#mob is really good at smash bros. are you getting it

[fiendishartist2]

ok hc list bc i dont want to go to sleep yet:

-reigen likes to crochet and esp likes to make stuff for other ppl. mob's gotten mountains of mittens, hats, coasters, and even the occassional cardigan or sweater. reigen also has mountains of unfinished projects he put down and never picked up again- he bounces from project to project, moving on when his motivation dries out. likes it better than knitting bc its faster and he thinks the variety of stitches is interesting

-serizawa likes to sew, but specifically for cosplay. when halloween rolls around, he makes costumes for the kids and himself. one year, he offhandedly mentioned to reigen a zelda cosplay he never got to wear, and thats how he and reigen ended up accidentally doing a link and zelda couples costume...

-mob has tried to learn both crochet and knitting, but doesn't really get either. crochet is too complicated, and everytime reigen's tried to teach him, it ends up with mob inexplicably tangled up in his own yarn. however, mob does really like videogames, esp life sims and the occasional fighting game. ppl underestimate him bc normally his reflexes aren't great, but he can play competitive level smash bros. his mains are jigglypuff and pikachu

-ritsu likes journaling but absolutely hates drawing. he also doesn't particularly like creative writing. he only really plays games with mob, but occassionally he'll pick up the odd rpg or anything shou wants to play with him (usually minecraft). he's a big pokemon fan but he's a little embarrassed by it, so he doesn't talk about it outside of shou and (after a very surprising conversation) serizawa

-shou didn't really have any hobbies growing up in claw, but now that he can, he wants to try everything. he picks up drawing again after his dad is arrested and, eventually, tries other mediums like oils and spray paint. he doesn't like how long it takes for normal paints to dry but he loves spray paint almost as much as he loves his sketchbook (which was a gift from ritsu; he won't admit it, but he hand-binded the book himself just for shou). likes to play any type of game, but only when with friends. otherwise, he thinks they're kinda lonely. ritsu is his favourite person to draw

-teru loves fashion, but is abysmal at sewing, so his favourite place to go for weird items is the thrift store. he loves the mall, but only ever goes if mob tags along, saying its more fun that way. the only thing he likes more than dressing up, is dressing others up- esp if that person is mob, since they share a style. he likes rhythm games and karaoke a lot and can play the guitar. has a not-so-secret obsession with vocaloid

-tome tries lots of hobbies but never really sticks to one thing. she likes researching aliens and other supernatural phenomena. has thought of starting a podcast, but isn't sure if she could commit herself to it enough. reigen thinks she needs to stop being so much like him if she wants to get anywhere in life... aside from that, she's really into retro games and takes up any chances she can to play with her friends. she cried once, the first time she saw serizawa's videogame collection

[noroi1000]

could i request a gojo x yn where yn is a famous supermodel while gojo is like businessman mafia and she meets him in a part for influential ppl and some rival of gojo attack the party to catch gojo but can't do it and to save y/n gojo takes her with him in a hurry to make sure she's fine ( bro fell in love at first sight while y/n doesn't really care bcs yk very hard to be impressed type of lady ) but a plot twist in this setting sort of is that there has been cases of many murders recently and the serial killer is impossible to catch ( the killer is y/- ok yes u get it but she killed them bcs she ruined her family or sum like that so our baddie is taking revenge ) well this is a dark theme dark romance request so yep ofc there's dark content and no one knows abt y/n's past at all despite her status no matter how hard they try and gojo after taking her makes her stay with him bcs she's one of the few ppl who saw his face so for privacy purposes and gojo barely finds out abt y/n's "dark deeds" when she throws hints playfully ( she's kinda devious morally grey sort of woman ) and idk what to add much more honestly but yea a smexy romantic love story ( SUB GOJO PLEASE 🙏😍😩 ) and gojo brings her a person to kill every year on her bday bcs she feels "stabby" ( mindfuck book series ref if ykyk ) also ofc y/n continues her career as a supermodel bcs 💅🏼👠. as another personal preference don't make y/n younger as it's uncomfy to me so yeah jsjdndbdnfn

whew this was quite a lot

have a good day !

Beautiful Vengeance

cover by @blvckryx my advisor and friend

paring: Mafia boss Gojo x model reader (killer)

words: 4,7k

warnings: murders, violence, guns, some kidnaping, smut (sub Gojo/dom reader)

Your mother always wanted you to have a good life. That's why when you told her you wanted to be a model when you grow up, she supported you as much as she could. To give you what you might need to make your dreams come true.

Your career took off when you were a teenager. When you were 16, you won a modeling contest, and your name made headlines.

And because you took the victory from one person, your life was about to end...

You competing with a girl whose family was more important than yours. You won anyway thanks to your innate charm, which made you stand in the first place and people considered you a beautiful, future model.

Thanks to this, your career could continue to roll and grow. And you couldn't take that chance.

You've worked so hard. You were the pride of your parents.

But your only opponent was a spoiled female dog who after losing to you all she wanted was to get rid of you.

She was the niece of mob boss Q. A man going by the name Q, who made his living by killing people for hire, dealing drugs and weapons. Even human trafficking. His mafia teams were everywhere.

You didn't know about it until you saw a group of people enter your house.

You were in your room then, and you heard screams and sounds of fighting.

As you quickly made your way down to your parents' living room, all you saw was pools of blood covering the soft carpet.

And three people dressed in black with black masks on their faces. In their hands bloody knives that they used to make your parents lie on the floor with open but dead eyes.

You were sad. You were afraid. You lost your parents. You wanted to cry over their loss. They were everything to you. They loved you, you loved them. You could have lived with them 16 years of your life. And now... It's all over.

Or you die and join them. To shorten your suffering.

But something else popped into your mind. To make them suffer.

You could have died at their hands, or you could have gotten revenge for your parents by killing them.

And you want revenge for the destruction of your life...

So you silently walked over to the cupboard until the opponents saw you, and unscrewing the bottle you let the water flow out of the plastic, soaking the entire floor where one of the people was standing.

You smashed a nearby lamp on his head and stabbed him with the sharpened glass at the end. Throwing the damaged item onto the wet floor, you jumped back quickly, letting his body quiver with the current coursing through him.

You hit the other's neck with your elbow, pulling his head back until you heard a crack.

Such easy ways to kill someone...

You've already killed two people with your own hands. Even if the metallic, disgusting smell of blood was nauseating.

Before you were stabbed by the last man, you took the knife from the dead body, and plunged the bloody blade into his chest.

While his body was still moving, he managed to scratch your head with the tip of the knife, just above the ear. Cutting off some of your shiny hair. Making your ear and the side of your neck covered in drops of blood.

The man in front of you writhed in pain as you pushed the knife hilt towards him, holding the knife in it. Stuck in his sternum in the chest.

Even though you saw the fear of death in his eyes, you felt no regret. Even if he cried and looked at you pleadingly, you showed no mercy.

Just like they had no mercy for your parents.

As he fell to the floor, the knife fell out of his chest, staying in your hand. Covering your hands in scarlet liquid.

When he was twitching and moving away with the last strength, you just walked over to him, and sitting on his stomach, you drove the knife into his heart, slowly watching the life fade from his eyes.

You felt your pajamas soaking in warm sticky blood. However, you didn't let go of the blade as you walked over to your parents and hugged them, not caring how dirty and bloody you were. You slowly and gently closed your eyes and left the house. Heading to a place where you know where a girl used to live surrounding herself with people with "Q" marks on their clothes.

There was a calm expression on your face as you walked straight down the runway, focusing on going perfect. The flashes of the flash bouncing off your eyes. The outfit you're wearing looks so good on you. One of the collections of one of the most famous fashion designers has been selected for you. Alternating with two other models, you go out there, showing the clothes on your body for less than a minute. A then you go back to change into your next outfit, and leave when it's your next turn.

It was your job.

You like it. You are a famous model.

And you don't mind that people only look at what your body looks like.

You go to clothes exhibitions, you take part in advertisements for clothes, cosmetics, nail polishes, jewelry. You are the face of many advertisements.

A lot of people who hire you choose you because you're sexy. And there is mystery in you. And your eyes show killer sexiness.

Your pose is flawless, sophisticated.

Everyone who knew you talked about this mystery in photos and videos. Something obtained without photomontage and without any additional make-up.

And Dark Beauty when you're seen in the ads for the blood red collection. Everything from lips to nails was a rich red.

That color just reminded you of what had happened over the years of your life. You don't care as long as no one knows about it.

Besides, your revenge isn't quite complete yet.

When you were 16, you swore revenge on those who hurt your family and you. You are 23 now. You are a famous model that neither the media nor anyone knows the whole truth about.

Nobody knows anything about your childhood, nobody knows anything about your past.

"Our killer only kills those from Q? Pretty good..." the white-haired man muttered, looking at the lists of names killed by one person this month. Three people. He couldn't feel sorry for these people. Each of them had the symbol of the Q family. How could he worry about the death of his enemies?

"Gojo-san, there's going to be a fashion show party soon with Q's boss."

He looked at the man who had spoken to him.

He stood up, adjusting his white shirt, adjusting the collar. He put on a black jacket and black glasses hiding his face.

"I couldn't miss it. Let's get together, guys. Time to bust some Q's heads."

Upon arrival, Gojo sat in a chosen spot next to the raised stage for models.

Soon after, the lights all around went out. The stage was lit.

This made it difficult for them to find their target.

So they decided to wait until the main banquet and party started to catch their enemies then.

Those who hinder his mafia cannot exist. Creating a business is a daily routine for the great "Six Eyes. And when people who have contracts with him are suddenly found dead with a "Q" burned into their skin, he can't sit idly by.

When he watched the fashion show, he thought it was everything he had seen before. All models the same, with fake smiles, with everything to make them even more attractive to the viewer. In none of them, in his opinion, was one whose eyes reflected the soul. And Six Eyes draws attention to human eyes. He knows people's eyes when they show fear or anger. When they show emotion. According to him, there was nothing interesting in the eyes of these women.

Until you came out from behind the curtain, walking calmly ahead. In an elegant black dress.

Your face showed a certain coldness, but warm at the same time. Your eyes were so mysterious.

White hair caught your attention, and you looked at him once.

And then, the mysterious darkness in your eyes made his heart beat faster.

Despite your emanating true model face, coupled with a nice façade, he felt your beauty was deadly. And he liked it very much. Mysterious danger.

A beautiful cat that can scratch her claws at any time. Even to death.

His eyes sparkled behind his glasses as he felt a little blush appear on his cheeks.

It was the first time he fell in love with someone at first sight.

No... It was the first time he truly fell in love. And he didn't want to lose this chance.

That's why he memorized as many details of your face as possible to catch you at the party after the fashion show. Because he sincerely hoped you'd be there.

Even if this party here may be bloody and trashed tonight.

But the moment everyone heard a few shots and one man fell to the floor lifeless, Gojo knew that this was no time for love or fun for him.

After all, he came here to get rid of enemies in an easy way.

And the orders to anyone who came with him said only: "If you see someone from Q, shoot without hesitation. They're definitely here."

All the people panicked and started to run.

And then each of them took out a gun and started shooting at the enemies.

When the white-haired man saw that you were standing behind the curtain on the stage, without a moment's thought he ran ahead, jumped on the platform and pulled you on his shoulder, to sit behind a meter high and shoot to protect you. His goal in sight has already killed three opponents today.

"What're you-?!" You screamed as you pulled away from him.

You already had a plan to approach one of the Q's from behind and slit his throat!

And he interrupted you.

"Don't be afraid, you won't die." He said to you.

You couldn't see his eyes clearly through his glasses. But you know he's not a cop.

You are in the middle of a fight between mafias.

Arrows started raining in your direction and he then quickly pulled you in front of him, making you kneel in front of him, and he lowered your head to his chest as he bent down so they wouldn't shoot him.

As he knelt, leaning forward, you were underneath his body. That's how he protected you.

You don't know why he did it. But you guess there's a deeper meaning to it.

It was the first time anyone protected you. It was nice of him. Because that man didn't even know you. You only looked at each other once during the show. Few minutes ago!

When there were fewer shots in your direction, you crawled out from under his chest, heading around the narrow stage.

And you, too, reached into your thigh and pulled out a folding knife.

Ignoring the screams of the white-haired man behind you and the shots, you kept walking. Until you finally saw a man with a "Q" tattoo on his neck.

You literally felt the knife sharpening in your hand and you quickly walked over to him without making a sound and smashed the knife into his neck. And then to the side of the head.

You quickly pulled away and sheathed the knife to check for blood. Fortunately not.

You were pulled to your feet by the same man who tried to save you right after all the shots had stopped.

You looked at his face without glasses.

You noticed the beauty and unique vigor of the eyes.

You heard another shot.

You looked to the side to see a dark haired man firing a gun at a man who was sitting with his back against the stage to make sure he was dead. With his head on the side. Because of this, no one could see the hole in his temple and neck, which is why he died.

"That's everyone. None of them managed to escape." He said, addressing the white-haired man. "What about her? Shoot? You don't have glasses."

He pointed the barrel of the gun at you.

You'd love to fight. If only that guy's hands weren't on your shoulders.

"She saw my face, huh... It's okay. We're taking her with us." He said with a smile.

"What?!" you shouted pissed off.

"Baby, you couldn't see my face. It's not against the rules of my Mafia. No one except those closest to me has seen my face or knows my real name. According to the rules, I should kill you or lock you up so you don't tell anyone. However, killing you would be a great loss. You're so beautiful and you got me curious... I don't want to kill someone I fell in love with."

"...Hold on!" You screamed as you pushed him, but he only held you tighter.

"Come on. I just have to admit there's something mysterious about your eyes. What you show on stage is not the real you, is it?"

"Fuck off!"

"Aw, honey..." he mumbled sadly.

He started to drag you by the wrist to the car. And even though you kept leaning against you, when the other man helped him to immobilize your arms, you were put in the car and he got in right behind you. The door was closed.

You noticed the black window in front of you, separating you from the driver.

That's good. Maybe you can kill him.

When he looked away for a moment, you put your hand under your dress, pulling your knife from the belt on your thigh, and suddenly jumped into his lap, putting the blade to his throat.

"Hey, baby, this is how you repay me for helping me? Understand that these are the rules we have." He said with a smile, hands raised in front of you.

"I could handle myself." You growled.

"Such a dangerous, beautiful woman. What part is the real you?"

"Who are you?! Someone from Q?!"

"Slow down a bit. Actually, it's like I'm taking you, so I should be the one asking the questions. But okay. I'm Six Eyes. Mafia boss. And when it comes to Q, I'm their biggest adversary."

You wondered if you should trust him. He didn't seem threatening now. Also, there was no Q anywhere here.

Holding the knife to his throat, you hesitated for a moment on what to do.

This caused his hands to quickly pull you down to the seat. His both hands held your wrists while his hips touched your ass as you lay on your stomach.

"If I was from Q, I'd rather kill myself than be there. And besides, everyone from Q would pay no attention to anything. They would just tie you up, rape you, kill you, and then dump your body in a ditch. Did I do that?"

"If you tried, I'd castrate you." You growled.

"Dangerous. I like it. However..." he let go of your wrists and sat in his place, giving you space. "I don't know if you could do something for me. I must admit your ferocity and hostility is strong. But let's say I'm the Mafia boss and you're the model."

"Do not underestimate me..."

"So tell me, (y/n) (l/n), why shouldn't I underestimate you? Tell me something about you. Because you are famous, but your biography is not known by anyone."

You were locked up in the large villa that was his home for several days. Why? Because he didn't want to lock you up in your old garages. He didn't want you gagged and bound while you sat there for who knows how long.

Your relationship was closer because you liked him. However, there was still some tension between the two of you.

Him, the annoying, selfish asshole and egotist who spoke to you the way he wanted to, and always came in when you least expected it.

He was able to come to you in the bathroom while you were taking a bath.

And he joined you.

That's why things became intimate between the two of you quickly, even though you weren't even a couple. You could just be considered friends now.

And you both liked the relationship you already had.

Nothing changed for the next two weeks.

It doesn't matter how many times you hit him with a pan until he finally let you go.

Of course he didn't because he acted like a child after being hit on the head with a pan. He pretended to cry.

You took good care of him and checked him for any head injury. Everything was fine. So you didn't have to worry.

And then he wouldn't let you get out of bed, wanting to make you feel guilty for doing it.

He was lying on your stomach, making you rub and stroke his head because it hurt. And it was your fault.

You apologized to him, and what else were you supposed to do?

It was your revenge for him locking you in here. And for skipping one of the most important performances where you were supposed to show clothes on stage. However, you couldn't complain, because as compensation for your lost money, you received from him a wardrobe worth half a year of your work. Or even more.

If only he was still good at sex, then you wouldn't complain so much. Because your partners were terrible. It's as if they couldn't do anything.

Besides, you've also been given a luxurious house that you have to live with him anyway.

"Come on. I already apologized to you..." you said, running your fingers through his white hair.

"But it hurt..." he said, pretending to cry.

"You don't even have a trace of it. There isn't even a bump on your head."

"But it still hurt...

"You've probably watched the ball through your opponents more than once, right?"

"Not at all..."

"You're in the mafia, Satoru..."

So yes, he told you his real name with the idea that you can't leave him and leave his house anyway. So your names were used by you on a daily basis.

"I've been in the mafia since my mother gave birth to me. I took it from my father... Besides, nobody ever shot me. Because I shot faster and more accurately than they did. When I was 15 I killed a spy who was looking for our weak point in our defense." He laughed, purring as your fingers swirled in his hair.

"So you had a bloody childhood too?"

"I doubt you shot anyone when you were a teenager." He laughed. "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm 23." You replied.

"Same as me! You see? We are made for each other!" He stood up suddenly, looking at you with sparkles in his eyes.

"Apparently you have a headache." You laughed as you saw him quickly lay down on top of you again. "Come on. Come, let me stroke you a little more."

"Which means you had a bloody childhood?"

"Do you really want to know? Don't you prefer that I leave my mysterious eyes?"

"You're smart and cold, or so you think. At fashion shows and commercials, you change it to a mysterious and sensual façade. However, you can care for someone else."

"I hit you with a pan. Is this supposed to be taking care of someone?"

He laughed slightly.

"It was different. Because I don't forbid you to be aggressive. I understand that you hate me. But now you're stroking and hugging me. You wash me while I wash you. We are not such enemies. Can you say we're lovers?"

"I don't know. But when I was 16, I also did something that probably no other model has ever done." You laughed.

He looked at you for a moment, analyzing what you said.

And 7 years ago, almost 10 people were murdered. And from that moment on, the murders of everyone in the Q group and family began. Starting with some of the closest ones from the family of the boss himself.

And these murders continue to this day. The murderer is impossible to catch because no one knows who he is. The gender of this person is unknown. No one knows what his goals are in these murders.

"This knife... You..." He looked at you questioningly.

"I have a knife scar under my hair. And the blood stains are washing off the skin." You said softly. "You can beat me if you know the truth now. If you think I'll be in the way or I shouldn't kill people like them. But remember that if you try, I will try to protect myself."

"You know it doesn't matter to me We may even be partners in crime. Because this is the woman I fell in love with at first sight." He hugged you, holding you tight.

Your actions for revenge are not ridiculed by him. On the contrary. He supports it.

And he promises that everyone from Q will die.

Because he fell in love with mysterious dark eyes. Eyes that from the beginning hid something murderous. So beautiful.

Just like all of you.

Your relationship was like lovers and enemies at the same time.

Or was it more like partners in crime now?

Dark lovers who don't care about the lives of their enemies. You has a mafia boss, the famous Six Eyes, wrapped around your little finger.

You guided him. His heart.

Such a powerful man was so small and sweet to you. So submissive.

That's why you could give that big little boy what he wanted.

You were still riding his cock until you were out of breath that night.

Or rather, his breath.

When you wonder if he's good at sex, you thought he was going to be average.

However, it is different.

He has a big nice dick.

It really stretches you out. It goes so deep. It hits all the best places.

You could barely feel the thin condom against his thick length as your pussy slid over him, lovingly inviting him into your tight warmth every time you lowered your hips.

His arms were bound with the string you found. It felt so good in his muscles.

He couldn't move while you scratched his arms and bit his neck.

You were riding him, making him moan. His hips pushed upward to meet your warmth. Your hand on the back was catching his balls and you were squeezing the skin in your palm. You pinched his thighs. You ran your hands over his lower abdomen, running your fingers along the veins running down his pubic bone.

Your fingernails ran over his chest, occasionally grazing his nipples.

While riding him, you massaged your clitoris to make you come faster. And you smiled as you watched as his head was thrown back as he red-faced moaned at the feeling of your pussy sucking him. His chest heaved rapidly.

His cock twitched inside you.

And then you pulled it out of you, leaving it out in the air. Only with a thin condom on it.

He moaned as your fingers tightened on the base of him, not allowing him to come.

It was his first ruined orgasm you gave him.

And you think he was always driving during sex. He was downstairs now, but he didn't protest. This guy just needed someone to dominate him the right way.

Very slowly and unbearably, you took the condom off him as the precum began to form a transparent puddle in the sperm reservoir.

Leaning down to his red cock, you kissed his head, listening as he moaned, his hips jumping as he felt a sudden touch against a sensitive part of his body.

He was so red and sensitive from a ruined orgasm. It was so cute.

You sat on his hips, and rubbed your pussy against his length, pressing his shaft against his muscular belly.

At the same time, you pulled his face down to your chest, doing something he always did when he saw you shirtless. You put his head in your breasts and he immediately started sucking on your nipples. Feeling the softness of your skin.

Soon after, he started moaning again and you stopped touching his cock again. If he wasn't tied up now, he would grab the length of it and start stroking himself to feel relieved. But alas, his hands were tied. There was nothing he could do and he was at your mercy.

You pressed your fingers against it again. Ensuring not one drop of his cum will come out of his tip. He couldn't come yet.

You want to see him throw his head back and moan when he wants to cum so much.

You sat on his cock when he didn't have a condom on, and he hissed through his teeth at the hot and tight feeling when he had nothing to separate your insides from his sensitive skin.

You grabbed the second condom and ripped open the wrapper. Only then did you get off of him, watching his wet tip drool.

You put the rubber all the way down his length, and then you sat on him again.

Warming his cock until his eyes were glassy and hazy and his face was so red.

As he threw his head back and his shoulders and hips trembled, wanting to start thrusting into you to come, you gave him some mercy.

You started jumping on top of him, smiling as you watched his heavy breathing and closed eyes.

The mighty mafia boss began to moan beneath you. And his ragged moans coupled with light sobs were the cause of his intense orgasm which was a combination of the three he was about to get. His thighs trembled as he came filling the condom inside you, the heat from his fluids pushing his sensitivity to the limit.

As you pulled him out of you, his cock fell soft against his stomach. You took the filled condom off him and tied it, putting the sticky rubber on his abs.

You lay down next to him, untying his hands, letting him pull your body against his.

Your nights together made him unable to resist you. So when you wanted to go back to your dream job, he had to agree.

Two people followed you across the city.

Even if he trusted you not to tell anyone.

He had your secret and you had his.

Little cameras in people's suits let him see what you were doing.

Well, he knew what you would do with those two.

Besides, he didn't feel sorry for them. They were two deserters who ran away from Q to join his mafia.

And he promised you that everyone who is or even was with Q will die.

That's why when he suddenly saw a pool of blood on the other side, he wasn't surprised and didn't even feel sorry for the two people.

Then he saw your face as you held the camera in one hand and your knife in the other.

"Not nice, Six Eyes ~. I don't like being followed. And we'll keep your punishment for that for later, Okay?"

When you said that, he felt a pleasant shiver that passed over his spine. And he couldn't wait for you to come home.

You were his dark queen.

His dark, beautiful queen will have her beautiful vengeance.

Because you will get everything.

Every year, on your birthday, he would take you to one place where the dirty work of killing was often done.

As a surprise, you got one or two high-ranking Q people.

Because his beautiful queen will always get what she wants.

So if you want revenge, you'll get it. In the best way for you.

You are his killer beauty. His deadly love.

[wjbminecraft]

A track-by-track thoughts post on the "Minecraft: Pixel Genesis" remix album, like what I did with the Minecraft Tetris album.

Also for the record, I listened to parts of of the original unremixed ones to get the gist before listening to their remixes (with the exceptions of Creator and Precipice, which I listen to a lot).

Featherfall (Hyper Potions Remix) - How is this the same song? I mean I guess I kinda hear it, but like. The original one is slow and ambient, meanwhile the remix feels almost like a track from an RPG. Very nice, though! I'm not too fond of the weird voice clips or whatever.

Watcher (Synthion Remix) - I like that the intro is sort of a chiptune demake of the original track, and then it kinda sounds more like something from an SNES game, before doing the sort of "bwawawawawawa" sound some music uses. You'd know it if you heard it. Also random out-of-nowhere pop at like 1:40. I like how it gets a bit more chiptuney in the background towards the end. Pretty good, even if it's the kind of music I don't normally listen to.

Puzzlebox (AIKA Remix) - The original kinda sounds ominous but calm. This remix is kinda. Not that. Honestly I don't really like this one much. Especially the random mob noises in the background.

komorebi (AIKA Remix) - I really like the unremixed version. It feels like a classic Minecraft track, all calm and piano-y, with nice ambient windchime noises as well. I am starting to cry a little bit. The remix has a nice intro that's, like, synthy and melancholic, but then it goes kinda a bit more intense and yeah I like this one!

pokopoko (Synthion Remix) - Going from the calm and slightly melancholic original version to this remix is kinda interesting. It has a kind of "end credits" feel to it that I really like. Also the chiptune aspect is fun!

yakusoku (leon chang Remix) - Damn, Kumi Tanioka's Minecraft tracks are really nice. I want to cry again. Waaah. The remix is. Fine? It kinda feels generic maybe??? Don't have much to say. Next track!

Infinite Amethyst (Snail's House Remix) - Why is Minecraft music so nice? Uhhhh anyway getting distracted. This one feels the most like what I think of when I hear the word "remix", like at the start it still sounds a bit like the original track, and then the actual remixy bit sets in and it's pretty good! Yeah.

Deeper (Elliot Hsu Remix) - Oooh, another chiptuney one! It almost feels like. You know how there are like "Smash remixes", like remixes of game music that's put in Smash Bros.? Yeah this feels like it could be one of those, like if Steve appears in Smash 6 I can totally imagine this track being in there.

Eld Unknown (Elliot Hsu Remix) - Very nice! A tiny bit closer to the kind of stuff I usually listen to. Also has a very epic feel to it!

Endless (Anamanaguchi Remix) - The original version makes me cry. That's unrelated to the topic at hand but I just wanted to say that. The remix is great! It kinda reminds me of like. Tyrian 2000. Like with the bouncy synth and adventurous tone.

Creator (leon chang Remix) - Creator is my second-favourite track on the 1.21 soundtrack! And I love the remix starting out as the actual intro before getting bitcrushed and transitioning into a more electronic version. If the original version of Creator sounds like the theme for a friendly but eccentric inventor, then this version sounds like the theme for a friendly but slightly-unethical mad scientist. Also zombie jumpscare. 10/10 remix!

Precipice (Hyper Potions Remix) - I love Precipice. It feels like JRPG final boss music. But this remix is just kinda. Fine? Like it sounds more like music that would play in a high-tech city in Pokémon or something.

[imsparky2002]

Ghouls and Monsters - The Creature

(FrankenNino is spinnin’ some tunes on his turntable, when he hears an ominous groan.) 

FrankenNino: That you, Sabrina? 

(Rose Frankenteen shambles out, arms raised.)

Rose Frankenteen: GRAAAAH! ROSE SMASH! 

(She lurches toward the boy, who just gives her a chill grin)

FrankenNino: Girl, come on now. You're a "stein" just like me! The labcoat gave it away. (She giggles and takes a bow.)

Rose Frankenteen: Guilty as charged. I just like to give people a little spook before I say hello!

FrankenNino: Well you're better off than I am. Just be careful who you scare, 'cause in our world, one wrong move can get a mob at your doorstep. And if we're the same, you've had a run in with bad dudes before. Fire bad to you as well?

Rose Frankenteen: Yeah….it is. That’s…how I lost my family actually, an angry mob with torches…

FrankenNino: Dude... that's rough. (He offers a hug, which she accepts.)

FrankenNino: Every day, there's a part of me that's terrified for my parents, for my lil bro. That they could be killed, that I'd be alone.

Rose Frankenteen: (Gives him a sad look) I take it monster-human relations are really bad in your world, then.

FrankenNino: Uh huh. I mean, there's some decent humanfolk, like my bro, Adrien! But... there aren't many of them. It's a good thing I got my friends and family to support me. What about you, family doesn't have to be blood related, you got anyone?

Rose Frankenteen: (Smiles) Yes, I have my sisters and our ‘mothers’, the Witches of Wisdom! We do almost everything together!

FrankenNino: Woah! It's weird seeing my babe covered up in bandages, not that I think it's an upgrade. I love Alya no matter what she looks like. And Alix's got so much hair! Mylene doesn’t have any plants around her, and... god I'm so dumb! You're Rose! How could I not realize earlier? I've never seen you with actual skin before!

Rose Frankenteen: Oh, am I a skeleton in your world? I’ve met a few and they’re quite friendly!

FrankenNino: Rose certainly is! She's always brightening up the room, and she knows how to rock out as well! What about you? You experienced with music?

Rose Frankenteen: Oh, yes! I love to sing with my Juleka! She has the most beautiful voice!

FrankenNino: You guys are a perfect pair in every universe, dudette. You know, I make some tunes myself! I'm like a science dj! I use gadgets to make the ultimate sound system.

Rose Frankenteen: (Claps with delight) How wonderful! I’m a scientist as well, I make the gadgets we use for battle! I’d love to hear some of your music!

FrankenNino: Glad you asked, dudette! 

(They begin to jam out, as FrankenNino creates a fresh beat on his turntable.)

Here’s the fourth crossover, and it’s between Rose and Nino, some of the sweetest kids in the AUs. Thanks again to Weeby for the dialogue help. Make sure to check out their Monstrous AU. As always, reply, reblog, post and ask to share the content. @artzychic27 @msweebyness 

[myzornaccount]

In my experience a lot of shounen just has themes that are more interesting than shoujo themes. I bet shoujo isn't read/watched by very many men because it's just proportionally less popular

Remember that shoujo and shounen aren't defined by what boys and girls actually like, it's defined by what society says each group should like

It seems like so much of shoujo is just cheesy romance. I don't know any girls irl who are into that stuff. A lot of shounen is about less romantic relationships, which just has a lot more opportunities for complexity

Women are "HALF" the readership of any series that treats its readers as adults with complex minds. You only really see huge differences in demographics when either men make the fandom spaces uncomfortable (smash bros) or when the studio directly targets their concept of either gender's stereotypes and fantasies (naruto/DBZ/softcore-zorn/loser-gets-isekai'd or ouraun/maid sama/softcore-romance/loving-monogamy)

Feels so strange to me that women are being represented as some kind of driving force behind these fandoms when they're just being regular people who like the thing about equally to the men

Think of classic shoujo that have significant male viewership (mob psycho, ore monogatari) why aren't men seen as some kind of carrying force for those fandoms? It really is the same case for these. Targeting one audience, but because it is actually interesting, or has good character interactions, or whatever else, people in general like watching it

[sakurayumeno]

Hope I got the goth parts right!   ~(>_<。)＼

Joseph, Luca, Naib, Norton with a modern goth S/O + playing video games

Joseph

He thinks someone died

But don’t get mad at him, because that was the only reason people would wear full black back then

He thinks it’s nice nevertheless, but he likes the Victorian and lolita/ ouji style the most because he’s the most familiar with the fashion

Listen, mans was alive around the 18th century. He probably don’t even know what moving pictures are yet, so just the concept of video games alone leaves him awestruck

“You mean to tell me that moving pictures EXIST in the future? And in color??”

You don’t even have to convince him at this point, he just so eager to try it out

He jumps at the first sound that comes from the game. He’s all like, “S/o, did you hear that? Where did it come from?” “Joseph, it was the game.”

He literally cannot handle fast-paced games, his reaction times are so slow despite having them being fast in real life. Even Mario Kart is too hard for him

Video games are the coolest thing ever in his opinion, but can’t play them for the life of him

Luca

He thinks the goth style is very unique. He’s rarely seen anyone wear dark clothing because they want to

Zaps anyone who makes rude comments about it

You deserve to dress however you want without being judged and people need to realize that

Surprisingly really good at rhythm games. You could put him on the hardest level and he’d get through it as if it were on easy mode

His favorite type of games are interactive and, of course, rhythm games. Rhythm games keep his brain active and interactive games... let’s just say he likes to experiment with them

First playthrough is neutral, he chooses what he would do in the situation. The ones after are either chaotic or too good. He would choose all the bad options and then choose all the good options next playthrough

Doesn’t play the games often, though. He’s still got his inventions to work on. Maybe he’ll try to make his own video game

Asks to takes apart the game to see how it works

Doesn't understand CDs, how can a flimsy piece of plastic hold so much stuff??

Naib 

Doesn’t mind one bit that you’re goth, if you wear those boots with the belt decorations, he’d go ‘Oh look, we match.’

Kind of frustrated that he doesn’t have any goth costumes and yet he has a matching costume with Martha. Like bruh if he wanted a matching costume, give it to his s/o pls

Call him soft, but he prefers playing games that include you. Not competitively or anything, just ones where you two can work together

He’d enjoy games like Minecraft or Stardew Valley where he could live his little domestic video game life with you

If you teach him how to make food in either games, neither of you will ever go hungry

You could be mining or somethin’ and he would go sprinting to find you. You would be so confused until he whips out a cake and says, “I made us a cake, eat it before it gets cold. <3″ “Naib, I’m at full hunger-”

You bet he’d walk up to you in Minecraft and shyly ask to place his bed next to yours

If any mob or enemy were to come up to the two of you, he’d kill it before it could even touch you. No one’s hurting his partner

Norton

“Does my Mr. Mole costume count as goth”

Has a vague understanding of what goth is when you explain it. He thinks that anyone who wears black is goth, even if it’s just a one-time thing

He would love if you guys could match, mainly with the Mr. Mole costume since he has no other black outfits (I mean wanderer is also one, so if you want to dress up as a vampire, go for it)

If ya’ll ever seen that meme where the guy goes easy on their friend in a game and the friend says, ‘Wow. Guess I’m better than you at your own game!’ and the guy goes all serious after, that would summarize your guys’ gaming experience to a ‘T’

Tries his hardest to be better than you, but not in a mean way. He just wants to impress you

He is a noob, but don’t call him that, he won’t know what that is lol

Prone to rage-quit after so many losses

He’ll appreciate it if you gave him some pointers and he’ll actually use them. He may be on par with you after a while

For competitive games, he enjoys Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. His favorite would have been Mortal Kombat if it weren’t so gory, though

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

raven-san, can we please have a wedding crashing where jade needs to marry this girl from another crime family to consolidate power and become the next head of the leech mob :)) but floyd's like I'M BORED and annoyed that his brother's being snatched up by a random chick, so he asks basketball bros, and azul, to help save jade?

This one is super long, so I added some extra sections and placed the rest of the wedding crashing below the cut!

***Spoilers for Jamil and Floyd’s Unique Magic!!***

"I object to this wedding...!"

Pre-Wedding Jitters

A call comes for the twins in the dead of night, without warning. It’s their parents with exciting news: they’re naming Jade as the next Don Leech. The catch? The Leech mob’s in the middle of a merger with the Worm mob, and he’ll have to marry Don Worm’s daughter to secure the deal.

Jade, ever the dutiful son, is honored by his future title and calmly agrees to the arrangement. On the other hand, Floyd’s annoyed by the idea, and can’t keep quiet about his irritation. He calls out to his twin in the darkness.

“... Ne, Jade.”

“Ee, Floyd?”

“Are you really okay with going through with this? You’re just gonna do what they said? Even though you don’t know the Worms at all? Even if you’ve never met that girl before?”

“It is a request coming directly from father and mother. How could I refuse them? And, furthermore... If I do not undertake this task, then it would fall to you, the next choice to inherit the title of Don Leech. I cannot allow that to come to pass--fufu. You do so enjoy your freedom, yes?”

“... Jade, you’re so dumb sometimes. What’ll happen to your freedom, then? Will you get so busy with being the big boss and being married... that you won’t have time to play anymore?”

“... Perhaps. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

That thought doesn’t sit well with Floyd--not at all.

“I trust that you will make your own fun of the situation,” Jade reassures him. “You always do.”

As the weeks pass, Floyd sees less and less of Jade around, since he has to prepare for the wedding. Jade reassures him that he’s doing just fine, but Floyd can see right through his lies. He can tell that Jade’s more frazzled than usual--there’s a lingering to his words, and a longing in his eyes, savoring every last bit of autonomy he has before his fate is forever sealed.

Floyd hates it. He hates being lied to by his own brother, and he hates feeling powerless to stop the wedding. Floyd’s so angry that he develops this murderous aura in the weeks leading up to the wedding, which makes everyone around him shy away.

One day, he gets sick of being in the water--it’s a reminder of the wedding to come--so Floyd plays basketball on land to vent. He ends up chomping down so hard that he deflates a ball, then dunks another basketball so hard, he breaks the net.

He sprawls out on the ground and angrily shouts at the sky. His basketball bonks him on the head... and that’s when an idea hits him: maybe he can’t stop the wedding alone, but no one said he couldn’t phone some friends.

Assembling the Dream Team

Floyd first dials up Azul, who agrees to help after some whining and signing a contract agreeing to pay Azul handsomely for his services (... although truthfully, the octopus does want to help Jade, but doesn't immediately agree to do it because of his pride as a businessman).

Floyd also calls his old basketball buddies for help! Jamil and Ace are much more adamant than Azul, but Floyd strongarms them into pitching in. ("Umihebi-kun, Kani-chan, if you don't help me rescue Jade, I'll get suuuper mad, you know? I don't think you'll like me when I get mad. Moray eels are strong hunters, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem for me to track you guys down and give you a good squeeze~" "OKAY, OKAY, WE'LL DO IT!!")

Together, the four boys meet up to scheme of a way to disrupt the wedding without jeopardizing the Leech mob's future. Floyd actively leads the discussion, allowing his hidden genius to come to the surface.

Ace doesn’t contribute much to the strategy (laid out by Azul), but he does keep the spirit up with some jokes. Meanwhile, Jamil provides snacks for them when they work late into the night (though he keeps passing semi-glares to Azul whenever the octopus compliments him or tries to be friendly).

In preparation for the crashing, Azul brews some potions to give Jamil and Ace so they can take on temporary merforms. After all, the wedding will be underwater, in the Coral Sea, and they’ll need tail fins.

The date of destiny draws ever closer... and Floyd's never been so excited to cause chaos in his whole life.

The Crashing - Team Azul & Jamil

They split into two pairs on the day of the wedding—Azul and Jamil, and Floyd and Ace. Floyd uses his position as the future son-in-law to Don Worm to arrange a meeting between himself and the don... except Azul and Jamil will show up instead.

Don Worm shows up to the meeting in his finest clothes (which is very little, given that he’s a merman), sounding a bit annoyed the sudden summoning. “Make this quick, I’ve got to go see my baby girl’s big day... Wait. You fellas aren’t the F. Leech boy.”

“No, we aren’t, sir. We are his representatives... Proxies, if you will,” Azul insists, giving his warmest and most welcoming smile. He uses a tentacle to tug on Jamil’s tail, forcing him to smile too. “You see, there is an important business matter we needed to discuss with you on behalf of Floyd.”

“Hoh? And what would that be?”

“I believe my business associate would be better off explaining the matter than myself.” Azul gestures to Jamil, who has his head down.

“Oi, what’s with you? Don’t you know who I am, boy? It’s rude to not look your elders in the eye when they are speaking to you!! Show me the respect I deserve, from one professional to another!!”

“My apologies, sir.” Jamil looks up, locking eyes with the mob boss. “... Is this better?”

“Yes, that’s...”

“Snake Whisper.”

Don Worm suddenly goes glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. Azul claps at the sight, showering his partner with compliments. “As expected of the talented Jamil-san! Even one look from you can bring a mafia lord to his downfall. Truly, your Unique Magic is most impressive!”

“Save your flattery for later.”

Azul’s lips curl into a smirk as he whips out a golden contract from his briefcase and offers it to the don. “Now then, if you wouldn’t mind, sir... sign on the dotted line.”

The Crashing - Team Floyd & Ace

Ace and Floyd rush to the wedding venue, their tails cutting through the water like knives as they swim at a breakneck pace. Ace can barely keep up with Floyd, who surges far ahead.

“H-Hey, should we really be barging in like this?! Don’t mob families have weapons and other dangerous stuff? Is there a backdoor we can take instead? Hello?! Floyd-senpai, are you listening to me?!” (He isn’t.)

The open, underwater comes into view, and Floyd barrels in without any hesitation, tearing right through some decorations and knocking over the wedding cake with his tail. A loud CRASH! echoes through the waters, drawing eyes to him.

Jade stares at his brother from the altar—wide eyed, but a mirthful smile on his lips. Floyd waves to him, and then to his mom and dad in the crowd of guests. “Hiii, Jade! I’m here to pick you up now.”

The Worm girl starts sobbing, wailing something about how her special day’s been ruined, and where is her papa to put an end to this? At her signal, security guards, and some of the rougher looking guests—Worm family associates—lunge at Floyd, claws and teeth out. A few of them have produced wands, and what seem to be guns—loaded with harpoons.

“Bind the Heart!” Objects and stray magic go flying in all directions, hitting both people and wedding decorations. Cloth tears, columns crumble—but it’s one man against many, and he can only bind so many hearts before the blot starts to stack.

Ace makes it just in time, sending their foes and their weapons hurtling through the water with a blast of wind. “This is why I said to be careful, dammit! Your Unique Magic’s such a crapshoot—don’t just use it whenever, or you’ll be sushi!!!”

“Ahahahah! Kani-chan’s being all heroic today! That’s so cute. Don’t worry, I can play my part, too...!!”

Using his tail, Floyd hooks around a drifting merman and chucks him straight into another. They collide with a CRACK!—but Floyd barely registers it. He’s already bolting off, grabbing heads and smashing them together, slicing through others like a knife through butter.

There’s a crazed, frenzied look to him, gleeful laughter cutting through the waters and mixing with the Worm bride’s screeching. I forgot how scary Floyd-senpai can be, Ace realizes. (Jade and Floyd’s parents are cheering for him from their seats.)

Jade looks quite proud of his brother, even laughing along to the brutal slaughterfest. His bride stares at him incredulously. “Stop that brute! He’s ruining MY special day!!”

“No,” Jade replies calmly. “I don’t think I will. This is far too amusing to let it end so soon.”

She lets out a frustrated scream and launches herself at her groom, hands going for his throat. The Worm girl is slammed back with a strong hit to her gut, courtesy of Jade’s tail.

She flies back, slamming into a column—and feels a tail wrapping around her and squeezing tight. Constricting her to the point where it was difficult to breathe. A livid mermaid glares down at her, teeth bared in a snarl.

“No one lays a hand on my children,” Mama Leech declares. “No one.”

From the corner of her eye, the Worm girl can see that Jade has cast off his bow tie and flitted over to Floyd, embracing happily in a battlefield adorned with red ribbons trailing through the water. Her vision is abruptly blocked off by a broad-shouldered merman wearing a grimace.

“Now then, what shall we do with this one?” Papa Leech wonders aloud—though from his tone of voice, he has nothing good in store.

The Aftermath

“You’re all fish bait when daddy hears about this...!” the Worm girl warns, her words raspy. “Th-The merger won’t go through...! There’ll be war between the Leeches and the Worms...!”

A loud throat clearing comes from behind. “Fortunately, that won’t be happening.”

Azul and Jamil make their appearance, the octopus merman smugly showcasing a contract. “Ashengrotto—Azul Ashengrotto, legal and business extraordinaire at your service, Don Leech and Lady Leech.”

Papa Leech grunts. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

“This?” Azul’s smirk widens. “Why, it’s a prenuptial stating that, in the case that an act of violence is enacted by the bride toward the groom, the marriage is considered null and void... and the bride’s family assets are to be claimed by the groom. Signed by Don Worm himself.”

“Wh-What?! Impossible!! How did you get daddy to sign such a stupid deal?!”

“Oh,” Jamil says nonchalantly, “we have our ways.”

“So... Uh, Jade-senpai’s still gonna be the next Don Leech?! And he’s gonna be in charge of an even bigger and richer family... How is that any better than the situation before?! You’re just giving him more resources for committing crimes!”

At that moment, two hands come down on Ace’s shoulders, causing him to freeze up.

“Kani-chaaaaan! Everyone!! Thanks so much for your help~”

“Yes, you have my sincerest thanks, Ace-san, Jamil-san... Azul.”

“It is my pleasure to assist such VIP clients. Ah, but there remains the matter of my promised payment—” (Jamil and Ace internally groan at Azul’s words.)

“Payment?” Don Leech scoffs. “After the ballsy operation you boys pulled off today... I’m more inclined to give you job offers instead of a one time sum. How do you lads feel about being hired as the Leech family’s personal lawyer, interrogator, and... well, whatever the heart one is good at.”

“My, my! Such a generous and lucrative offer—“

“There is no way I’m accepting that, especially if that means working with Azul.”

“Oi, I’ll have you know I’m good at lots of stuff!! I’m the one that saved Floyd’s tail fins, is no one gonna acknowledge that?!”

“You did amazing, sweetie!!” Mama Leech chirps—her tail grip tightening until the Worm girl passes out. Ace leaps back in fright. “As a reward, why don’t you let me give you a hug?”

“S-STAY BACK!!”

“Ahahahah! Everyone’s getting along so well, Jade. Isn’t this fun? You wouldn’t be able to enjoy this if you had gone to get hitched.”

“Fufufu. You are correct, Floyd. How sad it would have been if I were to miss out on touching moments such as this. From the bottom of my heart... I thank you for thinking of me, and for rushing to my aid. I could not have asked for a better brother.”

... What Floyd doesn’t know is that this was all according to keikaku Jade’s own machinations. He would never take the order to marry lying down—but he couldn’t outright defy it without immediate consequences, either.

Thank the Great Seven Jade has reliable puppets friends to help him out of a pinch. I’ll be certain to put the additional funds we have gained to good use... Perhaps to start a little mushroom farm.

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

(Different anon that the previous anon made curious)

You say not much besides SWSH, but is there anyone aside from SWSH you do pair? Not even limited to Pokemon, tho I personally really like Wallace/Steven and Cynthia/Caitlyn myself!

Hmmm there's not really anything in terms of stuff I'm interested in drawing, except pairings of my OCs lmao... this actually used to be a mainly OC blog until 2020 ahah;; I was also really into zero escape for the first half of 2020 & could prob still work up the energy to draw the characters but it's been a while.

Anyway I'll just list some random stuff I have mild interest in:

Pokemon (other than SWSH):

Archie/Maxie (ORAS), Red/Blue, Raihan/Lance, Steven/Lance (there's an artist on twitter who draws rly good art of them so fjdjnfndn), Wallace/Steven (ish, i'm not super invested)

Stuff from other series:

Zero escape: sigma/junpei, sigma/akane, sigma/clover, sigma/alice, sigma/luna, alice/clover (can u tell i was obsesses w sigma LMAO)

Mob Psycho 100: reigen/serizawa/dimple (kinda any combo of the three, but i love poly ships so i usually like them all together ahah... also ususally blob dimple or sg dimple, i personally dont rly like his buff green form LMAO;;)

Tiger & Bunny: kotetsu/barnaby

Fire Emblem Fates: MC/Silas/Niles (this is so specific bc it's just w my MC and not corrin jfjfnnf)

Smash Bros: Marth/Roy (my og fandom from 8th grade fjjfndnhfd)

Gekkan Shoujo: all the main "pairings" + mayu/mikoshiba

Yuri on Ice: Yuri/Victor

AI: Somnium Files: Date/Aiba (ish, idk not the same as how i draw sappy romantic stuff here fjjrnfn)

Overwatch: junkrat/roadhog (ive never played but fsr I drew a lot of roadrat in like 2018-ish fjdnndn)

Haikyu: the nerdy teacher/the coach dude LMAO i don't remember the names.... Takeda-sensei and someone else

Star Trek TOS: Kirk/Spock, Kirk/Spock/McCoy (had a star trek moment in college fjdnfkgj i've only watched a little bit tho)

....that's about all I can think of. I like shippy content and am open to most pairings, but tbh I don't get super invested in fandom stuff and 99% of the time I don't think about the characters from whatever media i consume outside of when I'm actually watching/playing/reading it ahah;;; idk why I latched onto swsh so hard, I think the designs and concepts are just comfy for me haha...

Anyway yeah sorry so long 😅

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Reznor

Debut: Super Mario World

I’ll tell you what- a fire breathing Triceratops is pretty dang scary. But it’s not too much to handle. Now, if there are four of them? That’s just spine-chilling! The only thing that could make it worse is if they were standing on wooden rotating platforms! And... gulp!

...Is what I might say, if this wasn’t the goofiest looking Triceratops ever conceived! Just look at that smirk! And it’s so... stumpy! It’s trying to be intimidating, but it just does not do a very good job!

As you may have already noticed, Reznor is named after a rather well-known musician: Trent Reznor, of the band Nine-Inch Nails! ...Which I know nothing about. Sorry! This isn’t that kind of blog! We may know a lot about funny animals and silly monsters, but 90s bands just aren’t my area of expertise! Still, I appreciate how it lines up with the Koopalings’ names, who are all named after pop-stars or musicians themselves! I wonder why they don’t do that these days? We could’ve had the Broodals named after the Beatles, or something! On second thought, that’s a terrible idea. I don’t trust The Beatles. 

In Japan, though, their name is Buibui - an onomatopeia for doing a peace sign. Cause, you know, it sounds like you’re saying ‘V’, I suppose. We all know how much the Japanese love those peace signs, but I’m not exactly sure how Reznor would manage... I suppose his horns kinda form a V? 

So, as I mentioned before- our quartet of Reznors can be found in several fortresses throughout Dinosaur Land, where they like to perch happily atop a set of four rotating platforms- which conveniently can be hit from underneath... But watch out! The ground will soon cave in, and the man on the rotating platforms will be YOU! 

And then they disappeared. For a whole 22 years. But they’re back, and they’re the only mid-boss in New Super Mario Bros. 2! Hooray? Yeah, other than their new question-mark platforms, they haven’t changed a whole lot. But it’s pretty much like, the only interesting thing NSMB2 did, so cut them some slack. They even remixed a song that isn’t from New Super Mario Bros. Wii! I bet they really pushed the budget with that one. 

Yeah, I’ve been trying to disguise it with all the images I’ve used, but Reznor... just hasn’t appeared a whole lot in the Mario series. There was a Reznor costume in Mario Golf World Tour, a handful of manga cameos, and that’s all you get! Which is strange... They sure love referencing SMW, and they’re such an iconic character! 

But outside of the Mario series... they quite recently showed up in Minecraft, with 2019′s Village & Pillage Update! Here, they replace Ravagers, the funny-nosed beasts ridden by the nasty Pillager mobs! A fun fact- this screenshot was taken by my good friend at my request, and it’s probably the only image of the Reznor Ravager online! A weirdmarioenemies exclusive, if you will. And that friend? They just might be lurking somewhere on this blog...

And while they may not appear in Smash, their theme did get a rather spicy remix in Smash 4! Well, it’s not technically their theme, but I’d say it counts! 

Olé!

[eriklivesinmybasement]

Watched Phantom of The Opera (2004 movie) for the first time! (Reactions pt.3)

Pt 1. is here

This is gonna be a long one...

(Won’t lie I actually stayed quiet for a while after the backstory scene. I was pretty emotional, as it was a pretty difficult scene to watch).

(Also I can’t believe I forgot to mention the hanging of the stagehand earlier. That I was and interesting scene.)

Alrighty so... Christine is heading to a... cemetery?

Oh its her father’s grave. Gotcha.

And of course another pretty song. 

The cemetery actually looks kinda pretty here, ngl.

#FEELS

Christine sweetie that is not your dad talking to you stop it Christine DON’T GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT!!!!!!!!

Also how did the Phantom know she was going to be there? #stalker #iAlreadyKnewHeWasaStalkerButThisJustConfirmsIt

Oh, hey Raoul. You still look like a dweeb.

SWORDFIGHT SWORDFIGHT SWORDFIGHT SWORDFIGHT SWORDFIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, non-fatally wound the man trying to kidnap you and leave him in the snow. Surly that won’t piss him off at all. 

Looks like they’re planning how to catch the Phantom. And... Raoul did you seriously just essentially say, “Let’s use Christine, my fiancée and love of my life, as bait for this psychopath.”?

Bro I get where you’re coming from but is putting the woman you love right in harms way really the best way to go about this? Like, you couldn’t think of any other plan? None at all?

Even Christine shows that she obviously doesn’t want to do it! Why force it?!

Now we have the opera. Looks like the fires of Hell. These lyrics carry some pretty...umm...sexual vibes. If this is a small window as to what goes through the Phantoms mind, do I really wanna know what else is going on in there?! (yes. yes I do).

Phantom and Christine duet and whoa... looks spicy... Yo Phantom can you turn down the sexy? It’s getting a bit too hot in here.

Oh shoot Christine actually sees to be getting pretty into this. I wonder how Raoul feels watching all of this go down.

The Phantom really has it bad for Christine... WAIT ISN’T THIS THE PART WHERE SHE RIPS OFF HIS MASK?!

WHOA HOLY... actually he doesn’t look as bad as I thought he would. With how much they were building it up, I was expecting something much worse.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND THERE GOES THE CHANDELIER!!!!

EVERYTHING’S GOING TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET EVERYBODY! LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay we gots a lots of stuffs happening here.

Police and an angry mob seem to be somewhat forming, chandelier crashed down starting a fire, and the Phantom, using some slick trapdoor moves, was able to snatch Christine and get away.

AND RAOUL YOU IDIOT WHY DO YOU LOOK SO SUPRISED HE STOLE HER AWAY AGAIN?!?! THIS WAS YOUR STUPID IDEA!!!! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO DECIDED, “LET’S PUT HER IN DANGER OF BEING KIDNAPPED AGAIN!”

I want to like Raoul but buddy doing this to Christine just seems so wrong... And it doesn’t help that you continue to look like a dweeb...

Phantom... Please go get some therapy... 

“It’s in your soul that your true distortion lies.” BRO THAT IS DEEP!!

Raoul keeps falling into booby traps before getting to the lair and... OH DEAR OH DEAR OH DEAR OH DEAR!!!!!

LET’S CHILL OUT MAN WE ALL KNOW MURDER IS NOT THE ANWER AND THREATENING TO KILL A GIRLS CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO GET HER TO LIKE YOU NOR START A RELATIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know guys, while ya’ll are talking and arguing Raoul is on the verge of death. 

These emotions are like... So all over the place. 

Christine kisses the Phantom and why do I find this to be such a sweet moment???? Also, I wonder how Raoul feels watching that. 

Oh my goodness that soft smile on his face after she kisses him is just.. AAAHHHH MY HEART!!!

And then he let’s them go. I think that when Christine kissed him, he was able to catch a glimpse of how much she loved Raoul. And that forced him, however reluctantly, to let them go and be happy together.

“IT’S OVER NOW THE MUSIC OF THE NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

(I don’t think the Music of the Night is exactly over yet my dude. I heard there’s a really weird sequel out there somewhere).

Bro stop smashing mirrors! Seven years bad luck! (Then again your whole life is full of bad luck so, I guess much isn’t changing there).

Back to the black and white future scene that we started with. Raoul is an old man. He gets the weird monkey music box to put on Christine’s grave (because she’s dead apparently).

THE ROSE WITH THE BLACK RIBBON AND THE RING ON HER GRAVE!! THE PHANTOM IS STILL ALIVE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE AND NEVER FORGOT ABOUT HER!! And this might mean that’s he’s been stalking her for the past few decades so like... Yikes...

I need therapy...

Alright regardless of the jokes I made, I actually REALLY enjoyed this! (Although I prefer the 25th Anniversary and Original London Cast soundtracks).

[alkylic]

A Dragon’s Void

Chapter 1//Next

Xisuma has been suddenly changed into a rampaging Ender Dragon-- There was little to no warning, the only the person that knows anything about the void is the problem to begin with- 

Will he ever become human again?

“Come on Xisuma, you know I don’t need-- What- how many is this! Like 20 different boxes of wither roses!” Iskall light-heartedly teased the admin, as he shuffled through the mountain of boxes with wither roses provided by X. While Xisuma snickered at the Swed's behavior.

“Well, it’s your fault for not giving me clear instr--”

The sentence was abruptly cut short, followed by a sudden thud. Iskall was still talking on and on about-- Something- He wasn’t sure- His hearing was ringing with pain. He blinked, and the Swedish man was already next to him, his mouth was moving-- but what was he saying? Everything was blending together. X was sure he said he was fine, maybe Iskall didn’t hear it? X spoke again, but still nothing, Iskall was still panicking, now talking into his communicator-- Suddenly, everything started to feel warm- and nothing hurts anymore.

He blacked out.

--

>Iskall85 was slain by Ender Dragon

>Rendog: Iskall you good bro?

>Iskall85: yeah im fine, just dont know what happened lul

>Docm77: what do you mean

>Iskall85: was talking with x and he suddenly collapsed on me

>Docm77: that has nothing to do with the dragon

>Iskall85: i know right, it's super weird

>Iskall85: anyways, i slept super far away, whos at the shopdis rn?

>Rendog: i am in the medieval district

>Rendog: hold on ill go get your stuff for ya

>Iskall85: thanks my dude 

>Rendog: Iskall?

>Iskall85: yeah?

>Rendog: why are some buildings broken in the shopping district?

>Iskall85: wdym it was fine when i was there

>Rendog: some buildings have huge claw marks over it-- 

>Rendog: oh my god

>Iskall85: ??

>Rendog: is that xis

>Rendog was slain by Ender Dragon

--

“Alright, um. I definitely thought I was seeing things when it happened. But its apparently real! Good to know.” Iskall breathed out, trying to make it light.

“Iskall. Our fucking admin turned into a bloodthirsty Ender dragon.” The creeper man deadpanned as he sharpened his trident. The three hermits now gathered on top of the Sahara building, taking in the damage that their admin was causing. 

“So…. What do we do now?” Ren asked, attempting to break the silence.

“I mean. If he is an Ender dragon now, we should be able to just- kill him, and everything should go back to normal? Respawning always fixes player-related issues.” False suggested while landing on top of the white structure, back from scouting the area.

“Wouldn’t hurt to try I guess--” Ren started, before getting knocked off of Sahara from a kick coming from behind.

“Ren!” Iskall yelled, turning around quickly with his bow, only to see X already turning towards him, this time with a punch. He scrambled out of the way, barely dodging it. The force had knocked a decent dent into the roof of the structure. He shuddered at the thought of taking that punch. False quickly took X’s attention from Iskall and slashed her sword at him. The diamond sword clanged at the purple, amethyst scales on the admin’s arms. A horrible scratching noise erupted from the contact of the two. 

The dragon quickly swapped his position, sweeping his tail onto the floor horizontally. Tripping False from her footing. Iskall joined back into the fight, shooting at him with his bow. With the arrows piercing into the British man’s back. While Ren flanked him with his ax. X let out a loud roar, stumbling for a moment, before turning his attention to Ren. Launching himself at the man. Before being interrupted by Doc. The trident stabbed through the armor the other was wearing. Taking a huge chunk off of the admin’s health bar displayed from the screens. False, ran from behind and drove her sword into his back. A roar even more horrible and strained from before erupted from Xisuma-- A wet liquid dropped onto Doc’s trident--

Was that…. Tears?

There was no doubt about it, tears ran from the dragon’s eyes, almost as if pleading for life. The health bar of the Boss was draining away-- Doc quickly let go of his trident, and took out a splash potion of healing and smashed it onto the ground. X suddenly realized he had what little of his strength back, and scrambled off to fly away from the hermits. Still with False’s sword in his back.

“Doc, what are you doing?!” False yelled.

“I-- I don’t think he would respawn from this,” Doc spoke quietly, “If he really is an Ender dragon now. He won’t be able to respawn like us players.” He realized. 

The four were silent. Thinking about it- Yeah. X is basically a mob now. And if they did kill him--

No, they won’t kill him, they didn’t kill him. 

“Where would he go now?...” Ren said, “We have a lot of lands to cover if we are searching for him…”

The other hermits stared at Doc, who seemed to be thinking of an answer.

“We can regroup at Area 77 for now. We have better equipment there, and we can cover more area with the drones-- Plus, it’ll be the safest place for us.”

“...Whatever you say.”

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff's Best of 2019

WARNING: Just wanted to say cheers to you for making it through another year. I send you best wishes for next year to be fruitful. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy. (Best of 2017) (Best of 2018)

Dedicated to Russi Taylor, John Witherspoon, Rip Torn, Tartar Sauce, Caroll Spinney, Peter Matthews, and the many of KyoAni lost in the arson incident. You all did wonderful; rest in peace.

Welp, I figured the last year of this decade would be the most chaotic one by far, then again everything peak after 2012. As for now, I am counting down the best cartoons/animations/comics I’ve seen and loved this year in no particular order other than #1. Same rules apply: No sneak previews of future projects, no repeats, and this time anything goes.

Runner Ups: Superman Smashes the Klan, Marvel’s Aero, Infinity Train, Enter the Florpus, Amphibia, Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, Helluva Boss, Meta Runner, Lego Movie 2, Forky Asks a Question

Anyways, Badda boom bang whiz, let’s do this shizz...

10. Super Mario Bros GT

Nostalgia can be quite a mystery, especially one that can come out of nowhere. Super Mario Bros Z kicked so much ass as a kid that now, it still frustrates me to this that it got a cease & desist from Nintendo, even the reboot from the same person couldn’t last long. But the gods have offered a slight miracle in the form of this new spiritual successor that has heart and soul put into every pixelated frame. There is much to celebrate with Youtube animation, where many say it’s dying due to the algorithm and all of the site’s corporate bullshit, but it’s stuff like this which helps me understand why we should celebrate. Against all odds, channels like Smasher Block willfully put their works out their for the people and continues to because on top of getting a little dough, it’s what they want to do.

9. DC SUPER HERO GIRLS (2019)

Awwwwww yeah, this is She-Ra and the Princesses of Power done right. Diverse female squad, each given a quality screen time to truly shine (Beecher especially) on their which makes the episodes where they’re all together feel earned and joyous to watch. Certainly reminds me of Friendship is Magic, which is coincidental since they were created by the same woman. I’d like to think this and MLP G4 were the answers to Faust’s cancelled project Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls where multiple personalities collide to one extraordinary superhero team of girls capable great feats that are lifted from their insecurities or drawbacks. And on top of this being a fun series to kick back to all around, it’s a comforting, somewhat aspiring thought to consider.

8. JOKER

I am somebody that rarely goes to the theaters to watch a film; you have to hook my tight just for me to even think of buying a ticket, no less plan to. But honestly, Joker was worth the hype, the ticket, and the fact that it wasn’t the incel uprising that buttfuck normies tried to make it out as. It’s lower on the list because in thought, there definitely could’ve been some tweaks to the dialogue and a couple scenes that I felt didn’t work in the long run. But really, this movie to me worked because of the escalation that leads to a cathartic climax and ending that left me in actual tears. I don’t give a shit if it “doesn’t fit”, having Frank Sinatra sing the film's credits put me in shambles. Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal as Arthur, and this movie felt authentic in its many details. This is definitely up there with my favorite comic book films of all time. Good thing, too, Spider-Man was taking up most of that shelf.

7. TUCA & BERTIE

This series being what I can’t help but say is a spin-off to Bojack Horseman, a show I respect, was enough to pull me into watching it. But it being like Bojack where it’s tight-roping between a bouncy comedy and a grounded drama was what kept me around for more. It is a damn shame this was cancelled after one season (while 13 Reasons Why gets FOUR seasons like what the fuck), because while this did feel enough like a complete series, I was certainly interested for more because I really enjoyed it all. I have my issue with a couple choices in the show, but I am sure this series would’ve addressed them later down the line. I can see why some women would find this personally endearing, it felt like the personal stories of actual people, and it deserved better. Either way, I enjoyed this series and I recommend it just as much as Bojack.

6. PRIMAL

Genndy Tartakovsky is that kind of cartoon creator where you feel he’ll go beyond if you give him the right amount of space. He’s not a perfectionist like John “Dirty Diddler” Kricfalusi, but with things like Hotel Transylvania and Samurai Jack, he certainly has proven to have the range in animation where you know how he plays. Primal showcasing his noted skill in dialogue-less storytelling and dynamic action scenes, able to convey everything clear with its ruthless yet careful protagonist and his dinosaur friend, all on top of the most luscious backgrounds. This is a series that definitely feels like Genndy’s taken what he’s used from his previous works and putting it together for a brutal yet passionate look at the prehistoric life. He truly brought us an adult series to enjoy and to look forward to more in the coming year.

5. SPINEL

Bet you didn’t expect a character to be on this list, eh? Spinel is the best thing to come out of Steven Universe in general; makes me wish she was in a better movie. The crew certainly did their darndest to make her not only an enjoyable and connectable character through and through, but a very versatile character that the fandom could take in any which way. Call it corny, but Spinel perfectly represents SU as a whole: a lovable goof that can certainly mean business but deep down is deserved of a hug because of what she’s gone through. Wish she had a more satisfying resolution in her respective debut, but really it’s the balance between those three elements mentioned that makes Spinel almost eternally wonderful.

4. MOB PSYCHO 100 II

As someone that doesn’t like reading, I’m a firm believer that the best animations or visual medias elevate the writing to a memorable degree; the visuals hook to the point where you want to think about what you saw and how it was conveyed. Mob Psycho 100, for two seasons now, does this in spades where Studio Bones throw them bones in animating one of the most dynamic animes of the modern era, providing the writing and characters a proper chance to flex its muscles. The characters are especially what makes this and MP100 as a whole work so well, the story being about a boy learning to be more sociable as well as emotionally stronger all while helping others understand maturity and empathy. For more on this, I recommend Hiding in Public’s video(s) on Mob. But with the animation, Bones was able to provide a sense of impact and immersion to the moments that matter, not making it an overstimulating mess, and putting some respect on ONE’s webcomic art style. 

3. KLAUS

Hands down, this is a great Christmas movie. Take away the animation and you have a charming, wanna say ground and authentic, story about the makings of Santa Claus. With memorable and likable characters, a nice escalation in terms of the plot, and moments that are/can be so satisfying, they can bring you to tears. A couple overdone tropes in the road that doesn’t make this the most perfected story, but those sincerely minor compared to everything else that makes this story the best. Now. Add in the animation, and you have a gold, nay a platinum animated story of the year where the visuals definitely enhance the story to a degree where they’re undoubtedly inseparable. The visuals alone is enough to check this movie out and it’s eye-opening when you learn of how it’s all done. Klaus is a film that did it’s job and then some, and I hope this will be well remembered as a classic holiday film for it deserves that status.

2. BEASTARS

I’ll be fair, I’m mostly referring to the manga and not the anime but since the anime premiered this fall, it counts. Because be it the anime or the series overall, Beastars has such well intricate world building all while offering a little something for everyone (violence, romance, slice of life). The story is well paced and even when we aren’t focusing on the main characters momentarily, Itagaki is surprisingly able to make every supporting/side character we come across memorable in their own way; like I said before, the city is much a character in this story. Oh yeah, and the mangaka is the daughter of Keisuke “Grappler Baki” Itagaki, that in itself is a treasuring bit of trivia for this. Everything about Beastars is enticing and Studio Orange certainly helped in giving this series more of a following.

1. GREEN EGGS & HAM

Well, well, well. Guess Netflix is three for three in terms of bringing its best foot forward among its few steps back each year. The best term to describe this series is surprising. Surprising that this is a Dr. Seuss story that got expanded a 13 episode series, that has fleshed out characters, fun hijinks, an easy story, lovely emotional, more quieter moments... on top of being 2D hand drawn animated. I mean, what else is there to say? Green Eggs and Ham is to Dr. Seuss what Seven was for Final Fantasy, what Friendship is Magic was for MLP, what watermelon was before a nice menthol cigarette. This definitely took the top spot because to me, it was able to bring many good elements from the previous entries and knot it all together into a well kept bow that I never knew I wanted until now. I’m genuinely glad this show got to exist the way it is and I am hoping, praying, that the second season keeps that momentum up.

That leads us to the actual number one which is

1. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUT-

Total Dramarama is now the two time World Heavyweight Champion, babey. Will 2020 give us a quality contender? Will the streak last another year?

Stay tuned, and always seek out the Good Stuff.

[blubberquark]

Things To Think About Before You Implement Online Multiplayer

Sometimes people ask “how do I make an online multiplayer game?“ and then somebody answers “you don’t, you haven’t even made a game as simple Tetris yet“, and somebody else answers: “I never made an online game, but you should use TCP/IP. Here’s a link to the socket documentation.”

That’s just terrible. Sockets are low-level and tricky to get right.

Or maybe somebody links that poor sod to this YouTube video about how modern 3D shooter games do netcode. That’s also bad, but slightly less so. Game netcode is complicated, but not every game needs real-time shooting action.

Maybe you use Unity3D, and you just use the standard Unity networking tools that let a player host a game and automagically synchronise the state of game objects between all players. I think they changed that recently. Maybe the Unity3D multiplayer features are not at all what you need. Maybe you are in luck and you need something much simpler.

If you’re an experienced programmer, you already know how much of a hassle low-level networking can be, or you’re a beginner and would rather use a readymade networking layer for your engine. How do you evaluate which system is right for your game?

Sometimes a game can be easily made into an online multiplayer game, except for one or two features. It can help if you think about how game mechanics are interacting with online multiplayer while you design the game. If you design your game from the ground up to be easy to adapt to online multiplayer, you will have an easier time later. Multiplayer is like AI in that regard. Rather than making your AI smarter, you can also make your game world easier for simple algorithms to navigate.

This post will not teach you how to make multiplayer games. That is very much on purpose. It’s more general than that. This post is meant to make you think about what kind of multiplayer system your game needs. If you understand that, you can look at tutorials, protocols, libraries for networking, or prefab high-level multiplayer systems, and evaluate whether these are a good fit for your game.

Time Scale, Turn Structure

Real-Time: All players are in the game at the same time, seeing and interacting with each other. Waiting/standing around thinking might mean losing the initiative. Examples: Quake, StarCraft.

Turn-Based: Whichever way the turn order is decided - alternating players, active time battle, simultaneously, alternating units a la Worms - players have time to think their turn through, and don’t need to have fast reaction times. Players need for their opponents to finish their turns, but there can be a turn timer or a chess clock/byoyomi. Example: Advance Wars, Hearthstone.

Turn-Based (Play By E-Mail): This is like turn-based, except players don’t actually wait their turn inside the game. Instead they get an e-mail notification that their opponent made a move, have a couple of days to make their move, start the game, make their move, close the game, and wait for another e-mail. Example: Chess 2: the Sequel, Laser Squad Nemesis, Frozen Cortex.

Slow Real-Time: The game happens in real-time, but there is no real bad consequence for taking hours to perform an action. When you attack another player, it takes a day or so for the army to arrive. When you build a house, construction takes two hours. Many actions are instantaneous, but have half-hour cool-downs. You cannot really lose. It’s long-term and low-stakes in the short term. Examples: BattleNations, OGame, Pokemon Go.

If you’re doing real-time multiplayer, you might have to use UDP or a UDP-based networking system like ENet. If you’re making a turn-based game, you can get away with TCP, and if you’re making a slow or play-by-email game, you will be more concerned with saving game state to a database than with optimising network latency, so you can use a high-level RPC library on top of TCP or even a REST API on top of HTTPS.

This stuff is really important to figure out early: If your game is slow real-time, you probably need a database, but you don’t need any client-side prediction. It’s fine if some actions, like building a house in a city-building game, take half a second. You can hide the delay pretty easily. And when the actions by other players arrive ten seconds late and out of order, it doesn’t matter either. If you make an online city-builder game for the iPad, you don’t need the lag-reducing tricks used in Halo, but you will need to worry about saving the cities somewhere when users log off.

But imagine a one-second lag in a tennis game, or imagine your game nice and responsive, but then you hit the ball from your perspective only, and not in the view of the other player! In that case, you need something that’s both fast and accurate.

See also:

https://gafferongames.com/post/what_every_programmer_needs_to_know_about_game_networking/

Players vs World Size

Small World: The level is small, and over one play session, you will see the whole level and encounter all the other players. Examples: GangBeasts, Quake, raid dungeons in World of WarCraft.

Large World, Few or Independent Players: The world is big, and you are unlikely to encounter most players in a play session. Maybe most players are not even online. You interact only with a fraction of the world at any time. Examples: MineCraft, World of WarCraft (PvE).

Large World, Many Interacting Players: Examples: Fortnite, Destiny

In a small world, you can send everything other players do, and everything that happens everywhere to all other players.

In a large world, you can compartmentalise, or just send to each player the part of the world that he or she needs to see. Or you can have players cache the world locally. Maybe the map is static, so it can be stored locally, and maybe inventory items or crate contents can be handled server-side. Maybe mob AI runs locally if only one player interacts with a mob.

If many players interact with mobs and each other, state needs to be shared and synchronised, or actions must be handled server-side, which necessitates a round-trip. Destroying a block in Minecraft usually necessitates a round-trip, a confirmation from the server, and if you have high ping or packet loss it takes a noticeable while for the block to actually disappear. Chunks are saved or loaded from disk on the server, but also sent from the server to the client. It’s not necessary for the server to send the game state (players, mobs, items, blocks) for the whole world to all clients.

Pokemon Go has a large world, but players only interact inside arenas.

In Tetris 99, there are 99 players interacting in real time, but if somebody sends his lines half a second later, it’s not a big deal. There is a lot of state to share, but the players are mostly independent from one another.

Perspective

Shared View: All players have the same camera perspective. Example: Super Smash Bros

Fog of War: Players have the same camera perspective, but do not look at and cannot see the same things. Example: StarCraft

Different Perspectives: Players are looking from a first- or third-person perspective. Example: Quake

If all players share the same perspective, then discrepancies become very noticeable. In a shooter with different perspectives, it matters whether the shot hits from the perspective of the player who shot it. In a fighting game, everybody sees the same perspective, so a discrepancy in player positions can cause the game to look like a punch connects in the perspective of one player, while it doesn’t connect in the perspective of the other. In a game with one-hit K.O (Samurai Gun, TowerFall), such discrepancies are game-breaking.

In real-time strategy games, consistency is even more important. A single unit or a small initial tactical advantage can turn into a large material advantage quickly. You can often trade-off high lag for better consistency, and then hide the input lag behind the UI. Clicks should register in the UI immediately, even if it takes a while for the commands to be processed over the network. Usually, the game state between the players is 100% consistent, and the fog of war is calculated only locally.

In turn-based games, you never have to trade off input lag against consistency. First-person shooter netcode is necessarily very different from fighting game netcode or real-time strategy netcode.

Games like Halo or Fortnite can look different for different players and they won’t notice. A game like StarCraft must never look different for both players. It should look the same for both players, and the same as it will later look in the replay.

A game like Skullgirls will be unplayable with the slightest amount of lag. A game like Hearthstone can have a responsive UI, and just send things with a bit of lag, and it’s fine. You can’t interact with your opponent’s cards when it’s not your turn anyway.

If the game has a shared perspective, but players don’t interact directly, like in BrowserQuest, you don’t need to keep the state completely synchronised.

Connection Problems

Bandwidth: How many bits can go through the connection per second? 

Packet Loss: What fraction of packets arrives at the destination unharmed?

Latency: How long does it take for one packet to arrive?

Even high-bandwidth connections to the Internet can have high latency and packet loss, especially mobile and wireless. If you make a game, think about all three, and test how your game runs under suboptimal conditions! If the game becomes unplayable with a connection that is slow, low-bandwidth, or unreliable, consider checking and warning the player before entering a game!

High packet loss will probably lower both your bandwidth and your latency. If a player has a low ping most of the time, but lost packets introduce round-trips and lag spikes, then you need to work around that somehow.

You could send the updated player state to the server with every packet, and the updated game state to the player. This way, if one packet gets lost, and the server gets the next one, it will just take the newest state and apply that. If the older packet then arrives later anyway, it would just be discarded. You need to number your packets for this to work, but it’s easy enough to implement. But if you decide to use this method, players could hack their game client and just jump around on the map!

What do you do if there is a spike in lag, and then everything is fine again?

How do you detect that your game is running behind? If you use TCP for networking, packet loss means the packet is re-sent, and you will have to wait until the data arrives.

If you use plain UDP, you will have to deal with packet loss yourself. Both approaches have drawbacks.

What to Send

Input Data: Raw keyboard events, gamepad button presses, mouse movements, and joystick positions are sent to the server. The server decodes the input.

Abstract Actions: Commands like “(deal 5HP damage to player #7), (tell unit #5 attack F1)“

Differences: Send only the things that changed. This might necessitate a naming scheme to refer to game objects that changed and game objects that stay the same. For example: “(create Sprite #101 at (500, 0)), (update Sprite #3 position=(321, 10)), (destroy Sprite #1)“

Whole Game State: This can make sense if the whole game state is small anyway.

Maybe your server will send different data to the client than vice versa: The client could send abstract actions to the server, while the server sends back the whole game state.

This ties into the next point: If you send abstract actions to the clients, they need to apply them client-side. If you send input data to the server, the server can use it to compute the next game state, and send the game state back to the clients, or the server can bundle and relay client inputs to other clients.

If your game is something like two-payer Tetris, or Tetris 99, it might be simpler to occasionally send the state of the whole arena, instead of the movements of the falling pieces.

Simulation

Server-Side Only: The game runs on the server, and the clients don’t run code that implements the game mechanics, only things like UI, input, and rendering. Frequent round-trips might cause lag. Usually used in MUDs.

Server-Side (with Client-Side Prediction): The game runs on the server, but also on the clients. The clients simulate the game mechanics based on local game state, but the server has the final say. The clients calcualte the game state based on local inputs in order to reduce lag, but when the server data conflicts with the locally calculated game state, the server-side game state wins out. This minimises input lag, but might cause inconsistent game states. Players who lag behind have a disadvantage. Usually used in modern shooter games with cloud servers.

Client-Side (Peer-To-Peer): The game runs on every client, and every client keeps the game state of its own player. Inconsistencies happen, but game code is executed on each player’s client based on that client’s view of the world. This is susceptible to cheating. Used to be common in shooter games, and is still used in retro shooter games like Cube/Sauerbraten.

Client-Side (Lockstep): The game runs on every client, and every client has exactly the same game state at all times. If one client lags behind, the game slows down for everyone else, or that client drops out and has to re-synchronise its game state. The game state is too large to be sent over the network frequently, so only (abstract) player inputs are sent over the network. The game engine must run completely deterministically for this to work, or at least the gameplay mechanics. Things like animation and particle effects may have some nondeterminism. This method is used in real-time strategy games with lots of units, if it would take too much bandwidth to send the position of every unit during every frame.

This is not an either-or thing. Often some important but less frequently updated aspects of a game could be handled completely server-side, like quests, inventory, and player stats (especially currency and experience points), while movement and combat have client-side prediction. Some MMO games use Peer-To-Peer communication in certain areas and between friends, but server-side simulation in others.

Some games use client-side game simulation running in lockstep, but still relay all data through a central server. This way, the server can synchronise the inputs and ensure that input data data is received by all clients at the same time - if one client receives a click even one frame late, the simulations wouldn’t be running in lockstep any more!

When you are running multiple simulations in lockstep, or even doing normal client-side prediction with high-precision numeric calculations, you need to take special care to ensure that the floating point calculations on different processors and operating systems are numerically stable and deterministically reach the same results.

If you are using different floating point maths for graphics on different clients, maybe a difference in rounding results in a texel being one pixel to the left, or in different patterns of z-fighting. But if you have different floating point behaviour in gameplay code, small rounding errors can add up quickly. You can avoid such errors by always using integers internally, always using exact decimals or fractions, or by using a server-authoritative architecture with robust conflict resolution. In this case, you can have either side use whatever floating point type is fastest, but you need to send the server state to the client frequently, and provide a conflict detection or resolution method in case the client diverges too far.

If you have some things, like inventory and experience on the server, you have to think about where to draw the line. If a mob drops an item, does that happen on the client or on the server? If a player picks up an item, or uses an item from the inventory, that needs to happen on the server, or to be confirmed by the server.

Related links:

https://gafferongames.com/post/networked_physics_2004/

https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/synchronous_rts_engines_and_a_tale_of_desyncs/

https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/synchronous_rts_engines_2_sync_harder/

Metagame/Save State

Persistent State: When the players log off, the state is kept, or saved on the server, to be loaded again in the next play session. (as opposed to ephemeral state: When the game ends, ephemeral data is discarded)

Replays: Players can save and re-watch game replays.

Ladder: The server maintains win/loss stats and skill estimates for players.

Lobby, Server Browser: There is a UI to choose a server, start a game, and find or talk to players before the actual game starts.

This is not important to implement right away, but worth keeping in mind.

If your game world is living on the server, and the server is running all the time, you need to use some kind of ACID database to store the game state, or a method to regularly save savegames on the server, in case somebody in the data centre trips over the cable, or, far more likely, your server code crashes. You probably don’t need to save everything, but again, probably things like currency, XP, inventory and quest state are important, mob positions, health, mana and animation state less so.

You might want to have a “lobby“ client that lets you browse and connect to servers, chat with other players, and look up ladder statistics. Sometimes the “lobby“ client doesn’t load the full game engine, but is a regular desktop program built using a normal GUI toolkit, that lets you configure the game and find other players, before the actual game engine is started. SpringLobby is such a “lobby client“.

If your game engine is deterministic, you can just store actions or input data, and if you feed that into the engine again at the right times you have a working replay system. Otherwise you need to think about how replay would work, and what to save in a replay file.

It is especially important to keep such metagame features in mind because if you simplify your game design or deliberately cut some corners in your game design, implementing server-side persistence becomes much easier.

If your game is play-by-email, or has a significant ladder/social component, you need some server-side persistence, to store player profiles, replays of finished games, win/loss statistics, or game states of unfinished games.

It might make sense to have a lobby client while you’re developing an online game, even when you will later want to have everything in one process, one GUI toolkit, and one engine: When you’re using PyGame, you could have one TkInter program that connects to the server browser and chat system, which then launches another process that uses PyGame and no Tk.

There are advanced topics, like detecting de-synchronisation, host migration and streaming game state to late joiners, that you probably won’t need to worry about in your first game. What you need to do is to think about what kind of game you are making, and what kind of networking your game would need.

Would it be a big deal if two players see different things? How badly will lag affect gameplay? Can lag be hidden by starting actions locally before the server confirmed then? What must be computed on the server, and what can be done on the clients?

Then, and only then, can you decide to just use whatever networking comes with your game engine.

[shaneo2610]

The Dark Knight Critical Analysis

The Dark Knight is one of the most influential superhero movies of its time. The success of this blockbuster is an example of how good the movie is. Although, I believe the impact this movie had on America and superhero movies going forward is a greater testament than the money they made. Speaking of money, the box office made $431.2 million in the U.S and $574 million internationally making that $1.005 Billion total. Batman begins only made $375.2 million altogether. Considering they only made $375.2 million there needed to be more done in order to sell this film. The marketing of this film was a huge reason why they did so well in the box office. They made people want to see this film. And boy did they ever…

Brief Summary

The movie starts with a bank robbery scene of 5 guys wearing clown masks. All of them ordered to do a specific task and then kill one of the guys. The Joker gets a gun pointed at him because one of the bank robbers picked up on this and assumes that he will eventually get killed off. Although the bus driver came smashing in and killed that man on the way. The Joker then takes his masks off and shows his face to the manager of the bank and says “what doesn’t kill you makes you… stranger.” Then he puts a grenade in his mouth and jumps into the bus and drives off. That is the first time we see the Joker. We then see batman where at first we do not which one is him because there are imposters pretending to be him. He comes in on the batmobile breaks up a drug deal and tells the imposters to stop pretending to be him. “What’s the difference between you and us an imposter asks “I don’t have hockey pants on” Batman answers.

Bruce Wayne has dinner with Harvey and Rachel. At this point, Batman doesn’t know if he can trust Harvey and also seems a little bit jealous of him for being with Rachel.

The joker stole $68 million from that bank robbery which ultimately belongs to the mob. The Joker claims that they have not done enough since batman arrived. He then offers to kill the batman for half of the money. The deal is agreed upon.

But in order to kill the Batman, you need to know who he is. So, Joker and his “goons” crash the fundraiser held by Bruce Wayne. It is a really intense scene that you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwETqnTgxI4

As you can see the scene ends with Batman saving Rachel from falling.

Fast forward Harvey Dent then says he is the Batman first taking the blame of the murders. He is arrested.

The Joker then kidnaps both Dent and Rachel and tells the batman that he only has time to save one of them. Batman knew that the joker would think he would go save Rachel so he actually goes and saves Dent and had other guys save Rachel.

Dent and Rachel are tied up and a building catches on fire there is oil on the ground which burns half of the Dent's face off.

Dent is forced to go to the hospital and the Joker knows this. He tells the news that they have 60 minutes to kill his lawyer or he is going to blow up a hospital.

You can see what he decided to with this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElOEwtx7wjA

To wrap it up Batman takes the blame for the murders that Harvey Dent completed. He does this because he believes that the people of Gotham deserve to feel that Dent is a good person. If Dent takes the blame, then Gotham looks corrupt and the Joker wins. Since Batman takes the blame he is getting chased out of the city by the police.

Marketing

The marketing tactic of the film was the most unique way of marketing ever used. They used an Alternate Reality Gaming system in which 10 million “players” participated all over the world. Started at comic con and then spread throughout the nation these players were given phones that directed orders from either Harvey Dent or the Joker. It sent many people into the streets in full makeup creating a Gotham city! There were fake newspapers, online propaganda, and clues all over the country. People were protesting and marching for Harvey Dent. It looked like a real presidential campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpuC7HhCPWA

This movement was all over the news. And on the premier night, hundreds of people fled to NYC to see the movie. This marketing campaign is the reason people fell in love with the joker. And is the reason why this movie had the biggest opening day of all time. And it’s a good thing too because Warner Bros put 100 million into this genius marketing plan.

Critics Reviews

Time Richard Corliss IMDb

Beyond dark. It's as black -- and teeming and toxic -- as the mind of the Joker. "Batman Begins," the 2005 film that launched Nolan's series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony.

“Hey Gothamites! This is your last chance to hoot, whistle, clap, scream... and do everything possible to cheer for your iconic superhero who makes a final appearance in this epic conclusive part of Hollywood's greatest trilogy of the 21st Century. So what if that hero is turning all grey! So what if we see him falling and failing each time he tries to rise! So what if the movie really makes you wait in order to get a glimpse of Christian Bale to do what he does best. For when he puts on that mask, you get your penny's worth. The end result: You end up wanting more!”

NY Post

Overall there was a very positive critic review. Most of the top critics from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb loved this film due to its creativity and darkness. The movie is an amazing ending to the batman trilogy. Considering this movie was the most anticipated movie based on it being the last one and because of the marketing, the movie had very high expectations. Sometimes when there are really high expectations it makes it hard to deliver. The only hard part I thought was trying to find a bad review.  The critic that did not like the movie thought it compared to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” too much. An interesting take but not sure why that would take away from the movie, I would argue that it would enhance it.

Competition During Release

The Dark Knight had some, I’d say, light competition the year it released. Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were its competitors. But in terms of the Blockbuster, they did not do nearly as well as the Dark Knight.

Why this movie was influential

This movie was influential. I think one of the ways that this can be proven is the success that the Joker had at the box office this year. 10 years later we finally get to see the Joker get played again after Heath Ledger's unbelievable performance. The trailer for the Joker did not give anything away and compared to the Dark Knight there was not nearly the same amount of marketing. People fell in love with Heath Ledger's joker which is very hard to do especially considering he’s a villain. I believe the reason for the success of the Joker is because of Heath Ledger's performance in the Dark Knight. Films Ranked sums this take up perfectly, “The Dark Knight changed the expectations for comic book films forever. Few movie villains have ever become instant icons to the extent that Heath Ledger's Joker did before the film was even released.”

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 139: Deku and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hallway

Previously on BnHA: The cops and Nighteye’s pro hero group took about nine pages to approach Overhaul’s house, only to be stopped by some massive troll of a man before they could ring the bell at the front gate. Everyone was all, “HOW DID THEY KNOW WE WERE COMING?” while ignoring the fact that there were like 70 guys all conspicuously gathered outside this place for like an hour prior to them getting started. Ryuukyuu turned into a dragon and I wanted it to be like this, but so far all she really did was hold the guy down with one of her big dragon claws. Which to be fair was still pretty cool. So she and her group are staying outside to deal with the cave troll while the rest of the heroes head on in. Meanwhile in the secret underground labyrinth beneath the house, Overhaul plotted to have his underlings stall the heroes while he made his getaway. And this is why you don’t ring the fucking doorbell before invading a mafia capo’s house. Just FYI.

Today on BnHA: The heroes finally make it inside the house! So thrilling. Nighteye uncovers a secret passage, and the heroes proceed down below. After smashing their way through a blocked wall, they discover a hallway doing its best impression of that Salvador Dali clock painting. This apparently is the work of one of Overhaul’s henchmen, Mimic, whose quirk allows him to enter objects and control them. Apparently he shot himself up with some Trigger and became a “living labyrinth.” Since Mirio is the only one not physically deterred by this, he activates his quirk and runs ahead before the others can stop him. The rest of the group suddenly falls into a big hole that opens up beneath their feet, landing in a room with three more henchmen. The pros get ready to fight, but Amajiki holds out a hand to stop them, saying he’ll be the one to take them down.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 171 now, so any ETAs will reflect that. My son the musical prodigy.) 

okay, time to get back on this. some holdover thoughts from the previous chapter since I’ve had a couple days to reflect on it:

why the hell didn’t everyone wear kevlar or some shit. you know you’re going up against enemies that will be shooting at you, and if they hit you you’ll lose your quirk. it blows my mind that the pros didn’t suit up with extra body armor knowing this

even worse, because of the way the house is designed, they’re basically going to be sitting ducks. they only know one way in and out of the lower levels of the house. seeing as it’s underground, that means lots of long, narrow tunnels and hallways. they’re in just about the worst strategic position they could be for a raid like this: the enemy knows they’re here, and unlike Nighteye’s team, they actually know their way around the hideout. meanwhile the raid team is inevitably going to either have to split up and get themselves lost, or stick to this stupid plan of taking the most direct route possible to get to Eri, and meanwhile have bad guys shooting quirk-destroying bullets at them the entire way

that being said, they should stick Kirishima out in front and use him as a human shield lol

(ETA: to be fair, the only one that actually ends up getting hit is another one who is normally for all intents and purposes bulletproof. and in his case kevlar wouldn’t have done jack shit because he would have ended up shedding the vest anyway due to his quirk. so fair enough, but the others should have still geared up. no one cares about safety huh)

all right. so let’s see just how screwed these guys actually are

okay so we’re opening with the mafia dudes demanding to know what’s going on, and the cops explaining that this is a raid suckas

the lower level pros are holding the mob guys back while the cooler pros go on ahead

FG’s apologizing for not stopping to take off his shoes since this is an urgent situation. how fucking rude. tracking in all that dirt

oh my god

fucking kidding me with this shit. Bubble Girl in the lead? she barely even has a shirt, let alone any type of armor? is her quirk defensive in any way? let’s hope so

is Nighteye’s quirk even active again yet? right now he’s just a guy in a suit, isn’t he? although he did work with All Might for years, so he probably does have wicked combat skills that we just haven’t seen yet. hopefully

(ETA: wicked combat skills and a six-pack)

I can’t even see Kirishima in this shot. jeez. ridiculous

so as they run, they’re all discussing how the bad guys seem to have known they were coming, and that this is Not Good

I don’t really care about what Aizawa is saying in this panel, but I like that he’s right next to Deku

taking that promise very seriously. well good, since we all know that literally the instant Aizawa lets him out of his sight, Deku is somehow going to end up facing the final boss or something

(ETA: fucking uncanny, though. every fucking time, Deku)

anyway, so they’re logically concluding that Overhaul and the top brass must already be in the basement either hiding all their shit or getting ready to escape

this makes Kirishima very angry

well yeah, Kiri. but bad guys gonna bad guy

still, if it gets you fired up, you go ahead and feel that righteous anger boy

and now Nighteye’s stopping at a random panel in the wall and says this is it

oh, cool

please be a secret door please be a secret door please be a secret dooooor...

yay!

oh shit lol

never mind. close it

ughhhhhhh the centipede guy is using his quirk nooo whyyyy

he’s picking up two of the guys with his centipede arms

to me this is a fate worse than death

WHYYYYY

now Bubble Girl’s using her bubble quirk!

she’s... making bubbles. from her body

they’re floating over to the last bad guy

and they popped in his eyes and he’s screaming “my eyes!!!”

are these... are these just normal bubbles

I don’t really get it but hey! at least it’s not centipede arms!

so she’s restraining the dude and telling the others to go on ahead

and down they go. off to the garden of madness

except that almost immediately they’ve come to a dead end??

this doesn’t look like a normal quirk though. maybe someone has a wall-building quirk? similar to what Cementoss has?

(ETA: this is most definitely Overhaul’s reassembly quirk)

anyway, Mirio says he’ll take a look

oh my god. I finally get to see just how Mirio deals with immediately shedding his elaborate costume and then having to put the whole thing back on again later

oh snap

WELL ISN’T THAT FUCKING CONVENIENT. OKAY THEN

so if Mirio can have a costume that phases with his quirk, why can’t Hagakure have one woven out of her hair that turns invisible along with her? is it just because Horikoshi is a pervert. okay then

(ETA: I’m not even gonna bother getting into this anymore, but just know that I am rolling my eyes at this obnoxious fucking mangaka so damn hard)

anyway, so Mirio’s taking a peek and then reporting back that the path up ahead is exactly like Nighteye described. he says the wall is very thick though

oh, riiiiight

I keep forgetting about the “reassemble” part of Overhaul’s quirk

oh well. time to bust a wall

lol, FG and Static are like, “whoa”

I think this is the first nice thing Static has said about any of the kids

oh shit. now there’s something else happening

the floor is getting all weird and uneven? like it’s getting all warped somehow

um

well this is. annoying

(ETA: actually, “annoying” is the mildest, nicest, most undeservedly polite way possible to put it)

my god I hope none of them is claustrophobic. or ends up being claustrophobic after this, because I sure wouldn’t blame them

the head police guy says this has to be Irinaka’s quirk. that’s the HQ chief

so wait, is that the little guy from chapter 132 who made an arm grow out of his head??

and it doesn’t even sound like they’re sure it’s him

although FG points out that if he got all doped up on quirk enhancers, this isn’t outside the realm of possibility

oh snap! it is him!

oh my god. “I’m not on the ship. I’m in the ship. I am the ship”

LMAO at Fat Gum though

what kind of pathetic excuse for a pro hero can’t even predict that a guy is going to turn into a basement

he’s asking Aizawa if he can erase the quirk, but Aizawa says he can’t without being able to see the quirk users’s body

hold up, does this mean illusionists would be immune to Aizawa’s quirk?? because that is some bullshit. (which I now really want to see)

Amajiki seems like he’s starting to psych himself out here. he’s muttering out loud that if the path keeps changing, they’ll never reach their goal, and the enemy can easily get away

oh shit, it seems like he’s starting to get overwhelmed...?

hey, hey. easy there bud. you guys got this

OH SNAP MIRIO TO THE RESCUE

what a manly dude coming to the rescue of his bro who was starting to freak out. I love Mirio so much

ahhhhhhh he says he can still go on ahead as long as he knows the right direction

ahhhhhhhh I’m suddenly so fucking worried?!?! HE’S SO BRAVE AND I’M TERRIFIED FOR HIM

SON OF A BITCH HE JUST TOOK OFF JUST LIKE THAT BEFORE THEY COULD STOP HIM

oh my god. in the first place, isn’t he blind whenever he uses his quirk? don’t all of his senses disappear? so he can keep pressing forward, but like what happens if he turns the quirk off because he thinks he’s made it through, only he hasn’t made it through? because this isn’t an illusion, as far as I understand it; the Mimic guy is actually warping the passageway

oh my god. forget just the characters; I’m going to end up becoming claustrophobic at this rate

(ETA: yeah this still nopes me out thinking about it. Mirio’s definitely braver than I am, that’s for sure)

but at the very least, Mirio bravely pressing forward seems to have snapped Amajiki out of it

hey guys, guess who ships the shit out of these two now btw. yeah that’s right. me that’s who

so Mimic is thinking that he can’t stop Mirio, but that even if he does make it through, “he won’t be able to do a thing by himself”

idk about that. you should’ve seen what this freak of nature did to almost the entirety of class 1-A in a matter of seconds. while naked no less

wait. this is starting to sound a bit eyebrow-raising. I promise you it was a g-rated beatdown though

oh snap, Mimic is warping the ground and dumping all of the important characters deeper into the basement while closing up the path back up

well that’s nice. so now they’re all sealed up in this death chamber. cool. that’s cool

not that I want it to happen, but a part of me is wondering why Mimic hasn’t just crushed them all yet if he has control over this entire basement

so are they purposely trying to keep them alive? is it to avoid as much legal trouble as possible? are they hoping that if they just incapacitate them, Overhaul can later use his quirk to wipe their memories like he did with that Tarantino gang?

incidentally, every now and then I wonder to myself why someone as intensely rational as Aizawa would keep his hair so long and not just cut it short or tie it back to keep it out of his way. and then panels like this come along and it’s just, “oh yeah, because it’s hot”

(ETA: but ain’t it the truth)

so yeah, they’ve landed in this pit and now here’s some more bad guys!

literally all they have to do is have Aizawa incapacitate them with his quirk one by one and have Deku or Kiri punch them. the rest can sit back and take it easy

(ETA: the fact that they refuse to follow this most sensible of plans throughout the entire arc is one of the more frustrating things about it)

oh snap, but it looks like someone else is finally ready to jump into action after seeing his boyfriend disappear down the enchanted hallway of doom

WELL SHIT, LET’S FUCKING DO THIS THEN. TIME TO EAT SOME SUNS

also. that flashback panel though. that was a middle school uniform. these two have known each other since childhood just like Kacchan and Deku. omggggg

AND MIRIO USED TO HAVE A FUCKING PONYTAIL. TALK ABOUT A 180 DEGREE STYLE CHANGE. NIGHTEYE THIS IS YOUR DOING, DON’T LIE

BONUS:

glad to see the minds that brought us the yaoyorictionary and ochachakaleg are back at it again

so what exactly is the point of the lemilliohelm. I don’t get it. “it was designed so he could put it on quickly and then inevitably have it fall off again almost immediately”

consider my interest piqued at the mention of him being rescued by a hero in the past, though! I went back just now and looked at his flashback in chapter 152, and yeah! now that you mention it!

also! BnHA kids really need to be more careful on flashback bridges because those things are slippery as fuck

so can we get a name for this guy who saved him and inspired him to become a hero, then? I’m super curious about him now

[mattgambler]

My thoughts on Sekiro - Shadows Die Twice

TLDR: I talk about what I liked and disliked about Sekiro and why it in my eyes is probably* the best game From Software has released to date. Which means I also compare it to Dark Souls a lot.

*I havent played Demon Souls or Bloodborne, so I cant really talk about those. As someone who played through all three Dark Souls games as well as several other soulslikes on stream, I always stood by the unpopular opinion that Dark Souls 1 is a good game, but also a vastly overrated one - with one of the most unbearable fanbases out there, right up there with Undertale, albeit for very different reasons. My opinion is of course strongly coloured by my interactions with diehard fans of Dark Souls, both on stream as well as everywhere else on the Internet, but at the end of the day I never hated Dark Souls. I wouldnt have played through all three games otherwise. I *did* hate smaller aspects, like the fact that I ended up entering the tomb of the giants without ever finding a lantern and therefore  being forced to crawl through that place in near complete darkness until I found the emergency lantern in there, simply because I was unlucky enough to have none of the necromancers drop one for me. Or how the curse mechanic in the sewers got me trapped in a place that i already struggled with, but now with only 50% of my original HP. Or the entire “Git Gud” mentality that is so grossly abused to defend poor game design that the travesty that is camera control in the Ornstein and Smough fight looks like a piece of art in comparison. Onionbro and Solaire would weep if they knew. There were other things that I didnt enjoy, like what the Souls games count as a story, but I have an easier time pinning that down as personal preference and something that just isnt for me. Vaatividya makes good videos. The tomb of the giants without a lantern however, that just shouldnt exist in any game, not to mention a game that is glorified to such an extent that it could get its dick sucked every day by a different dude without running out for centuries. Can you taste that sweaty salt yet? Along comes Sekiro, a game by the same dev studio, with the same feel, minus many of the things that I have hated and criticized for several years now. Guess what, I like it.    This isnt a review, Im not trying to tell you if you should buy, Im not telling you that there are no microtransactions in the game or what framerate it isnt capped at. There are tons of videos online that jump-attacked all over that on day 1 of release or earlier. Im telling you why, in my opinion, this game is so vastly superior to Dark Souls that it simply warms my heart. Let me start a list and then never finish it: - You can swim - You can jump - You can talk - You dont immediately die when you fall off a cliff - You cant accidentally walk over a cliff like a moron, at least most of the time. - You can’t simply rely on dodgerolls and invincibility frames all the time - You can understand the story without having to go to Youtube to have it explained to you by someone - You can’t kill strong enemies simply by chain parrying them over and over, or at least it is hell of a lot harder - You can’t simply kill strong enemies by knocking them off a cliff (I think) - You can’t abuse magic for an immediate easy mode - You can’t abuse coop for an immediate easy mode

... I’m getting a little unfair here, I know. I actually think coop is a cool feature, even though I personally never used it and even the multiplayer pvp invasions are an original and interesting concept, although I’m not personally into it. Magic is cool too, although poorly balanced and therefore in my opinion less interesting. The reason I added those last two points to my unfinished list is not because I dislike them, but because of the lately relevant “does Sekiro need an easy mode” controversy. Especially the most elitist diehard fans of the souls franchise strongly disagree with the addition of an easy mode, which is funny... ... given that Dark Souls 1 has several. Personally I dont think Sekiro NEEDS an easy mode, but it sure wouldnt hurt anyone. I personally wouldnt have minded playing on a lower difficulty, I had three or four bosses greatly overstay their welcome before I finally managed to smash their asslike faces in. ...but Im rambling. On a surface level, just looking at the feel of combat, movement and overall story coherence Sekiro is already miles ahead, but I can understand that it therefore feels less like a Souls game and that not everyone will like that. I can understand and respect that. DarkSouls 1, as well as 2 and maybe even 3, have a couple of features that I greatly appreciate and that partly even surpass Sekiro in my otherwise overly critical eyes. Dark Souls 1 has the best and most memorable map in my opinion. Dark Souls 2 has incredible DLCs, especially Frozen Eleum Loyce was awesome and beautiful, with the minor exception of that retarded snow zebra area and how you would respawn *before* the loading screen to get there again instead of after. I also liked the Pursuers concept a lot, as well as the idea of despawning mobs if you killed them often enough. I dont remember much about DS3, it was okay as far as Im concerned but I enjoyed it the least out of the three, probably because of burnout as I had played through all three (blind) in a row. Im mentioning all of this because I want to clarify that in my eyes Sekiro is not THE TIMELESS MASTERPIECE NOBODY WILL EVER SURPASS that Darksouls 1 is often celebrated as. But in many ways it is headed in a direction that makes more sense to me than “if you are not enjoying it then you are doing it wrong and you should maybe think for once”. (Not that Sekiro streamers werent told exactly that just the same) Let me tell you, there were many instances in Sekiro where I also didnt think, didnt consider every possible option the game had given me, honestly Im pretty sure I sucked most of the time, in the eyes of your usual GITGUD-Bro. But I struggled, I improved, I succeded, and I had a way better time during it all, even though I did the same shit in the Souls games as well. Just without falling off edges in waist-high water every 10 minutes, or being invaded by some bowing edgelord, or losing 50% of my max hp as punishment for dying to the wrong enemy. There is this myth going around online that Dark Souls might be a harsh mistress, but at least a fair one. The one spreading that rumour must have been the Bed of Chaos herself, because that is nothing but horseshit. Sekiro isnt exactly fair all the time either, there are many moments in the game that feel all too familiar in their GOTCHA nature. Like how the game conveniently places the key to one of the hardest areas of the early game in your path so you go check it out just to get crucified there by Lady Butterfly and a special drunkard, just for you to learn after finally breaking both of them that you would have had a way easier time if you had simply ignored that area and soldiered on on your original path. Sure, one could have simply abandoned that area and returned later, but how many of you did? I sure didnt. The game likes to oneshot-kill you if you fail to dodge the wrong attack, be it a giant carp, a giant snake, or a giant TERROR man. Even worse, in Sekiro you cant even get your souls back! You die, you lose 50%. ALso 50% of your cash. Suck it. Im not particularly happy about that myself and Im not sure what the motivation behind that design decision was, but you take the good with the bad, right? Another thing that Sekiro does that I dont understand is how the game has you collect loot. Every time you kill an enemy you need to hold a button to collect. You can kill several in an area and then grab everything at once if they arent too far apart, but at the end of the day it eludes me why From Software didnt simply go for autocollecting instead. It’s not a big deal (even though I would forget about picking up loot every now and then) but at the same time it isnt adding any enjoyment to the game either, no matter how hard I try and emphasize with whatever a gamer who likes this might possibly think. It is not hard, its is not really relevant,  and I cant think of a single advantage it has over autocollecting. Maybe holding that button is supposed to feel rewarding? I consider it meaningless at best and tedious busywork at worst. At the same time the game introduces a stealth system that actually means something, while at the same time keeping it both well integrated as well as completely optional. Im truly impressed by how that is even possible. I also like the immortality mechanic, that results in you only truly dying if you go down twice, and even refreshes that revive if you kill enough enemies inbetween deaths. It doesnt help that much, as it doesnt refill your estus fl.... healing gourds, but it allows for a little bit more practice against tough enemies before you die, a little bit more lenience while exploring in an area where it is easy to fall, a little bit more standing power in a world where a giant carp can simply eat you. I appreciate it and it is far from making the game anything close to easy. Its more like an extra gourding flask. I could keep going and praise this (surprisingly satisfying enemy style and variety given the setting) or criticize that (less replayability because of fewer possible weapons and builds), but at the end of the day my opinion is crystalclear - Sekiro is stunningly beautiful, very enjoyable, hard as fuck, and while I have heard people say that “it is not a true soulslike”, I have to shrug and agree. It is better.