#lotta unique stories there

[mmmthornton]

I was at a bar in Dorchester (Boston, Massachusetts) during a major basketball game. There was a group of guys behind me talking about the game and the players in very thick accents, basically saying "Go Celts!" and whatever, and then one of them said approvingly "Yeah, except [player on the rival team]; fuck those guys but he seems like the kinda guy who calls his mah," and the rest of the table agreed.

Go Bawstahn.

anyways (I say this as someone who is deeply critical of the united states government, military, unchecked capitalism, police, etc) I am SICK of people treating america as if it has no cultural value or positives so….. I love u 85 million acres (bigger than italy) of national parks. I love u harlem renaissance. I love u groundhogs day. I love u sweet tea and fried chicken and jambalaya. I love u apple cider donuts and maizes on crisp autumn days. I love u 95k miles of coastlines and new england fisherman and hand knitted sweaters. I love u halloween where millions of people dress up and give candy to strangers and carve jack o’lanterns. I love u small talk and small towns and potlucks and bringing over casseroles to your struggling neighbors. I love u cowboys and ranch hands and arizonian cactus. I love u appalachian trail and dirtbikes and divebars. I love u sparklers and fireflies. I love u mark twain and toni morrison and emily dickinson and henry david thoreau. I love u rock n roll i love u bluegrass and hippies i love u jimi hendrix and nirvana and CCR and janis joplin. I love u victorian houses and jonny appleseed and john henry and mothman and bigfoot. I love u foggy days in the pacific northwest and neon signs and roadside attractions. I love u baseball and 1950s diners and soft serve. I love u native american art and pop art and poptarts. I love u blue jeans and barbecues and jazz musicians 

[crimsonxe]

I swear I will absolutely love if Jade is actually the awakened/true form/redeemed Stalker in a Samus-esque reveal xD Especially during Pride month (June 18th), since there's particular ways to interpret that type of thing that fits. Which also would line up with the repeated calling the story a special one. Though I can already predict there being the usual bigoted bleeting if it were to go that direction. I mean the way these arts are done

, as someone else mentioned the way they mirror each other's 3 unique weapons, and even the way the leaf/cloth/scale/whatever it is catches Stalker's attention

Lotta potential and going to be interesting to see where this goes come the 18th.

[wildfey]

Thoughts on the new investigations official art as I suddenly realised I had some (also I really like it! I actually think it's one of the best of the big AA group portraits and clearly a lot of thought went into where each character is in relation to their role in the plot and to each other.)

Images are all terrible phone screenshots sorry but I'm on my lunch break at work

1.

This is one of my fave official gumshoe images of all time. Up there with giving pearl a piggyback and fishing with Maggey. Look at them. I love them. Gumshoe and his lil puppy. Also a real cute missile. But also this is Edgeworth's game and Gumshoe is Edgeworth's friend (one of Edgeworth's closest friends - and we get to see the origins of that in aai) so it fits that we get to see the loveable gumshoe that Edgeworth sees here, right behind him, with his dog. It's adorable.

2)

AHH my faves. First of all I just love seeing Shih-na looking very cool and mysterious whereas Lang looks cool at first glance and then you look closer and realise that his pose is actually really stupid. It's very them. And they are obviously next to each other as always - Lang in front but pushed out to the side, whereas Shih-na is behind him and slightly hidden but she's actually closer to the centre which is a nice little metaphor for their positions in the plot. She's also next to Kay which is a clever nod to what we learn in aai.

(Also maggey and lotta in the background are cute too).

No notes really just nice to see new art of team Interpol.

3)

Okay so this is the bit I really do have thoughts on because positioning! Obviously Miles in the middle, it's his game after all. But having Gregworth and MVK in the background is just a fun choice - after all, they are literally his background! They are facing away from each other, going in opposite ways and Miles is in-between them! Just a nice bit of visual metaphor considering how much a theme of the games is his background and upbringing, and how Miles has to choose between these two opposing influences in his life and find a path between them (and both appear more in the investigations games then they do anywhere else so their size and influence is really significant here).

4)

And finally, Fran! Only her 13 year old design is on this poster, despite the fact that she actually appears as an adult in the game more but that makes sense, this is advertising and this is a unique design for aai. But I like how she's also in the background, she's a figure from Edgeworth's past, but in a much more active pose than MVK or Gregworth are - she remains an active player in his story, unlike them. Also she's placed next to Edgeworth and MVK, which makes sense considering their relationship.

Also I genuinely do just like this design for Fran - I think one place where aai really works is its character designs which are almost universally really well done and nice to look at visually. I like that she's a horse girl and you can tell. I like that it references her trilogy outfit but with a far less adult silhouette. It's just good.

[icycoldninja]

can i request dante with a half angel s/o? she has a trigger like the sparda families, except it's primarily used for healing - they are both devil hunters too.

Ah yes, great idea! It was a lotta fun writing this one, thanks for requesting. 💜 Hope you enjoy.

Dante x Half Angel S/O headcannons

-A devil and an angel's romance, a classic, almost always forbidden love story.

-Dante finds this hilarious as nothing about your relationship is forbidden--if anything, it's encouraged.

-You are one of the only person in the world who can tell Dante what to do. No matter what, no matter how crazy your request seems, Dante will carry it out.

-This unique skill leads everyone who meets you two to ship you as hard as anime fans ship their favorite couples.

-You and Dante going on missions together are like cookies and milk; you mesh together perfectly. He fights, you heal. You watch each other's backs, making you two the perfect duo.

-Dante used to be really worried that you'd get injured during missions, so he kept a close eye on you and always tried to stay close to you while keeping the enemy at bay--at least, until he saw your Angel Trigger.

-It occurred when he received a critical injury from a demonic sword. He went flying backwards and hit the ground, but unlike most of the time, he didn't get back up. He remained on the ground, still and unmoving. You panicked, racing over to him and channeling as much of your power into him as possible. Before you knew it, your form changed; you sprouted giant, feathery wings and your skin started glowing. Dante's eyes flew open in shock, and he beheld your radiant self in awe.

-From that point on, he never doubted your combat prowess again, and with extended practice, you learned to Trigger at will, much like how Dante's Devil Trigger works.

-Your Angel Trigger has the power to heal any and all wounds in a matter of seconds, regardless of the magnitude or location of the injury. It's a very handy ability that is more than appreciated during missions.

-When you're in your Trigger, you emit a lot of light, meaning that in extreme cases (like when Dante forgets to pay the utility bills again) you can function as a living lamp when the power's out.

-Loves to rub his face in your wings cause they're just so fluffy!

-When he has nightmares/gets too drunk and starts remembering bad memories from his past, he will snuggle up with you because your presence comforts him.

-He can't explain it, there's just something about you that soothes and relaxes him. Must be attributed to your angelic blood...

[sushiwriterhere]

top gun threesomeissance 2023 masterlist

wow y'all!!! i'm so sorry for how late this is but you guys blew me away with each of these pieces. thank you to everyone who wrote, read, reblogged, liked, commented, and just in general encouraged their friends to write. so much love, and i hope everyone enjoyed!! now, in no particular order...... the masterlist:

bradley, jake, x f!reader

Up the Ante - @sometimesanalice Rooster had heard the whispers. He knew what the stories were about- the ones that had followed him and Hangman around for years. You, however, are more than happy to find out for yourself if all the rumors were true.

jake, f!reader, x f!reader's friend

You and Me and She Makes Three - @roosterforme Jake had feelings for you. And that was a problem, because he didn't do relationships. He was going to have to choose his independence over being with you. At least that's what he thought until he was presented with the opportunity to enjoy you and his freedom at the same time. 

bob, jake, x reader

three tender lovers - @sebsxphia bob proposes a solution to jake’s remarks to the marks on bob’s back. all three of you find resolution and something else. love.

(im)Patiently Waiting - @callsign-cacti You and Bob have been dancing around one another for years. Now, with Jake and Bob eyeing each other, you have a plan. Hopefully, it ends with both of them in your bed... or any bed.

mickey, bob, x f!reader

Two Turns Into Three - @foreverrandomwritings You and your boyfriend Fanboy propostion your close friend Bob with a threesome request.

javy, bradley, x f!reader

Merrier the More - @sylviebell Jake strikes out at the bar, but you hit a couple of home runs

javy, natasha, x reader

The Last Unicorn - @thedroneranger Getting caught between Natasha and Javy leads to a unique experience.

javy, mickey, x f!plus size!reader

"It was always gonna end this way" - @briseisgone [no author written summary but!] smut, polyamory, boys being bisexual boys, and a whole lotta fun

beau, jake, x f!reader

The Magic Number - @wkndwlff Beau and his fiancé discover the magic of threes.

[braxiations]

Hylics Analysis - The Significance of Hylem and the Afterlife

Hi, and welcome to another Hylics analysis! I’m hesitant to call it a theory because I’ll spend the majority of this post going over what I believe to be the canon intent. Most of this stuff is, in my opinion, pretty grounded, but I’ve seen so little discussion about it online. I aim to unpack the ways hylem unexpectedly appears in Hylics, its importance to the overall story, and what its true source may be.

Hylethems

The first, and really only direct mention of hylem comes from some workers in the caves of New Muldul. The workers are seen cutting away at pink cave formations called hylethems. Specifically, they cut away at odd tendrils protruding from the hylethems presumably called fronds (which is what they’re called internally.) The fronds themselves writhe, indicating that they may be alive. The minecarts of the miners are full of these fronds. One of the miners describes hylethems as “hylem-rich cave formations.” Another, crucially, says the following:

“Glove lathing. Burrito synthesis. All starts with hylethems. Find a rich vein, translates to a lotta bones. Lotta bones.”

This gives us two uses for hylem or hylethem fronds. The fact that the fronds are what’s being harvested might suggest they’re the items of value, not hylem itself, but this is pretty unclear. Maybe the fronds are full of the hylem? Really, the two might as well be synonymous for our analysis today.

While we’re here, I’d like to take the time to clear up a piece of dialogue that I see confuse people, being an NPC in New Muldul that describes the town’s primary industry as “calthemite husbandry.” I’ve seen people attribute the word “calthemite” to both insects and juice beasts, but calthemites are a real thing: they’re cave formations. Given that the harvesting of hylethems is shown in New Muldul, I think it’s safe to say that’s what they’re talking about here.

Standard uses of hylem

Hylem is stated to have two uses: burrito synthesis and glove lathing, though the wording of miner’s speech suggests they might have many more. Burrito synthesis is odd but rather self-explanatory, and implies hylem might have healing properties for both flesh and will (this’ll be important later.) Glove lathing is more interesting. “Lathe” and “lathing” have multiple, kind of convoluted meanings, but its usage here suggests either coating or shaping the gloves. This could either mean the gloves are coated in hylem, likely as a liquid, or the gloves are cut out of pleather and shaped by… the fronds? It’s really unclear. 

The description of the tendril hand item is “The people of Mocetul shun lathing, and for gloves rely on other processes.” The long gloves are also described as “standard gestural combat garbs.” It seems clear that gloves are what enable the use of gestures, but whether or not lathing is responsible for this is questionable. The fact that the tendril hand was made without lathing suggests hylem isn’t critical to the use of gestures, however it might imply that it's the usual process that enables them. Regardless, lathing is clearly common and important and hylem is what allows it to happen.

What’s a Hylemxylem anyway?

Ah, the Hylemxylem, Gibby’s associated fortress. Before we discuss it, let’s take a look at its name. First is the word “hylem,” which is a term unique to Hylics (and also apparently the name of a music artist,) and “xylem.” In simplified terms, xylem is a sort of transport tissue within plants that takes in and distributes water and minerals throughout the plant. With this in mind we can basically translate the word “Hylemxylem” into “thing that takes in hylem.”

[Before we move on, I want to suggest an origin for the word “hylem.” This is largely conjecture on my part, but I believe Mason knew he wanted Gibby’s fortress to absorb a substance and wanted to use the word “xylem” in there. Needing a name for the substance and wanting it to rhyme, he added the “-lem” suffix. To complete it, he took from the game’s own title: Hylics. Why would he do this? Well, as we’ve seen glimpses of, hylem might be very, very important to the nature of this world.]

So, the Hylemxylem xylems hylem, that much seems pretty clear. With this in mind we can identify the pink goop flowing throughout the hylemxylem.

Seen throughout the hylemxylem is this strange, pink liquid, highly resembling that seen in the Afterlife. It fills many of the rooms, spews out of spouts, and appears to flow into the fortress via the tubes descending down into the waters. It’s this very liquid, described as “the terrestrial juice,” that Gibby floats in before his transformation. This, as implied by the name “Hylemxylem” itself, is hylem. But where does all this hylem come from? Of course, it’s possible that the tubes of the Hylemxylem bore into the ground, sapping hylem away from the Hylethems. However, we don’t need to speculate on this. In one of the few changes to the environment during the course of Hylics 2, we see where the tubes lead…

The Afterlife

That’s right. A detail I see often overlooked is that, after the raising of the Hylemxylem, many tubes appear in the Afterlife, each flowing with the pink substance that comprises the sea, up into the sky. These tubes only appear after the ‘Xylem is raised, implying they’re the very tubes pumping hylem into the fortress. A quick glance at the game’s internals confirms this, calling them “Afterlife Xylem Columns.” I really hope this isn’t ambiguous at this point: the pink liquid within the Hylemxylem is the same liquid that fills the Afterlife.

Thanks to Happy/S For Sprinkles for this photo! Also, it's a lot easier to see in-game that these tubes are flowing with the sea's liquid. You can pretty clearly see it flowing upwards.

Now, this leads me to two conclusions I hope you find reasonable:

Wait, we very clearly see the tubes of the ‘Xylem go into the ocean. Is the Afterlife in the ocean? Maybe in some weird bubble? That’d explain why there are fish flopping around in H1. Maybe it’s an underwater cave??

More relevantly, if the pink goo in the Hylemxylem is hylem, and the pink goo in the Hylemxylem is also the Afterlife goo, that must mean the Afterlife goo is hylem. X = Y and Z = Y. Therefore X must equal Z.

This is, to me at least, super interesting. Despite never being outright stated, it is very, VERY heavily implied that the sea of the Afterlife is hylem. This sea’s strange waters, mind you, comprises the pools and fountains we fall into to reach the Afterlife. It also comprises the sea that spits us out when we die. If it is true that X = Y = Z, then hylem is not only responsible for the burritos we eat, the gloves we use, or the seemingly the ascension of Gibby, but also for the repeated reincarnation of our party members. Remember how I earlier noted that burritos, synthesized from hylem, heal flesh and will? Well, that may be an extension of the life giving, healing properties of hylem as found in the Afterlife! That’s why, I believe, Mason named the substance of hylem after the games themselves. Without hylem, the story of the games wouldn’t be possible. It's a foundational element to the world itself.

This also explains the weird fixation the game has on hylem. While Mason might have some worldbuilding hidden in random item descriptions or one or two sets of NPC dialogue (the only piece of non-relevant worldbuilding mentioned more than once being Amulom,) hylem has 5, completely separate NPCs that talk about it upright (not even counting the other NPCs that talk about calthemites.) Hylethem fronds are even seen scattered around the places that Smuldunde visits for some strange reason. This conclusion, that hylem enables the events of the game, explains why; it isn’t irrelevant worldbuilding. Hell, you could even view the hylethems being mentioned so early on as foreshadowing for the Hylemxylem itself and Gibby’s ascension from the terrestrial juices. Like the ‘Xylem does, it seems likely that hylelthems sap hylem away from the Afterlife!

Conclusion

So, that concludes the analysis! Hylem is a powerful substance that enables the use of gloves and burritos, sustains the Hylemxylem, and allowed Gibby to ascend. Given the evidence we have, I think this is the conclusion intended by Mason himself. Perhaps we were all intended to figure this out on our own, but the abstract and indirect story-telling method of Hylics 2 obscured this. Hell, I’ve seen a ton of misconceptions about the Accretion despite things the game pretty directly shows us. Maybe I should make a post about that? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! I might make an addendum to this post as well going over some specific ideas like how the Moon might have processed hylem and why only Gibby ascends through it. After that I’ll probably cover either the symbols used in the world of Hylics or some speculation on Viewax. I might even put up a poll on which I should cover first!

[ask-indigo-park-swapped]

==> MOLLIE: Talk to your friends!

[Rambley]

MOLLIE: RAMBLEY! HI!!! RAMBLEY: OH! HI MOLLIE!!! MOLLIE: Helpin' with supplies, Rambley? RAMBLEY: Of course!!! You know me, always doing something to help! MOLLIE: Of course, of course! MOLLIE: What'dya think of the Isles so far? RAMBLEY: Ah... I'd say it's just below the Swamplands for worst safety violation ever. MOLLIE: Hah! Not liking the heights, huh~? RAMBLEY: Nope! But, at least this place has a distinct lack of corrosive acid. That's more than I can say for the Swamplands. MOLLIE: Fair enough. MOLLIE: Say, have you seen Salem around? RAMBLEY: Huh? No, I think they decided to stay behind at Aviary Station. Something about making more potions. MOLLIE: Ah, that's a shame. I'd have liked to explore with someone from Aviary.

RAMBLEY: Here we go! RAMBLEY: Sorry, Mollie! I gotta run supplies now! See you later! MOLLIE: Bye, Rambley!

=> Ask about how the Isles float MOLLIE: Rambley, do you know what makes the isles float? RAMBLEY: Hmm... RAMBLEY: Well, the Isles are still mostly unexplored, so I don't have a lot of information yet - but I have a theory! MOLLIE: Oh? RAMBLEY: Yep! I bet that the reason the Isles float is... gems! MOLLIE: Gems? RAMBLEY: Yep! The scouts kept finding these dark, iridescent gems on a bunch of items and even in some walls in the Isle ruins. They don't match any other gems, so I bet they're magic or something! MOLLIE: Hmm... RAMBLEY: I bet they got some... anti-gravity enchantment or something, or maybe it's just something about the gems in particular that lets them float! Negative mass! En-cloud-er! MOLLIE: But what about the smaller islands? I don't think those have gems. RAMBLEY: Yeah, that's why I only have theories. The smaller islands float just as easily as the main island, but there doesn't seem to be a consistent reason why RAMBLEY: Maybe there's some artifact inside that causes the floating, but I have never heard of an enchantment that strong. So for now, my best theory is gems.

[Trader]

MOLLIE: G'mornin', Trader! Suprised to see you out of the Snow Line. TRADER: Ah, good greetings reckless one. You wish to trade? MOLLIE: No ma'am, I just wanted to say hello. Maybe hear any rumours about the Isles? TRADER: Hmm, we do trade for knowledge... TRADER: ... an explorer returned during early dawn. Having come from deeper within, the explorer had been telling stories about what ey've seen during eir expedition. TRADER: These ruins may have once been cult grounds. MOLLIE: Aw feathers, another dead cult? At least it's in a cool place this time, and not just some spot in the woods. TRADER: If that is all, we would ask you to leave. MOLLIE: Ah right, I'm holding the line. See you around, Trader! TRADER: Likewise.

[Ruta]

MOLLIE: Hey, Ruta! Excited to adventure in a new place? RUTA: Good morning, Mollie. I am very excited to explore the Isles. It was prohibited for exploration for so long I am required to be excited to explore. MOLLIE: We're like birds of a feather, you and me! You, me, and a whole flock'a folks. RUTA: Yes! This Outpost is very crowded with explorers! Even the scouts that explored this area are going back in. MOLLIE: Whoa, really? RUTA: Yes. These ruins are quite unique after all. MOLLIE: I heard that not a lotta scouts were let in though, only flyers like avians. Wouldn't they have explored this place top to bottom already? RUTA: No. Remember that scouts only do a quick sweep over areas. More in-depth explorations like what we do are very different, and with such a new area there are bigger risks of harmful traps that were missed. MOLLIE: It sounds like you got some advice to give, Ruta. RUTA: Correct. RUTA: Be more watchful of traps, Mollie, there is no guarantee that they are safe. In addition, do not count only on your wings for escape. MOLLIE: ... MOLLIE: ... is that it? RUTA: Hm? MOLLIE: I mean, your advice is usually more ominous than that. I already know to be careful of traps, and it's not like I only got my wings. I brought by grappling gun, and emergency rope, and a buncha other stuff. RUTA: My apologies that my advice is disappointing. Nevertheless, I must continue my preparations. Take care on your journey, Mollie, and good luck! MOLLIE: Good luck on your own adventure, Ruta! I'll keep your advice in mind!

Mollie decides she idled around enough - she is itching for some adventure!

Mollie enters the TETHERED ISLES. ==>

[fangxin-guoshi]

I'm like so late but here's my two cents on the whole Levi reviving Armin instead of Erwin thing (more like me just obsessing over how much I love Levi's character xD)

So obviously Erwin is the most logical choice, and even Levi admits that himself several times.

Like everyone is aware that objectively, Erwin would've probably been most effective as an asset to their goal (armin ofc did a great job but they don't KNOW that yet). But Levi decides to revive Armin not because he necessarily chose Armin to live, but because he chose Erwin to die, as was stated. He wanted Erwin to be at peace.

While I think most characters in aot are very caring, it's displayed very uniquely with Levi bc it's not just a character trait he has, it's the thing that makes him who he is (it's also why I find the scene where Zeke forces him to fight the scouts he transformed into titans particularly brutal. Because out of every character, that is the absolute WORST situation for specifically Levi to be in). At any other point in the story, he's never made a selfish decision. He always prioritizes the mission, humanity's survival, first.

Letting Erwin die is both a very selfish and selfless decision. Selfish because he prioritizes Erwin's peace above humanity's survival, but also selfless because he cares about Erwin enough to not drag him back into the fight.

I think Erwin trusted Levi with the injection not only because he had the best chance of surviving, but also because he knows Levi is both capable of hard, logical decisions and compassionate ones as well. If the injection were given to Hange for example, they would've chosen Erwin because it's the logical thing to do. They say so too when agreeing w Armin.

That doesn't make them uncaring obviously. Making logical, sometimes difficult decisions and understanding the bigger picture is why they were commander. I also used to think Hange would've been a better choice to entrust the injection with, but now that I'm thinking about it, Levi being a very kind person is precisely why he's the best choice.

To bring someone back to life, or to let someone die can't exactly be a purely logical and objective decision just based on how useful they are. These are people's LIVES. You can't just measure them on a scale against each other. You need to understand the responsibility and have the emotional capacity to make such a severe decision. It requires a great deal of care and consideration for the person(s) in question, aka a whole lotta empathy, which I think Levi demonstrates.

He has very unique relationships with both Erwin and Armin and KNOWS them. Not just their intelligence that's useful, but their motivations, dreams, etc. which are more emotional factors, but definitely were still worth considering in his mind.

(omfg I love his character sm someone lock me away i-)

[tobiasdrake]

Have you read the Dragon Ball Super manga? You've stated in the past that you're more of a fan of the original manga than the anime adaptation, so I was curious what your thoughts are on the current continuation of Toriyama's original manga, seeing as how the manga had some Toriyama supervision and was based on his notes.

While I do prefer the manga to the anime, I will say that both versions of Dragon Ball Super are hit-or-miss. There are basically three creatives at work with DBS.

Toriyama, up until his passing, would write story notes and some individual plot points down and pass them off to Toei and to Toyotaro. Lotta To- names floating around Dragon Ball.

...he said with no sense of self-awareness at all.

But this is Toriyama twenty or thirty years later, so he's not exactly the same creator that wrote the original manga. His memory of his own work has drifted; For instance, while writing Battle of Gods, he forgot that Super Saiyan 2 even existed and thought SSJ3 was SSJ2.

It had been a long time for him. He only got back into Dragon Ball because Dragon Ball: Evolution pissed him off. Explaining in the 30th Anniversary Super History Book:

"Dragon Ball once became a thing of the past to me, but after that, I got angry about the live action movie, re-wrote an entire movie script, and now I'm complaining about the quality of the new TV anime, so it seems that DB has grown on me much that I can't leave it alone."

The movie script he rewrote was, of course, Battle of Gods.

Famously, after seeing Evolution, Toriyama basically marched into Toei to see what they were making, ripped up the script for Battle of Gods, and rewrote the whole thing. He was just. So. Incensed. By Hollywood's butchering of his work.

So, in a twisted way, we have Dragon Ball: Evolution to thank for the resurrection of the Dragon Ball brand. I know, it's so weird.

This was Toriyama's formal return to the world of Dragon Ball after decades of just writing little story bits here and there or designing a character or two. Though just writing story bits here or there is more or less what he settled back into with Super. Toriyama would write notes about what he wanted to happen and deliver them to Toei and to Toyotaro, and the two would separately interpret those notes into their own vision.

You can tell what's from Toriyama versus what's from Toei or Toyotaro based on what plot points end up being hit by both versions versus what's unique to one interpretation or the other.

So, this:

Gohan facing down the fused Kefla and sacrificing himself in a double KO to take her off the field? That's Toyotaro.

Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken? That's Toei.

Goku has never kissed Chi-Chi in 20+ years of marriage because he's aroace and they're basically playing house for keeps? That's Toriyama.

Android 17 being the key factor in winning the Tournament of Power because his Android energy can't be sensed the way ki can, that's something that came down from Toriyama. 17 pretends to self-destruct using the bomb he doesn't have anymore; The one Krillin once used Shenron to remove from him.

But Toei has 17 emerge for the fight with Jiren, so he can briefly join Goku and Frieza in fending Jiren off - before they tell him to fuck off because he's not supposed to be in this scene.

While Toyotaro has him remain hidden under his cloak of ki-sensing invisibility for a last-second surprise.

But like I said before: Writing Dragon Ball again after twenty years away out of spite towards a bad American production, Toriyama isn't the same creative he was when this was all fresh and new and exciting. He was just as prone to characterization slip-ups and questionable decision-making as Toei and Toyotaro are.

I mean. That was even happening in the original manga. Remember that time when any part of the Android arc honestly? Good times. Nobody's perfect.

So, like I said, with Super, it's really hit or miss on both sides. Sometimes Toriyama's collaborations with Toei give us the heartwarming and beautiful friendship relationship between Broly and his new pals Cheelai and Leemo.

Or this. Especially this.

Nothing in Dragon Ball has ever, EVER been as funny as when Goku and Vegeta made Frieza hold the line against Broly, a nemesis Frieza brought to Earth to kill Goku and Vegeta. Taking advantage of his berserker rage in the most comical and beautifully karmic way possible to buy them time to work out the Fusion Dance.

And sometimes they give us yet another version of the Gotenks failed fusion joke they need to flog like a dead horse every single time a Fusion takes place in any piece of media they have ever produced.

DO YOU REMEMBER THAT TIME DO YOU REMEMBER DO YOU FUCKING REMEMBER THAT TIME IT WAS SO FUNNY DO YOU REMEMBER IT

That is Fusion Reborn, Yo Son Goku and Friends Return, DBS: Broly, and DBS: Super Hero in order.

And for his part, sometimes Toriyama's collaborations with Toyotaro gives us Goku lighting the fuck up like Spirit Korra.

And sometimes it gives us Vegeta learning how to teleport from the Yardratians but then immediately swearing off ever using it again because... I guess the move has Goku's cooties on it or something.

"Vegeta, you can teleport!"

"No, I cannot! I demand divergent character evolution from this manga so I will forever forego ever learning the cool and useful techniques that you use, Kakarot. What do you mean my dialogue sounds like a fourth-wall breaking author screed?"

This is honestly one of my "favorite" things that ever happens in Super. Vegeta refuses to learn Ultra Instinct, the ultimate martial art of the gods taught by Whis, and demands another path to the same kind of power that does not exist.

Then Beerus, a character who has long been established as vastly inferior to Whis, is like "Wanna learn this other thing that's just as good as Whis's thing I swear?" and helps Vegeta learn a new art where he... *checks notes* ...lets his opponent punch him in the face without defending himself until he dies.

This is where you end up when your mission statement is to not do the things that actually work for the intelligent martial artist and instead do the opposite out of spite. You end up with a fighting style that's built around losing fights on purpose.

Toyotaro somehow manages to shill the hell out of Vegeta and downplay Goku while also making Vegeta look like the most useless idiot ever. Ultra Ego is the worst transformation in the history of Dragon Ball and I'm convinced that Beerus helped Vegeta develop this as a prank.

He's up there right now laughing his ass off.

So. Yeah. There's a lot to like but also a lot to not like about both versions of Super. It's very different from what the original manga is, and it has very different pluses and minuses between the two versions. But there are some gems to be found here.

And the biggest gem is this guy.

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe Rating: Explicit (Chapter 3 is M rated, though) Words: 6.3K~ Summary: A uniquely charged encounter in Rose’s Room forces Steven to contend with matters of attraction and desire he never could have predicted for himself. To what extreme is he willing to journey in fulfilling these burgeoning fantasies? And in what ways will such an experience forever transform him? (One thing’s for sure, though… once Connie’s brought into the loop, the most intimate dynamics of their marriage will never be the same.)

Here we go! All of my pre-written stuff for this story is now live.

This update is a Steven and Connie centric debrief chapter to bridge between the last one and what I have planned for the next. My GOD, can one conversation last for a long time, ahah. The two just didn't want to stop chattering XD

Be aware, this fic is primarily Stevencest in nature. It’s also about Connverse, and was born out of my desire to (ultimately) have Steven’s components and Connie work out some of their past traumas within the context of the bedroom… but the bottom line is, if you’re not open to the base concept of Steven’s components developing romantic feelings for each other, then this probably ain’t for you.

Due to this story’s explicit nature, I will not be crossposting the entire thing as I do with my other fics- please follow the link to AO3 if you’re interested in checking it out. I have also listed all of the additional tags under the cut for convenience so you can make an informed decision before you click through or not. These tags cover what the pre-written chapters 1-3 will be about.

Enjoy!

Additional Tags: Aged-Up Character(s), Character Study, Trauma, Light Angst, Language, Rose’s Room, Selfcest, Explicit Sexual Content, Uncircumcised Penis, Masturbation, Corruption scars, Porn with Feelings, Blow Jobs, Alien genitalia, Oral Sex, A whole lotta headcanons about how Steven operates as a strange hybrid fusion, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

[mauesartetc]

Thoughts on Helluva Boss Episode 204 ("Western Energy")

Well that was a whole lotta nothin', wasn't it.

Let's discuss.

Pros:

-Edward Bosco does a fine job with Striker's voice, and Bryce Pinkham has a couple surprisingly powerful line deliveries when Stolas has reached his lowest point. It's nice when the story gives this character some emotional range outside of horny and mopey.

-This character design is way too cool for this show, like damn.

-Striker's living space was unique and interesting, and the magma in the environment matched his horse well.

-The fight scene with Moxxie and Millie vs Striker was well-choreographed and the camera didn't move around too much. Looks like the animators learned their lesson from last time.

-I liked how Moxxie took a chance and used Striker's homophobia (or perhaps disgust toward "lesser" imps?) against him to escape his grip.

-The devil horns on the EKG screen were kinda cute.

Cons:

-What the hell's up with this title. "Western Energy"? Is that a reference to something? Is it a pun? I get the "western" part, but "energy"? It puts me in mind of some obscure Zen concept rather than this episode. Just vague, confusing and not clever. Hell, "Take The Shot" was right there! I know there's not much shooting in Striker's plotline (we'll get to that bit of stupid momentarily), but this references both the A- and B-plot! C'mon, writers. At least act like you care.

-Again with the arbitrary censorship... I think multiple characters utter the word "cunt" in this episode, but it's bleeped each time. Guys... This is an internet show. This isn't network TV. If you're worried about getting demonetized on Youtube, don't use that word in the script to begin with. Easy.

-Not many laughs in this one, huh. In the last couple episodes I've found at least one thing to chuckle about or say, "Hm, that's kinda clever, I guess", but man, I was stone-faced for the duration here.

-Is that really how you pronounce "Andrealphus"? I've been saying it "An-dray-AL-phus", but Stolas says "An-DREE-ul-phus". People who are more familiar with demonology than I am, feel free to weigh in.

-Speaking of which, it's quite an accomplishment to make Andrealphus look even worse than he did in his illustration. Something about how tiny his head is in proportion to his body throws me, and of course it doesn't help that his face was always pinched in a teardrop shape with a tiny beak (which looks nothing like a peacock, because fuck accuracy). And if anyone's wondering if he uses any ice powers this episode... He doesn't. He uses telekinesis to drop a couple lumps of sugar into his tea, but that's it. You rip off Elsa and set the guy up in an ice castle but couldn't even give him ice powers? What a load.

-Kinda floored at this line from Stolas: "Cheating implies a betrayal. This woman never gave two shits about me, or our very much arranged marriage."

For fuck's sake, writers.

"You guuuuyyyys, it technically wasn't even cheating, see? Stolas is totally innocent and pure and you should like him!!!" The camera even trucks out dramatically as if he's saying something heroic. Christ...

Even in an utterly loveless marriage, there's still the expectation that each party will be faithful to the other, and having sex with someone else is a betrayal unless both of them previously agreed to open up their relationship. No indication that ever happened here, so...

All this scene demonstrates is that Stolas hasn't learned a thing about being a fucking adult and owning up to his mistakes. This just doubles down on the whole "I'd feel bad if I hurt you" thing (when you obviously did hurt her, you twit). Does Viv Medrano seriously believe admitting fault and apologizing makes a person weak or unlikable? Because I have news for ya: It's very much the opposite.

-Also, Stolas ends that mini-speech with, "As far as I'm concerned, this divorce is far overdue." But... Stella and Andrealphus have already agreed to that. That wasn't even a question. They're just trying to settle what Stella will get in the divorce. Do these people even read their scripts out loud?

-Striker's return comes way too late in the series. There are too many episodes forming a cushion between his introduction and Western Energy for him to feel intimidating. It's possible IMP could've discussed a plan of action regarding Striker, but no one mentions him once. If the characters don't see him as a threat, why should the audience?

The tension would have remained high if, immediately after the harvest moon episode, IMP moved Stolas and his family to a safe house while Striker was still on the loose. Little does Stolas know, however, he's a sitting duck, since Stella has called Striker and informed him of their location. Feels like that'd be much more exciting than just ignoring his existence for five episodes.

-When Stolas calls Blitzo, he refers to Striker as "that little cowboy friend of yours", implying he remembers him from the Harvest Moon Games. But, um... Question. Did Blitzo ever tell Stolas Striker almost killed him?! We have no idea! It's never confirmed!

At the end of the harvest moon episode, I seriously thought the team just forgot to write Blitzo warning Stolas about his would-be assassin. I know the story's trying to get across how little Blitzo actually cares about him, but this is a pretty huge conversation to overlook. Like damn, just how thoughtless can one person be. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

-(Also, who the hell says they were "stolen", Stolas. You're not an object; you're a person. You were kidnapped. I know this is bordering on grammar pedantry but it's distracting how much this weird phrasing sticks out.)

-Once again, the symbolic sin colors are inconsistent. I mentioned in the last review that the Greed ring in Helluva Boss is green despite the fact that the traditional color for greed as a sin is yellow. In this episode, we glimpse the Sloth ring, as this official tweet informs us:

One problem: Sloth is pink instead of the traditional light blue.

I wouldn't mind this if the ring colors broke from tradition across the board, but they don't. The Wrath ring is red and Lust is deep blue, as is customary. So it seems the art direction is throwing darts at a board to see which rings get the "lol, random" color treatment and which ones don't. These odd choices would be much more understandable if there were a story reason for certain rings looking the way they do, but at this point, I think we know better than to hope for that.

-In both this episode and The Harvest Moon Festival, Striker is characterized as self-aggrandizing. His previous appearance saw him declare himself superior to other imps, while this one shows off his giant statue with an enormous boner. Why, then, is he annoyed at the little imps singing his theme song? Wouldn't that be an ego boost? It would've made more sense for him to play along with it, or even better:

STOLAS: How does one get their own theme song?

STRIKER: (smiles, rubs his thumb and fingertips together) You pay for it.

-All the scenes with Blitzo and Loona in the doctor's office could've been cut and the story wouldn't have lost a thing. You can show them arriving and show them leaving with Loona wearing the cone, but everything else in the B-plot is filler. These episodes aren't beholden to a TV schedule that demands the duration falls within a certain range. There's no reason this episode needed to be nineteen minutes long.

-Getting pissy at some rando wearing the same hat as you is just about the dumbest reason to start a fight I've ever heard. Let's change around the dialogue a bit:

BIKER: Lookee here, fellas! The city slicker got himself a cowboy hat! That is sooo cute. Well, if you wanna dress the part... (cracks knuckles) might as well play it. It's not perfect but holy shit, I came up with that in two minutes. What the fuck, Viv. This is why you have co-writers. They aren't there to kiss your ass and mindlessly accept everything you do; they're there to catch little things like this and make them better.

-There's no "thump" when the top of the exploded gas station hits the ground, and judging by its size and implied weight, there should definitely be a sonorous thump.

-Striker mentions that Stella paid him to give Stolas "the royal treatment" (aka a slow death), but if that's the case, why did he try to shoot him at the Harvest Moon festival? Why did he shoot at him in the cafe?? If one of those bullets hit, wouldn't that affect his payday? Also, can't help but notice how terribly convenient this is. We wouldn't want our expert assassin to be too efficient, or precious Stolas would be dead. God damn this is contrived.

-Here's a line with a ton of story potential that goes unexplored (and will probably remain as such for the rest of the season, let's be honest): Stolas points out that Striker "is working for a royal right now", exposing some hypocrisy in his hatred for them. This brings up an interesting question: Why is he in cahoots with this one specific royal despite detesting all others? Why is she the exception? Could it be his loyalty to her transcends a simple business relationship? If he has angelic weapons and wanted to kill just any royal, he could have done it. But maybe this is more personal. Maybe Stolas needs to die because he hurt Stella.

Perhaps on the other side, Stella shares Striker's belief that he's superior to ordinary imps- another exception. Giving any other imp the time of day would disgust her, but Striker's just different somehow. And being as athletic and rugged as he is, he's a far cry from Stolas, who she's never found attractive.

I know it's a pipe dream for this series to develop any romantic pairing besides Stolitz, but how interesting would it be if Striker and Stella were having an affair of their own, and genuinely loved each other? How would they reconcile their personal feelings with long-held prejudices? What kinds of effects would hiding this shameful secret have on them? Would they make strides to be more open-minded? Would they see how their relationship mirrors Stolas and Blitzo's and reach an understanding with them? Will Striker's anti-royal principles override his love for Stella? Will he, in possession of angelic weapons, fulfill his quest to kill all royals, including her? There are so many possibilities here.

But of course, wringing any kind of compelling narrative out of this show's villains would require the writers to treat them as complex people rather than caricatures, so... yeah.

-If Stolas' legs are untied, what the fuck is stopping him from getting up and sneaking out of the cave after Striker leaves him unattended? He even has enough range of motion to kick him in the face. Obviously his leg wound would cause mobility issues and he'd have to stop the bleeding so Striker wouldn't track him easily (perhaps rolling into a magma stream to cauterize the wound? If demons are immune to fire, as Episode 1 established, I don't think magma would hurt much), but goddamn, try something. If you're going to die either way, you don't have much to lose, do you?

OR, why doesn't he just roll off the back of the horse when they're still in the city? Just check behind you to make sure no cars are coming and bail, dude. Striker might not even realize you're gone until he's entered the desert.

This is the exact same problem Stolas had in Seeing Stars, where he was so helpless against the plot's demands he couldn't even climb out of a van window, or morph into his full demon form like he did in Truth Seekers, or just leave the studio to find his fucking daughter. Y'know how I keep saying these characters have no agency? These characters have no damn agency.

-Kinda weirded out by how flirty Andrealphus is with his sister. "You're so lucky you're attractive"? "My fiery vixen"? Just... why. I get that incest used to be a thing in real-life monarchies, but assuming Andrealphus has other romantic options readily available to him (see also: ambiguous bird class), this fixation on Stella doesn't make much sense. If Viv wanted to make him subtly creepy, well... there are other ways to do that.

And let's be real, we can safely surmise Viv hates research with a passion, so I'm betting she didn't get this idea from history, but from Game of Thrones. I get a strong feeling she sees real-world facts as boring homework and the fictional world as exciting and full of wonder. If a person just cherry-picks different elements from fictional media they like and stitches them together like Dr. Frankenstein grafts body parts, that'll result in something great too, right? ...No.

-You're seriously telling me Stella didn't know how royal lineages work after being betrothed to a prince since childhood?

I mean wow, the show has portrayed Stella as inconsiderate and comically sadistic, and now she's stupid as well? These writers are hell-bent on giving her zero positive traits, aren't they.

-"A Goetia's never behaved like this before." Are you shitting me, Andrealphus? Hell's existed for (presumably) thousands of years and not a single noble has fucked an imp before? I could maybe buy that none of them have been as stupidly blatant as Stolas has, so perhaps these affairs have gone unseen and unremembered. But assuming they never happened? Come on now.

-Where'd Striker's horse go?? Feels like he could've been helpful in the fight against Moxxie and Millie, but after the theme song, he's completely missing. We don't even see him in a stable or anything. I know he's animation-intensive but y'all could at least give us a narrative reason he's not on screen.

An easy fix to this would be to show Bombproof (yes, that's his name, and it's awesome, and I hate that the characters never say it) out of breath at the end of the long journey, and Striker telling him he's earned a good rest. He could then hop into a magma pool and disappear under the waves for the remainder of the episode. There ya go. Simple.

-If Millie's ordinary axe can chop Striker's angelic pistols in half, why are angelic weapons such a threat to demons? During the yearly extermination in this universe, what's stopping them from forming an army and shooting the angels' weapons full of holes? Crazy how a single scene can unravel Hazbin Hotel's entire conflict.

-Did y'all want any kind of satisfying closure between Blitzo and Stolas regarding what went down in the Ozzie's episode? Well keep dreamin', because we've got this horrendously half-assed, tacked-on bullshit that you'll easily miss if you blink.

Fuck you, show.

And in another text following this, here's what Stolas says:

"If you don't feel like coming, that's OK! I'm sure I can do without [the grimoire] for one month."

Why do you need the fucking book at all, Stolas.

He's used it to make the harvest moon visible at the festival, but it's never clear what purpose that serves. We've never seen him use it for anything in his daily life; just that thing that happens once a year. Come to think of it, we've never seen Stolas in his day-to-day job. As a Goetia demon, he has legions to command (Andrealphus even mentions them), but the story never shows us the political, leadership-driven side of his life. He just sits around doing sweet fuck-all. Striker's argument against monarchs is that they "talk over [the lower classes]", but there's a strong case to be made for them simply contributing nothing of substance to society.

All in all, this episode made me feel nothing. There was no meaningful progression in the story. Sure, Stolas is injured, but he has the exact same problems of being married to someone he wants to divorce and Blitzo being emotionally distant. Stella has the same problem of Stolas being alive, even though she herself called off his execution. Striker's still at large. Moxxie and Millie still have a squeaky-clean relationship, Blitzo's still an ass, and Loona will likely return to her regular self in the next episode. Functionally speaking, everyone ends the episode in the same place they began, making me wonder what the point of it is in the larger narrative. Getting a hunch that Viv just needed an excuse to hospitalize Stolas so the audience would pity him.

I'm calling it now: Stolas is out of the hospital in the next one. He might still have some bandages and whatnot, but his injuries won't present any real obstacles to him until they're convenient to the plot. I'm betting there won't even be scars where Striker stabbed him, because at this point, continuity is WAY too much to ask of this show.

If this were a better-written series, Stolas would actually use his damn wealth and political power to put a bounty on Striker's head that'd have everyone in Hell gunning for him. Or why not use those legions he has at his disposal? Furthermore, now that he knows Stella hired Striker, what's stopping him from having her executed, or banished, or imprisoned, or something? But then if the characters used their brains, Viv wouldn't get the plot she wants, and we can't have that.

The previous episode had me curious to find out what would happen next. This one just added nothing to my life. I don't know how much longer I can keep watching this show. I'm not a fan of hate-watching media as life is short and there are numerous shows and films out there that'll make much more enjoyable use of my time. "If it sucks, hit da bricks" and all that. Yet Helluva Boss still has a pull in being an incredible teaching tool for how NOT to write a series. Writing these reviews has been thoroughly educational for me, and it seems they've helped others as well. But fuck, man. At what cost. When will I finally throw up my hands and say "Enough"?

If I hear the next one's not terrible, I might give it a watch. But that's a pretty big if. I'm very tired.

[tekkenjournalist]

So, Tekken 8 come out tomorrow.

So, here is the scoop.

If you want to play a fighting game this is the one you should get, straight up. Its jam packed full of really fun stuff to do. Its 3 dimensional and its like a really cool action movie, and there are very many cool characters.

Things there are:

Story mode, which is like mortal kombats story mode but has some cool unique gameplay segments that arent just, like, fight and then cutscene and then fight and then cutscene. But theres still cutscenes, and theyre really good. Street fighters story mode is like a beat em up kinda thing but theres only like 18 cutscenes because theres 18 characters. Or some really small number like that.

So instead you got Tekken Ball

And this is a whole lotta fun and you can play it with your buddies so its not like some dumb like "Towers" thing thats like a shitty minigame you have to play.

And also you can customize your guy!

But its not like mortal kombat you can actually like fully pick and edit the color and stuff like that. It's a lot of fun to play dress up its a whole lotta fun to see what kinda crazy stuff people do with their guys haha.

It's really "the whole package" it even has cutscenes for the arcade mode for characters which is something most games arent even doing now a days. And theres 32 guys at the start which is more than most of the other games around right now even though theyve started adding more already.

And it's 3d!!! Its fully 3d and you can sidestep in either direction soooo its a LOT more deep and complex than 2d fighters just inherently. And thats before you get into the real potatoes of the game, its that, characters have like A HUNDRED moves minimum. Other games are doing like 30 moves MAX!!

Come on, what are you gonna do? NOT play tekken 8?

So I guess I'll see you in TEKKEN 8, new chaallenger!!!

[moondialdoodles]

*points at you* hoi :3

I've seen you talk bout a lotta things but nit Mario rpg so far! What makes it interesting to ya? What do ya enjoy about it? :3c

I’m so sorry for the very very long post you’re about to read.

This franchise has been everything to me ever since I first discovered it as a kid, to the point where I have most definitely obsessed over it for.. literally years at a time.

Full post under the cut due to length.

So! I’d known about these games since I was.. I want to say eight years old. I was obsessed with Mario ever since I had gotten my first console, the DSI, when I was six. I discovered the M&L series from YouTube, after begging my mom to let me watch videos there. From that point on, I discovered the game’s soundtracks, gameplay videos, etc. I’d watch them for hours on end, over and over. I was utterly hooked. Having Mario games with these cool new locations? New villains? The music that I could listen to for hours and hours on end?? An actual story? It was the best thing ever! A short time after discovering them, I discovered Mario roleplaying games on Roblox, which only fueled my love for the idea and games. Eventually I got my very first M&L game, Dream Team, on the year of release! I played it obsessively. Every day, every night, for hours and hours and hours. It never bored me. The characters had me fascinated, the humor made me giggle, just everything about the game was perfect to capture my mind, who already was obsessed with storytelling at the time. The bros themselves were the best part at first, thanks to me adoring their dynamic. I loved the games properly exploring their brotherly relationship, and how much they cared for eachother. It seeped into a lot of the stories that I’d written for them, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Really for the longest time the best part of the games to me was the bros. Though that didn’t last too long. At the age of fourteen, I’d gotten my hands on the Superstar Saga remake! After begging my parents to buy me the rest of the games, SSS was the very last game I needed to complete my collection.

This game

This game was my downfall.

If my obsession wasn’t bad before, this game started the true obsession. The environment, the characters, the music, the story, I loved it. Peasley was my favorite character out of the bunch, and he still is, of course. I never payed much attention to him until I saw the Royal brat in action. Yeahhh. Yeah. He had my heart. Smug, valiant, he somehow hit every mark for little ol me. That was the start of it all. From that point onwards, at the age of fifteen specifically, I started making a buttload of headcanons, lore to fill in the gaps, and finally, ocs. A lot of ocs. It turned into its own big ol story! It’s been now.. seven years of me doing this!! A lot’s happened, and I’ve grown a lot! Those stories have grown with me, and it’s honestly the thing I’ve poured most my heart into. It’s aged like milk, because yes, stories created when you were fifteen or sixteen aren’t gonna be the equivalent of picasso, but I still adore it and love it to bits. It’s my baby, I’ll die for that baby. It’s.. quite literally my own little love letter to the franchise and how much it’s shaped my life. My writing wouldn’t be the same without it, and neither would anything else. This franchise is a part of me, and always will be. With Brothership releasing soon, I can only see my little obsession growing.

The writing is so charming and goofy, and I have to thank the games for influencing me so much in that regard. They always make me laugh or smile, or feel so much. The animations add onto all of that, and make the game feel so… alive! The stories have always been so unique and fun, giving me years of thoughts and smiles, and the characters have always made me the happiest person alive.

M&L is my favorite franchise. It always will be. I’m so happy that I was able to discover it, and have so much of it shape my life. I wouldn’t be who I am today without it!

But, you wanted to hear why I liked M&L, so here you go! I think my favorite games in order tho have to be…

Superstar Saga, Dream Team, Bowser’s Inside Story, Partners in Time, and Paper Jam. I’ll see where brothership places when it releases!

I need to post my Mario stuff more, and maybe I’ll get to talk about all my silly things more often. If you’ve been my friend for any time at all, you know how much this franchise means to me. It’s.. a several hour long conversation, which a lot of them have had the misfortune of hearing.

Trust me, over 80 ocs and over a decade of obsessing over one little franchise does something to a girl.

Hope you enjoyed this read though, I’m glad to be able to share it with everyone!

[casually-salad]

Hey I noticed you said you were getting mean asks so I wanted to give you a nice one to counteract it! You have an amazing cute artstyle that lends so well to the horror aspect as it's so deceiving. The fluffiness of the designs is adorable and your Pinkie Pie is LITERALLY the cutest Pinkie I've ever seen (and I've been in the fandom since like 2011)!!! I love the queer rep too! Esp the polyamory. Rarely have I ever seen polyamorous mlp content in the past over a decade, so it's such a treat to see.

Something I've found so interesting with these horror MLP AUs is how much the bury your gays trope (sorta) happens. Normally it'd be a problem but in these AUs there's literally SO many other queer characters that it almost feels like queer folk are almost reclaiming the trope? It's fascinating to see!

Another thing I love with your AU is the focus on background ponies and OCs (but with the inclusions of that adorable Pinkie Pie). Usually in terms of bg ponies all you see in these AUs are Redheart, Cherilee, Derpy, Dr. Hooves, Lyra, and Bonbon imo. There's nothing wrong with any of them, but they're the main ones I've seen. So it's extremely refreshing to see characters other people haven't really used! It's unique!

At some point I might draw some fanart of your characters if I get the energy, I love them a lot even if I have trouble remembering names sometimes.

Oh and I like that you're responsive when fans have questions, so I hope you get other good messages too to fill your inbox with positivity!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH thats so niceys to me.......

i didnt get around to answering it for a bit because. i liked a little joy in my inbox (( and ive been a bit overwhelmed recently ))

i wanna say thank YOU for all the countless support youve given me for my funny little series, im happy to have you around!!!!!!! it makes me sooooo sad how often a lotta queer couples might just be used for drama ((appledashmylittleworms)) or constantlyyyy are getting murdered in front of eachother (( lyra and bonbon in like. every au )) it may be horrifying but love should prevail too!! it sucks to see a lotta stories just be one sided with everything, either they gotta have no ships because its scary or a bunch cuz its silly, you can do both!!!!!!!! i think bonds and relationships regardless of the types are really what make a story a story! and i know theres a lotta smack thrown at polyamory and it makes me so sad, i identified as poly for many years and although i dont anymore i think its CRAAAZY that people get so upset over it.... whats there to hate...... theres just more love for everyone.......

anyway- i just wanted to say thank you sooooo much for everything <3 and if you have any questions anytime id be happy to answer them, in inbox or comments or whichever works best for you!! im happy to engage and get people more immersed in my story! i know that i cant convey a everything perfectly (( thank my epic brain for that)) , i LOOOOVE answering questions. for real. i love quaestions. and although i may get nervous, please know i read everything and really appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!1

[noblechaton]

gonna ramble a bit about the ml art style change bc ig I have more thoughts about it than I knew. tagging this as leaks but no like story stuff is gonna be mentioned bc I don't really know any lol

so going off what little we've seen of it (and in arguably the lowest possible quality at that) I think it's gonna make the show very visually pretty which isn't to say it couldn't be or wasn't in the older style(s) but that was def more inconsistent between studios and such so if this new style is the standard then like. yeah it's gonna look great

buuuuuuuut I also think it looks kinda. generic? like what's happened to a lotta brand logos that used to have personality but now all look super flat and simplified. like the Pepsi logo or whatever. it's a similar situation to the movie (I'll get into this in a bit) where like yes it looks pretty but it doesn't really look like Miraculous to me? like ik the style kinda varied somewhat between the studios but it was largely consistent enough and felt much more unique. like I could see a screencap from any timestamp of any episode and place it as Miraculous just bc of the visual style

now tho it looks less unique to me and more....like a mobile game ad? some kinda un-marketed direct to streaming movie? not trying to sound mean or anything but it just doesn't strike that same feeling the old style did for me as of yet. it feels more like an attempt to ape off a generic Pixar/Disney sorta style which the movie's style did too - and that ig is a good excuse for me to kinda dive into my thoughts there bc like. it looks way more like that movie now right? the y'know completely non-canon movie that to my knowledge wasn't received too terribly well lmao. I feel like this is on some level purposeful tho

I made a post the other day about how someone (especially the youngins) might go into season 6 thinking it's actually more of a season 1 only to presumably find that very much isn't the case pretty quick lmao - but that's still a new viewer, which makes number go up, which is a Good Thing. that s6 looks to be something of a fresh start given the whole Gabe in da Ground situation makes me believe this more since I'm pretty sure he got got in the movie too (<- does not remember the movie she saw twice) albeit in a different way. very real chance they view s6 as something of a soft launch pad with the hope of ppl who only saw the movie just jumping in without looking first. I also have an even more insane conspiracy theory that they're using movie assets at lower res for the sake of cost management but again. nutso hunch

regardless I'm kinda surprised they're changing it so drastically this deep into the series and I have no idea how the quality of animation is gonna hold up from episode to episode, season to season. presumably this is part'a why we haven't had s6 drop yet, that they've been working on it thoroughly, but it's been a good minute since s5 ended and I feel like the drought in content isn't really worth it?

like it's been so long that to me sometimes it's felt like the show straight up ended and while I don't mind a wait like this, the show then coming back looking entirely different to how it used to is gonna be jarring. I'm giving it a chance bc we haven't really seen it yet and that footage is very likely a wip of some sort but all the same I'm not terribly impressed? the emotions seem more stilted and flat, there's a few sorta redesigns that look....off (namely Adrichat, imo), and it feels too much like an attempt at cashing in on whatever success the movie might have had by bringing the look of the show more in line with it

think what gets me the most is that the style and animation of the show was one of the biggest things that drew me in beyond the bugcat of it all. it was the first CG animated show I'd seen where I felt as if the animation really worked; the world felt alive and vibrant, the city lived in and populated, but it didn't feel uncanny or like realistic in any sense, and there were plenty of gaffs and flaws throughout but I feel that only endeared the look of the show to me more - it had its own style that stood out for better or worse and I think that played more a role in the show's success than most have given credit for, and now that it's being entirely dropped in favor of a style that feels much more like some generic CG animation style I can't help but feel a bit disheartened and even nervous about the future of the series tbh

want to say that I'm not looking to hate it - I'm gonna give it a chance, and again I think it does visually look pretty, but I feel like it loses a lot of what made the show stand out to me and changes things I don't think really needed changed. time will tell but as of now I'm really not sold on it

also think having a special (or two? maybe?) in the old style just to drop us into the newer one presumably shortly after is kinda weird. wonder what happened there. bad timing? tbh using a special to introduce it mighta helped a bit but idk for sure

[romanceclub-confessionss]

At the Alisa plagiarism anon: early RC stories were notoriously infamous for ripping off a lotta stuff. Like they didn't even hide it and would make little "teaser" posts about what existing media inspired a new story to convey the general vibe of it. Even when recruiting writers they'd specify that the person should be very pop culture savvy and have an avid interest in movies/books/video games. Not to mention their early stories being straight up ripoffs of books from pb's choices lmao. Oh and let's not forget actual celebrities used as references for their early sprites too 🥴 like it's clearly not just Alisa's problem but RC's own direction (at least in their early days).

it's definitely not a secret that early RC stories were heavily inspired by existing media but choices?? Are we reading the same thing? I think RC stories had similarities to popular books and movies. However, over time, the stories have become more original and unique, and the writers have developed their own style and voice. -mod lyn