#making of the franchise thingies

[dragonsinboston]

only 20 minutes together is just. brutal.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary How To Train Your Dragon 2

[triple-pupil]

The whole gang is here.

[dokidokitsuna]

Tragic Sky

(very long salty rant ahead (+new Alterna backstory, though! ^^;))

So I've always thought Alterna’s backstory, despite being presented as a grand mystery that’s definitely worth fighting through 90% of the missions to uncover in its entirety…was kinda stupid. :/ I’m all for humanity destroying itself for ridiculous reasons, but trying to launch a rocket in an enclosed space?? Are you serious…? o_O How could the Alternans devote such immense amounts of time and energy to something like that without once thinking, “hey, uh…burning metric tons of high-energy fuel inside of our flammable safety dome might be a little unsafe, idk”.

And it shouldn’t even have been necessary! DX I mean, if they were able to build a dome like that in the first place, wouldn’t they have some sort of scaffolding or elevator system they could use to reach the top and just literally climb out if they wanted to leave that badly?? Had Alterna existed for so long that the technology used to create it was lost to time (seeing as it’s implied that Alterna was destroyed by its SECOND generation, I doubt it)...?? Or, did the writers suddenly realize that coming up with pseudo-scientific lore that explains why inkfishes resemble humanity is wholly unnecessary and adds nothing to the themes of Splatoon…but it was too late to rework the concept, so they just finished off the story with whatever-the-heck and called it a day. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I guess we’ll never know...

Anyway, my version of Alterna’s backstory starts with a similar premise: humans invented crystal thingies that can manifest people’s desires and whatnot…but this alone caused conflict that eventually doomed Alterna. People began to make their own interpretations of other people’s desires, judging and condemning them for how they manifested. They began treating the crystals’ reflections as compulsory measures of morality and worth, rather than simple expressions of the human heart that exist outside of a good/bad binary. Alterna’s leaders envisioned themselves creating a society of ‘pure truth’, free from the destructive power of deceit and subterfuge…all the while ignoring the destructive power of paranoia and exclusion that they immersed themselves in.

Exclusion escalated to oppression, which eventually spawned rebellion: plans were made to create a rocket that would allow a select group of ‘undesirables’ to escape Alterna for the surface world, destroying the integrity of their safe haven in the process. Despite not knowing what was waiting for them out there, they were willing to take the risk in the name of freedom. Eventually, this secret plan was revealed to the public, resulting in Alterna’s first and last civil war. As the Alternans began to fight and kill each other, the crystals were overwhelmed with the unprecedented ferocity of their clashing desires-- “a violent and terrible chain reaction ensued”, and the energy within them exploded outward. The sky dome, still filled with the beautiful blue of the peoples’ wishes for peace and happiness, came crumbling down, raining fire and shrapnel upon Alterna. The still-poisoned air of the outside world flowed freely into the cavern, ensuring the eventual death of anyone who might have survived.

…Then the crystals fell in the ocean, the sea creatures were imbued with human hopes and dreams, yadda yadda, all that’s basically the same as the canon too. And although I still think it’s unneeded (the mere concept of a bygone humanity in Splatoon carries plenty of weight without all this “lore”, imo), at least now the story isn’t stupid!

It speaks to the way humans actually treat each other, and blames their downfall on their long-established bad habits of cruelty and callousness, rather than morally-neutral traits like ambition and pursuit of the unknown (I would never have expected “curiosity killed the cat” as the lesson of the day from Splatoon, of all franchises. o_O This IS the same game that celebrates individual expression and forging your own path, right…?)

Anyway…I’m gonna be using elements of this rewritten backstory and the theme of “manifesting desires” to flesh out the final boss encounter and Agent 3’s subtle character arc. So please look forward to that~

[daylesspax]

So, I’m sure other people have said this BUT!

TFOne spoilers ahead:

Transformers One’s uses of ‘transformation’ is impeccable. I think I truly got to appreciate it when the race contestants did their transformations and each was uniquely done! Yes, almost all transformations across franchises are unique, but it made me so giddy in the theater to watch it…

And then I saw how the roads changed and, well, transformed

The trains in particular, they survive the surface because, like the surface, the railway/railroads change and adapt to the ever-changing and transforming planet— because of course their railroads can transform!

I know I’m jumping around— but I also took note of it during the mining montage, about how caves regularly open, close, and shift around. They need special tools to keep rifts open long enough to mine, and as we’ve seen, mining is incredibly dangerous and it shows what miners have to put up with— their lives are constantly in danger because unlike human mines, where we have some certainty in the stability of the terrain, their mines are at risk of spontaneously closing or coming across an unstable energon vein. And also knowing that the material they mine is so volatile is just an extra layer! (And the fact the planet transforms so often leaves room to question why transformers themselves aren’t nomadic— how can cities like Iacon or the High Guard’s hideout exist? Does the Primis simply sense where his people are most concentrated and transforms to accommodate their homes? Do they use similar technology to the stabilizing sticks but stronger to keep the space open?)

Moving away from that tangent…

I would also like to pull attention to the incredible fight scenes! I have only seen the movie once in theatre so I can’t give a deep analyses into things I’ve missed, however, I’d like to share the things I picked up

I adore how incorporated transformation is to a transformer’s movement and what they can do with their bodies— they shouldn’t move like humans because they aren’t humans and I love it when transformers media does stuff with their bodies that makes sense. For example, Elita one spinning her entire torso/waist in a 360 to do a spin-kick rather than doing it with her full body because she doesn’t need to do that! There are no muscles, skin, or bones that could break if she did that!

Sentinel is able to transform his weapon and transform his arm to capture D-16’s rather than simply catching it with his normal fist

They’re able to move their kibble to suit their needs in either mode— my favorite example is when Optimus tears off Megatron’s tank cannon (the one mounted on top of his vehicle, not the black one in his arm) but Megatron fucking flips over and TRANSFORMS IT BACK INTO HIS BODY TO CONSEQUENTLY USE IT AS A WEAPON TO SHOOT OPTIMUS HOLY SHIT THAT’S COOL AS FUCK!

Optimus/Orion is also able to move his little rocket booster thingies on the sides of his arms both in and out of vehicle mode, making it really feel like it’s still the same mech and that the vehicle form is still attached to the mech and not just plain kibble that doesn’t move outside of transformation!

Another example of really incorporating the vehicle mode with the mech, uh— AIRACHNID??? She can just transform her head open (a little)?!! Her entire body is a thin, but deadly frame, and it’s obvious where each of her limbs are in vehicle mode, which I think is super cool!

And just… gods, this movie is good

[f1shart]

i am Hearing you Out on Tankbalt. me and bro when we're traumatized teens forced to carry the curse of being too much like our parents and not enough at the same time. please go on

EVERYTHING TANKBALT HAS IN COMMON

rambling under the cut. aha

both the oldest brother with two younger siblings and are the strongest out of them (IGNORING TANK'S 0 BODY POINTS) - you could say they take on the protector role

The Anger

both cover their faces

neurodivergent coded. one camouflages and the other masks come the fuck ON

they have one signature color (which are complementary fyi 💚❤️)

both involved in family feuds though the grunt-smith one is much smaller in scale. also they both have a really gay obsession with a boy from their opposing clan

dead moms that are a key factor in their unbridled Rage

on the topic of family, they both also have a male parental figure that has both a heavy overall influence on them and encourages them to partake in the feud (in consort's case you could argue he doesnt actually encourage tybalt to beat the shit out of the monty brothers every day, but he also doesn't effectively stop him or even make an effort to. i say "effectively" as a reference to the scene in r&j where capulet calls him a saucy boy for wanting to deal with romeoSORRY IM SO OBSESSED WITH THAT)

going back to the color thing can i also say how both their colors relate heavily to their family/expectations... tank's green is obviously representative of how buzz expects him to pursue a career in the military and center his whole life around it; meanwhile tybalt's red, often the "Capulet color" in many r&j adaptations, represents his very strong allegiance to his clan and how he's like. the only teen in that town to actually give a fuck about the feud

both are fanonically associated with an animal aka angry pussy and perrito encerrado <3 not to mention that the kitty x puppy type ship dynamic is very popular

both technically come from wealthy families? i'm just being logical here - i KNOW the grunts dont have a super mega amount of cash in their bank like the capps (and those guys are a whole different breed of rich..) but generals make a fuckton of money irl so just imagine the accumulated wealth of wholeass generations of them!! plus, buzz often gets this one chance card that, if you choose correctly, he brings home §50,000. if u get that one make sure to choose to launch a missile at the thingy (asteroid?) btw

what if we dove into fanon real quick..you could sayyy they both have physical signs of their trauma ^_^ for tybalt, it's his burn scars from escaping the fire that killed his parents when he was young and additionally having to save his even younger sisters. for tankernaut there's a couple of things you could argue: 1. his ptosis. i typically depict it as a congenital thing mysef but perhaps it's stress-induced? from my 5-second google search i've concluded that this isn't possible as a permanent affliction but first of all Fuck Realism, secondly it could be a thing that just appears every once in a while when he's reeeally going through it. and 2. his funny bone injury mentioned in gba/ds, presumably obtained on the battlefield. i've also seen tank depicted with more intense scarring (shoutout to my boy mash) but yap yap NEXT POINT?!??

hmmmmm ah. i think my brain juice's all fixzled oit.... hm. both are whi..te...???

both reeeaalllyy gay like fag asf. quite possibly the gayest boys of the sim franchise

TANKBALT GALLERY

[mylittlesecrethaven]

Facts About the TWST Boys You Might Not Know: Savanaclaw

My goodness it's been a minute since the first one.

I have like, 50 posts to write up, so it's not surprising this came so far after the first one.

Let's get into it then.

Leona:

Em.... not much about him honestly... the only thing I could find of interest is that Malleus approaches Leona pretty often. Which is actually kinda funny. I'm curious why he does that.

Ruggie:

His uniform is a hand-me-down from Leona, which is really funny to me for some reason.

He knows how to greet and negotiate with someone in at least 10 languages. Fucking hell, that's incredible.

I knew this one, but it's kinda funny. In Japanese, he calls his broom "Broom-kun," and you can hear that in the gym class thingy. It's really cute.

Jack:

So, this is pretty well known, but he's not based on any character in the Lion King franchise. (I think they just needed a good character to mediate Leona and Ruggie a little (But that makes me curious about Octavinelle, since they're all pretty insane.... maybe Azul's normal... whatever)

He has a younger brother and sister that he's stated can play tag for 6 hours straight without getting tired.

I swear, Heartslabyul gets all the love.

Where's all the fun facts for Savanaclaw?

How upsetting.

[juni-ravenhall]

im sure u guys talked about this when the medieval thing was released and i wasnt active bc of the horrors, but doesnt it feel like the medieval group thing is inspired directly from HP house stuff which is questionable considering the author-being-a-transphobic-and-racist-evildoer thing? like, theres blue and silver, red and gold, yellow and black and just skipping the green one.

feels to me like they couldve gone with other colour combos. especially ones RELATED TO SSO, like jorvik flag colours, purple-pink for pandoria or purple green for south hoof, snow for dino valley, autumn for golden hills, etc, colour combos we saw recently for the ribbon thingy. factions that make sense for the existing game. things that tie into lore.

instead of referencing what is now a very controversial transphobia-related and racist media franchise, in their horse game that is ~progressive and loves women and queer people and poc and we're so diverse~ (says rich white man making bank on manipulating kids to buy overpriced things in unserious game)

i know that esme silverforce, who works at sse and is a youtuber, is a HP fan and afaik she played the HP game and does stuff like name her sso horse HP names.... sure, theres that whole "death of the author" thing and i think these things can be very complex!!! there are trans and poc fans of HP that choose to enjoy it despite flaws (and assumably view it from the "death of the author" standpoint). im a huge lover of nuance and understanding, but im also a huge lover of trans people and poc, and a huge hater of transphobes and racists. idk what else to say about the whole thing but i wanted to post about it bc i feel iffy about this. it seems like a bad choice both bc sse shouldnt support HP in this manner as a company/game, and also just bc stupid fucking game design that yet again has nothing really to do with the existing sso game and lore.

[dragonsinboston]

really, REALLY strange to see berk without its giant mountain peak?? poor island is nakey :(

“This is Berk. It’s twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It’s located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village.” - Hiccup, How to Train Your Dragon

[basil-does-arttt]

Devil May Cry 2. The pimple-faced teenager of the series, widely regarded as the worst game in the franchise.

While yes i agree with this viewpoint to some degree, and i think all the jokes about it being the worst one are funny... i honestly dont think the game is THAT bad. In fact, i think people give it too much shit.

Ill start out by saying this: no, the game isnt amazing. Its under-developed, rushed, and in no way is it up to the same standard as the other 4 games. Im not saying its this perfect game, but its not as horrible as some make it out to be.

Ive played through the game on the original PS2 version and the remastered version, and although im yet to complete Lucia's campaign, i can confidently say the game is mediocre at worst really.

First the gameplay: Boring? Yes. Definitely. Do you like standing in one place and shooting everything for 15 minutes untill it drops dead? This is the game for you. But you dont have to do that, it just happens to be the easiest option because the controls are so jank. I spent (some) time myself learning the combos, turns out it depends on the way you angle the joystick, and once you get the hang of it, its not that difficult to S rank combat encounters at all. Its annoying, but not impossible, and the combos can honestly look pretty cool imo.

The movement is also another thing, the dodge animation takes way too long to perform but i do like the forward dash. Its a nice alternative to using stinger as a makeshift movement dash, i wish they kept it for furture versions of Dante. (Yes i know theres the trickster dash, but he doesn't do a flip)

I also really love the flying mechanic with aerial heart, and the different kinds of core thingies you could combine as a whole. A unique feature that kinda got combined into other things in Dante's design.

A few of the bosses, if they had been fleshed out and maybe balanced a bit better, could've been just amazing too. Furiataurus for example. One boss i feel was done well though was The Despair Embodied, and although you can just stand around and shoot it to death like everything else, you do actually have to put effort in to not get hit and die. (Trismalga is also kinda in that boat too, a well(ish) done fight you actually have to put effort into, but i personally didn't like it.)

Next, level design: You have to admit they did some cool things with the level design. *some*. The whole "grungy city" vibe is something i found very interesting, and the trippy purple iteration of lower town was, while infuriating to navigate thanks to the camera and graphics (esp on the ps2 version), was actually quite neat. I also really liked the clock tower in Lucia's campaign.

And also, the music. Can i just say, i think dmc 2's soundtrack is my favorite one out of all 5 games. The ambient background tracks are almost dreamy, especially Lucia's ones, the boss themes honestly go hard and the piano track that's repeated throughout the whole soundtrack just sounds good. If you take anything away from this post, its that you should listen to the soundtrack. (I reccomend the tracks "Unholy Relics", "Cry for the Moon", and "Shoot the Works")

The character designs are another thing i think they did well in this game. In my humble opinion, Dante's dmc 2 style is the best looking one in the whole series. Lucia also looks quite cool, her devil trigger form especially.

The characters themselves, Dante especially, need work, but might i remind you the developers were rushed when making this game. They didn't have enough time to do everything they wanted to do, 6 months before the game was supposed to release they didn't even have it in working condition. It was only thanks to Itsuno stepping in as the director that we got this game in the first place, and all he could do was salvage what the team had already created and get it in a releasable state before launch.

If only they had a bit more time (and maybe resources), dmc 2 couldve been quite the cool game. Though, on that note, if it werent for dmc 2's catastrophic faliure and Itsuno's prompt pestering for a sequel so the franchise didn't die outright, we wouldn't have gotten dmc 3. Though i think Capcom would've made a 3rd game regardless of the scenario.

All in all, i dont think dmc 2 is that horrible of a game. If you have the remaster collection, or even the original PS2 version, at least try it. Give it a go, play through the first few missions and kill one or two of the bosses.

Don't take it seriously, just have fun and enjoy the game in all its janky half-finished glory. If you look at dmc 2 that way, i think you'll enjoy it a whole lot more.

Or dont. Yknow, its your choice.

[nerdyfan1]

Fairy Odd Parents and Mean Spiritedness

Pasted over a mini Discord essay thingy cus I think I had a good point here lol

Actually something else that I guess I can talk about is an opinion I’ve seen floating around is “A New Wish is so much better, it’s less mean spirited” and like even as someone who was kind of mixed on the original I want to like defend it there. Especially since I think it’s only half true. The mean spiritedness was in concept supposed to have purpose here. Which is good. Just because something is mean doesn’t make it bad. I should know my favorite show like ever is The Amazing World of Gumball. There definitely a lot of times where I agree it was too mean. The first example that came to mind is “It’s A Wishful Life”. An episode that fundumenltally misses the point of this by basically hammering in that Timmy was right in thinking that everyone be better off if he wasn’t born. Yet overall before the season rot hit the balancing act was handled really well.

Now we can look at A New Wish. Yes this show is definitely not as mean. That’s because thematically it wouldn’t make sense given Hazel’s character. Hazel didn’t have a life where she’s constantly being beaten down. She’s more a girl struggling to adapt to her environment. Like that’s what Dev’s character is here for (which I’ll get to later). If Hazel’s episodes treated her like the original did with Timmy it be overkill. It also wouldn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t the story narratively want to make the new town more inviting? As I said Hazel’s conflict is about her growing to learn to love her new home. So the tone is reflecting that.

Leading me to Dev cus this is where I start my argument against the idea that A New Wish isn’t mean spirited at all. A better way to phase it is it isn’t *as* mean spirited as the original. A New Wish can be incredibly mean to Dev. My first example the scene where Cosmo pretends to be Dale in Peace of Pizza. Heck you can argue any of his scenes with his dad are mean spirited too. Yet that’s not a bad thing cus it has a purpose. It’s to establish Dev is miserable and needed a fairy. It also comes up a lot in his story to far especially in OBTB. It also explains his behavior in the beginning of the season.

Just like the original the mean spiritedness here has a narrative purpose. It also nicely ties it back to core idea of the franchise itself. Fairies are supposed to be here to help miserable kids or kids who need help. You know like a life coach basically. Dev’s character takes the idea of the main idea of the franchise and runs with it. Cus yeah realistically there are some horribly miserable kids who are gonna be maybe a lot more troubled than others. I can’t really say as much as where exactly they’ll take it cus there still going and we’ll have to see where Dev’s character takes the idea of a more serious even kind tragic take on the original concept of the franchise. However it’s so clear from what we’re shown they plan to try a very different approach with this boy. This show establishes Dev so well too. Both letting the audience get attached while establishing him as a person and showing how in reality his life is miserable. And he keeps the main spirit of that concept while still letting us keep a more different feeling main character then Timmy.

Dev is here to keep with the main idea of FOP conceptually while Hazel is here to give us something more different and let this series take episodes in a different approach the og show couldn’t really do with Timmy. I actually appreciate Hazel’s character for this reason.

[beloved-cat-gremlin]

Apparently a new LN3 trailer dropped last night and I've seen a lot of people not be happy about it.

I haven't seen it yet, might check it out after work, but I knew form the get go that LN3 wasn't going to be like LN and LN2.

It is sad that Tarsier isn't making the LN series anymore but because of that I knew that the third instalment was going to feel drastically different from what Tarsier normally does.

That being said I'm still rooting for LN3 and I hope they make good changes and bring another good game into the franchise. I don't think it could top LN2 or even the first LN, but I think it will still be a decent and good game.

(I still need to check out the apparent book that exists and listen to the podcast thingy as well)

And speaking of Tarsier, what I did see was the Reanimal trailer. And omg this looks absolutely amazing!

This might be the thing to bring me back into Tarsier and LN all together.

In a reblog I said that it won't be the next LN that I wanted, but Tarsier's style is just so good and I cannot wait for their new game to release.

Animal body horror is genuinely more freaky than normal body horror in my opinion and I have a feeling that this game will freak me out even more than LN did.

Also hope Tobias Lilja is still making the ost for that game. His music is top tier.

[c00kietin]

HELL YEAH THANK YOU - anyway-

may I present. metal sonic. specifically neo metal sonic. this involves a lot of interpretation of sonic heroes, the game where metal sonic gets his neo form and mainly a lot of background from comics (archie + IDwW) as well but shhh it is fine I do analysis for a living (<- lie but I do do it a lot)

so. metal sonic, if you didn’t know, is a robotic copy of sonic the hedgehog built by his nemesis dr eggman. he was made to kill sonic and get rid of him, and his entire identity is entirely dependant on sonic. he is a copy of sonic, but really he wants to be sonic. this is a major part of his character; metal sonic is forever beneath sonic, never the real true sonic, always being defeated by sonic, sonic is inescapable. it’s in metal sonic’s very name. he hates sonic.

i love this depth to his character and I enjoy his struggle. identity crisis reigns supreme. even if he kills sonic, who even is he anymore? metal sonic? metal who?

in sonic heroes, metal sonic is the main villain rather than eggman. i don’t remember everything, but the point is that metal sonic is independent now and leads all the badniks (eggman’s robots and machines) to take down everyone and the most important part is that metal sonic becomes neo metal sonic, which involves a chassis and outfit change. i can’t provide a picture but you should look her up. neo metal sonic.

look at them. i think they’re stunning, drop-dead gorgeous. their ‘quills’ are longer, they have a skirt-adjacent item of clothing, playing reminiscent of sleeves, and the white really brings out their eyes if I may say so. I headcanon neo metal sonic as transfem genderfluid. I’ll explain this in a second.

but gosh. they’re no longer working under direct orders from eggman. they get to be their own sentient being. it’s still priority one: hedgehog, but it’s on their terms now. they’re the main villain now and they get to pull all of the strings and experience power. I’m so happy for them. she’s awesome honestly.

back to their outfit now. in the sonic franchise, it’s mainly girls who wear a proper set of clothes/full outfits. sonic, shadow, silver, tails, knuckles, most male-presenting characters only wear gloves and shoes. meanwhile amy has a dress, blaze has a full oufit, honey has an awesome dress too. neo has a skirt, a chassis that looks as if she’s dressed and she’s rocking it honestly. all this time they’ve been forced into one-upping this guy they hate, this guy they simultaneously hate and want to be and now they’ve got individuality. sonic who? they’re neo metal. they’re awesome and they’re so much better than sonic.

I’ve always loved them honestly, and understanding their story and character now that I’m older makes it all the better. I think metal is great, neo metal is pretty hot and they’re my favourite sonic character.

I’m sos sorry for making this much, much longer than I expected but… um… heartfelt analysis for you to read I suppose?

anon this was so real of you i feel like i'd score 100% on a Neo Metal Sonic test after reading this/pos 😌

hope the doodle is accurate enough vhgsvs

Their story sounds so interesting!!! Searching them up too they also looked very cool :D

I love the skirt n long sleeve thingies hehe

you are correct she is ROCKING IT!!!

Might watch sonic someday I do admittedly like a few of the characters--

Overall:

☆☆☆☆

[mbat]

man so i think about the draenei i guess a lot more than most people do since i cant find as much discussion about them as i Want To so anyway something thats been frustrating me for months is

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE DEAL WITH THE TENDRIL TENTACLE THINGIES ON THEIR NECKS/CHINS

i keep trying to figure it out and nothing sounds right

AND NO im not making it a weird thing because i never even liked that trope of something extra about a non-human characters body being ~sensitive~ and its always something stupid too. ive literally seen people do that with tails and horns. like. no.

im trying to think of a real reason theyd have those

it also bothers me because as far as i personally know, they dont even move in canon, like, theyre not something that can move like a limb or something

but even when i was trying to reference real nature, even something like a starnosed moles nose thingies are able to move, they help them sense things (mostly prey) underneath the dirt for example

and a sea anemones tentacle thingies also move and help them basically latch onto things or push things around or whatever

so one of my conclusions is that somehow the ones on the draenei have to move even though ive never seen or heard of them doing that

and even then its like. okay but what do they do. are they some strange form of temperature regulation? do they help them sense something that they otherwise arent able to?

they cant be something that helps sense vibrations because theyre not in a good position for that, they cant help with balance because theyre not in a position for that either

the worst part is I KNOW that in canon theyre just an added feature to future emphasize how alien the draenei are compared to every other playable species. BUT COME ON. they have this whole universe made of rabbit hole after rabbit hole, theres probably several million words written about this franchise on the wiki alone for all i fucking know, and they cant just have One that says what the hell those tentacle thingies do? on both the page about the race as a whole and the page for the playable race they just mention them in a sentence or two and dont elaborate on really anything

plus theres the fact that they decorate them with jewelry, and the men can have them in their beards, so like, they cover them up as if they dont need to be uncovered and its just

WHAT. WHY. WHAT IS THIS. WHAT ARE THOSE. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

i am not a biologist idk what the fuck they could possibly do im just a guy who likes fictional creatures a lot 😔😔😔😔

[acesgarden]

16 Days of Birthday Fun; Day 8 - Leonardo

8 days left AAAA

Type ->

Headcanons

Pairing ->

Leonardo x GN!Reader

Warning(s) ->

N/A

Summary ->

Birthday dinner with Leo :>

Masterlist

• Leo takes you out to Run of the Mill Pizza.

• To be excpected.

• Gets you a free pizza or two out of Hueso, literally fought for it. 😭

• Then proceeds to show off and get you ANOTHER free pizza to impress you.

“Hey watch this ;)” goes through that trust thingy again and wins.

“Free Pizza B)”

• After that fiasco and a shit ton of laughter yall eat. X)

• He makes jokes and gets you to laugh a shit ton amount.

• Yall get a fancy dessert after, yummy but yall gotta actually pay this time.

• Now presents. ✨

• He tried with the presents.

• He gets you some ‘cool.’ It is comics from your fav franchise.

• So yes they were very very cool.

• Then he drops a surprise on you. :0

• There a party waiting for you both back at the lair!!

[mewkwota]

hello, if i may join in on the character ask thingy, may i request mmx zero? (idk how much you know about that series, but just thought i would shoot my shot, also your art is a treat to see :D)

My unfocused self misread your question and I thought you said MMZ somehow, so here we go, you got two Zeros. (It's the same guy)

Send Me a Character

And I will tell you my:

First impression Following my deep dive into the Classic series, I would simultaneously check out the X series. So I'm actually fairly familiar with a good chunk of the characters there, especially X and Zero.

For those who have tracked me down here from the Deviantart days, you'd see I worked greatly on Classic and X prior to delving more personally into Battle Network (as I should've been in the first place).

Zero's design is a bit busier than X's, but I still find parts of it to be appealing. And I made it a very known fact my kiddo's hair is derived from his. So I am not immune to the pretty locks either. ^^;

I was also intrigued with his backstory and character. You may notice a big theme I like to work with in this series is "family", especially since it typically involves unconventional ones that aren't quite related by blood (they're robots, but also Zero's case is complicated). So not only did I find it interesting to depict a disconnect of Zero from his "roots", but he also finds some connection in X's side. Maybe not from everyone, but at least Dr. Light tries to understand him, even in-game.

And of course, I love seeing his dynamic with X, even when it's the very simple interactions. They compliment each other so well, especially since they don't quite fit in anywhere else.

I also like that Zero's VA gave him such a unique voice, the tone Mr. Gilbertson uses sounds so pleasant in my ears.

Impression now I still think Zero is appealing, and nothing much has changed there. But I don't think you can make me choose between him or his buddy.

I am aware of his great bias in the community for how overshadowingly cool he is, but I'll take him over the other Ryoutarou Okiayu character that does virtually the same thing elsewhere. Maybe it's because he's a robot, and I have a soft spot for them.

Favorite moment He and X get called "cute" in PxZ2 and that guy got cranky about it. Though, Zero didn't quite deny it in his response either.

"We may look cute, lady. But..." Yes that's because you two are.

Idea for a story A lot of people, me included, seem to agree that Zero and Roll could get along well. But wouldn't you wanna be on good terms with your best friend's older sister? Anywho, I have a few lighthearted ideas where the two would hangout, one of which involves working together to get something for X's birthday.

After all, wouldn't your best friend's older sister probably know what he wants the most?

Unpopular opinion I would pick MMX Zero over MMZ Zero any day. I don't think the story or atmosphere of the Zero series is bad, not at all! The premise and everything is a very unique turn in the franchise. However, it's just not my thing personally. Maybe other people ruined it for me.

Favorite relationship Take a look at the years upon years of art I have of this guy (and half the things I said here) and I think it'd be obvious. L(///L )

Favorite headcanon This is partly a friend's fault, but Zero's favorite spot is X's right shoulder. He'll get a little protective over it.

[olderthannetfic]

So some tumblr user just suggested that pro-shippers are lying when they suggest toxic ships are on the pro-ship side, and that the real pro-ship ships are pedophilia and incest ships.

Am I correct in assuming this is a very wrong assertion? Like it sounds very much like a lie, like they're telling their opponents what they can and can't care about, and I think putting pedophilia and incest in the same category is weird because incest isn't a form of abuse, just a cultural taboo.

Like comparing the two and contrasting pedophilia with toxic ships as though they're separate things is very telling, because it shows that to them, hating pedophilic ships is less about the fact that pedophilic relationships are abusive and more about the fact that it's a taboo form of sex.

Especially since they later describe a teen her x mentor ship as "fucking weird" which seems like a very morally-neutral way to see it. Not "gross" or "creepy" or "abhorrent", just weird. "Weird" is what the Cars franchise is. But if you're this morally neutral to the topic, then why is pedophilia crossing a line? What line is it crossing if it's not a moral one? The answer is that, yet again, this person is only concerned with the fact that it's a taboo sex thing. The term weird is a direct admittance of that, that the first thing this person feels like complaining about in terms of this concept is that it's "weird".

Also I imagine there are a lot of cases that would prove this wrong. Like Sarah Z said once that some anti's were mad that she liked a toxic ship because they thought she was an anti and considered her defending this ship as confirming she was not an anti.

--

I mean, this is antis: "pedo" can mean "consensual teenage making out between 16-year-olds" or "I'm delusional about Lance, Keith, and Shiro's ages".

But yes, in general, most of the rhetoric around the proship vs. anti stuff is coming from hysterical antis fighting with imaginary enemies, and the rest is coming from hypocrites who call themselves proshippers but really aren't.

The general concept of being "proship" is supposed to mean that you don't think fiction and reality have a 1:1 relationship. Video games don't turn you into a spree killer, etc. etc. And, as a consequence, you think it's none of anyone's business what someone ships or what they like in fiction, and we should all just calm down and let people like things.

It does not indicate that you like anything dark or controversial yourself. It's a stance on bullying and thought crimes and censorship.

Personally, I tend to say that I'm anti-censorship and that I don't believe in thought crimes since the term 'proshipper' is so thoroughly ruined by people who go "Yes, except for [thingI don't like]".

Sarah Z is a bully who tries to have it all ways. She sounds good on the surface but is far too concerned with looking cool to the mainstream and being A Mature Adult Now, You Guys.

Her attack on that queer + proship hannibal pin with the pink triangle is just embarrassing. Learn your queer history, Sarah, or shut the fuck up. The real adults are talking.