#it'll at the very least be an improvement compared to the one i did with cas and mc

[hydn-jpg]

why is panelling so hard ;-;

[yaboirezzy]

Any of you ever find a new thing you're interested in and you want to know and see more of it, only to find out that thing has been dead or gone for a while and the person/people behind it did something awful or got in some bad controversy?

Cause I have and it's with this:

So I was rewatching some old/classic web animations (mostly Eddsworld, SMB Z, and archived newgrounds animations) and I saw this in one of the playlist that has a bunch of those animations. I only watched it because it was next in the queue but after a couple of minutes I was kinda hooked on it and kept on watching, after a while I decided to watch it till the end, and well...I was really interested.

Sure it was REALLY dated with how it looks and feels, plus the characters and the concept or setting are really standard and could use some improvements, but I thought to myself while searching for more stuff about this series: "Eh, it's part of the charm with these old web animations. Also this was just the pilot episode so surely there's more to come, surely it'll get better from here, surely this'll be a good or at least fine series that'll have some charm and laughs with absolutely nothing bad happening to-" yeah that didn't happen and I wished it did instead of what actually happened.

Yeah so going over every unfortunate thing that happened would take like forever (I think based on what other people have said) so I'll just give you a short summary of what happened: The creator (animated james) canceled the series after two short seasons, he was exposed to have some questionable actions and/or interest which of course led to controversy, and he disappeared from the internet (wherever he is I hope he's doing well). Yup it's another "a classic content creator's downfall" situation...

Okay but you might be thinking to yourself: "What about the series itself and it's two short seasons? Is it any good, is it another case of separating the art from the artist, did it at least leave a bittersweet taste behind?" well....no. Yeah I'm very sorry to any C Students fans out there, I understand if you like this series and think it's really great or an underappreciated gem from the past, I get that and I respect it, but C Students is just really meh to me.

"Well what is C Students?" you might ask, well according to the wiki: C Students is animated web series centered upon a group of teenagers and their life and misadventures in Hartlane High School. Yup, that's all it is from the wiki, and it's actually fitting because that's is ALL this series is about, it's literally just another "teen high school - slice of life & comedy" series kinda like the ones you would find on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel back in the 2000s, except this time it's animated...which isn't really giving it much, like aside from the expressions, some of the movements, and a few things here and there you can have this series in live action instead and it would not be any different.

The characters don't improve or change even slightly from their basic one-note roles/stereotypes in the pilot, similarly the misadventures and situations they go on or find themselves in aren't that interesting or different compared to those from any other series in the genre, and the humor is...the same as those from any other series of this kind, not to say that it's all bad but it's definitely got a lot more misses than it does hits as the later episodes go on, hell even the mature jokes have all aged in varying conditions (both generally and based on the controversy). Speaking of which, that's kind of the overall problem I have with C Students: It clearly looks and feels like a comedic slice of life high school series, but it also tries to be serious and act like it has something important to tell, and it's obvious that it doesn't mix together or handled well. Like for example there's the music video "Creative Types" which is great to watch and listen on it's own, but when put alongside the actual episodes it feels out of place and doesn't feel like it's from the same series at all, which it is even if it's not canon to the main series' timeline. So TLDR: It peaked at the pilot and it slowly and sadly went downhill

However the thing that upsets me more than anything else about this series is...It could be good! It could've been better! I wish it could've been better! I wish it could've entertained us with something different or interesting to it's concept or genre in the same way as The Looney Tunes Show does to suburban sitcom, I wish it could've mixed/handled/balanced the more serious and mature stuff better like Smiling Friends, I wish it could've had some nice charm and laughs to it at least.

Which is why I'm planning on making my own take/version of C Students! Yes I know it's another one to add to my pile of "stuff I've planned out but never actually making", but that's the thing with me unfortunately: I'm good at planning or making ideas and not so much on actually making them come to life, I'm just one person and the idea of making a long running thing on your own without any help whatsoever is terrifying, I'm the one with the blueprints and I need other people to actually construct the thing. But anyways yeah, that was my personal thoughts on C Students (If you don't like or disagree with it then feel free to do so as it is MY opinion and you shouldn't feel obliged to agree with it) I'm PROBABLY gonna make my own take on this series sometime soon, hopefully we'll see how that turns out

EDIT: So I found out that the seasons I watched was a fan-continuation of the series not by the OG creator, but all my points still stand as it would've been more or less the same as canon (according to the creator and people in the comments)

[youredreamingofroo]

Long winded rant of me talking about NSB, doing a new series, storytelling and whatever else I talked about under the cut, feel free to read it's just me rambling, I don't really care if ppl read it or not it's VERY long 😭

I've been painfully itching to start a new series, I know I'm doing NSB rn, and I do plan to at least finish the normal NSB legacy (up to Gen 9), although I might finish or take a break at around Gen 5 or 6, just because I don't wanna lose motivation and also because it takes A LOT to make some of these posts (for example, the last NSB post... took a lot out of me), and I'm only on Gen 2, almost Gen 3 rn, and I was originally planning to do all 30 or 40 Gens in the updated ver of NSB, which def doesn't seem like it'll be happening right now, because at the current rate at which I post, and how fast things in my game move, Sims 6 will be out before I even finish Gen 30 😭😭

Anyways, I don't know what the series would be about, if I were to do a new series, it would definitely be a lot more story based, if not completely story based, I don't know if I'd do/include gameplay, but I really wanna dive into more storytelling and setting up scenes, I'm not a film or theatre kid by any means, and I really don't know much about writing and setting up scenes and stuff, to be honest, i don't even know how I storytell, I guess it's just regurgitated content molded to shape the statue of my story if that makes sense lmao, I guess it's also the art of using so many fucking metaphors and similes that doing something like comparing love to drowning in a cold ocean comes sorta easy to me? I'm not grammatically inclined and don't know a lot about punctuation, my teachers all kinda gave up on me in English class, so all of my writing is basically self taught, which I guess is the case for a lot of things I do- I feel like starting a new series would help me learn how to write better, even though it seems like a lot of ppl love my writing, I still feel like I could improve so much and do so much better. I already have a couple ideas in mind for a new series, I don't think I'll say much rn just in case I decide to make them a series, but as for right now, I've got plans for Gen 3 NSB (aka Calico), and if I were to start a new series, I would not stop playing NSB, but due to how I function and shit, I would have to put NSB on hiatus, I kind of have a hard time doing two stories at once, hence why Sharkie's story got put on hiatus, because it was too stressful for me to double up, especially with how often I post (at least 3 or 4 times a week), I would like to go back and play Sharkies story and share her story up to this point where I last played her, her story is a lot more gameplay centered (for example, I am more inclined to make a blender scene for NSB, then Sharkie, for Sharkie, I'd do stuff like go to the bar and see how it plays out and take screenshots and just edit those) which I like more, but that's not to say I don't enjoy NSB, because I equally LOVE storytelling as I do gameplay.

While writing this, I did think of something I could do, which would be posting NSB every other week (so one week I do Sharkie or some other series and then the next week I do NSB, then a diff series, so on so forth), the only problem is that usually when I get an idea, and I finish that idea, I like to post it asap, I'm not good at scheduling posts lmao, but it might be worth it if people want to see another series (that is if anyone is still reading up to this point lol), I'd like to channel my storytelling into a more story based save/story, but idk! I'm just kinda doing my thing rn and I'm at a point where i wanna do something different. I especially wanna start doing more in blender, it just takes fucking forever to do some of the stuff I wanna do, and some of it means learning new stuff which is thrice as hard and takes thrice as long compared to normal posing and stuff 😭

[ninetqs]

https://www.tumblr.com/ninetqs/765529669699272704/my-thoughts-shitter-weekend-from-charles-his?source=share

about your 1 point: I'm so afraid of him not recovering in brazil. god I trust him, but I really can't deal with carlos doing better, I'm a brat just like charles. Especially now that ferrari is good and winning is a real possibility on races. It's essential he gets it back asap.

about your 2 point: why do you think they did this? Was it because of carlos complainin, were they afraid of a fight so they manufactured a gap or was it really just to save engine.

under cut bcs it got longer than i expected

brazil isn't shaping up to be an amazing race for ferrari anyway tbh... cold temps and rain... not exactly the sf-24's favourite things. granted the current spec is very different from the early european races so we don't know with confidence how it'll perform but i'm not expecting ferrari to fight for the win as firmly as they have in these two races. if they DO turn out to be strong it'll fill me with much optimism for next year since it means one of the fundamental issues of the sf-24 has been patched to a functioning level and hopefully can be improved upon even more

the reason i have faith in charles is historically he's been good about reviewing races to see where he went wrong and how he can improve. clearly he was doing something wrong this weekend either in his setup or how he was driving and i trust he will look it over and determine what can be improved. albeit like he said himself low grip tracks aren't his strong point and this isn't something that'll be fixed in one week

brazil being a sprint might make things overly chaotic but it at least means every driver will have setup struggles and not just charles. one negative about charles is he takes longer to find a comfortable setup and the sf-24 already has quite a narrow window so having only one effective fp session this weekend hurt. judging by fred's comments it seems like the fp2 tire test (plus red flag) wasn't helpful for them, which is unfortunate because i'd really been hoping the extra thirty minutes would result in there being little net loss in configuration

all that being said. i understand it's tough to see our blorbo flop compared to expectations but it isn't luck that charles is p3 in the wdc (despite the myriad of issues this year) or that he's beating carlos in their h2h (despite carlos getting like a 4 race lead on it at the start of the year). he's been driving very well for most of this season and if he mentally survived the spain to monaco, silverstone to hungary stretches of 2022, and the triple headers both this year and last year, he can surely survive getting p3 in one race lol

re: second point, i think it was like 30% creating a gap to carlos and 70% for the car. initially i think they wanted him to slow for the gap but the extended lico was not because of carlos

i know ppl are alarmed because it didn't seem like carlos was suffering from it as much (which is true) but the cars evidently had different setups and they weren't driving in the same way. whatever charles was doing overheated the car (brakes, possibly pu) quicker -> i don't want to say if this was him or the setup "causing" it, but either way charles has had to lico like a crazy person the past few races, regardless of where carlos is, so it's not as if the increased lifting is unusual

it's worth noting a lot of drivers had to sacrifice pace to lico, not just charles. also for more of the race carlos was in free air while charles was chewing through fumes (from both carlos and then from backmarkers) and i doubt this helped comparatively

i never like to say things definitively bcs this sport is so unpredictable, especially this year, but i am not worried about charles. i think it's important to remember that while you're only as good as your last race and right now the wound is still fresh, charles' abilities are based on hundreds of races. this isn't erased because of a few mediocre ones. he wouldn't have gotten to this point without taking these losses as experiences to learn from

[sweetestdumpling]

Extend your arm forward, control your breathing, pull back, contain your emotions.

It was simple instructions, ones she used to only think about in the moment, but forget the second her attention was grabbed by something else.

Even with the growing noise around her, she never stopped her movements, keeping her focus and breathing even. That is, until she felt a light tap of a finger on her thigh.

"Excuse me, Jiějiě..." It was the voice of a young girl. Almost immediately, Xiaoyu opened her eyes and got into a standing position before looking down at her with a smile.

"Yes?"

The girl looked nervous, but there was no need for her to be. Xiaoyu gave her time to gather her thoughts, which didn't take very long, before she held her hands out towards her with a shy smile.

"I made you some bracelets! It's a present...as a thank you for everything you've done, a-and helping me."

"For me? Ah, Xièxiè! You're so sweet!" Xiaoyu gently took one of the bracelets, holding it up to the sun. It was stitched together with orange yarn, and what seemed to be glitter sparkling in the sunlight.

"I know it's not...exactly the best and it...might be a little tight since I didn't know your size but I wanted to share something with you..."

The girl shyly looked down, perhaps embarrassed by her stitching, but Xiaoyu easily placed it on her wrist.

"Fits like a glove!"

The girl seemed to beam at that, Xiaoyu quickly grabbing the other one and holding it out for her to place her hand through. Once the girl realized this, she eagerly placed her hand through.

"Hehe, see? We match!"

The girl laughed, something Xiaoyu hasn't heard in a while. It felt good to see her happy again.

"If...If I make you anything else, will you wear it?"

"Of course! I want to see how much your embroidery improves. Before long, you'll be teaching me something!"

"Me? Teaching you?" The girl sounded in disbelief.

"Yep! I was never good with my hands, at least with silk and a needle. It wasn't until Yéyé stepped in did I know what to do with them."

At the mention of him, the girl's mood seemed to dampen. It wasn't her intention but Xiaoyu couldn't blame her for it either. Jinrei knew how to make a name for himself, ever since he was young. Not having his spunk around anymore left an obvious hole, one that Xiaoyu didn't realize she missed until it was already too late.

"I miss him." The young girl's voice interrupted Xiaoyu's thoughts. She gave her a smile, and a gentle pat on the head.

"I do too. But it'll be okay, next time we meet up, I'll teach you a few things about stances while you keep teaching and showing me your sewing skills. Deal?"

"Deal!"

Xiaoyu held her pinky out, the young girl using her own pinky to complete the deal. After a few more exchanges, Xiaoyu waved the girl goodbye, watching her disappear in the distance before sighing.

She sat down on the grass, listening to everything around her this time. The wind, the laughter, the talking, the birds, the whistling.

She was spunky when she was young, childish too, maybe she got it from him. Xiaoyu didn't know anything about his life when he was younger, but she knew he got his wisdom from somewhere. She only learned about his connections to the Mishima family once she was older.

Maybe she would have turned out to be more traditional if he wasn't around, maybe she would have eventually gotten better with her sewing skills like her parents initially wanted.

Xiaoyu was loud, rambunctious, maybe even a troublemaker compared to her more relaxed parents. They didn't know what to do with her, so eventually, he would suggest her to put all that energy into fighting.

It was thanks to him that they changed their minds.

"I'm still learning, Yéyé. I've gotten better but...I still have a lot to learn. I won't let you down, I promise."

Her phone soon began to vibrate, the young girl glancing down to see a message from her father. She quickly took hold of it, seeing the time, and immediately letting out a yell.

"Ah, I'm late! They're gonna kill me!"

Metaphorically of course. Xiaoyu quickly gathered up her things, haphazardly placing her jacket into the bag as she stood to her feet, running off and away from the park. Eyes watched her curiously but she paid them no mind as she answered her phone.

"Yes, Bàba? No, I didn't oversleep, it's still..." She checked her watch. "...well, not morning anymore but it's not late! It's only after 12! I'm on my way right now! I'll pick up some jianbing on the way! Tell Māmā not to start without me!"

Maybe there were still quite a few things she needed to get better with.

[cutiedwaekki]

Kind of magic

Or were Felix is a kind but inexperienced fairy who though that with a little help of magic he could easily make his cookies softer and rounder ... not making people who ate them soft and rounder

A/n : basically an old idea i got and posted on my previous blog but I never went to the end of this idea so I might as well do it now. Kind of short also but as i said i'm in a middle of a blank page syndrome

Btw if you guus didn't know yet but you can come and check my wattpad account if somes prefer to read more on this other platform than here or ao3 i want to do my maximum to make my fic more accessible for anyone :D

Warning : this fic contains magical/fast weight gain , feederism , fairy au , ot8

Enjoy ♡

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆

For as long as he could remember, Felix had been a bad fairy. He'd failed all his potions classes, blown up a tree and not to mention his best friend Jisung, who'd had blue hair for a year because of him. Admittedly, the quokka had reassured him that he liked the color, but that just showed a little more how inexperienced the young fairy was.

After all, having wings, flying and talking to animals was enough for him!

Still, he tried as hard as he could to improve his skills, especially when compared to his friends who, although some of them were wizards, had a better grasp of magic than he did.

So, to celebrate the arrival of summer, they were going to meet up by the big oak later on for a picnic. Minho would bring the food, Jisung and Changbin the drinks. Hyunjin and Seungmin would provide the entertainment, Jeongin would bring the plates and cutlery, and Chan would set the scene. Felix was in charge of dessert, since he was so good at it and his friends often asked for his pastries.

So on this occasion he thought a little magic formula would help him make his cookies more perfect than they already were. Make the shape round, the texture melt-in-your-mouth and crisp. Nothing could be simpler! All he had to do was formulate his spell and apply it to his dough.

It took a few tries before he had the perfect batch. Big, golden, thick and with a smell so sweet and addicting that Felix couldn't resist tasting one. Then a second, a third and a fourth. In the end, of the twenty or so cookies he'd prepared, only four remained.

-"Oh no, what have I just done? Ah, if I just multiply them, it'll be easier," declared the fairy, casting another spell that multiplied the cookies, leaving him with around thirty of them before raising them and sending them off to the pixnic site, at least one spell he knew how to master!

"-It's hot in here... my apron is so tight on me" he added, before undoing his apron and putting it away as he flew heavily to his room to change. It was strange, he felt... weird, like he was heavy, but it must have been after eating so many cookies! The fairy had a very small appetite, so such gluttony must surely have weighed him down!

"It's definitely not that" he thought as he saw the reflection of her silhouette. My God, he was chubby! His cheeks had become as round and plump as Jisung's! How could he not notice his belly pushing against his shirt? His pants trying to survive between his protruding love handles, wide hips and thighs pushing against the fabric. How did this happen? Just this morning he'd been this slim little fairy, and now he was just a chubby fairy who certainly looked adorable, but that wasn't the point!

Suddenly he realized something crucial... he'd just sent those same cookies to the picnic site... and knowing Changbin and Jisung they were going to taste a few before everyone got there. He had to stop them!

But after changing into more comfortable clothes! They made Felix feel as if he was going to explode at any moment!

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆

Meanwhile, by the big oak tree, the fairies and wizards were arriving one by one. As it happened, they were all ahead of schedule, with only Jeongin and Felix missing.

-"Oh, Felix sent us something! I bet it's his brownies!" Changbin exclaimed, pointing to the basket as it moved towards them.

-"no, silly, it's cookies, he told us! Seungmin replied, nudging the fairy.

-"I haven't eaten anything for beign able to eat all day right now" added Jisung who opened the basket and took one of the cookies to taste before being stopped by Minho.

-"It's rude to eat when not everyone's here, Hannie".

- "It's just a detail, I'd rather be rude than hungry" he said before putting the cookie in his mouth, gemissakt almost to the taste that surprised everyone.

Jisung immediately grabbed another, then a third, seemingly unable to stop. So Changbin followed him, also curious and hungry. An so he also ended up with the same behaviour as the wizard. The others, out of curiosity, decided to do the same. After all, Felix's cookies were reputed to be delicious and addictive, but this much?

Oh yes, they were fucking addictive!

So much so that the six of them had devoured almost everything, leaving a few for Jeongin and Felix, but the rest had ended up in each of their stomachs.

-"Guys, that's not nice, we ate it all before them. Jeongin's going to sulk now" added Chan, amused though he was by the situation, he felt almost like a father looking after his children.

- "Don't say that, it's not like- FELIX?!" Hyunjin cut himself off when he saw a silhouette approaching from the distance, and although he didn't pay much attention at first, he soon noticed two important details:

1: it was Felix

2: he'd become very chubby since the last time he saw him

Everyone was shocked to see the blond man like that, looking as if he could barely fly as his wings struggled with the extra weight.

-"What happened to you, Lixies?" They all cried out, even though they were used to it, and given the many experiences he'd had or tested in the past.

- "Hm ... long story but guys please tell me you didn't eat any of the cookies"

- "Quite the opposite, there are only two left" added Seungmin, pointing to the now empty basket.

Felix sighed heavily as he sat down next to his friends, "Oh no, no, this can't be happening!

-"Calm down mate, is there a problem?" tried to reassure Chan by rubbing his counterpart's back, but it didn't seem to reassure him.

- "Well ... I wanted to use a little magic in my cookies to make them softer and rounder but-"

-"Guys, what's going on?!" Jisung exclaimed as he noticed his fingers rounding before pressing them against his face, which was becoming just as round.

-:Damn, man, you're getting fat!" swore Changbin in astonishment before Jisung retorted, "You too, man!" Before the brunette saw his belly push against his top until it popped out of his shirt and was exposed for all to see.

-"Wow, what the hell?" Minho exclaimed, trying to stand up and analyze the situation. Except that he, too, experienced this inflation and fell back to the ground at the same time on his newly bulging ass, raising him a bkt higher.

And so it happened with each of them. The weight differed according to the quantity of cookie eaten. The most gluttonous ones, like Changbin and Jisung, ended up really huge, to the point where even their jean and shirt buttons couldn't take it anymore. Not to mention their bellies, which leaked out of their jeans and rested heavily on their thighs.

The "lucky ones" were Hyunjin and Chan, who had eaten the least, ending up with a slight gain. Chan had lost his musculature for a thin layer of fat, while the fairy was simply curvy with thick hips and a bulging belly.

And Minho and Seungmin were just right, almost as big as Felix or even a little smaller, with Minho's thick, broad thighs and the puppy a plump torso.

They all turned to Felix in shock.

-"-Except I must not have made it clear enough in my spell that just the cookies had to be", he added shyly as they all sighed. But they knew the blond didn't mean any harm, and besides, it wasn't an unpleasant experience that all even enjoyed.

- "Hey, look, it almost looks like a face" joked Hyunjin, pointing to the quokka's belly, which, with its various superimposed rolls, could give the illusion of a face.

In the end, the picnic ended up comparing their bodies as they nibbled on the other snacks brought along and the chicken Minho had made for the occasion.

-"I could almost get used to it", Seungmin declared, rubbing his belly once he considered it plzins enough.

- "The same, it's so soft, but I don't think I can fly anymore at this stage" added Changbin, who tried, but without success, being able to lift himself a few centimetres ... a sensation both humiliating and exciting.

-"You're almost going to make me believe I did the right thing by using this spell", Felix laughed, although for once nobody contradicted him.

Perhaps this weight had awakened a hidden attraction in them. Why was it so attractive when they rubbed their bellies? Seungmin was right, they could get used to it.

Everything seemed perfect, they were having fun, singing, chatting, teasing each other, rubbing their bellies. In short, perfectly normal things!

-"Sorry guys, I had a last-minute problem to solve, but I promised I'd bring what I need and... ... Oh shit, you're all fat!" Here was the last one to panic at the call. Poor Jeongin was almost panicking at the sight, not knowing what to do or say.

But they knew what to do...

-"We'll explain everything Innie ... come and settle in , Felix made some cookies we left some for you"

[yzafre]

Trying to wrap my head around my thoughts re: 2012 and Rise, and how they hit my brain, and it’s like...

The things I think these two series are missing/needed to improve on are what the other series did really well?  Like, each show would be enhanced by borrowing from the other (an impossibility in one direction due to the linear nature of time, but you get me).

And now I'm going to post about it to hopefully trick my brain into thinking I talked to someone about it so that maybe it'll let me think about anything else.

Uhhh putting a read more because this is mostly just a brain-dump ramble to free my mind from the topic-loop and it got.  Long.

Okay, exposing my biases ahead of time: while I very much enjoyed both series, I will admit that Rise appeals more to my personal taste.  I do also like 2012!  I liked it a lot, it’s just that, you know, I’m easily drawn in by cool 2d animation and anime bullshit, and also Rise’s humor matches mine better, which means it's the one I’m more likely to re-watch.  However, that doesn't mean I think Rise is perfect.

Also, for the sake of this rant, we’re going to be ignoring the circumstances surrounding production.  Yes, yes, we all know the executives specifically asked for Rise to have a much lighter tone, and that it got cut really short, and that affected how things panned out – but I don’t know enough about 12’s production to compare them fairly on that front.  So.

MOVING ON FROM THAT.

Let’s start with ROTTMNT.  I love Rise, love a good shenanigan, but... can you really deny that it would have been nice to have a more even split between pure shenanigans and more serious episodes?  Even just getting closer to 50/50?

Don’t get me wrong, the shenanigans absolutely have their place and actually contribute to what I like about Rise’s writing (which I will talk about in the 12 section), but the overwhelming amount of them really messes with the pace of the show overall, and with the escalation of tension.

Obviously, you can’t have every episode have the spectacle of an episode like, say Many Unhappy Returns, I'm pretty sure animating that shit's expensive, and early on it’s not like they really know what they’re slowly being dragged into, but... post Shadow of Evil, you’d kind of like them to acknowledge the stakes more, right?  And even before the turtles themselves know, you’d like the slow build that only the audience is getting to be a bit more consistent, right?

You’d like the weaving together of the plot and character arcs episode-to-episode to just be a bit more well-thought out... wouldn’t you?

And that is what TMNT 12 is good at.

I personally think 12 peaked in season 2 (I was so engaged with that season, the buildup was phenomenal), but throughout the entire series it is obvious just how much effort they are putting into developing these interweaving plots, and it pays off.  Every episode is a self-contained story, true, but even from season 1 you can see how even the most one-off episode is putting at least one thing into the Rube Goldberg machine that’s going to go off at the end of the season.  It honestly impressed me how they balanced “you can watch any episode on its own because tv has re-runs" and “every episode leads into the next until everything blows up”.

The end of season 2, when the tension they've been ratcheting up inch by inch nearly every episode finally releases, and all the dominoes start falling and danger is coming from every direction? Mwah. Stellar. Like, devastating cliff-hanger of an ending, but also the satisfaction of seeing it all fall apart? It's gripping.

Also, they acknowledge the stakes.  12 is obviously going for a much more serious tone, and covers some heavier topics like revenge, obsession, healing, ect (in a kind of surface level way for young kids, yes, but this is a nickelodeon toy-selling series.  Genre and intended audience matters).  I may not always agree with the answers they come to, but they are trying!  As opposed to Rise where the enemies feel... kind of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, in 12 the Shredder, and occasionally the Kraang, are a constant threat that they are always aware of.

While the setup is different (12!Shredder wants them dead specifically, whereas the Rise boys don’t really know what the Shredder will want other than mass destruction when the armor is complete), you kind of feel like the danger could have maybe been a little more acknowledged in Rise.

And like... the move into season 2 had them getting the Shredder armor "contained", which they used to go so far backwards on stakes which is... I mean, there were other choices they could have made.

You can argue that many shows reset the stakes when you beat the season boss at the end, but... Rise specifically went straight back to "straight shenanigans with little awareness of the outside world", repeating the "occasionally things are happening to build up to the end outside the turtle's awareness" and it's. It's a pacing and escalation, issue, again. And yes, we got some of my favorite episodes out of season 2! Season 2 had some good episodes! But also... I would have liked the stakes to progress just a bit?

When you finally had such a huge shift in the plot, and then suddenly you go ALL the way back down the where you started in stakes and tone it can be a bit... jarring. It's a pacing and escalation issue, again.

Also, if we’re going a bit more abstract, Rise could have had more serious episodes relating to their main theme/focus.

2012 was obviously focusing on their plot, and specifically the history between Splinter and Shredder, and the concepts of revenge and obsession.  And it came up a lot!  It was threaded through the majority of the episodes.  I might not always personally agree with the conclusions they came to, but I can’t deny they treated it with gravitas.

Rise seemed to be focusing on family bonds and family baggage.  And it's woven into a lot of the silliness. And there are also some episodes that address it seriously!  And they’re GOOD!  But, uh – there could definitely have been more.  Especially for the Splinter-children relationships.

They went with a very risky play for Splinter and his arc, and while I personally liked the shape of it, I can understand the people who take a very negative interpretation of this Splinter because there were not enough episodes dealing with reconciling his relationship with his kids.  They made a point to show that things were strained, made the theme family bonding, and then... didn’t put in enough episodes to finish off their main theme.

Don’t get me wrong, what Rise does have for their characters is very, very good.  Again, I’ll be talking about it in the 2012 section.  It’s just... the pacing of it all.

So, what I think Rise needed is what 2012 excelled at – pacing and interweaving of the plot, proper escalation of stakes, and time spent highlighting their main theme in more serious episodes.

Now, the other half of the equation: 2012.

I mentioned earlier that 2012 was going for a more serious tone, and that it was focused on the plot.  And they did it well!  It paid off!  I just maybe, personally, think that came at the cost of the character writing.

It’s not that it’s bad.  They’ve got a strong sense of character voice for their main cast.  It’s just that when you go anywhere beyond that it’s really... average for a kid's cartoon, and when compared to the obvious effort they went to when weaving together the plot it sticks out.  Of course, authors are allowed to lean into plot-based narrative over character-based, and this might just be personal taste again, but...

I’m going to put in a reminder that everything in this rant is based on how the writing hit my brain specifically.  Different people will experience the same story differently, yes?  Yes.

That being said, the character writing for 2012 hit me weird.  There were “character episodes” in between the plot ones, yes, but they didn’t feel... connected?  If the pacing of the plot in Rise felt weird and disjointed, the character arcs, if I could find them in 12, felt the same way.  It’s like they would drop in a really interesting nugget for a character into a single episode, and I’d be excited to see where it went – and then it would either be shoved way in the background from there on out, or dropped completely.  It often left me feeling like I’d missed a step going down the stairs, when I expected them to start working on a character arc and they just went back to the status quo.  That’s not uncommon for a kids show, but... they put so much more effort into the intricacies of the plot!

What ended up feeling missing was a development of the characters from an internal perspective.  That is, hm.

I mentioned earlier that there were narrative benefits to the shenanigan structure of Rise.  The first half of this is because it lives and dies by its characters.  They can’t depend on an engaging plot to capture your interest long-term, because the plot is only in select episodes, so by god you better be attached to these characters.  While part of the humor is, yes, the situations they get into, the other part is the character dynamics – both the friction between them, but also the positive synergy between them.  That’s not to say 2012 doesn’t have character interactions – they've got their banter – it's just that it doesn’t have to carry the episode the way it does in Rise.

The other half of the narrative benefits is that more episodes can be motivated by the character’s internal desires, rather than external forces.  Stepping outside of TMNT to reference everyone’s favorite cartoon, Avatar, for every, say, Avatar Roku, you’ve gotta have a The Waterbending Scroll.

2012 is largely driven by its plot – which is a good plot!  But what felt like, eh, 90% of the time?  Everything that’s happening is motivated by what the antagonists are doing – the Kraang/Purple Dragons/Foot are doing this bad thing, or coming after us, and we have to stop them, because we’re the good guys/they’ll kill us if we don’t.  Not bad, objectively, it certainly raises stakes!  But also, it doesn’t really let us in on, like, the character’s internal world or what they want.

With Rise’s shenanigans...

Origami Tsunami happens because the boys got a taste of fighting and want to chase that high.  Shell in a Cell happens because Raph loves wrestling, his brothers seem to like it well enough or otherwise want to hang out/humor him, and Leo is feeding his ego/fighting his insecurities.  Repo Mantis is because Donnie and Mikey were hanging out while Donnie collected resources(?), saw something they wanted, and went balls to the walls to acquire it.  The Purple Jacket happens because Donnie wanted to experience toxic academia and fashion.  I could go on.

My point is Rise leaves more space for the episodes to be internally motivated, and that ends up telling us a lot about their characters!  What did they want?  How did they specifically go about trying to get it?  Did they involve others?  Who did they involve?  It adds depth to them, even in the silly goofy show!

There is also one specific writing trick Rise uses which I wish could go back in time and be implemented into 2012, and that is: “line played for laughs in one episode” > “oh wait they were serious”.

I’m talking the “my first positive reinforcement from a parent-aged adult. EVER.” to Turtle-dega Nights pipeline.  Minotaur Maze to Many Unhappy Returns for Leo.  Arguably Pizza Puffs to the series finale for Raph, if you follow me.  Reparin’ the Baron to Hidden City’s Most Wanted.

Even in the jokes, the throw-away lines, Rise is exposing what makes the characters tick.  And then when it hits, it hits.  This is why, while the Rise arcs are kind of incomplete, the writing still feels more consistent to me and I find it easier to see the intended arc they were going for.

And I so so so wish 2012 had that kind of thing, or ANY more focus put on character development, because, not to harp on this again, but they’ll drop in this one really interesting line or action from a character in a single episode focusing on them, then never mention it again or develop on the concept, and it kind of makes me feral because, like -

I want to gather up all these weird little scraps they give about these characters and pin them up conspiracy-board style and go: why didn’t we get a plot line about this?  Or this?  Did you notice how a lot of the time Raph is pushing for more action against their enemies, he brings up that they’re out there hurting more people?  And that could indicate a unique empathy for the victims, which would have been an interesting expansion on the vengeance theme of the showing, looking at justice v vengeance when ti comes to people without the ability to fight back?  Leo has a lot of tension between wanting to be a good leader and wanting the freedom to make impulsive choices and chase what he wants, which is interesting when you also look at moments we see with his two role models the sci-fi hero (who is kind of an asshole) and Splinter (who, while wise, has baggage that sometimes affects his decisions), and it feels like somewhere between all that there could have been an expanded storyline that actually resolved that tension between responsibility and personal desire that would have lead to his own version of leadership?  What about getting a focus on the few lines Donnie gives about his insecurities/stress re: his scientific abilities/role, rather than dragging him into his extremely bland romantic b-plot?  Can we address the weird way Mikey did chemistry magic two or three times but it’s never brought up outside that, or that one line by the anger-persona in his mind explicitly saying he tries to repress his anger because he doesn’t like the way it feels, or, or -

Why do they keep dropping these really interesting inciting incidents for character arcs and then not going anywhere with them I am losing my mind I am shaking the writers why do you keep teasing me like this -

Ahem.

Additionally... well, I mentioned above that Rise has a main theme of family bonds, where... 2012 kind of struggled to convince me of any relationship. Or, no, that sounds harsher than what I really mean.

I also want to clarify that I am not saying I think they dislike or don't care about each other, or any of the extremely negative takes I’ve seen thrown at the 12 characters dynamics.  That’s not it at all.  It’s just that they all felt... very surface level?  Sometimes it felt like the show wanted you to just accept that the characters were close without putting in the work to really show it.  And definitely not to explore it in depth.  (And I know, I know, I know!  It’s a Nick kids show!  But!  They put so much effort into the plot!)

Again, I think this is affected by the lower usage of internal motivation for episodes.  Characters doing things because they want them, then seeing how those different desires interact, gives you a better view of their relationships than just seeing a team work together because they have a common enemy.

Again, it’s not that 2012 never does this.  We see glimpses of them playing around – competing to do flips when running the city, watching their tv shows, playing pinball (was it pinball? Or an arcade game?).  It’s just that the emphasis on the plot (not an objectively bad thing!) leaves less room for episodes based on them just... doing things together, because they want to.  And less room for engaging in personalized interests together, rather than separately, and seeing how that plays out.

I think I’m devolving into senseless rambling at this point, so to sum up:

2012’s emphasis on plot – which it generally excels at! – leaves less room for exploring stories based on internal motivations, which I find necessary for consistent character arcs or relationship development and are the elements Rise kind of lives on when its plot is running thin.

Hopefully none of this is taken as an attack on/dislike for either iteration.  I like them both!  It’s just they both drive me a little bit crazy with what could have been!

Of course, this is all down to personal taste and interpretation.  I am fairly aware of my biases, I think.  I am very much attracted to character-driven narratives, and even in plot-based ones I have a tendency to care more about the character implications than the plot itself.  There’s a reason Days (the oops all character writing game) is my favorite Kingdom Hearts story!

(I do, also, really, really like anime bullshit, so do with that what you will.)

I am also aware that I binge-watched this series as an adult years after it ended, and that combination of factors may affect my reception.  (Admittedly I did that for both series, but).  Your experience might be very, very different, but I’m trying to understand the way these two shows are hitting my brain.

Thinking it over also gives me a hypothesis (which other people have probably already figured out) of why certain people are drawn to one series of the other: 2012 probably appeals more to people who are engaged by continuous, interconnected plots and careful pacing in a story, while Rise probably appeals to people who are more engaged by pure character pieces (and anime bullshit).

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

You are given free tickets (including plane/train/bus/whatever tickets as needed) to go see one comedian anywhere in the world. It's the only live show you can see for the rest of the year. Who do you go see?

Yesterday I finished listening to the audiobook of The Holy Vible, written by John Robins and Elis James, and the final chapter was Z for Zappa, where John Robins talked for a while about how much he loves Frank Zappa for a while. At the end of the chapter, Elis James jumped in and they had this exchange:

Elis: He was hugely prolific and varied, so I would like to pin John down to the three Zappa albums he would take with him to a desert island. John: Oh, all right, then. Roxy & Elsewhere, Waka/Jawaka, Bongo Fury, Zoot Allures, Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Läther. Elis: That's six. John: It'll be ten if you're not careful.

That made me laugh because it's exactly how I answer questions like that; I'm a big fan of loopholes and copouts (though I usually make at least a cursory effort to find a loophole to justify my copout, which is why John made me laugh by just not bothering with that), and I do not like being pinned down to anything.

Okay, what are the parametres? Do I have to have to see whatever they're touring right now, or can the magic of this hypothetical have them right a new show, or could I pick something from their back catalogue? Would I get to the pick the genre of the hypothetical new show? Do they have to be performing at all this year in real life, or does the magic of the hypothetical situation solve that too?

Obviously the first thought is Kitson, but I have heard his current show before. It's a very good show, and specifically one where I think it's more fun if you're in the room and physically experiencing it, so that would be great. But also, it's a show I've heard before (a bunch of times, if I'm honest), and it seems a shame to use a literally magic opportunity on one I've already heard. Kitson, if in this instance he's got a new show (or is just doing one of his mostly improv WIP nights, and it's one of the ones where he's really on form).

If we can magically have them write a new show, Alice Fraser comes to mind, but she's specifically said she's not doing one this year. I've seen all her previous hours, and as much as I love her stuff, I can't use this opportunity on an hour that's already been filmed, or is likely to be filmed.

Which brings me to Andy Zaltzman, who has self-promotion skills that never cease to amaze me. He's doing at least one WIP this spring that I haven't heard him mention anywhere. On yesterday's Ask Andy episode for Bugle subscribers, he got asked what football players he'd compare himself to, mentioned someone from Salford, and because that had come up, happened to mention in passing that Salford is not on the list of the places he's going on his stand-up tour in November. This tour is not listed on his website or anywhere else that I could find with a Google. A show that I haven't heard before (and is unlikely to get filmed) is going to exist this year anyway, so I wouldn't need the magic hypothetical to create it. That's a strong candidate. Main drawback is most of the material in it would probably appear on The Bugle - I desperately want to see it but could I use magic for something that could be cobbled together from podcast episodes?

And then I also wonder if I can use this to magically make John Oliver do stand-up again. This wouldn't need to push the boundaries of reality all that far, because he did a stand-up tour last year. If I could make him do more performances of that, but this time not with Seth Myers (Seth Myers is probably fine any everything, I'm just not into him), and in Kitson-sized rooms. I'd use it for that in a heartbeat.

Josie Long is starting a new show, so there's another realistic one. The main copout loophole I like to use is just doing a bunch of honourable mentions/I could do this one, so I can get away with actually giving multiple answers.

Could I make Danielle Ward come back even though she's retired from live performances? Bit of a left-field choice, but it would be a solid use of whatever magic is in the hypothetical situation, getting someone whose stuff I loved (on Do the Right Thing, but also the one stand-up hour she filmed was very good) to come out of retirement. Would feel like I really used that magic well, rather than seeing a show I've already seen.

The answer's Nish Kumar, though. I didn't actually need to write the rest of this post, because the answer's Nish Kumar (I liked the idea of ending this post on an uncaveated statement like that, but sorry, I need to add: unless I could get a new show, even just a new unstructured WIP - or a back catalogue show of my choice - out of Kitson - actually the answer might just be Kitson, I mean I've heard Nish's current show too so having heard it before doesn't disqualify people, my answer is Kitson or Kumar, you've pinned me down to two, I'm not going to one, it'll be ten if you're not careful).

[libras-interactives]

Hello again! Just popping in to share a little more of what I'm working on (also, say hi to all the new people! Hello!!) Thursday is crazy at work so it's the day that no writing gets done .... makes it a good time to post an update, though.

My goals for this Sunday:

Under the Devil's Moon- Rocky's scene being 50~75% complete. Compared to others, he's got a lot of variations depending on if you're platonic/romantic to him, your affection level, if you're a musician.... We know how this cat is, lol.

UtDM - The character creator is totally (finally) done. All I've got left for this is bugfixes. Making it pretty and aesthetic are for later x.x! Always room for improvements.

(If peeps are open to the idea, I'd like to make the character creator available early, just to share my excitement and get some feedback. The tons of customization options has led to Devil's Moon being a pain for my noob ass to edit... sigh. At least it's easy fixes bc they're rookie mistakes! And I love the extra options and goodies. It's just how I prefer to play and write.)

After That:

Once the Rocky scene and the closing scene of Devil's Moon is drafted, then it's just some bugfixing and testing before release! I'm so excited! I hate putting dates on things but it'll certainly be by mid to late June.

Then it's time for The Last Spring. All the content I wanted to add is already written, so it's simply coding that content, then bugfixes and more flavor text that references player customization choices a la Devil's Moon. I don't anticipate I'll have time to add intros to chapter 2 by the end of June, but I'd really love to start drafting them!! Chapter 2 itself is about 50% done, it's just... very out of order, lol. I write my favs first, what can I say? Also im so excited for the Ashara scene, and the introduction of some OCs! I think I did well.

It may seem like a lot but I think it's all doable by the end if June *knocks on wood*

Anyhoo! Thanks for popping in and reading my silly hyperfixation in real time. I love writing interactive fiction and visual novels (that blog is here), moreso than writing typical fanfic posts, so I get a little obsessed, lol. And I cant believe so much interactive fiction is just! Available on tumblr! Ive got lots of ones to check out 👁👁

[sakis-sweets]

UPDATE TIME PEOPLE

The stage play tutorial is here!

The animations (which are by someone called Yomi I believe) ARE SO GOOD! They make Kokona seem so cute and lively! On that note, Kokona's voice actress did an amazing job with these lines! Cameron did really well with the sound design too! Get some sleep dude-

And we have a revamp of the first Amai cutscene! It looks awesome!!!!!!! A little stilted and slow, but still amazing! YandereDev says that the assets in this cutscene gives him almost enough material to build a barebones town with... errrrrr I'm not sure how necessary that is since we have the street, but sure!

We also have new renders for 1980's Mode cutscenes! Over 50 of them!!!!!!!!!! Someone should like rip them from the files and upload them or something lol

And there's a bunch of other fixes and improvements, like new animations and assets! I'm personally excited to see the lines written by the volunteer writer - some of the writing in Yandere Simulator is... novice? I guess? So it'll be interesting to see if this will be an improvement or not. Might be hard to judge by just a few lines though.

I have absolutely no idea what feature he's referring to. The Amai cutscene maybe? Imo he has a very loose definition of "feature" compared to me at least, because I wouldn't consider a new weapon a feature for example, but he does.

But yay! Update! Excited to see YouTubers show off all the cool stuff! I just wanted to talk about the basics as it seems no one else has yet. Yay!

[lucilliantpearl]

Dogs of the Lost Cities (aka Keefe and Mallow—Part 1)

So I've been thinking about the pets in the Lost Cities, or rather, the lack thereof. While there are some pets (Iggy, Princess Purryfins, etc), and we know there's a pet store in Atlantis, compared to the number of people we know, there are relatively few who we know have pets. Now, I have no theories for why this is, at least not at the moment.

But it strikes me as interesting that there are no human animals (that sounds weird but idk what else to call them XD) in the Lost Cities, especially since humans and elves used to live together. Was there really complete division of pets all along? Or did elves have pets like dogs and cats at one point, but didn't continue breeding them after the split? Are animals fooled by illusions so that no human animals wander into the Lost Cities by accident? 'Cause as awesome as all the fantastical animals are, I think it would be cool for the Lost Cities to have "normal" pets too.

So anyway, I'm giving the Keeper crew dogs. I'll start with Keefe 'cause he's my favorite because I think having a doggo would be great for him.

One day, Sophie and Keefe sneak off to the Forbidden Cities just because.

They happen across a animal rescue, and Keefe is super curious about it. When Sophie explains what it is, he insists on going in.

They wander around for a bit, then Sophie says they have to go home now, but Keefe sees a little golden puppy huddled in blankets in the back corner, and is immediately drawn to it.

The person at the counter notices and explains that the puppy was rescued off the side of road a week ago, it's sick and showing no signs of improvement, and they don't think it'll make it. They're now looking for someone willing to give it a comfortable home for however much time it has left.

Keefe is heartbroken by this and wants to take the puppy, but he doesn't have human money for the adoption fee.

He promises to come back within the hour, and the employee agrees to hold the puppy for him. Sophie and Keefe leap home, and then to Dex's house. They barge into Dex's room, grab him, and leap out the window for Sophie to teleport them.

Dex is obviously shocked to find himself suddenly in the Forbidden Cities, and is more than a little irritated with Sophie and Keefe for abducting him, but when they explain why they're there, he sighs and agrees to hack an ATM for them.

Keefe withdraws a huge amount of human money from his birth fund, then they go back to the rescue. Keefe donates the money to the rescue and leaves with the little Golden Retriever.

The three leap to Havenfield, where they are faced with a very angry Grady and Kesler. But neither can stay upset with the kids when they see the tiny puppy, and let them off with a firm warning not to pull a stunt like that again.

Keefe leaps to Splendor Plains and begs Elwin to try and save the puppy. Elwin warns Keefe that he's not a veterinarian and knows nothing about human animals, but takes a look at the puppy and prescribes a series of several elixirs, then recommends that Keefe take it back to Havenfield because Grady and Edaline are so skilled at rehabilitating animals.

After several days of the Ruewens' expert care, the puppy shows huge signs of improvement. A couple weeks later, it is fully recovered and probably the healthiest puppy on earth.

Grady, Edaline, and Elwin clear the puppy (a male) to be taken home, and Keefe is overjoyed. He names the puppy Mallow, because he is as sweat as mallowmelt and Sophie said that his coloring looked like a toasted marshmallow.

[leqclerc]

Charles 😭😭😭 what’s going on ?

This year is really not going well for him.

And Ferrari 😭 when we see McLaren and Williams it’s sadder and sadder.

I live the faith in Fred, the team, Enrico speech about how they know what’s wrong etc. But on days like this one it’s hard 😅 and there’s been many days like this one. It’s worse when Charles messes up like this.

Definitely looking like a season to forget and quickly move on from. Unexceptional, often painful 😭 Performance/results wise it's similar to 2021, only... arguably worse? In terms of going backwards compared to the previous year and staying largely stagnant throughout the season.

The disappointment is compounded by the fact, like you said, that other teams have set a precedent for mid-season improvements. I mean, Aston right out of gate went from like the 7th best team last year to suddenly leapfrogging all the midfield teams and landing podiums alongside the Red Bulls. Now they've gone backwards a bit, but they're still doing better than they were in previous years.

McLaren... I have no idea what they did and how they managed to turn the situation around so quickly, but whatever they're doing, it's working. Not only that, but the car is consistently strong across different tracks, with different characteristics, and different weather conditions, something Ferrari famously can't seem to manage to achieve.

They pack up and go from one race to another not really sure what to expect. The tracks that seemed to suit them on paper turned out to not be so great after all. Zandvoort has been kind of a clusterfuck all throughout the weekend.

The crash was unfortunate but tbh... not that unexpected? Sadly? Between the three drivers that drove the car since Friday (Charles, Carlos, Robert) I think all of them had incidents at least once and complained about the car being unpredictable and 'snapping'. Turn one especially has been tricky, they just can't seem to steer the car into the corner and it ends up going straight instead. Not sure if this factored into Charles's incident exactly, but we also know that the car is very sensitive to wind, and whenever I tuned into the sessions one of the major talking points was... just how windy it is because of the proximity to the sea.

Speaking about the incident afterwards Charles again reiterated that the car's been very difficult all weekend and, while he accepted that it's his mistake, he did say he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary like he did in Miami when he famously went off. So it seems like this race will mostly be about damage limitation and trying to keep the damn thing on the track rather than some kind of heroic charge to the podium 😭

Like you said it's nice to see that Fred is actively working on turning things around, I think they needed the change, especially after last year, with all that broken trust and lack of accountability, so I'd like to think they're heading in the right direction. But unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a quick fix—I mean, Charles has straight up said it'll be very difficult to catch Red Bull before the regulation change so 💀

[kim-ruzek]

I really wish the three shows OC get new showrunners/ writers. They are successful but need some creativity and some new leads to keep going on strongly. OC survived popular & original characters exiting, so there's not a huge risk, but now they are just messes. fire,Taylor sudden leave just exposed how fire have been mostly revolving around Stella and Kelly and pd centric episodes without continuously and always about tormenting the character not once about their skills or how good as cops.

They've been recycling stories killing the parent & adoption or just exploring one thing about the characters,keeping the character one dimension like Will Med every season he goes against orders with good intentions, Sharron fighting for the hospital always winning, Voight PD every he covering up a murder to protect someone or the unit, platt has the same lines for the last 3 seasons, Upton centric episodes are all the same she got tormented, injured, keep going one then save herself.

I mean they all somewhat have. Those issues are less about creative direction and more to do with the formula. Granted, the writing for all could be done so much better, and that is very much an issue so I agree there but they have had new people.

For me it's not even necessarily going against their usual story cycles, they could follow the same beats over and over, as long as there's character development within that, and still be entertaining to watch if the creative mind behind it was right.

I am wondering about the longevity of these shows now. I think med will begin limping on it's last leg. Fire, if Sylvie, Mouch and Kelly all leave, could probably still go on but it'll be a new era of the show (like season 1-12 of svu compared to 13+). PD is a police procedural so that'll take a while to be limping on it's last leg and potentially has the greatest chance to go on longer than the others, especially if fire fumbles losing all three but it'll probably become more like every other cop show.

I mean they all honestly need somewhat soft reboots, especially pd and med. Fire is the outlier because it depends on the actor's future with the show. And that doesn't necessarily mean they need new blood, just to refocus a bit. Which I've been begging them to do for ages now but they never will, especially with all the budget cuts.

Whatever the longevity of the shows though I am seriously considering my future watching. PD I'll be sticking with because even though I still have critisms, I have had a renewed love for it with Sigan at the helm and I'm hoping that the writing is just going to keep getting better and better instead of stagnating at the already done improvements.

Med I'm not interested in watching again now all the characters I adored are gone. Will was the reason for my remained tertiary interest in it but now he's gone there is no reason for me to even have that vague interest.

Fire it greatly depends on the actors. If all three leave, I can't imagine myself watching again, at least not for a few seasons. It might get to a point like with SVU or even Grey's anatomy where I'm bored and need something to watch/miss my comfort show (svu) and tune back in, but that does depend if they manage to bring a new vibe to the show in the absence of their old regulars. Honestly, even if just Kelly and Sylvie exit I might not watch again. If it's just Kelly I'll probably watch like I did this season, just a few episodes here and there that look promising Sylvie/Violet wise if anything.

I have so many ways these shows could improve themselves, especially PD and it is frustrating that it's so obvious and so needed but that the showrunners/writers/producers/network is stifling so much of the show's potential. And as much as I have hope for the future seasons of PD because of season ten has shown an uptake in quality, I know in my heart that it will never fix itself in the way it can and should.

Thank you for asking! I'm not sure if I answered this in the way you was meaning but I hope you got something out of it! 💖

[txxxciii]

late night thoughts babeyyyyy

anyways I find it interesting to compare the main trio from the webseries and from the tv-series. not because of their puppet designs and how they improved (although I'm so glad they got rid of the old yellow guy puppet. bro really had that double chin), but because of how different they are, behavior-wise.

I am an old fan, and by the time the very first episode came out I was a kid who clearly didn't need to have an internet access because of stuff like this, but hey, it is what it is. so dhmis deeply traumatized me, yes, but I still found myself in a small (by that time) fan-base who obsessed over the teacher characters, more specifically sketchbook, tony and colin (sometimes there were other teachers as well though... except steak guy. he still is the most overlooked teacher out of the main bunch 😭).

me though? I did not care for the teachers much, mostly because they are episodic. I was invested in the main trio, more specifically, duck. I don't know why, but this guy was my absolute favorite by that time, so much so I would sometimes mimick his voice whenever I was alone. looking back now, I think I didn't had that much of a reason to fan over him. my aviphilic ass probably just saw an anthropomorphic bird and went "aUOGH.. love him."

but it's kind of funny when you look at duck from both series. he went from "smarty pants, but overall a nice guy" to "legitimately feral peepaw". although I am a "webseries and tv-series are two separate story interpretations" believer, I think it's funny if you think of it as if duck had a corruption arc going on which led him to behave the way he does in the tv-series. and it'll be believable! I can totally see that happening.

I've seen a lot of old fans talking about how different the fandom was back then, and some said that the fanart interpretation of the main guys didn't quite change, to which I have to disagree. the old duck was mostly drawn as "the voice of reason", who would scold the over two, but not in an Old Man style of way. alongside him there was red guy, who, in the old fanarts, didn't show that much personality outside of the "cool/reserved/stoic guy" trope. and I can totally see why. out of the three, I personally think he was like. the one with the least personality up until episode 6. the only one who didn't change at all, I believe, is yellow guy (character-wise, I mean, since the old fandom basically turned the whole "yellow guy is a child" into its own fanon, while the new fandom now has multiple age interpretations for him).

anyways this post is kind of all over the place because I wanted to post my non-edited thoughts on this platform. stay safe.

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[uwuoofy]

RANK EVERY KIRBY GAME YOU'VE PLAYED

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE LETS GOOOOOO

Of course it'll be based on personal enjoyment. But let's be honest, it's Kirby, all of these games are good one way or another so let get it

# 14 Kirby's Avalanche

I'm estupid and lost at whispy woods level, which is like, the 2nd level overall. So I'm bitter and put it this low, graphics and audio are super cute tho <3

#13 Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

This was a game I actually got bored with. I'm not really a fan of the whole ball and stylus mechanics (probably cause I'm not good with them lmao). I would be a liar if I didn't say it was one of the more if not the best in game design, with every game piece being of real clay and scanned into the software. Truly amazing, but poor execution in the game itself.

#12 Kirby And the Crystal Shards

So cute and round. I like the idea of combining copy abilities and the direction of art this game had. Only complaint is having to go back and forth for puzzles and certain abilities eeeee

#11 Kirby and the Forgotten Land

A different direction compared to the other Kirby games and I love and hate it for that. A very fun game with the new direction and the mini games and ability upgrades are so cute! My gripes really are just, with all the creative ingenuity in HAL, you really went for the post apocalypse earth as the stages? And

Uh

I'm not the biggest fan of the beast packs designs

Or King Dededes Design

...

...

...

Or Efflin

Please don't hate me

Also I hate saving the waddle dees cause it means I cannot leave a single one behind!! I have to save them all and it feels more like a must than an option because I do not want to leave them there so sad!!!

#10 Kirby Star Allies

Alright I know, I KNOW, putting this above Forgotten Land?? How could I do such a thing??

And your probably right but its my list lmao

If Kirby had a season finale this would be it. A really fun game where you can get all of kirbys friends and fend off enemies and defeat God with the power of love. The slight insight on Void Termina is interesting, but if its never expanded upon again then I dont think there's much of a loss. But like everyone and their mama said, it really is too easy, I finished the game with like 75 lives to spare lmao.

#9 Kirbys Adventure

I recently played and finished it and I can say I see why it was played alot. Very basic yeah but a really fun and easy game for everyone to play and I appreciate it for that!

#8 Kirby Triple Deluxe

My first Kirby game! Really caught my eye with the story of Taranza and Sectonia (so sad ;-;) and Kirby turning into a freaking rainbow that swallows things 100× their size is so funny to me. But this game also has my least favorite Dedede design, he looks

Rather odd...

#7 Kirby Planet Robobot

Objectively the best Kirby Game Overall. Really solid story and the twist of technology on a planet that thrives on its natural state, really creative. I do love anti capitalist and Susie's marxism lmao.

#6 Kirby Fighters 2

Let's go gay people, really establishes the relationship Meta Knight and King Dedede have well, but thats about all it does. Game play is basic but fun with a player 2. Also you can play as gooey and I love gooey gooey my beloved

#5 Kirby Super Star Ultra

I LOVE THIS GAME its like making interactive episodes of a Kirby show and their so fun. I especially love gourmet race and Dyna Blade they're so fun!

I really hate Great Cave Escape tho

#4 Kirby Squeak Squad

Awesome game. Really brings home the idea that Kirby will kill God for cake and I think that's so funny. Also Daroach and his thieves are really good antagonists and super fun.

#3 Kirbys Epic Yarn

So cute, so wholesome. Not much to say except I love its vibe so much and its so cozy and beautiful and alsjwkeksjsnksdkkssk

#2 Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland

Does everything the original did and improves upon it. I love the art and aesthetic so much, as well as the gameplay as its super easy and engaging. It would be my favorite overall if not for-

#1 KIRBY RETURN TO DREAMLAND!!!

Objectively one of the best games. You play as Kirby plus all of their friends and explore through Dreamland while trying to help a two timing bitch, to which you later beat the shit out of lmao. Plus the mini games and abilities that are introduced, really astounding for the first Kirby game that establish the style for games to come!!!

So there's my list! (Emphasis on MY list)

Sorry its so long I just really love this franchise. Ball guys being ball guys heehee