the life out of him). Also poor dude was going thru this shit at age twelve wtf get him some therapy

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/ underappreciated fave): I really don't see very much love for sammy, sure it's not like people dislike her or anything, but i feel like her character often gets glossed over (is that even an expression that exists?)

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won't shut up about it for a week): dave and roxie (it's two but who cares) honestly I have so much respect for them, they did their very best regarding the circumstances and i will not let anyone say anything negative about them

poor little meow meow ("problematic"/ unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): hmmmm kenji?? He has some pretty good wet cat vibes in the latest seasons. yes I know there's also early ben but I don't know, maybe because I watched them a long time ago??? I know the fandom adores ben and I love him too but I can't really relate

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): it seems like a habit of mine, to always torment my favourite characters the most. yeah it's between darius and yaz again, what can you do. there's just so many good and creative ways to hurt them, and they're already traumatised so they basically do half the setup on their own

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): wait are we saying send them to hell "affectionately" or literally? Anyway I'm gonna go literally because I cannot decide and I'll of course go with kenji's dad. like, what the fuck is wrong with this man

Just realised I didn't mention brooklyn at all, sorry girl please I love you too 😭😭

[phagodyke]

Would love to hear ur thoughts on Hades game sometime because I too loved but had beef with the game and I think we are the same ….

yessss, disclaimer I haven't played it for like 3 years and I only played 10 hours/got to the end once before I dropped it so i might be misremembering some things but I stick by my opinions! under the cut cuz this is long as fuck 🫣 my haterism has no limits

ok so basically my grievances w hades can be split into 2 main areas: gameplay + narrative, I'll break them down in that order.

firstly gameplay - roguelikes/lites are my fave genre so I was predominantly approaching hades from this angle + its failure here is the clincher for me.

I found the gameplay repetitive and stale. this isnt a criticism of its permadeath like ive seen some ppl make - I usually relish repetition/grind especially in permadeath-based games bc I find tactical challenge fun + love the learning curve, its soooo rewarding. but hades is ultimately just a glorified button masher. mob/boss movesets are boring + unoriginal, and can generally all be fought the same way. trying to do otherwise drags out fights; it actively discourages emergent gameplay so theres little variance WITHIN runs. the pool of rooms for procedural generation is far too small so theres little variance BETWEEN runs. there's no real challenge to combat, difficulty is mainly increased by heightened mob tankiness as you get further in a run. movement/combat doesn't flow well, its mechanically very weak, relying heavily on its permanent upgrade system instead of developing skill in the way you approach the game. all the weapons feel clunky and don't really offer any unique challenge/benefit so theres virtually no point switching between them and the grind to unlock them all is so pointless… god there are just SOOO many hack n slash crawlers that keep it fresh even for hundreds of hours and hades fails miserably at keeping it fresh for even 5 measly hours :^/

I didnt like the boon system either - its far too simplistic + shallow. its fine to rely on chance, this is part of the random generation, and I think it had a lot of potential in that it was a good way of combining aesthetic w gameplay itself. but this is pretty much the only form of resource management - and theres barely any management to it! theres no reward for exploring different builds, they dont really synergise BETWEEN gods in interesting or useful ways, so the game encourages you to just stick with one god throughout, and biases random generation towards boons youve already collected. part of the fun for me is learning HOW to design a build, and working with the randomiser to play flexibly, but hades just isnt interested in that at all...

also - I don't like the permanent upgrade system, I think this detracts from it as a rogue. every time you should be starting on square 1 - maybe you pick up health upgrades etc throughout each run, and maybe you unlock new weapons etc for the random generation pool, or purely cosmetic upgrades, but the point of permadeath is that it RESETS! zags base health + dmg should be the same 50 hours into the game as when u first open it. make a different genre of game if u dont wanna do that lol. I also think IF youre going to say fuck it and add a permanent upgrade system, you should also add unlockable permanent biome shortcuts bc ur just making it boring as fuck to have to waste time grinding thru earlier biomes with unskippable combat once youre op for them.

I GET that they did this to make the game more accessible* to players who dont typically enjoy rogues, but it just makes it really disappointing for those of us who DO love rogues, and it always feels cheap to me when games are like "well of you want challenge then set the difficulty yourself with these modifiers 🙄" like just make the base difficulty TOUGH up front and then add an easy/story mode and accessibility features* for players who don't want the challenge.. if you're gonna call yourself a rogue the gameplay should be the PRIORITY not a throwaway option

one of my biggest peeves with hades is how people now laud it as one of the best rogues - whenever I mention I like the genre I almost always get asked "oh, like hades?" and it pisses me off so much… its a rogueLITE not roguelike, ie. it has rogue ELEMENTS but its not a true one and imo, it does a pretty shit job implementing them! I would have a lot less resentment towards it if it wasnt marketed as the forefront of the rogue genre - frankly its a very basic rogue with very mid gameplay, its characters/design are by FAR its strong point and it should be sold as such. its misleading and makes me sad that this is what most people think of when they hear rogue :-(

*(side note - accessibility in this game is another major flaw. theres really no excuse for a game as popular as this to be so lacking in accessibility options. allow people to bind keys together or use coloured outlines or have colourblindness settings or alter font/text size etc - its not that hard! dead cells did a great job of this lol)

anyway... moving onto my second criticism - narratively, its also unsatisfying.

the hades plot is, loosely, about a cycle of abuse, so the 2 natural directions to go in with this are either: #1: escaping the cycle, or #2: continuing it forever.

#2 is the easiest to do with a rogue format - bc of permadeath the game is already cyclical, so all you have to do is create an ending which loops perfectly back to the start (smth like 'its impossible to truly defeat/reconcile with his father so even after zag beats him, hades drags him back to the start again). obviously this is a miserable story to tell, but tbh I think it wouldve been interesting + fitting - so much of greek mythos is about cycles and the unchanging nature of the gods, and they LOVED eternal cyclical punishments. plus theres smth rly tragic about zag gradually helping everyone else while no one else can save him from his family LOL

#1 is a bit harder to do - this is the story they WANTED to tell but I just don't think it worked… the driving force plot-wise is his desperation to escape. realistically for this to happen the game needs to be finite, which it can't be due to its rogue nature - somehow you have to end up at the very start again. the main solutions I can think of for this are:

a) after the final boss, insert some time travel shenanigans (easy to fit into the worldbuilding using a character like kronos) and all of zags progress with hades is unspooled. this can be completely out of his control, or it could be a choice the player makes (to end the game here or choose to go back and relive zags past in order to progress npc questlines). eg. what happens in dead cells. again, tragic but it makes more sense to me

-or b) bite the bullet and give the game a completely finite ending after beating hades. if players want to go back and play more to complete other npc questlines, they pick up play from before they beat hades. this isnt explained "narratively" bc the plot is already concluded and now theyre just playing for fun (eg. what going under does)

I also think for a character-focused story-rich game, roguelite was a really terrible choice of genre as it locks every interaction behind pure chance and hours of grinding - just really baffling why they decided to do this, especially when theyve had such success previously making games within different genres (transistor, bastion, pyre). the core of the issue for me is that the devs wanted to create a game that was both story rich AND a rogue - and these things arent mutually exclusive, but the best features of each contradict each other when you try to balance them in a way to appease their respective fans (ie. the challenge/complexity of the gameplay is heavily restricted by keeping it easy for ppl unfamiliar with rogues to pick up, but the strength of the narrative arc is simultaneously weakened by the fact that as a rogue it has to be perpetual bc of permadeath + you're working with procedural generation…)

I'm not going to beef with the artstyle or music bc I rly loved them both (even if I wish the body diversity was better!), or with the interpretations of greek gods bc literally every piece of media abt greek mythos has to decide how to interpret them and I think its silly to be like "this isnt CANON" - since we actually dont HAVE a strict "canon" for many of these stories bc theyve been retold/translated in so many conflicting ways lol. I've just heard ppl complaining abt that and I dont think its worth complaining about 🤷‍♀️

ANYWAY tl;dr: hades should've been an action-heavy isometric metroidvania… it wouldve made it far easier to focus on character questlines (ie. with respawn points + a fixed map), unified the story they wanted to tell with the gameplay SO much more effectively, and allowed them to reach the full potential of both, whilst also playing up to supergiant's previous game-making strengths. but thats my 2 cents!