#maybe i should do like. a fire emblem crossover or something

[submasbrainrot]

Will you ever get tired of the twins

hmmm hard to say definitively but probably not anytime soon? the last characters that i got this fixated on were chrom and robin from fire emblem awakening. that was years ago and they still occupy a space in my brain. a smaller one than they used to, but i still like them a lot.

it's unlikely that my level of submas hyperfixation is ever gonna spike back to where it had me drawing them every day for over a month but i do still like them a lot and want to draw them again. eventually. haven't really felt up to doing art lately though.

i just added another month or so's worth of reblogs to the queue so that'll keep on going, at least.

hope you and anyone else reading this has a great day!

[sonicasura]

Some backstory for the Hard-Boiled Heavies in the Sonic IDW/Pokemon Crossover

When the Elite Eggrobo Squad un-earthed the Phantom Ruby it gave them all immense power and knocked a couple of screws loose.

However this is how Dr. Eggman described what happened, as what really happened is that the Phantom Ruby ended up giving the Hard-Boiled Heavies personalites, and the ability too think for themselves.

As Eggrobos they were driven only by there orders from Dr.Eggman, as the Hard-Boilded Heavies they gained the ability too think and adept, which was only held by a few of Dr.Eggman's creations.

How the Phantom Ruby did this unknown however it is possible that the Ruby disrupted what ever code kept them completely bound too Dr. Eggman along with imparting personalities upon the Heavies

The Phantom Ruby did cause Heavy King to sort of betray Dr. Eggman as Heavy King too control of the situation when he realized that Dr. Eggman's plans were failing in Mania. Heavey King wanted too take control of the situation and try and beat Sonic for Dr. Eggman and took the Phantom Ruby too try and do so. However Heavy King did not realize that he was slowly losing control too the Phantom Ruby which was trying too take over Heavy King's body. Later revalations about the Phantom Ruby would reveal that it would try and take over a host body or compel some one that had been granted it's power too do it's bidding which is what the Ruby did too Heavy King. Why is unknown perhaps the reality agumenting power the Ruby held was far more sinister than originally thought or maybe it is something else entirely?

After the events of Mania the Heavies were rebuilt, Dr. Eggman put in codes to keep the Heavies loyal too him, the code did not work and the Heavies kept there personalities and ability too think. However since a great deal of the Ruby's energy had disapated by this point and the Ruby was gone all the Heavies lost a lot of there more destructive tendencies and were all a lot more calm now and for the most part followed Dr. Eggman's orders.

They were all loyal too Dr. Eggman especially Heavy King and the Heavies helped Dr. Eggman on many of his schemes even though they always failed.

However one day the Heavies were all just… thrown away. Dr. Eggman saw them all as failures and refused too have useless robots around. The Heavies were all broken from a major battle with Sonic and Friends and despite being retrieved by Dr. Eggman were thown out into the Jungle left too rust and be forgotten.

The loyalty of the Hard-Boiled Heavies meant nothing to Dr. Eggman and the Heavies soon began too rust and shatter from the elements and would have been lost too time….

If not for one adventurous youth and the Pokémon finding them all in that Jungle

A little trivia I came up with

Shinobi likes too speak in Haikus when ever he can and really likes frogs

Rider actually admires Sonic for his Daredevil attitude and wishes too race against Sonic

Magician loves too watch old performances from famous Magicians and was inspired by some too start working on amazing card tricks and techniques.

It should also be noted that Magician can not be beat when playing cards, she could run a casino out of business by playing Black Jack alone

Gunner can fly on his own but really likes too hang of the side of his Helicopter, this is because Gunner loves too watch those 90's action heroes movies and thinks 90's action heroes stuff is some of the coolest stuff out there and tries too replicate it when ever he can

King loves Tactic based videogames with one his favorite videogames being Fire Emblem

Shinobi, Gunner, Magician, and King all agree that Rider is the best at Kart Racer Video Games

Rider can always be seen with her Motobug companion Jimmy

Shinobi is fantastic at making origami creations and even made origami replicas of all the Heavies

Gunner loves fighting games and has figures of some of his favorite fighting game characters

King has fantastic Bojutsu skills most likely because his main weapon is a Spector

King loves too watch shows that have royalty as the main characters

Gunner and Rider are both surprisingly very good mechanics, most likely because Gunner and Rider are always taking care and improving the Helicopter and Motobug Jimmy

I hope you like this and deal me your thoughts I love too hear them!

I LOVE what you got here. Honestly won't be surprised if the Phantom Ruby had a corruption sort of effect. I grew up with the Kirby series so any powerful artifact with unknown or ominous origins shouldn't be fully trusted. *Looks at the Master Crown*

I can see Sonic indulging Rider in fun races from time to time. The Hard Boiled Heavies would definitely get along with a good chunk of Trainer's Pokemon. Especially those who match their interests or abilities.

[unfriendlyamazon]

20 question writer meme

love to do these thank you for taggin gme @alectoperdita

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

51 fics (plus a secret one when i made a fire emblem ao3)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

222,579 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

YGO is my main one, but i'd really like to break into stardew valley and aforementioned fire emblem 3 houses

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Baby Dragon (no surprise there)

Liking You and Me

Sweater Weather

In Awe of Flowers

A Hand to Hold

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do my very best to respond to comments because they make me so happy but sometimes if the fic is really old or I just don't feel like it I may not.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really write a lot of angsty fics. Probably my angstiest work over all is Competitionverse and No Such Thing As A Free Lunch specifically since that's sort of about how things don't work. I have some angstier stuff in the works because I really want to dig into some Wheeler trauma. Did I ever post my vampire Joey origin on here? That's probably the saddest thing I've ever written.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably when I wrote Seto proposing to Joey

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a few comments especially since I write trans characters and a weird one on my fire emblem fic but I'm not afraid to delete.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I didn't used to! It was more I didn't trust my abilities but now I've gotten lots of practice and I find smut easiest to write. It has a inherent climax.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I write a lot of AUs but have yet to write a crossover. Maybe I should. Maybe it's time for some characters to meet each other.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I bounce ideas off @kaijous all the time and I would say we've co-written some stuff, though I don't think any of it's published.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

KaiJou 4 Eva

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Honestly back in the day I used to start so many fics I never finished which is why I've focused on one shots or series so at least I have something complete. I have a restaurant au in mind that's sort of based on The Bear and I'd really like to dig into it but it just seems like so much work. Of my published ones... Star Trek AU I'm sorry I abandoned you.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at natural dialogue and I hope my conversations flow. One thing I like to do and hopefully I'm good at is having characters react without recognizing their feelings. Especially with Seto Kaiba I try my best to write around the actual emotion he's experiencing because I don't think he'd recognize it. I think of this piece of writing advice every day of my life.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I write from third person limited perspective and I really could have a more distinct voice for each character. I'm also a bit repetitive I know.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

It's something I struggle with especially when I write explicitly international characters. I very rarely write out non-English dialogue partially because I don't want to screw it up, and I go back and forth on italicizing non-English dialogue which I have some thoughts and feelings on that have been explained better by other people. I think especially with a Japanese speaking cast I've taken some notes from webcomics actually, but ultimately if the audience is meant to understand there's no reason to obscure it. In fact the only fic I have done another language for a fic is one where I had Seto speaking Vulcan, which is a made up language that I don't feel as strongly about screwing up.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Honestly... I think it might be YuGiOh. A long, long, long time ago I had friends posting script style fanfiction on DeviantArt and I joined in on the fun. The first fandoms I was really part of and writing fic for was Teen Titans and Avatar: the Last Airbender. Zutara and Raven/BB, in case it wasn't completely obvious.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Oh boy this is a tough one. Baby Dragon is a favorite of mine, as is In Awe of Flowers, but to be honest I think it might be Sons. It's not my most polished piece but I managed to make a fic out of the feelings I had around Grandpa and Joey that carries a lot of emotional weight for me.

To keep it going I'm gonna tag @kaijous @luxielovesparkles and whoever else wants to do it. i've been massively depressed lately but i'm crawling out of my hole and i think it's time to write again...

[planeoftheeclectic]

Oh boy, this is about to be a blast from the past. Thanks @skarabrae-stone for the tag!

Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass this onto other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

So I only recently started writing again, meaning I've only got 2 works that are from the last decade, but honestly I'm still very fond of those older ones; they do an excellent job at being what they are.

Doing the no pressure tags above the cut because I don't know if that messes them up: @stonemaskedtaliesin, @zyrafowe-sny, and @firecoloredwater, plus anyone else who sees this and has written something! Hyping yourself up is good practice!

Columbo: Turnabout's Fair Play | 19k (Incomplete) | T | Columbo x Ace Attorney set between AA3 and AA4

Summary:

Technically speaking, Mr. Wright, this isn't my usual beat. But Detective Gumshoe - you know Dick, right? - I owed him a favor, see? And it had been a slow week, so I figured I'd look around, see if I could give the guy a hand. Real stand-up guy, he is, we could use more like him. And anyway, I know you're a real busy guy Mr. Wright, so I'll make this real quick, get out of your hair. I know you and he were real good friends, so I'm sure this is a difficult time for you. Oh, uh, just one more thing Mr. Wright. Why were the two of you such good friends again?

As I say in the dedication, this is the idea that helped me break a very, very long dry spell, so it has to take the top spot for that if nothing else. @stonemaskedtaliesin had introduced me to Ace Attorney, I had introduced them to Columbo, and at some point they went looking to see if there were any crossovers and were disappointed to find none. They come tell me this in discord and I, like a fool, say:

"Well, actually, it makes sense there aren't any. I mean, they're kind of contradictory worldviews. The whole point of Columbo is that he always gets the right guy, and the whole point of Ace Attorney is that the police never get the right guy."

Fortunately for all of us, I continued:

"I mean, for it to even work you'd need some kind of convoluted setup - maybe that would stop the AA police from just arresting someone immediately. And who would be the killer anyway? Well, ok, there's an option there, but who should they murder? Maya? That'd be mean, but that's the obvious choice. Hmm...nobody likes him, I could murder him, but how--oh."

And at that point I stopped talking because the end of this story materialized in my brain and I wanted to make sure it was a surprise. Spoiler culture may be overblown, but murder mysteries are an exception, I feel.

Anyways, if you're a fan of either series, enjoy gen fic, like seeing characters get what they deserve, or just want to see Columbo at an anime convention, this is the fic for you! From a writing standpoint, it's been really fun to experiment with a very limited POV, to try to mimic the feel of a television camera. And of course, Columbo's dialogue is a joy to write. (As you'll see later, dialogue is one of my strengths)

Song of the Peregrine [Podfic] | OG fic is 39k (Incomplete) | T | Chrom/F!Robin but honestly it's mostly gen | Kid Icarus Uprising x Fire Emblem Awakening

Summary:

There were reports of something in the skies of eastern Ylisse. Something with wings as black as pitch and eyes as red as rubies. Dark Pit has no clue where he's managed to land himself, but it turns out that Pit and Palutena don't have a monopoly on annoying. He can leave these humans anytime he wants, and he will. Soon. Any day now. If the Shepherds have it their way, that day won't come any time soon. (In which Dark Pit ends up joining the Shepherds, and the world tilts.)

The original fic is @stonemaskedtaliesin's, but I like to consider myself its honorary godparent. We've spent a lot of time worldbuilding for it, and it's so good you guys. It's going to be amazing. There are long term plans.

I started the podfic because I wanted to listen to it as I fell asleep. The audio quality is definitely shakier in the first couple chapters as I figure things out, but it's been really fun learning new skills and doing lots of fun silly voices.

...still need to finish editing chapter 5.

Anyway, blanket recommendation to go read this if you know anything about Kid Icarus (Fire Emblem is a bonus but not necessary, iit's pretty well-explained in-story) and if you like podfic, hey! You're in luck! Fun fact: this is the only Awakening podfic as of right now. Yes I'm also surprised. Maybe if I ever finish this one I'll set out to try and change that. goat milk and oats Grima would be so much fun to voice.

Warrior Cats Smoofs | 8.5k | G | Gen | Warrior Cats

Okay I'm kind of cheating here but that's going to be a theme for these last few answers. I wrote these over a decade ago with my best friend at the time. She had internet, I didn't, so we had a joint account on the Warrior Cats Wiki and the Warriors Fanfiction Wiki, which are both Fandom now I believe. I archived them to AO3 because of that, and because even years later they would occasionally get a new comment from someone who really enjoyed reading them. And, as I said, I'm still very fond of them. My handle on most of the internet still comes from these stories and that account. They are simple, silly, dialogue and stage directions only parodies, and they were a blast to write. I still remember the melody we came up with for the ending jingle. I'm pretty sure these guys (plus the playwriting class I took) are a big part of why I tend to be very dialogue-heavy. I like fun purple-prosy descriptions, but sometimes a few spoken words can convey a whole lot of actions. Show Don't Tell taken to the extreme, I guess.

I'm pretty sure The Library was our most popular one back in the day (to the point we made a sequel)! The Auction was the first (though doesn't hold up quite as well...lol they're all 15 years old anyway). I'm very fond of Christmas Caroling because all the lyrics are singable and that is my PET PEEVE IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT THE METER HAD BETTER BE RIGHT OR AT LEAST CLOSER THAN A CATHOLIC HYMN. Most of all though, I'm fond of all the memories these have. I don't know where Moss is now, but I hope they're doing well. It is also fun to see where I've come from over the years - like I said, upon reflection it makes sense that I tend to default to pretty dialogue-heavy.

The Palutena Trap | 4.7k (Incomplete) | T | Gen (past Palutena/Medusa | Kid Icarus Uprising

Summary:

Kid Icarus meets the Parent Trap.

That's it, that's all I've got.

Ok now this one is cheating because it's not published anywhere yet except in snippets on tumblr. This was actually conceived at almost the same time as Turnabout's Fair Play, but I'm trying to only focus at one at a time, so this one won't properly see the light of day until TFP is finished. (We're getting there! We're almost at the end of Act 2 out of 3!!) That does mean that I'm going about writing it in a very different way - there's going to be lots and lots of editing once I finally set down to publish this. Which is probably for the best - I'm sure there are bits of tfp that would be better if I wrote the whole thing and then went back to edit.

My favorite part of this story is still the normal-people jobs I've given everyone, since this is technically a modern AU. We have an investigative journalist who lives on a yacht, mob boss, butler who's retired MI6, and front woman for a punk band which is actually a front for an eco-terrorist group, for example. I talk more about this story here and here. Aside from that, my favorite thing is exploring the relationship between Dark Pit and Lady Palutena, and between Lady Palutena and Medusa.

The former gets off on the worst possible foot in canon, and it's only ever obliquely addressed, so it's a lot of fun to play with and extrapolate from. In this version, Dark Pit is a child whose mother gave up everything to do with him (and said some pretty nasty things in the court record). So that's where we stand: how do you reckon with that? What does it mean that you still want some kind of relationship, or at least answers? What is family and blood, in the end?

The latter relationship is one that's...well, I wouldn't say it's canon, but it's definitely canon-compliant. It's rather like Narumitsu, in that I look at it and go "hm. whatever is going on between those two, they're not normal about each other." This is true in canon, and if anything it's less true in The Palutena Trap, since despite the name the story is not about getting the parents back together so much as reconciling a mother and son. But the more this idea ferments in my brain the more I want to have some kind of meeting at the end. Maybe it goes badly, maybe it goes less badly, but I have this mental image in my head: Imagine the messiest divorce you've ever seen. Ugly, dragged through the papers, all kinds of legal issues, you part ways never to speak again. You hate her guts, and you can't go a month without thinking about her because she's always got Yet Another Stupid News Article coming out. You find out your kids have been playing some switcheroo on you, and when you meet her again you're coldly civil, both of you clearly holding yourselves back from starting a slugfest in the local forum, and then you see: she's still wearing your wedding ring. The one you picked out, the one you put on her finger 14 years ago. I just. IDK they're not normal about each other and the complexity and ambiguity of it compels me.

Vaguely Remembered 2nd Grade Writing Assignment | like 2 pages maybe | G | Gen | The Land Before Time

Alright this one's definitely cheating but this has already been a lot of reminiscing about the past, so here's a toast to the very first thing I ever wrote: an adventure story starring the main cast of The Land Before Time. All I remember about it is it absolutely sucked to get started but once I did it was longer than it needed to be and I used the word Petrie-ball™. Yes, including the ™. The Petrie-ball™ was how they solved the big obstacle, I think. Like I said, I don't remember much of it, but I remember how proud and happy I felt when it was done. So here's to you, long-forgotten fanfiction adventure story. Here's to the first of many, with many more to follow after.

(Also, if you want to see more of TFP, Palutena Trap, or Peregrine Podfic, you can bother me in a few hours for WIP Wednesday! If you want more OG Peregrine you have to bother @stonemaskedtaliesin instead. Actually, make sure you do that, I know they've got chapter 8 waiting in the wings and I NEED to see how that scene with Pip and Lissa plays out)

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok so what if I made a list of things I started at some point in the past like five years or so and haven't finished but am still pretending I'll get back to them eventually? Maybe that would be interesting to literally no one but me, which is good enough.

The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite games ever. I'm like 90 hours into it, have at least twice that left to go, and I haven't touched it in like three years. Like most of the rest of this first section the main problem is that it's on my computer, and being able to sit comfortably in a way that doesn't injure myself while also being able to see the screen isn't going well these days.

Tales of Berseria is also a lot of fun, but it has the computer problem. I need more Magilou because she's such a gremlin.

Final Fantasy 13-2 is definitely my favorite post-12 FF game and might even be the one I've had the most fun with since 6, 7, and 8. Alas, computer.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is a very silly crossover that feels like it shouldn't exist. I keep saying I'll go back and finish the rest of the storylines, but computer and also I just haven't had a strong desire to yet. I did figure out that I can win fights using an old Guitar Hero guitar though, so that was fun.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is something I started after finally getting caught up on the manga after years and years, because I tend to like Warriors/Musou games when I'm in the right mood. It's decent but not amazing, which hasn't motivated me to get past the computer issue.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is technically also a computer thing because I was playing it in Cemu. It gets extra bonus points for being hard to see because the text and UI are so small, but also I managed to break my save file like 70 hours in and haven't gotten around to figuring out what's wrong with it yet. Everything seems fine except my character and the camera get loaded in different locations, and I could probably use the memory editor to reset my location and fix it, but it's not worth the trouble until I can see.

Boyfriend Dungeon is great and I already finished the base game right when it came out, and I've been meaning to go back and do the post-launch stuff they added later and still haven't.

Atelier Ryza finally got good like half a dozen hours in after one of the worst-paced intros I've ever seen, and I haven't worked up the fortitude to try playing more past there so far.

A Slug's Dream has some decent puzzles and I was enjoying it enough, but I totally forgot it even existed. Maybe some day.

Xenogears I also keep forgetting because it's in an emulator on my computer and not somewhere I remember to look to see what game I should play. It sort of bypasses the usual computer problem by being ancient and designed for 480i screens so everything is huge. I'll finish it one of these days.

Ok I think that's all the stuff on the computer. There are a couple others that I'm not including because I only made it like an hour into them before getting sidetracked, so I'll just start them over if I ever go back to them.

3DS next? 3DS next.

Fire Emblem Fates is what's currently in there I think. It's taken multiple years, but I've finished Birthright and most of Conquest. Some day I'll finish that one and then maybe do Revelation. Any year now...

Shadows of Valentia might come back around too. I've had enough of a break to at least partly get over how mediocre a lot of the maps are and how annoying certain enemy types are, and I do want to at least try to finish it for the sake of the story, just not while I'm in the middle of pretending to play Fates too.

Shadow Dragon deserves another chance too when I'm in a better frame of mind for it, I just don't know when that'll be.

Radiant Historia is amazing and I really need to get back to it and finish it, and I don't know why my brain keeps not letting me for the past couple years. One of these days it will though, and it'll be great.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is also pretty great, but it's physically painful for me to play. I keep saying I want to try to figure out some way to work around that, but it's been multiple years and I still haven't.

Shovel Knight is one I completely forgot I even have, but it was way better than I expected and I should give it another chance.

Project X Zone is another ridiculous crossover that feels like it shouldn't exist, and it's pretty fun sometimes too, but wow does it really drag sometimes with how long each level is and how many of them there are. I might be able to manage it in smaller chunks though.

Ok Switch gets to be in a separate post or I'm going to run out of tags.

[omgkalyppso]

19, 20, and 21 for the fire emblem asks please!

o(*￣︶￣*)o Thank you for the ask! adskfjhalkd You really picked The Hard Ones, it looks like.

19. Come up with an idea for a new FE game!

Hm. What story elements of these games do I like? asjdgfajsdhg

I want to play a dragon again, is that allowed? Oh, and a bit like Esc/aflowne. How about Fire Emblem: Ancient Knight?

We have a village of manaketes, dragons in the sky, humans on the ground, and maybe 6 characters introduced. The protagonist, two of his friends (red and green knight coded), his sister who is a queen or high priest or something, a short old man who is mostly there as exposition, and his uncle who is a red dragon so we know he's probably going to be evil.

It's the protagonist's birthday, twenty or a hundred, pick a fun coming of age for a manakete.

You can train with your friends ahead of a ceremony where you'll be granted a Special Dragonstone because of your association to your sister, you can explore the temple where tales of a great manakete of ages past defeated three great armies to protect your people. This manakete had some symbol associated with themself, and their powers of divination. They foretold that one day, some thousands of years from the time of their prophecy, that a dragon would have this same symbol upon their face at the time of their coming of age, and would spell the doom of their kind. The champion of the past often lamented that there was nothing they, themself could do to stop it, and so they spent all their many years bringing their people to prosperity.

Your sister confided in you that when your uncle was born that many suspected he would be the one to portend this fate, but it hadn't been so.

Your friends will ask if you're worried about it.

And well, you should be. You have your ceremony and this symbol either glows in the air or marks itself on your skin, and your uncle in an effort to save your people will try to take your life. Your sister will sacrifice herself to save you, pressing Her Dragonstone into you (mouth, open wound, magically into your chest? whatever we're comfortable with), and when you take a step, the earth around you falls away. You can hold your friends to you as you go, you watch your uncle dive into the blackness after you.

And then we're several thousand years in the past. Help the leader of some country make peace with the local manaketes while fighting off invaders, preparing for the armies you know will come / that you prophesize, realizing that you are the ancient knight, and that the greatest of your enemies will attempt to crush you with the aid of a red dragon.

One of the outposts you find is a volcanic, harsh territory, and here you recognize the shapes of the temple where you were once a boy. Where you will build your altar and rest your heart / Dragonstone after your passing, for yourself to find. Your people were never doomed, you have no idea what they're doing without you. Given the opportunity, would you go back? Who would these people, and generations of your kind have to look to, if not to you and the legends you're capable of.

At least one big failure because tails get embellished in history. You don't always know what the future will bring.

You can change your class, but only manaketes can see through the fog of war and maybe some other neat tricks.

20. Any ideas for crossovers or aus?

I still want something like an awakening sequel if I'm honest. With as few as possible character references or cameos. I just want to go back to Ylisse and Plegia and find out the future of the Taguel people!

That's not really an answer. Um. Fates AU where the time travelling trio have plot relevance.

21. Characters from different FE games you would like to see interact? How do you think it would go?

I'd like to see Panne interact with someone from a beast race whose people are thriving. I liked @recurringwriter putting Virion and Lorenz in the same orbit, they make good friends / rivals. I'd like Mustafa and Nader (and Seteth) to sit down for tea. I'd like Eir to meet a bunch of the three houses cast, I sometimes think of her x Lorenz.

[comfort-questing]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @therosefrontier :) thanks!

--

How many works do you have on AO3?

21, but one's a collection of fe3h drabbles and small fics totalling 13.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

98,576 apparently! ...seems about right.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

uh. Genshin... Critrole... Fire Emblem Three Houses... also Fate Zero, finally, triumphantly, eventually. I've written bits of stuff here and there for other ones but most of it isn't published.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

night and death and the rain are given, 729, because Kaeya whump brings out the fans?? also I had a good update schedule for it, haha, which probably helped.

flame to dark, 393, my first Genshin fic. I guess Diluc whump is also popular. I remember being so chuffed that people liked it.

something which nobody may keep. 219, fain's dear angst art made into a Whumptober 2022 prompt... wait, that was just last year?

the sea, the storm, the stars, 217, right after. writing about Kazuha is hard because thinking about him hurts a little, but I do love this story so.

a gently welcoming darkestness, 186, which surprises me that it made the top 5 since that was where my regular update schedule went to die, and didn't take off as quickly. but I'm glad folk ended up liking it.

all Genshin, haha. and 4/5 ragbros.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! although if someone comments on each chapter I may not respond to every single one. but I like to respond, because I like to be responded to on mine when I can be, and because it does make me so happy for them to comment.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh boy. that's a toss-up between the last of my fe3h drabbles that I put up, "not glory nor goodness," and just about any of my fate zero pieces, but probably on these sands I built my fortresses. the horror of having to kill Felix at Arianhrod, because not killing him means other students die, vs. Saber's shame and self-hatred and having to kill one of her old associates too. maybe I should say the fe3h one because I don't like re-reading it but I will the other one.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I... was going to say I usually did happy endings but that's not quite true. I write ambiguous, nervous, and hopeful-in-the-midst-of-confusion endings. I think the only uncomplicated happy endings I've done were the fluff fics for a couple exchanges. specially driftwood and light for Critrole, which is all about getting rescued!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no, thankfully, though I did get someone once commenting that my snarky/dark humor author's notes on some whump fic ruined the mood. it stung a bit, but I kept doing it, and also deleted the comment.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

heh... I do not... I tend to think what characters do in the bedroom is their own business, although now and again I admit some amorphous spicy headcanon occurs to me. usually in regards to someone else's suggestion or a fic that I scroll past that I think brazenly mischaracterizes their sex lives...

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

usually don't, but I do have a funky little dialogue piece between RWBY characters and Morgaine and Vanye from the Morgaine Chronicles that I never posted. This is because I think I may be the only person in the universe who is familiar with both fandoms. if there are any others I really want to meet them though.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

hope not! ...though there was one that got published shortly after the author put kudos on one of mine, and it was a very similar concept and similar imagery at several points. but they did a totally different thing with it and went in a different direction! so even if it was borrowed it was Fair Use and I'm rather proud of them. :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not that I know of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, but I'd love to someday! I am not good at plots. I admire when folk are good at plots. I want to be part of their plots and fill in all the corners with conversations and angst and character stuff.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I'm not really a shipper of anything particularly, but... I suppose the only ship tag I actually ever used is for Zen and Shirayuki from snow white with the red hair? and I do love their relationship, haha.

oh! that reminds me. I think my favorite ships are Hak/Yona from Yona of the Dawn and also Royai from FMA just like my tagger said.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

...of original works? oh so many. of fanfic? uh... I want to write a Fate/Stay Night AU where Saber saves Ilya, and I did start it. what's likelier to happen there is I write it as a bunch of short stories and they may just end up being bittersweet with a side of catharsis?

I want to write an Inazuma Rebellion AU for Genshin but that's more of a "literally never started" than any kind of "in progress."

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think it's fair to say description? people mention it a lot, and I like to write it. I love words. words are amazing. the things that people can do with words are amazing. I like to make words do cool things too.

I like writing dialogue a lot too, when I can.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

plots. pacing, sometimes. fight scenes, or used to be, but I think I'm getting better at them.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I never have, but if it came up I could try? though I certainly wouldn't trust google translate.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

in little bits and snipppets... the Chronicles of Narnia when I was a small kid, and then Warriors Cats like the rest of us (heh), and I think Redwall? I made stories up about the sci-fi series Dad read to us when I was very very young, but I don't think I'd call them writing per se.

and then I did a lot of mediocre heartfelt Lord of the Rings fic when I was 11-12ish, which I didn't post although my friend encouraged me to. that was the first fandom where I wrote anything more than, like, half a page. in fact, it was very many pages. I want to say there were like 4 separate OCs and concepts I was writing, and they never intersected, they were all just different twists I had.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

that's a tough one. I... actually really love my longer fe3h fic, the bright and the broken - which completely elided all ships in a very shippy fandom with an alacrity that was not my intent but my outcome. the conv I wrote there, about helping people being like dropping pebbles in a well, and never knowing which one is going to be the one that lifts them high enough to reach the light... I think about that still and I'm not sure where I got it but I think it's true. also encapsulates what I love the most about Three Houses. loving people is how you change the course of the narrative... you can't save everyone all the time but you can save almost everyone most of the time if you do what you can??

I think my fate/zero trilogy is the most uh... emotionally cathartic of them for me though. I hope it finds the approximately 2.9 people in the universe besides me that it makes sense to, wherever they are.

--

tagging @notfromcold, @erinaceina, @isnt-it-pretty, anyone else who wants to bc I'm sure I'm forgetting folk

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 108: I Don’t Care About Scarlet Dying

Revelation Chapter 18: Veiled Kingdom

As the skies get all fucky, Corrin and co arrive at the bridge from the start of the game. Corrin says they all have to jump off the bridge. Takumi points out that this is suicidal, and yeah he has a point. Everyone blindly trusts Corrin because Corrin is the perfect protagonist, but also Corrin doesn’t explain why they’re jumping off, or where they’re going, or who the bad guy is. If I was a character in this game, I’d think Corrin was mentally unwell and encouraging suicide.

Also, something I just realized. They can say Anankos. Garon says Anankos’s name all the time without dying. Corrin could have said that the puppetmaster was a mysterious man named Anankos. And also, the specifics of the curse aren’t clear. You can’t say the word Valla, but why can’t they say Gunter survived falling in the canyon? Say there’s a lake at the bottom containing the weapons they need to kill Anankos or some shit like that. There are a million less stupid ways to write this game.

Corrin offers to kill themselves by explaining shit, but Xander and Ryoma agree to jump without explanation. Everyone jumps into the canyon, except for Corrin and Scarlet. Good job, Corrin, not even leading the charge. Scarlet pins a flower on her chest before jumping and says that Corrin is special, but not as special as Ryoma.

Two things. Number one, Scarlet and Ryoma should have been able to Support each other. And number two, and this is the big one, it is very weird for Scarlet to suddenly have character focus when no other character receives this level of focus after being recruited. It makes what’s about to happen very obvious.

Corrin and Scarlet jump and holy shit is the Bottomless Canyon treacherous. There are hundreds of spikes sticking out of the wall and there’s only a small gap to fall through. Half of the army would realistically die. Anankos shows up, looking like a Danganronpa killer, and brags about being a god before shooting Corrin with dark magic. And yes, I know that Anankos is a random bald silhouette because he’s possessing someone and they can’t show it for plot twist reasons, but it's still stupid and jarring. Also how is Anankos here? Can people possessed by Anankos fly?

Anankos throws another attack and Scarlet pushes Corrin out of the way, dying in the process. Her flower is also destroyed. Corrin and Scarlet land on a brick road, by the way, meaning that they should have died from fall damage. I don’t care if the Bottomless Canyon isn’t bottomless, that doesn’t make momentum stop being a thing.

So, yeah. Scarlet is dead. And I want to talk about that. Fire Emblem Fates has a bad tendency to kill characters off suddenly and randomly to make the player feel sad. See Kaze dying in Birthright and Lilith in both of the original routes for other times I’ve ranted about it. The problem is, these scenes are so blatant and unearned that they fall absolutely flat. And it’s far worse with Scarlet, a character who had maybe a dozen lines total and joined two battles ago. Scarlet exists not as a character, but as a whoa look how deep we are someone died plot device. And it's pathetic.

There are deaths in Fire Emblem games that hurt like hell. Emmeryn’s death in Awakening, Geralt’s in Three Houses. Hell, the whole conceit of the game is that your units can die suddenly in battle, that characters you grow attached to are mortal. But, I don’t care about Scarlet dying. And there is one simple reason why: you could have swapped Scarlet out for any other character and the effect on the story would be identical. Hell, it would be better because those characters aren’t throwaway characters who are given two mandatory Supports and otherwise don’t really exist.

I do not give a shit about Scarlet dying because she is a minor character who exists for no reason but to die. I like her as a character, but I feel nothing about her death. This is like a comic book crossover killing off a dozen D-List characters to show how edgy their new villain is. It is mediocre, inconsequential, and formulaic writing, and I do not care.

Also you can marry Scarlet if you grind between maps, which is both funny in that it can make the player screw themselves over by making Corrin permanently spouseless, and funny because literally nothing changes about the scene. Scarlet still says Ryoma is better than Corrin and Corrin still worries about how Ryoma will feel when he finds out Scarlet is dead. Fates, through its stupid writing, gives you the ability to cuckold Corrin. Fucking phenomenal.

The rest of the fam shows up and protects Corrin from some enemies, including Azura who someone kills a Berserker. An obligatory battle starts, against that one blue-haired Strategist Vallite we saw in Hidden Truths and at the start of Revelation. This battle has our units teleporting between different islands to activate Dragon Veins to open a warp to the boss. After said boss is defeated she just vanishes.

Azura explains everything. Ryoma finally remembers that Scarlet exists and asks where she is. Wait, hold on, how did he not see her corpse when he saved Corrin? Whatever, dumb writing. Corrin shows Scarlet’s corpse to the gang and Ryoma makes Corrin promise that Scarlet’s sacrifice won’t be in vain.

I considered buying a Scarlet clone from another save file to ruin the dramatic tension, and I will do that eventually, but unfortunately, I’m broke after buying a certain unit. More on that in a minute.

After this chapter, the Hot Springs upgrade reward unit shows up. Not Izana, because he’s dead, but Fuga for some reason. You know, Hayato’s dad? The wild ride guy? He joins for some reason.

Fuga

Been a while since I did a character profile. Fuga, Hayato’s dad. Big buff chief guy. He’s recruitable, I guess. I don’t really care tbh. His personal skill, Wind Disciple, boosts Hit and Avoid when he isn't at full health. Neat.

Now, I could be excited about Fuga, even though I really don’t care, but there’s another buff tribesman without any Supports to be excited about. I’ve been saving up for a while, and I finally have the 40K needed to buy the savior of Hoshido, king of blacksmiths, wielder of the Legendary Whacker, the masked god, a man who fights for his own reasons, mother fucking Kenshi! You know, that Birthright generic captured unit I pumped all my stat boosters into until he had max strength. I plan to use him in every battle as an insurance policy. The rest of my army may die, but Kenshi is unstoppable.

Support: Moron/Fuga

C: Corrin asks Fuga about Sumeragi. Fuga explains that they were close friends and that Sumeragi was a troublemaker as a child. Fuga contemplates the fact that he's spent a life fighting, while Sumeragi is at peace. Spoilers: he isn't.

B: A young lady asks Fuga on a date. Fuga says he's too old. Corrin asks if Fuga's considered marriage before. Fuga says he loved a woman once, but she married someone else. Then she died, so he adopted her son Hayato.

A: A depressed Fuga considers retiring and letting the next generation step up. He also says he should follow Sumeragi to the grave, which seems a bit suicidal. Corrin says they still need guidance from Fuga. Fuga says Corrin shares Sumeragi's passion.

Review: Actually pretty good. This one does a good job of giving Fuga a character in his limited screen time.

Support: Corrin/Fuga

C: Corrin sees Fuga break a tree in half with a punch and asks him to teach her. Fuga offers to train her, noting that Hayato gave up on training early.

B: Fuga trains Corrin. Fuga says that Sumeragi was his brother-on-arms, but he doesn't deserve to call himself Sumeragi's friend, because he failed Sumeragi. Corrin says Fuga shouldn't blame himself, because it's Corrin's fault he died. Fuga says Sumeragi's be proud her and that she shouldn't blame herself.

A: Fuga stops teaching Corrin because he's taught Corrin everything he knows. Corrin says she likes training with Fuga. They vow to fight together.

S: Fuga says he wishes their visits weren't just centered on training. Corrin says she only trained with Fuga so they could hang out. They get together which is weird.

Review: Corrin and Fuga’s guilt is interesting...until it is forgotten about.

Support: Kaden/Peri

C: Peri freaks out because there's a caterpillar on her back. Kaden removes it and Peri asks him to squish it because it's gross. Kaden says no and explains to Peri that caterpillers turn into butterflies, something she didn't know somehow.

B: Kaden shows Peri the coccoon. Peri thinks its still gross. Kaden asks how she walks through the woods, and Peri explains she orders people to kill any bugs that come near her.

A: Peri thinks the butterfly is disgusting and decides to keep killing bugs. Kaden promises that he'll peacefully deal with bugs if she calls for him.

S: Peri says she wishes she could call Kaden when there wasn't bugs, because she likes being with him. Kaden says he loves her back. Peri says that's good, because if he didn't give her his heart, she would have been forced to cut it out and take it.

Review: Honestly, Peri works better when she's dumb and overemotional than when she's a murderer. Her freaking out about bugs is fun and Kaden's a nice guy.

Support: Elise/Ryoma

C: Ryoma helps Elise get a kite out of a tree. He thanks her for reminding him of simpler times.

B: Ryoma questions if Elise belongs on a battlefield, because she is a literal child. I would argue that she doesn't belong on the battlefield, because child soldiers are bad. Ryoma notes that, however, they need her help. He chastises himself for being powerless. Elise says she wants to fight and Ryoma praises her strength.

A: Elise teaches Ryoma how to make daisy chains. This helps make Ryoma see lasting peace as attainable.

S: Ryoma and Elise get married and it's gross and weird.

Review: S-Rank aside, this is a really good Support. It fumbles the landing on the discussions of Elise being a child soldier, but her innocence inspiring Ryoma is great.

[bloodstalk]

ive scrolled back through the alpharad tag here on tumblr dot com until i started hitting posts from four years ago and let me tell you the shit i fucking saw was insane.

offputtingly high margin of crossover between MCYT fans and alpharad posters (I’m sorry but I went through that cycle with Yogscast, never a-fucking-gain).

insane unprovoked horniness.

insane provoked horniness (im never forgiving him for the danny phantom tweet).

a massive, unbroken wall of posts from a nsfw imagines account saying things that are genuinely upsetting to view. the previous two bullet points are in a “this is funny but maybe a bit much to be saying about a stranger publicly” and “this is funny and contextually fair enough”, this is just actually over the line. at my nicest, id say you should know better than putting a full uncensored username in your weird nsfw shit. at my most judgemental, what the fuck is wrong with you. the blog also had “i make posts for males only” in the description though so i guess i shouldnt have been reading them anyway

old old old fire emblem gacha poll “drama.” funny.

ace of hearts likers

ace of hearts dislikers

a not frequent, but consistent all the same, stream of “wait, he’s bi?/i just found out he was bi” posts

the CPUCS fandom graveyard rest in peace all y’all i admire your dedication

the occasional post of someone being asked about him and not knowing who he is

at least one person who was a big smallant fan but called jacob “creepy and generic” which like. ive got bad news for you, buddy

someone who. yeah they unironically said they wished he die or something which is both baffling and just like. idk man what the hell did he do to you?

my own post from mashupweek dot tumblr dot com from two years ago. jumpscare.

im going back to discord where my eyes dont have to behold such tragedies as this

[hopeymchope]

If you like Danganronpa, you might like...

I’ve discovered quite a few games/animes I’ve loved and even new fandoms by using recommendation engines/following online message board recommendations for people who already like the Danganronopa games or anime or manga, and I thought I’d give a quick rundown of how these things have worked out for me.

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, honestly... it’s just time-consuming to write it all up, y’know?

Today, I’ll focus primarily on the video game side. If I put “Danganronpa” (any entry) into a recommendation engine, these are the results that I see spit back at me the most... and now that I’ve tried all the most common results, here are my findings.

Persona

Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d: The storylines have teenagers in Japan having to investigate dark goings-on while counterbalancing that with scenes of daily life that are lighter and more humorous. There are also “social link” scenes with the other characters that could easily be compared to the “Free Time Events” in DR, wherein you learn more about the lives of your compatriots via some one-on-one time.

What I Played: Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on my Vita, then Persona Q on my 3DS. And I watched the main anime adaptions for 3 and 4...

Did It Work for Me? Will it Work for Others? Persona 3 and 4 absolutely worked for me. Q didn’t so much; the Etrian Odyssey-style map-your-own-first-person-dungeon gameplay was a turnoff. Regardless, it’s hard to pin down exactly why there is SO DAMN MUCH crossover between Persona and Danganronpa fans - probably more than anything else I’ve got listed here - because they’re actually very different. These are RPGs with turn-based combat and fantastical story elements involving magic and mystical beings and other worlds. And yet... I do feel the tonal similarity, and the characters feel like they could be at home in a DR game or vice-versa. And I deeply loved 3 and 4. (The stories are individualized to each numbered entry with the exception of the two “Persona 2″ games, so you can jump in on any numbered entry without any problem). I am excited to one day play 5 (although it is so much easier for me to play portables so I really, really, really wish there was some portable version of 5 in existence). Also note that the “social links” didn’t exist UNTIL Persona 3, so you can’t really go back and find that aspect in the first few titles. I can’t say these will work for everyone, but the massive amount of fan overlap says something, so if you’re game for a turn-based RPG AND you like Danganronpa... have I got a soup here for you.

Zero Escape Series (”9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors” + “Virtue’s Last Reward” + “Zero Time Dilemma”)

Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d: Dark, complex storyline filled with twists, memorable characters trapped in killing game, a mysterious mastermind, visual novel-style presentation, off-kilter humor interjected at surprising times.

What I Played: All three games on the Vita (the first two are collected as “The Nonary Games”).

Did It Work for Me? Will it Work for Others? Yes and yes. Aside from maybe Zanki Zero (see below), this is probably the most obvious thing to recommend to Danganronpa fans, and I’m kind of surprised there isn’t even more of a fandom to it. I can see why it doesn’t have as big of a following as DR - I mean, the humor isn’t quite as widespread and the characters are a bit less quirkily odd - but it’s hard not to get sucked in and fall in love with these stories. The big point of separation for DR fans is that instead of “Trials” where you use logic to solve puzzles, you have to constantly do “escape rooms” and use logic to find your way out of those rooms by doing point-and-click style hunting for items and solving puzzles in those rooms. Just like in DR, however, you’ll find that the more you fail, the more the game gives you increasingly blatant hints as to what you’re supposed to be doing, so it’s not like anything should get you stuck for too long. There’s also the somewhat obtuse nature of how to progress at times, but if you use the branching storyline map whenever you get stuck to look for updated items, you’ll probably be just fine (I hear the DS version of the first game doesn’t have such a map - or even voice acting - so you may need to beware of that being the most obtuse version out there). I loved these games, even if my rankings for them are probably out of sync with how most of the fandom seems to feel.

Phoenix Wright

Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d: Visual novel-style plot and investigation scenes, murder trials with logic puzzles where you need to point out flaws in testimony/falsehoods using evidence, plenty of humor.

What I Played: All of the first game (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) on the DS

Did It Work For Me? Will It Work for Others? Well... this is a little unfair, because I played the first one of these before I ever played Danganronpa, but... I didn’t like it. The humor was... lame for me? and I found the trials excruciatingly difficult because MY version of how the logic was flawed was never exactly how they wanted me to approach it. It was a matter of me attacking the wrong parts of sentences over the same general facts but... yeah... I didn’t get into this. Maybe I’m dumb, or was dumb, but it didn’t click for me and I only got through the first game using a guide and expending a lot of patience. I later tried out the anime because I heard it had a good rep (and this was after getting into DR and anime in general), and I didn’t care for that either. So I don’t know about this one.. it wasn’t up my alley. Will it work for other people? Well, clearly it DOES work for other people or this wouldn’t be considered a similar recommendation that comes up so often, typically in the top three of “if you like DR games” results! I do think the humor is FAR different than that of Danganronpa’s, and the characters lack the same kind of nuanced depth you see in DR (but again, that’s just from me playing the first game). But it’s easy to see from the “Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d” that there are elements that would definitely appeal to DR players. Give it a try for yourself if you aren’t already a fan, I’d say. My experience feels... esoteric to what most people think. I may need to try one again. These are on tons of platforms nowadays, many with demos, and often at discounted prices.

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d: It’s made by largely the same team using the same art style and presentation stlye and is an extremely dark story full of unique personalities and LOADS of weird off-kilter humor with zany mascots somehow overseeing apocalyptic circumstances and the characters look and act like they could easily be in DR and...

What I Played: The whole lone game from start to finish on my PS4.

Did It Work For Me? Will It Work for Others? HELL YES. Everyone who likes DR should really give this a chance. It gives off so much of a similar vibe despite being a “survival”-style game with navigation puzzles rather than logic puzzles, and you can turn off the survival/combat aspects entirely if that’s not your thing! And the story is excellent and the characters are excellent and really just please play this. Underrated game of 2019, and most underrated game that needs a fandom that I’ve ever played.

Fire Emblem

Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d: The bonding sequences you get when your units stand next to each other could be compared to FTEs. It’s got an anime design aesthetic, and the story can go pretty dark. Characters may suffer permadeath (even if other characters won’t react to this fact), so I guess there’s that...

What I Played: Awakening and Fates on the 3DS in their entirety (Yes, I did all three routes on Fates).

Did It Work For Me? Will It Work for Others? I can’t say I fully “get” this one. Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy game that takes place in a medieval setting, so why is it always turning up in recommendations for people who play Danganronpa? Yes, I did enjoy it quite a bit. I became a newly minted fan of Fire Emblem. Success! And yet... I don’t know that the crossover is obvious to me, nor do I expect it would be a clear-cut case for most DR fans. I don’t even know that all of the traits Iisted under “Why This is Probably Getting Rec’d” actually apply to the whole series. I suppose that any game series that has a balance of darkness and humor plus a “character bonding” scene mechanic might just fall into the “if you like Danganronpa... “ pit, regardless of how incredibly different EVERYTHING ELSE is. But perhaps there’s a deeper connection here than I realize. Care to theorize?

[game-boy-pocket]

Well, now that they're all finally out... my feelings on each of the new Smash Bros characters is this.

Inkling was inevitable. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thrilled to see them. Splatoon is a great new IP, though I personally worry about how similar the games seem to be 3 main entries in, but that's nothing to do with Smash. Fun to play but hard to learn. A- ( the minus is for no Octo alt ).

Ridley felt like he should have been inevitable, but was fighting against some pretty strong biases. But he finally made it and i'm very happy. I do think he could have been a tad bit bigger though. Even if they had to slow him down a bit. A

Simon very happy with this character, and honestly surprised he didn't get in sooner. Castlevania may not be as strongly associated with Nintendo as it used to be, but it's one of the first games that come to mind when you think of the NES as well as the SNES. He was in a TV show with Megaman and Pit for goodness sake. And I enjoy using him. A- ( minus is only for no chronicles alt )

Richter was a cool addition, if there was one other Belmnot to be added, i'm glad it's him... but I am more of a Simon guy. Side note, I wish they took the echo fighter character a little further. It seemed like branding clones as echo fighters is all it took to make people more accepting of the idea, only for them to just stop short of three or four new ones, and not even include super obvious ones like Shadow the Hedgehog or Blood Falcon. Anyway A- ( minus is for no symphony of the night alt )

King K. Rool being revealed was one of my top five Smash moments. Donkey Kong is not a neglected Nintendo franchise. But it has undergone some changes that long time fans don't care for, including the removal of the main antagonist, this guy, who has a gigantic personality. He's a very fun character and it's so good to see him come back ( pls appear in the next DK game pls pls pls ) He also happens to be very fun to play as. A++

Isabelle is where Smash reveals kind of started to lose me a bit. Animal crossing is a big series and all but I really felt like the one villager is all the game really needed to properly represent the entire series. You don't need a lot for Animal crossing. And the fact that Isabelle was a relatively new character, who seemingly snatched the role of series mascot from Tom Nook, well it kind of rubbed me a little wrong. She seemed unnecesary... but she is actually more fun to play as than villager, and she's cute. So I don't totally hate her. B

Incineroar was a poor way to end the base game lineup for me. Pokemon just isn't a very respectible series anymore in my eyes and Sun/Moon was the first game in the series that I found too boring to finish. Pokemon just doesn't excite me, and with each new announcement, I'm becoming actively disgusted by it. I would have loved a wrestler character in the game, but the fact that it had to be a pokemon kind sullied it for me. Yeah, I just can't pretend to like this inclusion even if it is a huge Nintendo IP. C-

Dark Samus is a character I am kind of indifferent too. I didn't think we needed her, but I think she's a cool addition to the game. A bit of a waste to make her an echo though, her abilities are very different from Samus in the games if I remember right, I honestly don't remember much of Metroid Prime besides the first one. Still, she's cool. B+

Daisy is an oddball for me. I know she is in Super Mario Land, but her main identity comes from the Mario Spinoff games, and I just don't play those games. They don't appeal to me. I like Mario platformers. And to me, if a character is in spinoffs almost exclusively, they don't count as core Mario cast members. And frankly it's a little odd to me that she's plucking turnips and summoning Toads. The citizens of Sarasaland are not Toads. And she wasn't in Mario 2... but she's not hurting anything I guess so B+, needed "Hi i'm Daisy" taunt.

Chrom is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. He's also an echo. So I don't care. C

Piranha Plant honestly felt like a little bit of an insult to me. I've always hated when Mario games start featuring low level mooks without names as playable characters in the Mario spinoffs while ignoring the likes of Wart, Tatanga, E. Gadd, or th extended DK/Wario cast or RPG characters. It's part of why I don't care about Mario spinoffs. That being said... it is, at the very least, extremely fun to play as. B-

Joker may very well be the most out of place character in this series. He's certainly one of them. Maybe I would feel different if I played Persona, but I don't. So to me he's like the worst thing they added to this game. D-

Hero felt like he should have been in Smash Bros before cloud did. Dragon Quest may not be as popular in the west as it should be. But it's definitely the most important and influential JRPG to the history of video games... that being said, I wish the DQ3 hero was the default costume. I really enjoy playing as him. A+

Banjo and Kazooie finally getting in is without a doubt my favorite moment in Smash History. Not even Sonic got me as hyped as they did. I wish there was a way to make younger fans see this character the way us old timers do without seeming like we're trying to force them to like him, but it is what it is. I love these guys and they're my most played character. A+++

Terry is a character i'm not familiar with. He just kind of looks like a bootleg Ken to me. I think they could have picked a better SNK rep. Metal Slug would have been nice, shooters are sorely under represented in Smash. Do we have anybody besides Samus representing shooters? And she barely qualifies. C

Byleth is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. But you know what, they're honestly the only FE character that feels like they're representing the gameplay of Fire Emblem particularly well while the others were just kind of generic sword slingers... that being said... was this the best way to end fighter pass 1? B-

Minmin was not a character on my Radar. I thought it would have been Springman or no Arms character at all... I am just happy ARMS made it in at all... but really, it should have been base game content. If only to support the new IP. A-

Steve was a character I was opposed to at first. I saw him as a rival to Banjo. And I also saw Minecraft as a dumb zoomer game. A joke. But people made compelling arguments for the importance of minecraft, how successful it is, I actually downloaded Minecraft on my Switch, played it, had a relaxing time, I still play it, and I was actually able to play with my friends who don't own Nintendo consoles. It has cross play. The cross play is really what won me over as it being really cool to have in Smash, as it really brought me together with friends. Steve is tough to use, but great fun, as long as it's against a computer. I can't fight humans for shit, hah. A- ( the minus is for that cursed short enderman alt )

Sephiroth rubbed me the wrong way. Another Final Fantasy character wouldn't have been so bad, but did it have to be another FFVI character??? Couldn't it have been something from before FF made the jump to total steampunk/sci-fi to better represent the series roots? He's fun to use but idk, I just take no joy in him... at least we got more FF music I guess. C-

Pyra/Mythra is a character I have zero opinion on. B ( for booba )

Kazuya is not a character i'm familiar with, and if there had to be another fighting game character, one from Namco, I feel like Soul Calibur should have been it. Bring the Link crossover back around. It seems Tekken has no presence on Nintendo as well... but whatever. I have no strong feelings. He's fun to combo with but I suck as him. B-

Sora makes me sad. I don't dislike Sora. He has a fun design. I like the idea of Kingdom Hearts... I just think the story of those games is very weird and dumb and confusing, so the games themselves are kind of overrated. I really think people only like it for the pretty character models and intricate costumes. I thought people liked it for the Disney stuff but I'm suprised to hear most KH fans seem to want more FF stuff and less Disney stuff??? The only thing that makes the game unique??? Should be dialed back??? That being said... I don't like Disney. It is an evil company. And Disney getting in bed with Nintendo makes me very anxious. D

[wolffyluna]

Fic Writer Meme

 I was tagged by @thou-breath-of-autumns-being and @eldritch-elrics. Answers under the cut.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

135

2. What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

387198

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

There’s 22 of them, using a sensible-ish count. There’s Age of Sigmar, MCU, Dragon Age, Dragonshield (yes, the card sleeves), Dungeons and Dragons, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Guild Wars 2, Warhammer 40k, Heaven Will Be Mine, We Know The Devil, Keychain of Creation, Overwatch, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Adventure Zone, The Magnus Archives, Silmarillion, Undertale, Voltron, TGCF, MDZS, Nirvana in Fire

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

‘The Heat Talking’ - Overwatch omegaverse. It’s popularity is very explicable :P.

‘A Stained Glass Variation of The Truth’ - Xianle Trio sickfic, featuring Mu Qing have a lot of feelings about looking after Xie Lian. This is one of the ones where I look at it’s popularity and go “[nods] my audience has Good Taste.”

‘Let Bastion Say ‘Fuck’‘ - Overwatch crackfic. I wrote for Overwatch a while ago. Those fics are very much not my best work. And Yet.

‘though shadows fall’ - TGCF HuaLian post nightmare hurt/comfort. (which reminds me, I should really write some HuaLian post nightmare hurt/comfort where Hua Cheng is the one who has a nightmare.)

‘All That Can Be Done’ - Overwatch Genyatta angst featuring Zenyatta dying of a God AI virus.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to, I really do, but... if I reply, the comment no longer shows up on the ao3 homepage. I do intend to reply, but the lure of having comments on my homepage wins out most times.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably either ‘All That Can Be Done’, the aforementioned fic where Zenyatta dies of a God AI virus and gets killed by Genji, or ‘Always Neater In Morality Plays’ where Sazed successfully poisons and kills Taako.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t really write much crossover fanfiction?

...Though I am right now doing an rp featuring a character from a historical tv show set in the Tang dynasty accidentally time travelling into an AU version of the Handmaid’s Tale, so, uh, that’s probably the wildest crossover I’ve been involved in.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. I’ve received a few “you’re characterisation is bad and you should feel bad” and “how dare you write something to your tastes and not my tastes!”

‘Always Neater In Morality Plays’ got a... bad reaction. Including a popular blogger vague posting about in a way that made it obvious exactly what fic it is and how grody they found it. They may not have linked the fic directly, but, uh, everyone knew. (And I may have also sent an ill-advised ask along the lines of ‘you have the right to vagueblog whatever fic you like, but for the love of peace could you at least check who is following you, so you don’t put ‘oh god, isn’t this fic the creepiest thing ever?’ straight onto the dash of the author?”  And also a chunk of the TAZ fandom blocked me*.

And then several years later I found out ‘snuff’ meant something different than what I thought it meant (I thought it just meant ‘focus on major character death!) which added an embarassing glace cherry on top of that sundae of bad.

*This became sort of funny when some of these people got into the Magnus Archives. “Oh, so you draw the line at graphic depictions of poisoning, but someone exploding into a shower of worms is fine???”

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do, yes. As for what kind-- well, my ao3 exists and is a relatively comprehensive survey.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nooooot to my knowledge?

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but if anyone wants to-- [makes ‘call me’ gesture].

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, not yet. I’d be potentially interested in doing one, maybe one of those ones where one person writes one chapter and then another person writes the next. At the moment I have a friend who is also interested in maybe doing that, we just don’t currently align on fandoms.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

[whine] Don’t make me choose between my babies!

14. What’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

‘A Shattered Angel And A Broken Fist’. It was one of the earlier fics I wrote, back before I learned that if I wanted to write something long, I needed to have an idea of how it was going to end. I lost momentum and now... I honestly have no clue what should happen next? I have re-read and gone “yep, some stuff should happen. Not sure what stuff.” So while a lot of people like it and it would be nice to finish, its probably not happening.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Hmm, I think I’m reasonably good at dialogue? I’m honestly not sure what my strengths are. I don’t mean this in a low self confidence way, more that I know I don’t have an outside perspective on my writing, and like a fish, I’m not super aware of the water I’m swimming in.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have a bad habit of people have conversation in Blank Windowless Voids of No Description.

I also have a less bad habit of trying to fill those voids with a) geology and b) Australian fauna and flora. This causes problems when the pov character has no reason to know geology, and the story is not set in Australia.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I am one of those people who pretty much only speaks English, except for the a bit of “Je m’appelle Wolffy. Le chat est petit.” So I don’t write dialogue in other languages. Too much risk of embarrassing error, for not much gain, when you can just use italics or something.

I do have a lot of thoughts about translation conventions in fic where the characters would not be speaking English, and things like whether to live honoriffics. The thoughts are a bit unformed, but mostly revolve around being consistent at least within a fic (no characters being “Your Highness” in one paragraph and “dianxia” the next), trying to avoid the affect you sometimes find in anime fics were every third word is in Japanese, and also trying to maintain character voice. (I occaisionally have moments of “yes, there is an English translation for what this character calls this other character, but it’s not what they canonically say and it’s going to bother me deeply if I only use English.”)

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Depending on how you define ‘fandom’ and how you draw the line between historical fiction and historical rpf, my first fandom was the Bagoas fandom. Not the Bagoas what followed Alexander the Great around, no, the vizier who was around before him.

...I was like twelve at the time, just to make this weirder.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

[whines harder] don’t make me pick between my babies!

[crystalelemental]

I feel like my main issue with any crossover kinda thing is that it feels like it’s taking away from what’s otherwise a self-contained thing.  FEH in particular, as a game to specifically celebrate Fire Emblem, feels like something that should never, ever have crossovers.  The instant that sense of “This is a Fire Emblem thing” dies, the game’s entire sense of charm dies.  Something like Dragalia Lost, maybe that’s different because it’s all OCs doing whatever, but even that I feel like...crossover characters are an admission that your OCs suck and that the game would completely fail if it wasn’t pandering to a sense of familiarity to other fandoms.  Like you needed to draw in people who liked something else better to get anyone to stay.

[xb-squaredx]

The Unwritten “Rules” of Smash Bros. Speculation

Super Smash Bros. has become one of the most ambitious crossovers in all of gaming, featuring characters from seemingly endless franchises duking it out. With each new installment, fans eagerly make the cases for their preferred choices, and with the advent of DLC, even after the game launches fans still speculate as to who will join the battle. The most recent title, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is no exception. As of this writing, we have six more DLC characters incoming for Ultimate, and speculation is in full swing. While it IS fun to speculate, attempting to narrow an almost infinite number of choices down to just six is quite the undertaking, so I thought it’d be more interesting to instead look at the arguments people often have for or against certain inclusions. I aim to compile the “rules” of who can and cannot get into Smash Bros. and see which rules hold water and which ones are on thin ice. Let’s begin!

NINTENDO ONLY

I’ll start with what was once one of the most binding rules for speculation. Smash Bros. was at one time, a celebration and collection of solely Nintendo-owned IPs, and despite fans pleas, various other characters from other companies surely couldn’t join in the fun. At least, until Brawl. Snake from the Metal Gear franchise and Sonic the Hedgehog himself made the leap from dream to reality as they were added to the roster and from that day onwards, nothing has ever been the same. In fact, we’re at a point now where most wish lists are populated almost entirely by third-party characters. It’s safe to say that this particular rule WAS broken and should be casted aside, however in its place another, similar rule has cropped up.

FRIENDLY RELATIONS

OK, so Nintendo doesn’t need to own the character in question…but they damn well better have been on a Nintendo console! The better the relationship between Nintendo and the game/franchise in question, the better chance they have of appearing in Smash, at least according to some people. Looking at our guests in general, this rule DOES seem to hold some water. Snake is a tad of a stretch, as the bulk of the Metal Gear Solid games aren’t on Nintendo platforms, though Twin Snakes exists, and the original Metal Gear was on the NES, so you could make an argument for him. Sonic, Mega Man, Simon and Pac-Man have made plenty of appearances on Nintendo consoles and while Microsoft owns Banjo now, he got his start with Nintendo. But then we have Cloud and Joker, who throw a wrench into the works. Both characters at the time of their playable debut had only appeared in spinoffs on Nintendo systems, with the games they made their ACTUAL debut in not appearing on any Nintendo console. Cloud famously made his debut in the first Final Fantasy game to NOT be on a Nintendo system. Over the years however, Cloud would appear in cameos in smaller spinoffs, as early as the Game Boy Advance as a summon in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and as per Sakurai’s own explanation, Cloud is meant to be a rep for the franchise on the whole, and there were indeed six other games Nintendo had on their consoles as “justification.” For Joker however, the Persona series stuck to Sony platforms, though the series they spun off from, Shin Megami Tensei, DID have tied to Nintendo, and the spinoff Persona Q was released as a 3DS title, so he gets in…BARELY.

I do find it interesting to note that, even if fans might not hold belief in this “rule,” other developers seem to respect it. When asked if Dante from the Devil May Cry series could see a playable appearance in Smash, Capcom instead stated that his own games would have to be on Switch first…and then a few months later, they put Devil May Cry 1 on Switch. Is this merely a coincidence? Maybe, but it’s pretty funny all the same. So far this rule has been bent, not broken, but I think it’s only a matter of time. This of course isn’t the only “rule” that’s open to some wiggle-room.

2 SEXY 2 VIOLENT

Nintendo is a family-friendly company and while they DO occasionally opt for more mature titles, they seem to put a lot of importance on casting a wide net and not going for too many ratings above T for Teen, or the rough equivalent in Europe and Japan. So when it comes to Smash, which is in part a celebration of all of Nintendo (plus guests), it pays to make sure THAT game keeps a similar rating. So any character addition that could jeopardize that rating is immediately suspect in the eyes of fans, and I’m inclined to agree. Throughout Smash’s life, we’ve seen how Nintendo and Sakurai have had to bow to the almighty ratings board. Items like the Ray Gun are designed to be as cartoonish as possible, and while this IS a game about smacking people around with punches, kicks, tail swipes and the like, it’s often presented in a very over-the-top manner to lower the impact. Now, there’s plenty of ways to play up the more cartoonish aspects of violence for new playable reps, but there seem to be limits. Bayonetta can’t use her gory Torture Attacks, for one, and when it comes to firearms, the series is a little gun-shy with depicting them. Snake famously only uses explosives, despite firearms being pretty common in his games. However in recent years we’ve seen some deviations from this. Bayonetta is allowed to use her guns, and Joker himself prominently uses his own gun. Granted, Bayonetta’s firing magic bullets and technically Joker’s using a model gun, but they’re still more realistic than the standard Smash shooter. So while it’s POSSIBLE to see the likes of the Mortal Kombat cast or the Doomslayer himself, I also wouldn’t hold my breath.

(Credit to @LetItMelo on Twitter)

God forbid you show any skin either! If a character is overtly sexual in their design, there’s a good chance they’ll be excluded from all the smashing going on, and we’ve seen this in various different forms throughout the series. Following the onslaught of horny players using the in-game camera to look under character’s skirts and the like in Melee and Brawl, female character models now have nothing but darkness underneath skirts and dresses. Or you can be like Rosalina and have the entire universe there. Even non-playable characters can’t escape alteration or even outright removal. Data suggests that the Fire Emblem character Tharja was supposed to be a trophy in the 3DS version of Smash 4, however the trophy does not exist in-game and the fact that her outfit is mostly a sheer bodysuit likely has something to do with it. In Ultimate in particular, the Xenoblade character Mythra had her Spirit altered; her boob window was removed and she gained tights on her otherwise bare legs. And this was just for some 2D art! Then there’s the case of Mai Shiranui, who was excluded from making a cameo on Terry Bogard’s stage, despite the multitude of other SNK character cameos and her status as one of the more recognizable SNK characters. In the Japanese version of Terry’s showcase video, Sakurai specifically states that the ratings board prevented them from including her.

But Bayonetta got in! And sure, she did, but with some concessions made. Her Wicked Weaves no longer leave her naked, only losing part of her outfit, and her more sexual traits are downplayed. There’s also Zero Suit Samus’ uh…let’s say alluring design, so there’s clearly wiggle room here, but at the same time both characters in question are still relatively covered up. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a Senran Kagura or Dead or Alive character to make the leap to playable status but I AM saying that they’d probably have to cover up or get some breast reduction surgery before they can make their debut. Still, ratings are not set in stone and over time, things change and gray areas emerge. With that in mind, I suppose we might as well take a look at one of the murkier, unclear “rules” fans have invented.

HE’S AN ASSIST, GET OVER IT

Being a playable character isn’t the ONLY way to be represented in Super Smash Bros. of course, and throughout the years we’ve seen various ways to get in on the fun. Stages, items, trophies, assists, Spirits, and Mii costumes all exist as ways to make a nod to virtually any franchise under the sun, but the question remains…if you’re already represented in such a way, do you have a shot at being made playable? Looking across the games, the answer would seem to be “Maybe in the next game.” Pit was a trophy in Melee before being brought back (and redesigned) for Brawl. The likes of Little Mac, Dark Samus and Isabelle have been Assist Trophies in one game, only to become playable in the next, and while Chrom and King K. Rool were Mii costumes in Smash 4 they’re playable in Ultimate. So far, we haven’t seen a single character make the playable jump in the same game, even with the option of DLC, but is it really such an impossibility?

Looking at items, like the Assist Trophies or even the Pokeball items, there are times when certain items won’t spawn, so it’s not too much of a stretch to say that, if Waluigi was chosen as a playable character, you couldn’t just find a way to keep his Assist Trophy from popping up in a match. This seems to happen in stages too; if a Link is playable in the Spirit Tracks stage, another character conducts the train. To run counter to that though, Ridley being made playable (and scaled down) is likely the biggest reason that the Pyrosphere stage didn’t make the return in Ultimate. That being said…Chrom is playable now, but he’s still part of both Robin’s Final Smash AND their win screens so…who can say what the actual edict is here?

Spirits are definitely a strange issue; if we take it as fact that if you have a Spirit in the game already, you can’t be made playable…that essentially means that 99% of Nintendo’s stable are ineligible and that just doesn’t seem right to me. Why limit yourself that much? Your only remaining options are brand new games that come out after Ultimate, though we’ve also had DLC spirits added in to promote a lot of these games. I’d like to assume that, at the very least, if you get in as a DLC Spirit, it’s unlikely that you’d be made playable later on. We have cases like the random Resident Evil Spirit event that casually gave us the most popular villain (Wesker) and the three most iconic protagonists of the series (Jill, Leon and Chris), which would make me question what a Resident Evil Spirit Board for a potential DLC character would look like. Why add that franchise in AHEAD of their playable appearance? Overall, I’d argue that a character with a Spirit in the base game has a chance of being made into playable DLC…but it’s a slight chance.

But then we have costumes…and this is where it can get interesting. Characters that are already playable can have costumes based off of them, as the likes of Link and Samus demonstrate, and even in the case of someone like Chrom who finally made the leap to playable, his costume still exists. But it’s the third-party costumes that garner the most attention. At launch, none of the third-party costumes from Smash 4 were in Ultimate, though as the Fighter’s Pass has doled out characters, these costumes have been slowly brought back, alongside new ones. At present, all of Namco’s costumes have yet to be seen, as well as the costume of one oft-requested puppet, Geno. Does this mean Namco will get a DLC rep, or that Geno will finally make the dreams of many fans come true? Anything’s possible, but there are no guarantees. As we can see with the likes of Sans and Cuphead, it’s also possible for characters to be added in as more elaborate costumes than your typical Mii flair. It certainly seems more likely to me that, say, Shantae could get a special Mii costume, even when she’s already a Spirit in the base game, and this might apply to other fan favorites too. On the whole though, there’s just a lot that’s up in the air regarding this particular rule. Nothing has contradicted it yet, but I can’t say I’d rule anything out in this case. If there’s ONE stipulation we have gotten confirmation on MULTIPLE times however, it’s this next “rule.”

NO GOKU ALLOWED

Smash Bros. celebrates video games, end of story, so all the cries to add in X character from some other form of media are ultimately fruitless. Sakurai won’t add Son Goku from Dragon Ball, and we won’t get Iron Man or Shrek. At present, the only characters that aren’t strictly FROM a video game, are at least intimately related TO video games. Both R.O.B. and Mr. Game&Watch are basically mascots for the NES and Game&Watch systems respectively, and they’re deeply tied to Nintendo’s own history as it is, so no one really bats an eye at their inclusion. Aside from kinda “tainting” the pureness of the series by introducing something that’s not a video game, there’s also licensing issues to consider…as well as the fact that it’d be a Pandora’s box the likes of which we’d never recover from. If Goku got in, then why not George Costanza or Spongebob or Walter White? It’d never end and the series would lose its identity.

There are still, however, a few characters that fans desperately want in the game, and they have this rule to contend with first. Geralt of the Witcher series is brought up as a possible inclusion, however the character originates from books. While the games have certainly gained notoriety and in some cases have surpassed the books in the public consciousness, that doesn’t change the fact that Geralt isn’t strictly a video game character. Oddly enough, however, he’s made the rounds in a lot of different video games over the past few years. He’s available as a character customization option in Daemon X Machina for one, a Switch-exclusive mecha game from 2019, and also in 2019 he was a guest character in Soulcalibur VI. Granted, that series has already seen guests from other mediums, like from the Spawn comics or characters from the Star Wars series. His appearance in Monster Hunter: World is also pretty unexpected, so it wouldn’t be completely out of nowhere to expect him to eventually make it to gaming’s biggest crossover, but I have my doubts. There’s also Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series, and while he DID originate in a video game, he is co-owned by Disney, and is closely tied to their properties as a result. Now, it’s not as if Nintendo hasn’t had a relationship with Disney; plenty of Disney games have appeared on Nintendo systems, but including Sora in Smash would either mean erasing any connections to the Disney characters in his games, or adapting them and subsequently breaking this massive rule and causing pandemonium! OK, it’s not as serious as all that, but it’d be a…delicate deal at any rate. Disney is pretty protective of their IPs, and Sora is also co-owned by Square Enix who is also pretty protective and hard to work with…Cloud barely got back into Smash Ultimate for one thing, and the rights for all that Dragon Quest music couldn’t have been cheap, so I feel like Nintendo wouldn’t be willing to go in on this a third time, especially with Disney’s involvement. But…miracles can happen, I suppose.

LITERALLY WHO?!

For our last “rule” here, I want to tackle one of the more subjective stipulations: relevancy. When it comes to shooting down character choices, you’ll often hear things like “that series hasn’t had a new entry in YEARS, so why would they promote that?!” or “that puppet’s been in one niche game that no one knows about!” It is true that characters in Smash do tend to promote newer games, as the likes of Roy, Corrin, Byleth, Joker and Hero show. I mean, why ELSE is the hero from Dragon Quest XI the default costume, other than that he’s the new hotness? But I think it’s clear at this point, especially when it comes to Ultimate, that being relevant isn’t everything. King K. Rool hasn’t been used in well over a decade, but he was added due to fan demand. A similar thing can be said for Banjo, as Microsoft hasn’t exactly used that IP in a while, and many would argue that Minecraft is a much more relevant rep from Microsoft if anything.

You’ll see people complain about certain inclusions with the argument that “no one knows who that character is!” but often that just demonstrates the complainer’s own bubble. Many in the West might not have gone CRAZY when Hero was announced, but Japan LOVES Dragon Quest and its inclusion is HUGE. Sakurai himself even notes this when going over Terry Bogard and SNK’s own history in the arcades. Relevancy only matters so much; if fans want them, and they bring something new and fun to the table, they have a chance. So this rule, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t one to take seriously. One man’s niche is another’s mainstream, really.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, Super Smash Bros. frequently makes dreams come true and breaks through any preconceived notions regarding who can and cannot smash, so I do find it somewhat of a fool’s errand to compile these “rules” and act like they’re the gospel. In truth, Nintendo and Sakurai can do whatever they want, and with enough time and money, anything is possible. There was once a time when we thought Sonic or Banjo fighting Mario and Link was a pipe dream, or hell…the entire concept of Nintendo all-stars all in one place was pretty farfetched over 20 years ago, but look at where we are now. As the old saying goes, rules are made to be broken…so clearly our next 6 characters are Doomslayer, Kasumi from DOA, Waluigi, Geno, Sora and Hank Hill. Yup. And I for one will be INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTED if that is not the case!

In all seriousness, speculate away, because at the end of the day, it’s pretty fun and harmless by itself! Just…hype responsibly, OK?

Happy Smashing

-B

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles About Fighting Games

I... honestly don’t know where to begin with this Rambling. I’ve been trying to think of a decent intro for over a week now and I just can’t be bothered to write a hook.

I guess I should start with myself.

Hello folks, I am Allen X. I do opinion pieces on the internet that I call Ramblings, write silly fanfictions about cute girls punching things, attempt to write original fictions about cute girls punching things, and very occasionally write fan lyrics to video game OSTs. And today’s Rambling is about fighting games and my current thoughts on them as of late. 

I’m a huge fan of fighting games, been playing them since Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur 3, the latter being one of my favorite 3D fighting games period. After that I got into Blazblue around the time Continuum Shift came out, and I’ve played every game in that series since, becoming a massive fan of Air-Dashing fighting games. 

I’m not a huge fan of ranked listings, but here’s a quick list of my 5 favorite fighting games just so you all understand where I’m coming from. So in no particular order:

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

Blazblue Chronophantasma

Soul Calibur 3

Dead or Alive 5

Under Night In-Birth Exe Latest

So with that list I hope you understand I’ve played a lot of fighting games in my time. That list is just a fraction of the games I’ve played over these last ten years.

And folks, I don’t know how to feel about modern fighting games at the moment. 

I think the current games out are fine, but as a fan of fighting games since the early 2000s they just don’t scratch a certain itch. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but nowadays fighting games just feel very bare-bones. Most of them only have an online mode, a training, maybe a combo/mission mode to help learn combos, and then maybe an arcade/story, with that story mode being bare in some way, shape, or form. It’s just feels empty nowadays.

But... I think I should give an example before going further. And I think the best game that shows my... conflicting feelings is Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. 

And where to begin with Cross Tag? This was a game that literally came out of my dreams and into reality. An actual pipe dream that I and many other fans of Arc System Works games jokingly wished for. Under Knight In-Birth, Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue, all in one game. It sounded like the wildest of wild dreams.

And then this trailer dropped. And I lost my shit. I think everyone lost their shit. 

I screamed.

I jumped out of my chair.

I nearly broke my damn tablet in shock seeing this trailer. 

And Ruby Rose was being added? Something that Mori and Ishiwatari had only teased about in passing? 

I... I needed some air after watching that trailer.

I needed a drink and some food. 

I’m pretty sure I lost three pounds from that trailer, and I’m barely 115 pounds, I need to keep all the weight I can put on. I was so excited to play that game after that. A crossover of three of the best 2D fighters in the 2010s and one of the most popular niche IPs of the 2010s, all together in one game, with unique character interactions. And an English Dub. Finally, a chance to hear Patrick Seitz, Cristina Vee, David Vincent, and more back where they should had been in Central Fiction. It was just... a magical time to be a fighting game fan.

And then I actually played the game... and boy did I have opinions on it.

I did a Rambling about this game last year after playing a bit of the beta. My overall thoughts, aside from my gloating, were that I felt it was lacking in complexity, but had potential to maintain my attention if they could meet a few of my expectations. And not much of my opinion has changed since then. If anything, I honestly wish I got off my butt and wrote more about this game while it was still fresh in my mind. 

But, back to my original point, this game is a good starting point in a lot of my conflicting feelings about fighting games nowadays, and I think I should start by discussing...

My Expectations

Last year I had three main expectations for Cross Tag. Those being a story mode that was more entertaining than insightful, free DLC of some kind, and a fulfilling single player experience. These are the three main things I want in most fighting games, as I’m not into the competitive seen outside from online get-togethers nor do I have a positive opinion of the competitive side of the FGC to begin with. So, how did Cross Tag stack up?

Well, I can happily say that at least two out of three isn’t bad. 

But I should probably break this down a little, as again, these three points are what I look for in most fighting games.

The Story Mode

Much like I hoped, the story modes were relatively simple and didn’t get too deep into everyone’s lore and backstory, which is honestly for the best. I’m a fan of Blazblue’s story, I really am, but I wouldn’t wish for that encyclopedia of lore known as the Blazblue world-building and the mini encyclopedia of lore that is Under Night and RWBY world-building mashed together. A fan of all these series I am, but that would had been much.

That said, the story modes were great. I was cackling at almost every interaction. Ragna squaring up to Kanji and Wald, Ruby being an absolute weeaboo when she confuses Yosuke and Yukiko for a ninja and geisha respectively, Ragna being surrounded by all the robo-girls save for Labrys, Hyde just... dealing with everything in his story mode, Weiss and Orie teaming up to take down Ragna in the name of justice. The list goes on, but the point remains. I loved a lot of this mode, my only real wish being that it was a little longer and didn’t focus solely on the main character of each series. I was also hoping for something a little more... grounded. Well, not something so ridiculous as some weird AI/Goddess controlling everything behind the scenes and forcing everyone to fight anyway. I know with the Cross Tag 2.0 update coming there’ll be a new story mode, and I hope it’s a little more inclusive than this one. I’m also hoping for a bit more replayability too. This story mode was fine, but I’d like to see something I could come back to and want to come back to. 

To give an example, I think Continuum Shift Extend had the best story mode of any fighting on pure replay value. There are at least 20 didn’t character perspectives in that mode with alternate endings and gag endings included. Each character has a decent arc and narrative, they occasionally run into other named characters and have their timelines mix, and there’s even a retelling of the previous game with some added bits thrown in. I know I said Chronophantasma was my favorite of the Blazblue series, but Continuum Shift had the most love put into it. I’m not expecting something of that extent in Cross Tag 2.0, but something at least trying to reach that would be great.

Ah, but moving on.

Free DLC

This one’s a real technicality and I’m tempted to not count it, but for the degenerates like me that bought the original season pass, we also got to enjoy Seth, Heart, Teddie, and Naoto K. for free. That’s... not exactly what I was hoping for in my old post, but we did get something out of it. In the future I hope that Cross Tag will follow something a little closer to how Samurai Shodown handled their season passes, letting early adopters download it for free on the first day or week before charging as a reward for those giving it a chance... or at least running the the store page quick enough. 

In all seriousness, I do hope for something to the effect of the reason of Season 2′s characters being either cheap or free for the first few days before charging whatever retail price they set it to. It’d just give some incentive to stay up to date on the game and encourage people to actively play it.

But sadly, two out of three meant I didn’t get the main thing I wanted, which was...

A Good Single Player Experience 

I had mentioned I wanted something akin to Chronophantasma’s Abyss Mode or Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’s Golden Arena Mode. Something with a leveling system or that had some replay value to it for the single player folks. Sadly, I didn’t get that. Like many current fighting games, Cross Tag is rather bare-bones with the content. There’s not even a basic arcade mode, a staple in every ASW fighting game. I’m... disappointed by that. And this isn’t the only game either. I believe it took Street Fighter V an entire season to get an arcade mode. Tekken 7, a series known for its wild mini games, barely had anything beyond a story mode, a very bare bones arcade mode, and a treasure mode that... just didn’t feel fun to play. This is from a series where the last numbered series had an expansive 3D-esque brawler mode for it’s story mode with special items and costumes that gave some really wild effects. Soul Calibur 3 had a mini Fire Emblem-esque strategy game with Swords and Soul Mode where you got to create a character with a pretty original moveset all things considered, several movesets in fact. But sadly... a lot of that is starting to go away.

I just feel like with the push toward competitive play a lot of fighting games aren’t bothering to keep in mind casual players, and that saddens me. I don’t play too many fighting games for the sake of getting better, but that’s where we’re going. I want to say that’s bad for business, but Street Fighter is pushing out season 4 and EVO is still one of the biggest and most marketable events in the FGC. Maybe I’m just being an old man yelling at those darned kids and their bare-bones gaming content. I’m willing to accept my 25-years-old mindset is a bit old fashioned in the year of 2019 where time and technology is blitzing by and those in our mid-to-late twenties who have been playing games since the 90s are seen as the old men in the gaming community, but I just had to get my thoughts out. ...

...

...

God, I miss the line breaks Tumblr use to have, makes these closing statements a lot easier.

Anyway folks, with all that said I think I’m going to call it here. For those expecting the Weekly Update it’s been a real slow week, so not much to report. Consider this Rambling my update. I’ve finally gotten through the first chapter of Arifureta and honestly that’s all I need to read to get an idea on the Rambling I want to do for that series. I bought 6 volumes of Tokyo Ghoul:re against my better judgement, so expect me to talk about that next week. And slowly but sure I’m getting some notes together for the Taboo Tattoo Rambling. So look forward to all that and I’ll see you all later.

[factorialsfandoms]

Fic Writer Ask: 2, 17, 37 :D

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits? (I am ignoring the top one as its a pseudo-fandom tag just so that people who do or don't want stuff based on a specific fancomic can filter as appropriate. As I consider it more a fandom tag and the others are more interesting) Hurt/Comfort (28) Angst (21) Major Character Injury (18) Blood (14) Fluff (12) Which... yeah that's probably all legit. Over 157 works I'm honestly surprised none of those numbers are higher.

Incidentally, on my FFXIV account it goes Specific Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV) (40) Ficlet (13) Hurt No Comfort (5) Named Azem (Final Fantasy XIV) (5) Angst (4)

Which is... much sadder. No comfort there, sorry (of 50 fics)

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

Basically all of my rune factory aus over so so so many fandoms. That one I did actually write. Oh! And for my most niche... One of my brain children is a LOTR/Avalon Code crossover. It might get repurposed with another fandom something, but just... An Avalon Code retelling with whatever blorbos I had at the time would be delicious. Especially exploring what making the edits actually /means/. ... It'd actually go really well with AI: Somnium Files but also /no/. Maybe a 999 Au, though, that'd be entertaining...

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

Oh boy let me see... Promoing always feels weird... You know what? I'm promoing I Will Still Be Here from my soapbox rn. Post-canon Fire Emblem: Binding Blade fic in which Elphin reveals his true identity to his father, King Mordred. It is soft, it is gentle, there's a lot of pain being carved open for them both. Letting your father know your death was faked against your will after you were left delirious and dying by an assassination attempt? Well he never actually gets to doing that - they'll get to it when emotions are running less high - there's more a lot of crying and commenting on miracles, but I love it. I know why its less well liked. Being a fic for a game never released in English using some minor characters barely anyone cares about, but I just... It's not even an amazing fic it's just gentle and I think the characters in general should have more love.