#mech and pilot relationships so cool

[golden--flowers]

ARMOURED CORE??? THE MECH TALKS TO YOUR CHARACTER??????

[sophia-sol]

Every year at about this time (...very approximately) I post a reclist of 10 short stories I particularly enjoyed reading in the last year, all of which can be read online for free. Here's the latest list, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

1. Sestu Hunts the Last Deer in Heaven - MH Cheung Beautiful and odd. A story of what happens after you've killed the gods, the unexpected realities and the things you have to live with. I love stories about after the climactic things traditional fantasy narratives are about, and this one excels!

2. If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You - John Chu Two butch Asian weightlifter dudes bonding with each other and then dating, and one of them happens to have superpowers, but the superpowers aren't the focus. This is SO charming!!

3. Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold - SB Divya This is a really cool retelling of the classic fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin from the Rumpelstiltskin character's pov, building out the world and his background and making him a sympathetic character with a specific history. Haven't seen a fairy tale retelling quite like this before and it's great! And I say that as a connoisseur of fairy tale retellings.

4. A Farce to Suit the New Girl - Rebecca Fraimow A troupe of Jewish actors in Russia, in a time of political upheaval. This story has such a good and powerful feeling of activity and forward momentum, and of the way a community supports people even if things are weird or complicated! I love every single character and how firmly they are themselves.

5. Sheri, At This Very Moment - Bianca Sayan The sacrifices you make to spend time with the ones you love - a snapshot of one brief visit together, out of two lives that only rarely get to align. Made me teary the first time I read it!

6. Spirochete - Anneke Schwob An engaging second-person pov story about possession and identity. It has such a great sense of timing! And the last line GOT me even on second read when I hypothetically knew what was coming!

7. To Embody a Wildfire Starting - Iona Datt Sharma Ahhhhhh this story is so good at embodying the horrible complexities of the choices people make in the worst of situations, that good and bad and divine and evil and just plain personness can all reside in one being. Also it's about a dragon society and the revolutionary humans who tried to make everyone into dragons, and also about parent-child relationships, and also about a bunch of other things. God it's good.

8. Obsolesce - Nadine Aurora Tabing Is it really me if I don't have at least ONE story about robots in my rec lists? (actually I just went back and checked and in multiple previous years I inexplicably didn't, maybe it wasn't me writing the reclist in those years lol) ANYWAY who wants to have sad feelings about robots again! I know I always do! In a world where anyone who has a physical body instead of having their consciousness transferred is more and more obsolete, no matter if your body is human or robot, what do you hold onto? This one has a real good melancholy tone.

9. Letters from a Travelling Man - WJ Tattersdill ....does what it says on the tin. Letters to a dear friend, from a man travelling for the first time to the unfamiliar part of the world that friend comes from. I love the sense of place you get from the letters, as well as the deep and abiding importance of this friendship in both their lives. Another one I cried over!

10. Texts from the Ghost War - Alex Yuschik Another epistolary one, but this time in text messages instead of letters, and between characters who start the story antagonistically! About mech pilots in a ghost war, and making connections, and finding things to care about, even when stuff sucks. I love them!! (also, I am inescapably me, whoops, it took me until I read some fanfic of this story to realize that almost certainly the story was meant to be canonically shipping the two leads, I never notice romance unless there's anvil-sized indications.) Anyway this is a really good story!

[ladytabletop]

📖 🔮

📖 My favorite class or playbook from a game.

Extreme Meatpunks Forever has just some really cool classes. Imagine if Thirsty Sword Lesbians were intrinsically tied to a setting and had similar relationship mechanics. I love the Weird-o-the-Wisp and I'm so mad I never thought of that name myself!

🔮 One of my favorite memories playing a game by someone else.

Playing Lancer by Massiff Press, we were supposed to be in a fun game of robot fighting on a space station. Our evangelist mech pilot who was definitely dating his mech AI got exploded. Like dead exploded. And we all kind of went "oh so it's that kind of game". Much vengeance was had!

[autos-official]

List of every single manufacturer and how they honestly are

@autos-official: the one time we colonize something it went... bad. There is a reason for why we are SEVERLY against any misrepresentation of hercynian culture/history... We were the firemen once. But what we fought was not from this world. Ans so we cannot pity them. In our hubris we came out saying "never again" and we're the only ones remembering our vows. We hope that Project 118/Uuo is never brought to light again. And if it is... lets hope nobody figures out how it works. Also AUTOS-NEOS replaces "esoteric" for "rugged" if you want our brand but you want a mech that isnt... paracasualty on legs (LISTEN OUR ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS HAVE THEIR PROBLEMS ALREADY LEAVE THEM ALONE 🥺)

@general-massive-systems: you want a mech that, while boring, at least isnt Fucked Up 69 Ways From SecComm? Good then youre stuck with GMS. I mean, respect for sticking to the roots but come on you gotta agree the non-bullshit things cant be all GMS

@officialunionhr: finally! Someone actually giving a shit about the civilians!

@harrison-armory-official: look, your mechs are cool and all, but come the fuck on cant you at least PRETEND to be better than your past? Or at least make a mech that isnt one hot day away from a meltdown???

@ssc-official: half of your mechs are ONE HULL PERSONALIZATION AWAY (which is avaiable at LICENSE LEVEL FUCKING ZERO) from being straight outta R34. Seriously i get "sleek and elegant design" but HALF OF YOUR MECHS HAVE CHILD BEARING HIPS. HALF OF YOUR FANS ARE COOMERS AND YOU WONT ACCEPT IT A-

@ips-northstar-official: you guys are... somewhat cool i guess??? I mean, all that weird pirate shit has been a thorn in your side for like, a century or two too many. I would ask Union to check if someone in the chain of command is doing shady shit about pirates. Seriously.

@horus-unofficial: i get the NHP relationships but uhm... guys, with all due respect. Dont unleash unshackled NHPs on somewhere inhabited. Like maybe when its someone about to "Reference SecComm" but other than that... why would you? Also that whole "lich licenses have always been there" thing is bullshit. UPDATE👏YOUR👏FUCKING👏SOFTWARE

@hra-official: N̴͚̭̙O̥̽̔͠B͓̊̅̀Ǫ̶̲͇ͫ̂̈Ḑ̸̌͏Y͟ ̨͛͗̕͞T̴̻ͧͪͯ̀O̙Ų̰̣̩̓̊̕͜Ĉ̷͔̹́͘H̷̥̘̳̽̔ O͔͕͒͗U̶̧̥̍ͭ́R͖̩͔̓͑́͢ ̸̪͊ͣ̈́͘͝B͚͍̄U҉̛G ̳̰͆B͉͖̠҉Ǫ̕͏Y̹͕͎S̶̅ͤ͝ ̱̾̀͜O̧̪̫̜̔̃R̴̷̤͔͓̂ͫ͋̀ ̧͇̦̆S̵͈̟̾̿ͬ̕O̿͢ ̤̰̯̓̽͡҉͡H̴̢̤͖͐ͯͣ͠E̜̫̍ͫͬ͘͡L̘ͫͅ҉Ṗ̵̢ͨ͘ ̛̿Ỹ̶̴͒ͮ͞O̟͔̻͠Ü̡̧͈̙ ͖R̟̝ͅẢ̷̷̤̖͈/̞̹̇M̎̏̄Eͯ͟T̷͖͛̚͞Ạ͠T̮ͨ͆ͪ ̶̳AͮÙ̸̧N̪͓̐҉̀/̹̝̭̌ ̨̯ͭ́ͥW͟H̯͚҉̸̧Aͬ͘͠T̈́̈͌҉͏E̡ͣ̑́͜Ṿ̢̦̱ͯE̶̩̩̞̎͟R̢͙ͫ͗͟͠ ̺͙̋̐"̷̃͗M̴̹͎ͯ͢͞O̢͎̙̩͟͝N̵͎͈͊̍͡͡I̩̣S̵̙̟̟̐ͧ̓͝T͔͚͘ͅ"̓̽͢ ̟̤͕͑̊ͣY̨̧̧͆O̩̝͡U̢͖̝ͣͦ͡ ̝̓͢͡K̵̾͑͢Ńͦ́Ơ̄͗̊W͔̼̠͛̈́̀͠ ̶̬̑͞͝O̵͔̿̚͡F̵̴̞ͩ̓̕ ̛̺̖̙̂́͠͡I̴̢͕̤̕ ̷̧̞̎̕W̡̨̟͙̥͑̇ͧ͢I̻͓ͥ҉̨̕L͇̗̤͜͏L̐ͅ ̗ͭ̎͋B̨̡͑̋́R͊ͩͩÏ̡̛͖̭̌Ñ̳̥͕̔ͯG̽̉ͥ ͋͐͘҉O͏̕͢N̲͍̓̾҉̧͘T̵̸͠Ŏ̭̑ͦ͢ ̻͔̰͐͌Ỳ̛̤̓̈́O̠̪Uͪ̈́̆͢͏͏ ̫͋̾ͮẆ͉̠̅́H̨̛̭͝A̡̨̠̹ͩ̂̚͜T̢̈́ͯ̎͏̀ ͔̩͍H͙̖͝͞ÄP̳͙̿ͅP̝E̙̎͐̈N͈̪͟E̾̎̕̕D̹̻͢͜ ̯̟͐̈̀T̸̴̵̏O̷̢̜͖̥ ̵̤̼̆͒̕͜Ṯ̉͢H̷ͯE̟͍̩Ṃ̡͉̬ͭ̊ͤ͞͝ ̟̳͔͋HŬ̷̑̾N̨͙̈́̚D̓ͨͧR̶͓҉Ȩ̸̳͖̜̅̋͝Ḑ̓̓ͯ͡͠-̩ͤ̋ ͚̩̪ͫ̐͐͏͟N̫͚ͬ̿҉Ŏ̼͈̝ͧ͒ ̡̬͚A̶̳̻̣̐̔ ͋͑͠T̼̲̕͢H̸̾̍͝Ó͐҉͠͝U̡̧͞S͓̩̔A̸̅͡Ṉ̮͔̈́̑͂̀͏̡D͕́-̚҉̶͠F̧̂̕O͏̡͡L̍D̢̢ͭ̉ͤ ̴̤̫̙Y̵̨ͣ̄O̺͙͟͏͡U̹̍͑҉ ̟̜F̷̵̙͋̅͂͜Ū̸̖̠͛͏C̬̗̭̑̾͊͏̕͜K͈̕̕͠I̡̥͆̈̓ͅ͏͢Ṋ̖́͢G̛̍̕ ̱̰͘Ğ͇̬̣̂E̷͍̤͝N̖̖̓ͤO̦̲̙C͙̼͓ͯĬ̵̳̖͉ͫ̓̀͟D̴̹̐̑A͙͙ͫ͐́̕͜Ľ ̶̯̹͈CͪƯ̡̘̻̖͒̑Ņ̨̗̘͇͞-̧̧̣ͪͪ̑͡

@albatross-lancer: on one hand, if it wasnt for you the Incident wouldnt have been solved and the galaxy would have been in SLIGHT danger. On the other, over 50% of all albatross NSFW on the omninet is because of some of our workers having "art" as an hobby. Yeah, union owes us HARD for all those "erogenous pinup calendars of albatross pilots" and all because most of the staff wants to be wished away to Greener Pastures by a foreign, strong pilot that also saves worlds from oppression... bridal carried to a cottage to be manhandled and bre- UH WE MEAN YOU GUYS ARE COOL AND ARE MORE NEEDED THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE :)

[ninthprime]

in response to yesterday's polycule conversation i would like to present this chart on what i personally believe is going on with the blue channel and various adjacent characters. i am not taking questions at this time (actually i am probably). thank you @violentandmagnificent for suggestions. full id under the read more

[ID: the image depicts a relationship chart with various palisade characters. in the top left corner a color chart indicates red is "definitely romantic", green is "maybe??" and gray is "platonic but important to the dynamic here."

brnine is at the center of the largest block of characters. brnine has a green arrow pointing to lattice labeled "oh you're a nobel haha please like me." lattice has a gray arrow pointing back labeled "random person they met once." brnine and gucci share a red line labeled "most toxic primary and satellite relationship in known history." jesset and brnine share a red line labeled "mostly just friends who support each other but you can tell sometimes there is tension here." jesset and gucci share a gray arrow labeled "Rivals." brnine and asepsis share a gray line labeled "uhhhhhh." brnine has a green arrow pointing to thisbe labeled "thisbe look i'm a cool and good person now haha can we be besties haha." thisbe has a gray arrow pointing back labeled "Brnine is like everyone else." brnine has a red line shared with "Wolf who is not appearing in this season."

gur also shares a red line with "Wolf who is not appearing in this season." they share a green line with brnine labeled "we barely know each other but we almost dated the same person who died so our entire perceptions of each other are inherently fraught." gur shares a green line with figure labeled "hey is it normal for a divine to give you a ghost and for that ghost to immediately seem very invested and insist you're friends." figure shares a green line with thisbe labeled "they're like a plant to her (positive(??))." figure also shares a green line with partial palisade labeled "undead history pals." figure has a red arrow pointing to phrygian labeled "wow phrygian you're so cool i wish i was more like you" with a blushing face. phrygian has a green arrow pointed back at figure labeled "thanks figure you're my friend! (too war weary to think on this further)."

off of the main block of characters, mustard has a green line shared with the divine, arbitrage labeled "[REDACTED]." cor'rina and misericorde are on the next line with a red line labeled "Alise Breka's Among Sharks." misericorde shares a green line with routine labeled "apparently this could happen." routine shares a gray line with midnite labeled "constantly updating her on the miseri situation via text." midnite has a red line connecting her to "various women offscreen." on another line, cori has a green line connecting her to kriminel labeled "#normal #girl #friends." cori then has a red line connecting her to elle labeled "what if we were both blood powered mech pilots and i blamed you for my father's death and also we kissed." under them, a final red line connects kalar to his husband. in the top right corner is a box labeled "'Just Hanging Out' Box." hunting and saffron are in this box.]

[indierpgnewsletter]

Every Game I Played in 2024 (So Far)

It’s time for one of my favourite posts to write every year. Here is every game I’ve played in the first half of 2024:

Series

Fathoms Deep (as GM): Let’s get my own game out of the way first: I’ve ran about 11 playtest sessions of Fathoms Deep, a game about a community of salvagers aboard a living ship in a flooded world. The game is my big project. If I was studying game design, this would be my masters’ thesis. It’s got a lot of parts – action-packed underwater dives using my flavour of card-based Forged in the Dark, a cool map where you move your ship around, downtime scenes, campaign arcs based on survival, hope and salvation, etc. There’s a lot of tinkering left to do and I am in no hurry to finish because, deep breath, it’s about the journey! Like in the game!

Pasion de la Pasiones (as GM): We took the spanish telenovela game and set it in a X-men-like school. Sadly we didn’t get to play past the first couple sessions but it’s a slam dunk concept and a great game. My game of the year for 2023 if I remember correctly!

The Wildsea (as GM): This was the big campaign that marked the first half of the year in my (online) home game. It has a lot of overlap with my own game, Fathoms Deep – both are pirate-games-without-pirates. But Wildsea has a very different tone – it’s optimistic high fantasy in the vein of some of the best D&D 5e games I’ve played. I would easily recommend it as a game for people who are playing 5e and want something to easily switch to. The world and setting is lovely – a solid thematic core garnished with a variety of fun ideas, great flavour, and lots of stunning, evocative art. I had so much fun playing zany characters to match the vibe of the zany world. The system isn’t my cup of tea for a variety of complicated reasons but this is a fantastic achievement, especially since it was the designer’s first game afaik!

Rich Kid Problems: Last year, I played Capitalites by Sam Mui and this year, we returned to that classic genre of rich people behaving badly with this game by Maria Mison. It’s a light storygame – improv heavy but good fun.

Last Fleet (as GM): We’re one month into this Battlestar Galatica-inspired game by Josh Fox. It’s far future space opera with humanity on the edge of extinction – all inter-personal politics and feelings in the face of almost certain doom. I love this game already. It meshes perfectly with my directorial GM style and helps me serve up some fantastic moments. It feels like every session, I am throwing some impossible decision or loyalty-threatening revelation at my players who pick up the ball and run with the ball unflinchingly. It definitely helps to think about it as prestige TV and frame scenes using that language – lots of walking and talking in corridors, that sort of thing. The characters aren’t on the same side, there aren’t missions – just agendas and obstacles. Will write about some of the cool design stuff going on when the campaign is done.

One Shots

Okay, got to rush through these!

This Ship Is No Mother (as GM): I ran 4 great games of my little lets-make-Mothership-a-storygame game. These were mostly at online cons or things like that. I love playing this game.

Wizards Grimoire and Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands: Getting to play two games from the Bakers was a real treat. Wizard’s Grimoire is the start of a series of games that flip the GM-player relationship in great ways. You should check it out. Firebrands is a game of daring mech pilots told in dramatic vignettes where the less you force a narrative, the better!

Steal away Jordan and Tales of a Fisherman’s Wife: These are two games from designer, Julia Ellingboe. I think Steal Away Jordan is my favourite of the two. Even as you wrestle with the discomfort (if you’re not Black) of playing Black slaves in the American south, it’s still a game about being heroes with a lot of delight and joy at the heart of it! Fisherman’s Wife is a game of Japanese ghost stories with tentacle porn on the cover. I’m not sure what else to say!

Navathem’s End (as GM): This game by Pam Punzalan and Sin Posadas fits well with Wildsea on this list because it feels like an alternate take on the genre that is D&D 5e. It’s that light-hearted brand of heroic fantasy but with a different ethos – less colonial, more grounded in community.

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast: A book which is probably as fun to read as play. You probably have heard about it enough but if not, go listen to the Yes Indie’d episode about it.

After the Mind, the World Again: This is a Disco Elysium inspired game where there’s one player and four GMs who play facets of a detective’s mind. It’s not really a one shot game – definitely takes 4 hours or more but we rushed the ending and got somewhere. Also, free!

City of Mist (as player): I always joke about wanting to read this game but bailing as soon I as open the PDF to see that it has more than 500 pages. The new version has cut half of the system out so maybe I had a point.

The Hunted (as player): This is a slick one-shot game – Forged in the Dark folk horror in the vein of Blair Witch Project and the like. Easy to play and run, would do again.

Swords without Master (as GM): This game should’ve inspired a whole design lineage. The text is a bit tricky to parse but if you get a chance to play this, you should take it!

Damn the Man, Save the Music: If you like Empire Records and don’t mind doing some improv, this game is great.

Cloud Empress (as player): The giant psychic cicadas are a great linchpin for a setting. If you play the game, head straight for them.

There was a bit more here and there. I already wrote about playing older games like Metamorphosis Alpha, Bunnies & Burrows and Dallas RPG on here. There was also a lot of playtesting including a very fun session of Protect the Child by Mint about a found family of monsters looking after a child a la Monsters Inc. Overall, another very satisfying half-year.

[fiovske]

Do you have any recs for other non-DnD game systems? I've only ever played 5e, and I'm a little intimidated to get into other systems, but I also want to branch out and get away from WOTC's bullshit.

Sure thing! I am also including a link to the itch.io pages since that's where i get most of these games!

Blades In The Dark: i'm mentioning this first bc the rules are very easy to grasp and if you're looking for a setting that has a touch of ghosts and steampunk, this game is the perfect gateway to that! it's the best for a heist i have found and the game mechanics and names are so soo sick here's just a slice from their itch.io page:

personally i find the setting and the stress mechanic very cool, because it takes into account the mental toil that an action can have and i find games with inbuilt consequence mechanics very compelling! it introduced the concept of clocks to me and i am obsessed.

a) adjacent to Blades, are all Forged In The Dark Games which are third-party blades games, and the most notable of them is Scum and Villiany which is space-western setting and also my favorite and if you're looking to play a game in the breadth of star-wars like interplanetary politics and everything, i highly recommend this game! b) if you're looking for a Blades game with mechanics to suit something more royalty-adjacent, with court-politics and agendas and masquerade parties and all, like say d20's court of fey and flowers vibe then i recommend Court Of Blades! I havent gotten around to playing this yet but it looks really promising and i soo badly want to play a game in this setting!

2. The Ground Itself : this is a world-building game. focused on one single place over time and how it changes and how it's people change, the events of this game can be spaced out from a week to several millennia depending on the rolls of ur dice or your choices! i have found that this game serves very well as say, a session zero game also, for setting up a place before you play in it, and not only a very fun session of making a place together for your party to play in, but also not leaving all the work to the gm! so it's a win win situation!

tbh, all games by everest pipkin are very good! i wanna get my hands on world ending game as well bc it is a game about giving your campaign, your world-building and your characters the perfect send-off.

3. Wanderhome : if you're looking for something ghibli-esque (this is the closest i can come to defining this game thru popular media) then i highly recommend wanderhome! it's got a very cozy pastoral vibe to it and the art is really beautiful and you get to pick from a range of animal-folk to play as it's very cool!

also honorable mentions,

a) Sleepaway is a game by the same creator in which ur a camp counsellor to a bunch of misfits and horror stories around campfires ensue! b) Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast which is an upcoming game which you can still back and it looks really interesting so i'd recommend checking it out as well!

4. Lancer: this game has mechs it has space-battles and you get to be a pilot in a future set years in the future and a thousand directions to take ur campaign in! he relationship between pilot and mech is smth that can be so personal.....

i wanna play lancer sometime it has very cool mech designs and it has very much piqued my interest, if i find ppl who wanna play lancer w me im 🏃🏃!

5. Heart The City Beneath : honestly, one of my fave settings of all time, it has strong horror components so mind the cws! but the classes and the game mechanics are very intuitive and overall it helps you not only build a character that feels natural and organic, but since this is a horror setting, things do not have happy endings... however it will ensure that your characters have a well-built journey whose ends will be terrifying and magnificent.

I got introduced to the fallout mechanic through this game and oooo how i love it, it's the perfect blend of your actions have consequences + every consequence is interesting and will affect your character deeply and emotionally, which is <33

this list got too long so i will just mention some more here:

the quiet year (very good map-making game, for before the frost shepherds arrive in winter.)

beam saber (forged in the dark game that deserves its on mention! austin ramsey's games i highly recommend!)

thirsty sword lesbians (ecactly what it says on the tin, i wanna check this game out also)

lotr's one ring rpg (this one is the closest substitute to classic d&d bc lets be real. tolkien is where d&d got it's shit from. and i have heard good things abt this game even tho i've never had the chance to play it)

mothership rpg (space horror whose build mechanics are very easy and user-friendly and i've had a LOT of fun with this!)

orbital (one very beautifully written rpg about life in space and it's only 32 pages but well-worth the time, highly recommend)

that's all i can give off the top of my head, i might've missed a few but these are strong standouts, so i hope u find at least one to your liking!

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[yumeinati]

Seeing what my sister knows about the Mechanisms - Spoilers: Not enough

I love my sister, I do. She lets me rant to her about the Mechanisms 24/7. But the real question is whether or not she pays attention to what I say. I decided to quiz her and see how much she retains from our conversations <3

DTTM Spoilers/Talk

Starting off with everyone's favorite Captain First Mate!

Name: Jonny d'Ville | Mechanism: Blood | Role: Master at Arms

"He's cool I guess"

Not really surprised by her response to him, nor am I shocked she got his Mechanism wrong since when I first asked her to do this, she was like "I only know three of them. Jonny d'Ville, Nastya Rasputina, and Jonny Sims" and I had to remind her that two of those were the same person. Speaking of Nastya Rasputina!

Name: Nastya Rasputina | Mechanism: Lungs | Role: Pilot

"My favorite" Proceeded to give a thumbs up.

As I taught her, Nastya is best girl and deserves the whole world. I am rather shocked she got her Mechanism wrong as I once word vomited to her about mercury poisoning when I was plotting for a Nastya-centric fic, but its okay. Next up is Ashes!

Name: Ashes O'Reilly | Mechanism: Eyes | Role: Quartermaster

"They're cool, I like them"

Used the wrong pronouns but immediately realized and corrected herself before I had to so that's a win that she paid attention there. (We stan an ally <3) I talk about Ashes so much so I'm surprised that she got their Mechanism wrong but its okay, I still love her. Now to an Archivist who actually knows how to do her job (this is S1 Jon Sims slander, I am not sorry, he did not know what he was doing)

Name: Ivy Alexandria | Mechanism: Brain | Role: ????

"I don't really know...Ivy I guess is cool."

I don't talk about Ivy as much as I should, which I really should change because Ivy is amazing. When asked about why she was '????' she just went "I don't know...she has those vibes." which is 100% understandable. Time for the drumbot himself!

Name: Drumbot Brian | Mechanism: All but Heart | Role: Engineer

"Cool."

How does she not have more to say about him? He's been the focus of my rants since I got home from Uni on Sunday and all she has to say is 'cool'. Engineer is at least the closest she could get to Pilot, but I'm still a bit disappointed she didn't get all the answers right. On to her...absolute favorite, TS.

Name: Toy Soldier | Mechanism: All but Voice | Role: Archivist

"The Toy Soldier is the best character and there's no doubt about that."

Her answer came so quickly after I asked her how she felt about TS, I honestly can't say I'm surprised though. She thinks it's a silly little creature. Now to the man that I'm like 100% sure she has a love/hate relationship with, Tim.

Name: Gunpowder Tim | Mechanism: Heart | Role: First Mate

"Cool."

Once again, really confused about how she doesn't have more to say about him. He's literally carrying a huge gun so like, a tad confused on my she didn't think he was Master at Arms, but its alright. Funnily enough, she got the next two completely right, starting with Marius.

Name: Marius von Raum | Mechanism: Arm | Role: Doctor

"His arm is cool."

Applause for her getting everything correct. I force her to listen to The Wassailant in the car. There is no surprise she got his stuff right because I talk about Kofi, and by default Marius, so often. And finally, last but not least, Raphaella <3

Name: Raphaella la Cognizi | Mechanism: Wings | Role: Science Officer

"Just take off the wings and she'd be cooler. Just saying."

The disappointment when she said that was at its peak. I cannot believe that she would say that about the Raphaella la Cognizi and I will be making sure she changes her ways.

I'm not too surprised with Nastya and TS being her favorites, seeing as I talked about them most when I first got into Mechs, but the Raph slander was absolutely uncalled for </3

I also asked her some lore questions.

Q: What is the ship’s name? | A: Aurora

Q: Who is dating the starship, The Aurora? | A: Jonny

Q: Which Mechanism Mechanized themself? | A: Nastya

Q: Who was the first Mechanism? | A: Jonny

Q: Who were the last two Mechanisms to join the crew? | A: Marius and Ivy

Q: Who was the first Mechanism to die/leave the crew? | A: Tim

Q: Who was the last Mechanism to die, timeline-wise? | A: Jonny

Q: Which Mechanism died by death by Octokittens? | A: Brian

Q: Which Mechanism has a morality switch? | A: Brian

Q: Who had a ‘best friend’ named Bertie? | A: Jonny

Q: Which one is an arsonist? | A: Raphaella

Q: Which one blew up the moon? | A: Tim

Q: Which one is a cannibal? | A: Marius

All in all, somewhat disappointed in my ability to get this cemented into her brain </3 Glad she at least was able to match names to faces so I'm at least showing her enough photos of them, but I will definitely start talking to her about Mechs lore more because she needs to know and understand it all.

I will still say that a success is convincing her and my mom to do matching Life360 photos with the most iconic sibling duo and their mother <3

[atlailx]

HUGE BANG BRAVE BANG BRAVERN SPOILERS (Hopefully I put the read more thing on right, i still don't 100% know how to use tumblr)

So I just sat and binged watched this entire show, I have NEED to just talk about it because it's just so good.

Ok i went into this calling it the gay robot show bc i had seen so many people talk about it like that (they’re not wrong) but it was so much more than just a silly little mecha show. I totally called the save in ep1 where braven appeared. Like once the huge attack started i said “oh the main character is gonna get hurt and about to be killed and the giant robot is gonna appear and save him” and i was totally right. Then in ep2 (i think) when superbia showed up, i really just thought “oh cool this guy looks sick, sucks that he's gonna die and never appear again” BUT I WAS THANKFULLY WRONG. Up until smith's death, i was totally under the impression that smith would be the one to bond with superbia, like i was thinking “oh this deathdrive is gonna attack smith and almost kill him then superbia is gonna show up and save him parallel to braven and isami” but i was caught SO off guard by the plot twist. I was analyzing the break animation and thought “oh both smith and isami are (nakey) that means smith is gonna pilot a bot,” but NO, i'm so glad it ended up being that braven is future smith. Which huge credit to the writers for putting foreshadowing FROM THE BEGINNING. Like they pulled it off so well. A proper reveal HAS to be foreshadowed, and having bravens FIRST convo with isami mention how he already knows isami’s name is perfect. AND how when braven encountered superbia, HE KNEW HIS NAME. BECAUSE HE'S SMITH. AND BEFORE FUTURE SMITH DIED HE KNEW SUPERBIA. It genuinely surprised me. And even once it was revealed that smith WAS braven i literally lost my mind. I did not expect it, but it makes so much sense. Then once it was revealed that lulu was from the future, i actually started to care about her character. Before that reveal i really hated her, like she was just straight up annoying, but after future lulu arrived she became a WAY better character. Especially with the “flashbacks” (if you can really call them that since they’re a future from an alternate universe) of lulu and superbia having an adorable familial relationship.

AND this was foreshadowed too. THE STUPID LITTLE GAGAPI THING LULU SAYS? THAT'S THE DEATH DRIVE LANGUAGE. LULU IMMEDIATELY LIKING SMITH? BECAUSE SHE KNEW IT WAS BRAVEN. While I do love braven and isami, something about superbia just scratches my brain. I kinda just saw him and decided “yeah this dude's my favorite.” I doubt the show will have a s2 because of the ending, but I'd love a short series about the future lulu came from and how things went down there. I want to know more about a future where superbia became the remaining hero, and I NEED to just see how it would play out. I love the parallels between superbia and braven too, like visually, where superbia does the same pose as braven after he destroys the tower.

Even though the episodes were only about 25 minutes long in length, the show felt long, and the episodes didn’t feel disconnected from each other. I never felt like the transition from episode to episode was unnatural, and the pacing was mostly good. I understand that as the show went on and braven/isami became stronger, it was easier and easier to defeat the death drives, but there was some disconnect from how long the Pessimism/whatever the other guy's name was fight versus how long the Ira fight was. And yes, it did feel longer because it kept cutting to smith, but the double death drive fight felt so easy? Like they did not seem to pose as much of a problem as superbia but the fight took forever. The ending did feel a little rushed, and would have benefitted from a longer season or runtime, but what we got was good. Before this, i've never really seen a show of this type (a gundam/mech pilot show) i really only watched it because the TF accounts I follow were talking about it, so maybe it's a common thing in these type of shows for the characters to basically go super saiyan, but it felt weird. WHY DID THEY BECOME GOLD??? They could’ve just gotten brighter colors. Speaking of the ending, I love that lulu had no idea about vita purely because in her future, superbia never died, which yes i know that was intentional, but its just cool to me. This show makes me want to watch more of this genre, even though the rep might not be present in a lot of the older shows.

[liauditore]

Pssst if you’re still doing the shipping bingo, how would team rancher/solidaritek fill your bingo board?

OFC. RANCHERSSS ALWAYS AND FOREVER 😭😭

ok but.. real talk i think ranchers is like. my number two "I actually ship this no strings or footnotes attached" ship right after ethubs.

I am usually not one to be moved by ships that are just "they are fun and healthy together and love eachother" but oh GOD the ranchers. See I think the thing is they just.. make sense for eachother even if you don't expect it until the point they realise they're soulmates.

Jimmy's situation has been talked about to hell and back at this point but Tango is also very out of his element in the life series. He says himself that pvp is not his specialty and he doesn't have the time or resources to make his skill set shine. So he ends up either somewhat ignored or outcasted for most of the games. (<-- fyi fun fact this is where the whole 'mech pilot tango' idea came from lol. i feel like he'd have a dva-style mech outside of the life series)

In particular i LOVE his relationship with team BEST and I NEED desperately to talk abt it more. the way he's constantly talked over by his own teammates, intimidated, asked to sacrifice his own lives for their sake, "tango's Easy", etc. etc.

‘Cause inside, nothing’s fine It should be clear to prying eyes But I won’t let the feelings See the light So tell me, why should I even try? I’m frozen away in time

(Koala, Will Stetson)

They both have this habit of hiding their own insecurities behind a facade of boisterousness, but no matter how much either of them puff out their chests and raise their voices, their message of "please take me seriously" never seems to get through.

The Ranchers are just.. two losers against the world. and they inspire confidence within the other that they can't find in themselves. and yes the world forces them apart but you can Feel that influence they've had on one another in the background.

Guess I went and caved I wonder, is there another way? Because I want to believe That one day I’ll be okay So now, I’ll give it another try I can finally see with a clearer mind Even if the bumps in the road Might try to stop me, Still it’ll be alright Keeping it inside Isn’t clearing up the sky So you tighten your hand in mine Following the light like a cute Koala Laughing in stride

Plus I, uh... Unhinged but I have this thing with the life smp where there's this running theme throughout the story about how it doesn't really matter who wins or who dies first.

Because for every epic battle and every tear-jerking death there was fun and laughter and stupid, trivial drama before and in between and those little moments may not be as memorable or written down in history but they're what makes the series enjoyable. Yes, we're all gonna die, but isn't it cool that we laughed with eachother and made dumb jokes and adopted a frog and said "I love you" on the way there?

j-just like real life. life smp. evangelion moment im sorry

Though both of us will die one day Though this life is useless anyway When you’re here by my side, you make me feel like it’ll be okay And yet we laughed despite it all At this life which has no meaning at all Two lonely and broken souls leaning on each other’s sides I’m glad that you’re you, that I’m me, and for us two I’m kinda glad that you’re evil too When the day starts anew, hope I spend it with you I’m glad that I fell in love with you

(I'm Glad You're Evil Too, Rachie/Anthong translyrics)

The Ranchers epitomize that.

They are doomed. They both know this, I think. Neither of them can fight, they're left begging for scraps by session 2, no one on the server takes either of them seriously and they lost a life literally like 10 minutes into the first episode.

But they built a home together, raised livestock, stood up for eachother. and they were happy together.

and isn't that what really matters?

and neither of them are even aware of how much they really meant to the other one. the game ends. tango tells jimmy to go home. go. they certainly don't break up to the extent of Some Other Pairings In This Series but i like to think tango distances himself, thinking jimmy would be happier with his friends and not stuck with him. jimmy thinks the same. but they still wave hi and call eachother rancher and now they're running a salad restaurant together or something i guess.

It's just.. everything that gets the two of them condemned and made fun of in their other relationships is what's Celebrated in theirs. They can just be themselves, mistakes and silliness and imperfections at all, with no pressure to perform amazing feats and make amazing stuff and I think that's great.

um yeah i like ranchers.

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

*crawling out of my migraine floor nest to open my drafts and post this before the next EP drops*

Because the joy in weekly shows is theorizing like mad and (壊せよセオリー I guess) Bravern hopes and dreams as we approach the end!

It's really long so uh tl;dr 8th potential death drive theory, seagulls and then some other odds and ends included

I'm living for Bravern as Gluttony somehow theories. Went down a random path and gluttony isn't necessarily just about eating too much but basically doing anything fun with food. From an article:

The glutton uses food for something other than its proper intention. 

Apparently one of the worst versions is straight up enjoying too much. Which like, every death drive treats their pilots/organic lifeforms as just food while Bravern is obsessed with how his "food" fuels him... And everything else about his "food". Ignoring whether he's actually using Isami the way a death drive uses Lulus and will eventually drain him, he's putting a lot more emotional investment into Isami than any of the Deathdrives into Lulus.

But also! As you dig into this there are also writings about how Gluttony isn't actually a sin so maybe Bravern is Gluttony but also he gets a pass.

Ugh no this could be a cool sidebar into what Bravern as Gluttony's "ideal death" would be. Like, truly overindulging in his "food" aka his pilot aka Isami aka gay sex. AND THEN. This gets rid of the Deathdrive/mecha form. Leaving Smith. And then gay sex with Smith.

With all of the Deathdrives being driven to have the ideal death, and Bravern being born of the desire to live*. I wonder if he can convince Superbia to live. That would be sick. Live a prideful life or something.

*it can be argued that Lewis Smiths resurrection is because he didn't have his ideal death so it's less of a counter force to the Deathdrive and more of his own version of being just like them but that feels less like the main energy of the story.

Moving on from that, I love the seagulls being a big part of the episode 10 preview and then the episode 11 preview having bravern surfing on the newly added fusion part just like them.

I think I read somewhere about seagulls going back to where they met to mate so. Yeah. Back to Hawai'i! With Brave being the one signalling I hope this is like, Isami really expressing his trust in Bravern and making it a matched relationship. My ideal scene is Isami seeing how Lulu's determination to pilot Superbia means he needs to commit to trusting Bravern. Which should totally include knowing who he is.

Which, adjacently, I think the reveal phrase should've been Bravern saying some phrase with "cool" in English. Like "the finishing move was ⟨super cool⟩> right?". It just feels more Smith imo. I really love how little they gave us with this though. Who were they fighting? How did they achieve this? Why did they get beat up instead of blasted/disintegrated? who knows. We can infer that they did save the day at the end but at what cost.

I think at this point it would be funny if they somehow slipped in another time loop. Hell give us a montage of time loops. Also I am a tiny bit smug about mentioning that Bravern not having time travel abilities yet like 1500 words ago. Will this be touched on more? Probably as some dramatic last episode if anything.

Considering the really fast pace of the show making everything feel important I hope we get references to some other things like Isami's built in airbags (maybe he gets ejected out of Bravern?). Isami's Senshi-bility in "we need to eat to save people". Whatever the heck Lulu's Heat Beam kick is. What was that. What's going on with the blood drop, does it mean something.

My only other hope and dreams is probably just some good old fashioned mech fights. It's been a lot of endure barrage of attacks -> get motivated -> super attack. I need substance!

[justmenoworries]

Smith is depicted as someone with powerful, intense desires, who repeatedly settles for less because he believes what he actually wants is impossible. Cartoon heroes aren't real, so he pilots the realistic military mech. When it turns out they are real, the super robot chooses someone else. He can't pilot Superbia, either. He clearly dwells on this stuff and gets his feelings hurt– he has nightmares about being rejected by Bravern, what a nerd– but it never festers or becomes toxic envy. He's unrelentingly positive and determined to make the best of things. "A relationship with Isami is obviously impossible, but I can be his friend, and I can protect him with the Brave Knights." Smith is also passionate and brave, but he's reckless with his own life. He "dies" during the training mission in the first episode because he disobeyed orders and rushed in on his own. He dies for real fighting Cunus, essentially sacrificing himself for everyone else. But he's brought back from death by his mutual love for Isami– a character who is essentially the inverse of Smith, in that he is not necessarily traditionally brave, but has a strong desire to live and protect the lives of others. They each have what the other needs to learn. Cunus' relationship to Smith is what Bravern's relationship to Isami superficially appears to be in the first two episodes, but with a more antagonistic lens: a powerful alien robot watches a human from afar and fixates on him. She knows his name, but from his perspective they've never met. He is terrified of her, but she doesn't take no for an answer. She chooses him because she can sense the intensity of his hidden desires, and once he becomes Bravern he makes it very clear what those desires are. This guy isn't just enthusiastic and friendly, he was so in love with Isami that the physical embodiment of desire was drawn to him over literally everyone else on Earth. I can only imagine that initial experience of becoming Bravern was euphoric, as the perfect realization of all his desires that he had given up on. It's his childhood dream. It's another chance to save the world. It's metaphysical proof that Isami loved him and wanted him to come back! Bravern can be openly gay with none of the fear or embarrassment that comes with attaching those desires to his human identity. But oh, wait. Isami is scared of Bravern. Isami doesn't know why Bravern chose him. Isami is going to fall in love with Smith, and then Bravern is going to have to let him die– and he also knows that Isami doesn't trust Bravern, because he said it to Smith's face before that final battle. It's a really interesting contradiction to navigate, and it's obviously part of why Bravern chills out and becomes much more reasonable over time. He cares about Isami's feelings, and he wants to form an actual relationship with him as Bravern, not just selfishly steamroll over him. ...But he's still not able to connect the two identities. I think it's very telling that the love confession happens while he's a robot, and that he only ever admits to his identity indirectly when he's literally about to die. Bravern is the representation of Smith's love for Isami in the most literal sense, and he's also the only thing that allows Smith to express that love openly. He's still settling, even as a super robot. "I can't touch Isami the way I used to, but at least now I can connect with him as my pilot. I can't have the same relationship we had before, but I can make a new one." I think this is the biggest reason they had him return to his human body in the end. It was a moment of him having to face Isami as himself, without a mask. He "came out," so to speak. I think it would have been cool to let him keep the robot body, but I get why they ended it the way they did (and honestly, if they ever make more, I fully expect them to give him a way to henshin into being the mech again.) Thanks again. I hope my thoughts make sense and were interesting or clarifying as to the appeal for other viewers, and that I didn't come off as combative. (2/2)

They made perfect sense, no worries!

I'm about to answer with my own thoughts on this and they're probably gonna be controversial.

I think Smith becoming Bravern actually lessens his character arc. Smith is introduced as basically a bait-and-switch. He's someone the viewer can almost instantly relate to: He's a young reckless guy with dreams of becoming a hero, inspired by the Robot Hero shows he watched when he was a kid. These shows that gave him hope in difficult times and inspired him to become a hero like the robot pilots in his shows.

And he's already half-way there, he's the pilot of a TS, that's as close to a super-robot he'll get in "real life".

Or so he thinks.

But then here comes Bravern. A seemingly one-to-one copy of every perfect mecha hero you've ever seen. And he doesn't choose Smith. Smith, who has been dreaming of this moment since he was a little boy whose parents died tragically. Smith, who's chosen to become a Titanstrider pilot because it's the closest he'd ever get to being like the characters he looked up to so much. Smith who might as well have "Shonen Protagonist" burned into his forehead with how many typical characteristics of the ideal hero he embodies.

And as you said, what does Smith do?

He accepts it.

He accepts that it's not him. He's not the Hero. He's not the Protagonist. Someone else is. Isami. The guy who already proved himself Smith's better during the training exercise. Who, in literally any other setting, would probably be the stock rival character.

So instead, Smith accepts that he can't be Bravern's pilot. But he's still a pilot. Just because he's not in the flashy mecha doesn't mean he can't do anything to help.

Then Lulu comes along and Smith finds a new purpose: As her guardian. He realizes, through her, that there's still people who need him. Including Isami and Bravern.

And then comes Superbia. The proverbial final nail in the coffin. Seemingly a second chance for Smith to step up to the plate. Nope! Superbia also cannot be piloted by Smith.

Here's where it finally clicks.

This is war.

There's no such thing as The Protagonist.

Everyone here still needs to work together to protect the Earth they love. A supporting role isn't suddenly unimportant just because a giant robot manifested a flaming sword. That's what Smith realizes.

So he forms the Brave Knights. He co-pilots with Lulu to help Bravern and Isami in any way that he can.

Enter Knuth.

A twisted facsimile of what Smith wanted at the beginning of the show: a super-mecha who is focused on him, only on him. And she's completely unhinged. Dangerous. Selfish.

But Smith has grown past her. Past the desire to be The Protagonist. He's accepted that he's still important. That super-mecha or not, he's still a hero protecting Earth.

...Except no, Smith was actually always The Protagonist. He was always destined to become Bravern and all his development until now? Doesn't matter anymore. Wish fulfillment fantasy ahoy. What are themes?

[alexissara]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Quick Review

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury or as we'll refer to it as Gwitch has finally wrapped and I wanted to share my thoughts quickly in the quick review format [written in basically one take with just all the points I feel like bringing up]. This is a show I'd watch with my Gfs and my Metamore every single Sunday for a while now and that's given it an extra special flare. I was captured by the stunning animation, great fights and the blooming of some lesbian feelings.

This 24 episode toy commercial is among the best in the Gundam series and is probably one of my favorite anime. However, it is a flawed series that I feel was really lacking in a lot of ways likely due to executives being worried about both having a woman be the protagonist of their warm crime cartoon and to have queerness be a center of the season.

The shows 24 episode length feels too short to tell the story that was being told, while individual episodes don't ever feel like they waste time there was not enough space for things to have impact and Miorine in particular feels like she is kind of just an object for the plot whose feelings vary depending on what the writers want. She isn't given the time to cook up an arc for her so she ultimately just serves the plot as a "I don't think killing is good" character. Still her romance with Sulleta is compelling even if it's not the connection to Sulleta that is my favorite [Sulleta sapphic polycule all the way really].

The show has good background music but it is mostly the same song. The opening and EDs are all really great songs. The mech designs are mostly super cool and they are in fact, great toy commercials. While I would never put together a model kit, I would and very likely will, buy whatever video games they produce that put Sulleta in the for front. It set up an interesting world I would like to see more stories told in.

The fights are all really amazing but the end does include one fight between broths that really muddles the rest of the plot to sell one more toy and it sucks ass. Still the rest of the fights were really Immculate.

The series does kill off most it's women who can pilot a gundam which is annoying because we see men getting to live. While the show does center a Lesbian relationship the most explicit romantic desires outside of Sulleta are expressed by men about women. In general the show puts a ton of men in the spotlight and keeps them in the forefront. It feels like the show was insecure about women taking the center stage so the rest of the plot is mostly focused on men. Women do get to do plenty of things but it still feels like we could have had more women taking the stage in battles. For gundam though, it's a decent amount of women in mechs. Plus Sulleta does get to be in a mech most episodes.

The show doesn't have a kiss in it, there is no kisses between anyone but the lack of a sapphic kiss feels bad. Like you can say "yuri doesn't do kisses" but you would be old if your saying that because I do quick reviews of Yuri manga all the time here and basically everything I am reading has kisses, a lot also have explicit sapphic lust, and increasingly even using the word Lesbian. This show instead opts to say "Gay Marriage is normal" in episode 1 and then never show anyone being gay who isn't the main couple, there are ships but every single known romantic connection outside of Sulleta and Miorine is a man's feelings towards a woman or a woman's feelings towards a man. Queerness isn't even off handily mentioned by anyone else. Still it is really nice to have them be gay married at the end even if we're not seeing the wedding or a kiss we do know for sure their married, that's explicit and they have matching rings.

Still, the show does offer us a lot of really cute sapphic ships. It also offers us a really good cast of women even if I wish they got to do even more. Chuchu is maybe my favorite gundam character ever, Prospera my beloved I will stan forever my wonderful wife, Secelia  is a bitchy queen, and a lot more are also bangers.

Politically the show nods to leftist politics but it doesn't really fully commit to that as it keeps giant companies around in it's time skip and it seems there has just been some kind of "balance" stuck where captalism is fine again. Even though the government is evil we don't fight it really. I'd like to see a show in this world that takes on the Space Assembly League. I guess the takeaway is buy Gundams, I mean Revenge is bad.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show Sulleta is such an endearing main character she is charming and sweet and strong and she is for sure my favorite MC of any mech anime and in general one of the best anime main characters of all time. I think the show is a great piece of art but short of a master piece. Perhaps these are the limits of a show that is a toy commercial. Regardless, I had a great time and I don't look forward to my wallet running dry on prints from fan art of Gwitch and Super Robot War games and shit.

[tsunflowers]

tokusatsu series to start with

kamen rider build: an amnesiac physicist saves a disgraced boxer from human experimentation. also a mysterious artifact from mars split the country of Japan into three smaller countries separated by giant walls. sento is one of my favorite kamen rider protagonists of all time, he is very smart and very rude but part of that is to hide his deep sadness. part of it is also that he is naturally a little shithead. famously this series was advertised as featuring "heated drama between men" and boy does it

kamen rider ooo: a wandering hippie strikes a deal with a coin based alchemy monster named ankh to help ankh get his body back. for most of the show ankh is only an arm and he either floats around or possesses the body of another character, giving him a cool monster arm. the theme of this series is "desire" and like, the lengths people will go to get what they desire and the way they behave when they have nothing left. it's very silly at times but also deeply emotional

kamen rider fourze: it's set in a high school where a group of very different teens come together as friends, and one of them is kamen rider. all the hits you would expect from a high school anime or tv show but there are also monsters and fights. it's really high energy and fun but has a great emotional core

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ultraman x: a digital being of light from space downloads himself into the work phone of a monster researcher and they become ultraman together. one of the best series for the relationship between the human host and the ultraman. every member of the team gets their day in the limelight. it's very episodic compared to kamen rider or even more recent ultraman shows but each episode is enjoyable

ultraman orb: a team of bloggers who report on supernatural phenomena meet a mysterious wanderer who wears a cowboy hat and is very handsome. actually, he's ultraman orb, and they all continue to run into each other when crazy things happen around town. notable in that there is a female character, naomi, who is almost a co-lead with gai/ultraman orb, and the show focuses on the relationship between them. also jugglus juggler is there and if you like the tumblr sexyman archetype...!

ultraman z: an inexperienced young ultraman and a passionate meathead jock team up to fight monsters. it gets intense in the second half and is really good. also has an ambiguously romantic relationship between the male lead and his cool mech pilot senpai that I love a lot. potentially better to watch this one after orb as characters from orb appear in it but it's free and subtitled on youtube

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kaizoku sentai gokaiger: this is the first sentai I watched! I think it makes a good start bc it's an anniversary season where the characters meet up with past sentai and learn about them. so if anything looks interesting you can try watching that. although there are some spoilers for previous series. the core cast of gokaiger is really strong on their own too. they are space pirates fighting an evil empire that's trying to take over earth and while some of them act like they're amoral they actually care a lot <3 also very episodic, sentai tends to have less serialized plots

mashin sentai kiramager: talking gemstones from another world that can also turn into cars select a team to fight evil, which includes four competent adults and one high schooler who loves to draw. and he's the leader. it's a really fun time and I love all the characters. especially the pink ranger sayo who is a genius surgeon and in a band and does judo and basically is perfect

samurai sentai shinkenger: one of my faves. a team of samurai are assembled to fight monsters who have appeared from the sanzu river. they all have a lot of baggage to work through, especially the leader, but they form a strong and loving team. the design in this one is incredible bc it leans so hard into the traditional Japanese theme. incredibly stylish and with characters I love

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 178 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: So the shadowy organization trying to oust Suletta as an illegal Gundam user is kind of having a problem seeing as the government seems to solely define Gundams based on their ability to set their pilot’s soul on fire and kill them and since Suletta’s not dying they’ve got no proof, seems like a roundabout way of doing things honestly. Enter Elan Ceres, local emotionless boy with a tragic backstory. Turns out they suspect Suletta may be enhanced to resist the inherent Gundam soul-burning capabilities rather than… idk, just making something that doesn’t do that. Since Elan is one such enhanced person secretly using a Gundam, he’s the perfect person to tell if Suletta’s doing the same. His plan is kind of ridiculous because he’s just like ‘hey wanna go out? And bring your Gundam’ in the most monotone way possible and it’s kind of hilarious but because Suletta has the social intelligence of a five year old it works. Either way, Elan does get to try out Aerial and finds it doesn’t have the same pressure as a normal Gundam so Suletta wouldn’t need to be enhanced to survive piloting it which makes him REALLY pissed off since he’s basically still dying when he uses Gundams but is physically enhanced to not die so easily. It’s like your car being really fast but the seat’s made of sandpaper and broken glass but finding out the sandpaper and broken glass seat was just an optional feature and this new girl has a satin and goose down seat. Either way Guel gets pissy because Suletta’s exceeded her three fiancé limit in five episodes and challenges Elan to a duel where the stakes are part of the cast never interacting with the main character again or Suletta fighting the guy the whole arc is building towards her fighting, like they’re not even trying to hide how obvious the outcome is, they even make Discount Jimmy Olson bet against Elan again just to seal the deal that Elan’s gonna win. Though even so it’s kind of a humiliating defeat since Guel steals his brother’s mech when he’s not even supposed to be fighting anymore and gets it absolutely destroyed by Elan’s Resident Evil laser grid of stungun lasers, so yeah that’ll be fun to see Suletta fight.

Inuyasha The Final Act: We kinda jump right in on this one, like idk if this is how it was in the manga but it feels like there’s an episode missing here because we jump straight into the climax of a different filler episode, not that I’m complaining about skipping the preamble. Inuyasha’s useless because of the New Moon and so Miroku and Sango have to fight the bone demon and its daughter trying to heal it because apparently every single plot point in Yashahime was reused from the original. Anyway throwing both characters into a filler battle at the height of their self-destructiveness for each other was a terrible idea and Miroku’s more poisoned than ever and Sango ends up destroying Hiraikotsu to save him. It’s funny because Inuyasha’s broken his weapon like three times by now so he’s just like ‘there’s gotta be some plot device we can use to fix it’ and he’s immediately proven right when they go to the Master of Potions who as far as characters of the day from Final Act go is pretty fun, if only because he’s a perv and gets Inuyasha drunk as fuck. He has two tests for Sango and Miroku because we’re getting our lategame upgrades out in packs of two. Sango has to confront the spirits of the demons that made up Hiraikotsu who surprisingly feel kinda betrayed despite being made into a weapon by the woman that presumably killed them they thought she was cool and don’t like getting rubbed poison all over. They give her the ultimatum that next time shit’s getting real she has to ditch Miroku and not destroy them and she’s just like “I’m sorry about that but it will definitely happen again, our relationship is basically a series of standing in front of buses for each other”. Meanwhile Miroku basically gets the diet version of the Yusuke screaming in a cave arc from YYH and gets a poison that will allow him to suck up all the poison he wants, like he’ll still die if he gets too much but it won’t hurt so he’ll die but faster. Inuyasha finds out and chews him out for it which is nice to see, like I think Inuyasha’s relationships with both Miroku and Sango are kind of underplayed in the series since about halfway through they start doing filler episodes strictly across shipping lines but it was saving Miroku that let Inuyasha first unlock the Wind Scar and it’s nice to see he’s still equally not up for Miroku pulling martyr shit as he was back then, it’s just funny they have to try and hide Miroku slowly dying five feet away from Kagome, like these guys do not trust her to not freak out at all. Both Miroku and Sango confront their respective tests by saying they don’t intend to die for the other but want to get stronger to live with them and in a funny little twist they kind of accidentally solve each other’s tests instead of their own. Sango’s demons don’t know shit about love so her speech does nothing but they sense Miroku’s equally fighting for his life and they get that so they let her go, while Miroku can sense Sango’s impassioned speech and pulls through. So yeah, Sango’s got a bigger better Hiraikotsu for like two months before she hangs it up/gives it to Hisui to get an infinitely cooler model, and Miroku now has the power to die faster, upgrades successful.

Castlevania: It’s a big ol’ wrap-up episode for the Season Finale, Trevor gives over the Belmont Estate to Alucard, basically walking us through the symbolism of it but it’s still a very nice gesture given Trevor’s kind of gone back and forth about whether the place actually means anything to him and Alucard’s basically living on top of his own family’s cemetery now which probably isn’t as creepy as living in the same room where he killed his own father but oh well. Isaac is off in the desert which is probably the worst place Dracula could’ve thrown him but whatever he kills a bunch of racists and makes them zombies so he can basically start over and make his own genocidal zombie army. Carmilla’s abducted Hector to do similar and it’s like… bro, have a little backbone, call her bluff, what’s she gonna do, kill you? I feel like I’ll like Carmilla more as a main villain than a side one because she’s not fucking shit up and ruining the main evil faction’s integrity to let the heroes win anymore she’s just being a colossal bitch but I can’t help but shake the feeling that we’re back where we started with two villains exactly the same as Dracula just without the moral complexity and ambiguity which was what made Dracula fun in the first place, idk time will tell I guess. Also always feel like Carmilla has her carrot and stick backwards like she seems to be trying to seduce people when they’re not into it and then beating the shit out of them when persuasion and gaslighting would be more effective but far be it from me to be an armchair Vampire Countess. But yeah the twin Forgemasters take off to remake their own armies, one the master of their own fate and one a slave (and thank god they dodged making this racist as fuck). Trevor and Sypha have a long talk where Sypha basically has to hammer into his head that she’s basically proposing to him and he still friendzones her but generally agrees to go off with her so they can do the cleanup sidequests now that the main quest is done which is nice, like a lot of this finale is very grim and bleak and upsetting but the scenes with those two are very beautiful and warm. Meanwhile Alucard comes to the crushing reality that his two best friends have just ditched him and he’s killed anyone else that have ever meant anything to him and he’s got a big empty castle to let that sink in within.

Jujutsu Kaisen: It’s getting to the end of the arc and Kenjaku has appeared (also there’s a scene of naked Meimei telling her brokers Japan’s gone to shit that’s animated with so much love and horniness but it’s not really relevant) Anyway Kenjaku genjutsu’s Yuji for a bit and it’s kinda fun seeing someone with the ‘copy low-level techniques’ powerset actually be threatening because that’s usually such a lame power. Meanwhile the Kyoto guys finally show up and Miwa even does her whole Dark Gon Nen vow to make her attack super effective and it does JACK SHIT so I hope she got a refund on that like if the guy immediately Aizen’s your career-ending final slash it shouldn’t count. Like I know Mechamaru told Miwa to find a way to be happy and that’s not necessarily in fighting but I’m kinda sick of all the girls getting the ‘I never really wanted to fight’ and then conveniently getting written out of fights like bitch NOBODY wants to fight and by no means is fighting the only show of character strength but this is a shonen show and your plot relevance does hinge on your ability to fight. Also Mahito just gets sacrificed so Kenjaku can use Geto’s attack from the movie which is basically just a big getsugha tensho but Kenjaku realized he can make it a Mahito-flavored getsuga tensho by injecting Mahito into it but I think it also throws away the spirit like I don’t think Geto’s technique lets you reuse your stock. Also a neat little nugget where they say Geto was basically fighting Yuta at half power during the movie or else he would’ve kicked his ass, always sucks to have someone fucking die when they’re at half power but it makes it more understandable at least. Anyway Choso shows up, says Yuji’s his brother and refuses to elaborate but good news is he’s on the good guys’ side now, it’s nice to gain an ally after losing like five throughout the course of this arc. It basically really is that scene from the end of the Soul Society arc with everyone ganging up on Aizen though luckily Kenjaku doesn’t solo oneshot everyone and he does have help from random ice lady who’s Sukuna’s retainer I think. Either way ice lady’s pissed and is about to kill everyone but Yuji when Yuki shows up and is ready to bring this bloodbath to a close with the Shanks energy she exudes.

Delicious in Dungeon: This one’s kind of a light episode, Laios hops around magical paintings like it’s Super Mario 64 only to find the food inside doesn’t come outside and doesn’t fill you once you leave. It is kinda funny to basically watch him skirt through all the important moments in this prince’s life and I thought this’d lead to more worldbuilding because god knows this series could do with some worldbuilding but it seems to just be a gag for now, if this ends up being important later that’ll be nice though. The next bit is a little more interesting with another Chilchuck outing, this time with a Mimic which are apparently just kinda Hermit Crabs in this world. There’s a fun little puzzle and Chilchuck’s grumpy personality biting him in the ass again and he actually gets a little fucked up for a bit which is a first, like I think this is the first time I’ve seen blood on one of the main characters and we’re like half a dozen episodes in. But yeah, turns out Chilchuck’s old but not as old as me so it doesn’t really matter and the oddest part of this is that Laios is the leader but is the youngest and stupidest of the group like why is he in charge is it just a rule that the human’s always the leader of the party?

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Nothing too special happens this episode but it’s still probably one of my favorites of the two vignette episodes. First we learn Himmel is kind of a pseudo-King Arthur figure and there’s a legendary magic sword because there’s always a legendary magic sword but when it came down to it Himmel couldn’t pull it but still beat the Demon King with sheer pluck and shonen determination but people couldn’t reconcile his failure to pull the sword of prophecy so they lied and said he did it anyway and it’s kind of a neat little piece about heroism and myth and how every person you look up to has probably farted in public at one point. The next bit is about Stark’s birthday and we get the ICONIC clothes-melting potion scene and I deliberately avoided watching the whole thing in the dub so I could see it here and it was worth it, absolutely fantastic. And it’s kind of nice, Fern going through town seeing how Stark just naturally helps people wherever he goes and she’s kind of trying to reconcile the idea that all men are pervs with him not doing anything particularly pervy except like one or two small things which was alluded to last vignette where she refused to let him carry Frieren despite him literally just wanting to help. I get the feeling Fern’s only close ties being a sinful yet overprotective religious father figure and an antisocial female elf has not given her the best outlook on men so she’s got some adjusting to do. Still she powers through and confronts how he feels about himself with the reality of his actions she’s seen in him and it’s a nice scene so Fern’s now officially become a level 4 friend and unlocked Stark’s tragic backstory. Basically his clan is known for being great warriors and his brother Itachi… I mean Stoltz is better than him at everything and his family relentlessly shits on him for being shit at fighting despite him being like five but Stoltz really did love him and cared for him despite his parents’ neglect, even telling him to run when the village was destroyed, the decision he’s internalized for the whole rest of his life despite again BEING FUCKING FIVE so yeah it really is kind of Sasuke’s backstory but Stark chose to help people and internalize his grief instead of making it everyone else’s problem. Also Frieren makes Hamburg Steaks which just raises many questions about the world of Frieren like specifically hamburg steaks are only called that in Japan and are called such because of the reference to Hamburg, Germany, lots of things in Frieren have German-ish names so it’s not inconceivable for there to also be a Hamburg in the world but for it to ALSO be the place hamburgers are named after and then they also use the Japanese entomology for the hamburg steak just makes my brain go back and forth on how that works in a fantasy setting, like it’s like having French Fries in a world without France and it bugs me more than it probably should. Still it’s a very sweet episode and the fact that Frieren of all people remembers Stark’s birthday and ensures Fern treats him as well as she treated her on her birthday is just kinda cool and the extra backstory is good for Stark’s character.

Vinland Saga: Thorfinn’s in the middle of taking his one hundred punches but Snake distracts him during his punch-taking stance and he gets fucked up. Thorfinn ends up telling everyone they ain’t done shit but try and kill each other so he’s gonna double down and really try to talk things out. He ends up taking all one hundred and earning the respect of everyone in the crowd in a daring remake of Rocky 4 and his response of ‘yeah can’t exactly come out swinging for a peace negotiation’ is really funny, glad Thorfinn hasn’t lost all his sarcastic edge just cause he’s a pacifist now. He even gets the whole “I have no enemies” speech which is as impactful as it needs to be for this point in the story and he finally gets his audience with Canute. We find out that Canute is actually the one that enslaved Thorfinn which seems like an odd choice for that point in his character before he’d gone fully crazy. Like I was under the impression that Thorfinn just kinda BSOD’d so hard he wandered into someplace that was being pillaged and ended up enslaved but learning Canute did it because he attacked him is kinda weird like you’d think with all the shit going on that day he’d have wanted to keep Thorfinn close so he could cool off like maybe imprison him or something but not enslave him and throw him out somewhere else considering what a valuable asset he was during the war. Still, Thorfinn’s grown a lot and apologizes for cutting Canute and is thankful that he wasn’t just executed on the spot. And it’s just funny because Thorfinn brings Einar to the meeting and Einar is not afraid to mouth of to Canute when he disrespects farming or farmers and I just imagine Canute being like ‘who the fuck is this? Why’s your new boytoy so mouthy Thorfinn?” like it’s like how Darth Vader knows everybody on Cloud City in Empire Strikes back except Han Solo and it’s wild that he just comes there and starts shit. Anyway Canute has gone full anime villain and thinks he’s in a JRPG because he’s going to use the power of friendship to kill god… idk what exactly that plan entails because you’d think stopping war and slavery would start by… not doing war and slavery but Canute has some plan in his troubled head about salvation for the worst of humanity through the unification of all people so yeah idk how he plants to ‘kill god’ or what that’ll even accomplish but the bottom line is ‘murder and enslave all I can rn so we can end murder and slavery’ he’s more on the Lelouch side of megalomania than the Light Yagami side because he knows this is a terrible plan and doesn’t expect to get off scot free but he’s definitely lost it. Thorfinn respects the idea but still disagrees with the method so Canute’s like ‘oh cool, respect, now tell me which one of us remembered to bring a legion of elite Vikings to the peace talks, oh right it was me, so you have no leverage’.