#my kingdom to post higher quality

[littlegreyboots]

[thenightwolf51]

A detail from the first Trolls movie that always kinda confused me was the fact that Chef was gonna feed Poppy to Gristle.

Poppy is King Peppy's heir, shes the future queen. You'd think that would make her off limits. She needs to survive to be crowned and eventually continue the royal line. The bergens are a monarchy themselves so they understand this importance and the trolls are their livestock so they would have to put some focus on maintaining genetics and keeping the trolls at a somewhat stable quality of life, that includes the social dynamics of the tribe. At least as much as we would keep track of the Queen bee in a hive, the biggest bull in a herd, or the fastest horse in the derby.

But now with Band Together it makes more sence.

Viva is older than Poppy, which means that she would likely have been assumed to be the future queen. As far as the bergens are concerned King Peppy already had his "heir and a spare". Poppy was just the spare.

With that in mind, i wonder if it was a tradition for bergen royalty to be fed a royal troll for their first trollstice. "Every prince deserves a princess" Chef had said. Did Peppy have a sibling that was fed to Gristle's dad?

If Poppy hadn't been born, would Viva had been considered old enough for Peppy to be given to Gristle instead? She managed to lead the Puttputts when she got seperated. Or would Gristle have gotten Viva and the bergens just hoped Peppy would create a new heir?

And back to the genetics bit. Do you think they selectively bred the trolls for the best taste or effect. Like specifically choosing trolls or families with undesirable traits to cook at trollstice so that their genes die out. Is that how the average pop troll of the current generation got to be so... delusionaly cheerful.

Like i know its all played up for the movies because their pop trolls, constantly singing and dancing and eating sugary sweets. But in comparison to the other genres they just seem more exaggerated.

So how much of that happy positivity and optimistic near lack of self preservation that most pop trolls have is natural for their genre and how much is enhanced due to at least 100 years of selective breeding.

I imagine the happier a troll the more dopamine/serotonin they produce naturally so the bergens would probably take care to decrease the the amount of trolls that wernt as "potent". Which likely would have been trolls that sang and danced less, were more likely to develop anxiety or were prone to depression or going grey.

On the evolutionary side of things this would have led to the happiest and more optimistic pop trolls to be the most attractive and ideal mates even if the trolls don't relize the scientific reason behind it or consciously notice that happy trolls had a higher servival rate.

(Which kind of reminds me of that one post that said something about boybands like Brozone who made trolls happy with their music likely being "protected" in some way because bergens wanted them to continue making trolls happy)

And i do think the pop trolls were captive for at least 100 years because i doubt a whole town and castle, essentially a small kingdom can be built in one life time. Especially not one with an established monarchy and near religious holiday that has a "minister of happiness". Honestly i wanna see it as over 200 years, give them plenty of time to forget their pre-trollstice history like the existence of other tribes

This is a bit long and rambling but my world building mind really wants to hyperfixate on the details of the pop troll's captivity and what it means for them as a species and for the ways their culture might have shifted or adapted.

[voca-edits]

Read this before requesting!

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[lalalian]

i don’t remember if you said you’d elaborate on this or not, but can we get some more information on eudora’s government system?

HI SO I FORGOT TO POST THIS 😭😭😭 I looked over this and I’m pretty sure it’s bc of the grammar mistakes.. I went through it again to edit them out!

Again I’m rlly sorry I didn’t upload this sooner 😭😭

(Hello hello, I’ve edited some of the names back to what they were originally in my brainstorming document, the names were changed in this post *in it’s first form* because I couldn’t find the info abt this part of the gov in my brainstorming document, I completely forgot that I included them in the filled script! Names should now line up with the quote in my filled script… sorry about that yall!)

hihi!

I don't know if I did or not either, but I'm happy to do so!

Eudora has a unique government in comparison to other kingdoms and empires. Why? It’s because Eudora has a three-court system (sound familiar?) rather than a monarchy. Why choose this court system over a monarchy? Well, the monarch would literally have to make the final say on everything in a monarchy. This would be completely unreasonable for an Empire as large as Eudora.

Not only that, but Eudora shifted to this system due to three founding values, fairness, transparency, and strength.

Fairness

Similar to our government, Eudora's three court system foundation represents the virtues of the people. You may have seen that there's a noble etiquette class, but isn't the existence of nobles the definition of unfair...? Nobles were perceived differently than other kingdoms and empires; the traditional sentiment was that nobles were there to serve the common people. Everybody has a role, and everyone's role is important. Nobles could not function if the lower class refused to work. Nobles received a lot of money because ruling over land isn’t necessarily a simple task; a duke would have to be meticulously trained to be able to manage their land to avoid mistakes. Mistakes with this kind of job can lead to devastating tragedies.

In the present day, many nobles strive to embody this ideology, but do they really believe in such sentiments? Or do they want to appear as if they do?

I did mention that dragon riders are sacred, right? Well, only higher-tiered riders are. Even S-ranked riders born non-noble are often disrespected in newspapers and balls.

Transparency

Eudora has faced many issues with transparency. Former monarchs ordered for many of the Empire's major libraries to be burned to the ground simply for slander or even criticism of innocuous ideologies that contrasted with their own; another monarch encouraged the high nobles to hide the ingredients to the antidote of a fatal disease from the poor during a plague… I'm sure you'd know the aftermath of that kind of bullshit...; one of the earliest monarchs lied about the nature of magic to benefit from the power of the poor (similar to the book A Court so Cruel and Lovely).

All of these events led to a strong desire for transparency between the government and its civilians.

How was this quality implemented? Way more people are involved in court; having so many people in the government means more mouths, and there's bound to be at least one person with loose lips. These political gatherings are oftentimes (not always) public. Journalists often attend these meetings (anyone can attend).

In the last few decades, the western border has been relentlessly attacked by creatures no one's ever seen before. The government has been investigating this dilemma for quite a while now, but not a single detail has ever really been revealed to the public. Are the courts still upholding this virtue?

Strength

A large population comes with an increased chance of having dragon riders born in the empire. Dragon riders are an extremely valuable asset-- more dragon riders usually always make an army stronger. Over the years, Eudora cultivated the most prestigious dragon rider academies. This is where the fairness quality comes in (once again). Eudora passed a law around 40 years ago that allowed for riders from other kingdoms and empires to attend their rider academies if they had a scholarship. There are two ways of obtaining a scholarship, one is to be rich and buy one, and the other is to pass a series of trials. This is also why parents are desperate to have their children learn how to fight in some kind of way early on in childhood.

Riders have become the symbol of strength, and an abundance of riders comes with the value of power. With the continuous attacks degrading the Western Front, is power still going to be associated with Eudora in the future?

Now that we've gotten the probably really unnecessary values of the government system and its hypocrisy aside, let's get into the more interesting parts. The Courts.

The Court of Scales

The Court of Scales, also known as the Court of the Blindfolded, is Eudora's justice court. The Court of Scales can be broken down further into two types of courts, the Court of Crimson and the Court of Amaranth. A Crimson Court hears criminal cases and an Amaranth Court hears civil cases; there are plenty of these courts scattered around the empire. You can apply for your case to be re-heard once to a different court, but it needs to be approved for a second hearing beforehand. The Court of Scales acts as the Supreme Court, except more precautions are made. You affirm to the High Justice (the judge hearing the trial) and Themis, an artifact in the shape of a woman wearing a blindfold and holding a scale, that you will only speak the truth.

This artifact has the power to tell whether someone is lying or not and is usually used to verify if a witness is lying. If they do lie, the scale closest to the person tips down, symbolizing the heavy weight of a lie.

(Does that make sense...? If a person situated to the right of the room lies, the right side of the scale tips down.

Breaking the oath results reduces the validity of the witness's statement, but the trial still goes on. Sometimes, the judge will decide to hide the statue, but there will be a person that supervises the statue the entire time to document any lies.

The Court of the Olive Branch

Known as the Court of Pillars in the northern regions of Eudora.

The High Sovereign and the ruling family are apart of this court. The High Sovereign is a hereditary position. Similar to a king, the current High Sovereign chooses who will become the next High Sovereign. The heir to the throne is almost always direct offspring.

The High Sovereign has the right to declare war (needs to be approved by the Court of the Olive Branch beforehand), attends ceremonial events, appoints the head of other courts (including the court of thorns, I’ll talk about this court in another post), and is part of the consul. Should the High Sovereign die, if an heir hasn’t been officially chosen, the next oldest sibling of the High Sovereign will assume the throne.

The Court of the Quill

Law making court, it’s also known as the Court of the Public in the northern regions of Eudora.

All dukes are apart of this court.

This court is mostly public, but all consul meetings are private. Consul meetings only consist of all the dukes in the Eudora Empire. They make their most important decisions in the Room of Consuls, and are (likewise) referred to as consuls. Why the room-specific title change? The idea is to take the power away from the dukes, and to decide on things without the pressure of each other’s titles. Despite the fact that everyone is supposed to be on the same playing field in this room, there’s still that power struggle between every consul member, including the High Sovereign (who is essentially the ‘president’). But aren’t most of the members dukes? Yeah, they are. But dukes with more land or more wealth tend to hold more power. Disputes between other consuls can lead to inner turmoil within the empire, including refusing trade with each other and even war. There is always an odd number of consuls; if another kingdom joins the Empire, they’d have to split their land in half. Two dukes would join as a result of the spilt, keeping the number of members odd.

The member count is always odd to make in-voting easier.

Consul only meetings are always private, but meetings with other people including consuls are often public.

Each ducal household tends to uphold a way of thinking, creating two ‘parties’. I wouldn’t really say they’re parties honestly, but it’s similar. In Eudora, these two sides are called factions.

One side is prefers to uphold the empire’s founding values. This side is referred to as The Traditionalists.

The other wants to veer away from it. This side is referred to as The Radicals.

It’s important to note that the members in each faction do not all support the same principles, but they do tend to have a similar central value.

For example, Miaene’s father is apart of this court. He is part of the Traditionalist faction.

More on this in another ask abt government!

[ninjacreature]

(Something I completely forgot to mention in my first post is that this snake Jay design is a redesign of one I made almost two years ago!)

Slithering Scales Art - batch 2!

These ones feature Jay’s outfits from season 1-4 + one from between seasons 3 and 4!

The first one fits him a little oddly since it was (in universe) designed by someone used to making clothes meant for a human to wear, rather than a serpentine- but he made it work. He also had to make himself a pair of “shoes” to protect his little snake feets.

The second one is the one Cyrus Borg made, it fits him a lot better this time since Borg knows he’s a serpentine and keeps it in mind.

The third one is one he received living in the underground Serpentine Kingdom after Zane’s first death. Instead of taking the live TV angle like he does in the show, he goes to live in the stone warriors’ tomb and befriends Skales + the other generals. He ends up becoming a member of Skales’ council, and he specifically helps with facilitating good relations with the surface world. Jay also has diplomatic immunity because of this.

The fourth outfit is the one he receives upon making it to Chen’s island. Not only is it specifically tailored for him, but it is also much higher quality than the other ninjas’ outfits- almost like Chen is trying to gain his trust.

The fifth outfit is the one he wears when they have to hunt Nya down on the island. Since I’m 90 percent sure this is also an outfit Chen made (and if it’s isn’t in canon, it is in this au), it’s also specifically tailored for him to the point where he has a high advantage over other competitors- he’s protected from the elements + insects extremely effectively and his hands have protection while his claws still poke out of the tips. Chen really wants Jay on his side and the extremely high quality of the outfits he gives to Jay shows it.

[slotumn]

Some additional thoughts on a post I made before, on how to make Deer and Leicester eviler™:

On top of profitting off of selling weapons and supplies during the war, Leicester can absolutely use that position to sabotage the other two factions even more. Like, in addition to "make them fight each other to death (and make money off of it)" As in, they can purposefully sell shittier quality weapons and supplies to the other two, while keeping all the better ones for themselves. Adrestia and Faerghus may be able to act finnicky at first because they can produce their own... but what happens as the war goes on for longer and they both keep bleeding money and people and production capabilities? Leicester can literally go "yeah we're gonna sell you shitty weapons and expired food and you're gonna buy it because there are no other options."

Even scummier if at first Leicester does do quality control if only to make sure their products are competitive with the domestically produced Adrestian and Faerghan products, then over the years the quality lowers while the prices get higher. The popular resentment for Leicester in other regions would be through the roof even (especially) if they win lmao

And speaking of resentment, following from the above it would be great if Byleth has to rein in and beat the Leicester nobles' ass to maintain the unity as much as they have to crush anyone trying to revolt under Adrestian/Faerghan banner. There's absolutely no way the greedy Leicester nobles who profiteered off war wouldn't try to divide up and exploit the rest of the continent as their colony once they win, and Byleth would have to fight for their life to stop that from happening, even if (or especially because) Leicester was their ally in the war.

I just generally like the idea of postwar rebuilding in Fódlan being even more difficult and a headache than just winning battles in the war, no matter who wins; everything's not magically better, people are bitter and hateful and that doesn't automatically go away, as a matter of fact the repercussions will probably hang around for the next few generations, and nobody is fully satisfied with anything, but they still have to do it because the other option is eternal kill-or-be-killed animal kingdom shit. Byleth, who grew up a mercenary in those exact conditions even before the war, would definitely be committed to rebuilding.

...Also all this really makes Claude sound like even more of an asshole for just taking off to Almyra right after the war ends huh (he's my fave)

But honestly, Almyra, a neighboring nation that's presumably stronger than the newly united Fódlan militarily and economically, not deciding to invade and take over right after is already a ridiculously nice scenario compared to what tends to happen in real life lol. And if Almyra gives Fódlan economic support and good trade terms to help with the rebuilding, without severe internal meddling in exchange even, Fódlan will have to be Almyra's staunch ally for the next few centuries at least! Plus aside from the direct threat by Almyra being gone, having a bigger stronger country as your ally is a good deterrence for places like Sreng or Brigid invading in a "hit 'em while they're down (so they can't attack us again)" way.

(However I'd fully support a non-recruited Petra attacking Fódlan post-VW to warn them they shouldn't try anything funny to Brigid again lmao. Also I think Petra should try to annex Albinea post-war just to have more shores to launch attacks/counterattacks from + be able to exert more economic pressure on Fódlan as needed since Dominic trades with Albinea. Morality of it aside, it could be a decent political strategy)

That aside, I don't actually see Fódlan-Almyra normalization going something like

Almyra: Sorry about invading and shit

Fódlan: I forgive you it's cool let's start over

or even

Fódlan: Sorry we were extremely uncommunicative and called you guys savages without trying to get to know you, we were prejudiced.

Almyra: Honestly we called you guys savages too and kept invading, we're sorry too. There now it's even, we can start over as friends now!

It probably goes more like

Fódlan: thank you sooooo much for the money and help big bwother almywa :333 we will never try to act like hot shit in front of you or call you bad names again :33333

Almyra: Haha no prob. You're gonna send us lots of troops and money if we ever get in a war too, right?

Fódlan: yes yes anything you say big bwo almywa :3333

Like regardless of how personally friendly and on equal terms the monarchs are, or whether Fódlan manages to get strong enough in the future that it doesn't need to do that towards Almyra anymore, this is probably the angle they'd have to go for when it comes to the politics of it lmao.

First one would probably be seen as humiliating to Almyra (why the fuck are they apologizing when they haven't lost/what makes Fódlan think they're in the high position to be "granting forgiveness"), second one would probably make Almyrans and Fódlanis mad (again, "why are we apologizing, we haven't done anything wrong!"), third one is... like yeah it's probably embarrassing for the Fódlanis but that's diplomacy and international politics when you're a weak country just getting up from the shambles of war.

Tl;dr once again Golden Deer and Leicester deserve to be eviller, postwar rebuilding should bust Byleth's balls (metaphorical or literal), and Petra should get to threaten and intimidate Fódlan juuuust a little.

[pocima]

Curating an aespa remix album because the S in SM stands for “sleeping on opportunities”

aespa are not only a group whose talents, incredible music and polished concepts I’ve appreciated for more than 2 years, but they were also a key in reviving my love for hard-hitting electronic music and discovering new kinds of it. A K-pop group fueling my love for entire EDM subgenres may sound absurd, however you’ll understand what I’m saying if you reassess how much potential they have off of the sound they’ve already built. Through both the fandom’s reach on wonderful producers and my own interest, I took proper deep dives into numerous genres such as hyperpop, UK garage, drum and bass, breakcore, trance and future bass, all genres that aespa have either done or would pull off perfectly. As I took my deep dives, one of the things I learned to appreciate tremendously more is remixes. When I was way younger, I had this misconception of remixes just being crappy badly mixed oontz oontz flips of songs due to the atrocities I would regularly hear on pop radios. Talented producers remodeling already high-quality tracks and showing their own stunning perspectives through their own approaches to music completely changed my mind, and I currently often find myself looking forward to how some of my beloved tunes will be reshaped. Now here I am, making a comprehensive list of my desired aespa remixes that also serves as a list of electronic producers that the girls’ A&R team need to get on their roster. (This list was roughly freestyled after @nayeonline came up with the idea of an aespa remix album, and of course I had to make them a victim of my extensive yapping at the mere thought.) Some of these I discovered through MYs, some of these are my own personal faves that the fandom may be overlooking. Enjoy observing my A&R syndrome, and let this serve YOU as a mini aespacore playlist.

Track 1: Welcome to MY World - Sega Bodega Remix

Sega Bodega is most likely my favorite producer of all time. Aside from his objective immense talent, versatility and inability to make a single track of his any less than superb, his musical style (especially recent songs) is otherworldly; his music lulls you into a higher setting. While the possibilities of the outcome of Sega Bodega producing/remixing aespa are endless, WTMW’s orchestration, harmonies and beauty go hand in hand with Sega’s work in that sense. His touch would take the song into another dimension, from an introduction story to aespa’s real world side to a guided trip all around it. It would be a Kwangya-ified but still earthly version of WTMW.

Below attached is his song Cicada, which gives a hint on what can be done with the guitars in WTMW and how the song could become more electronic and intricate.

Track 2: Next Level - Masayoshi Iimori Remix

A vast majority of the tracks with Masayoshi Iimori’s involvement give me the feel of racing around in a city with neon lights, with a mission to return to my time machine to come back from the future to the present time before it’s too late. Doesn’t this description fit Next Level like a glove? Iimori could make Next Level more punchy, which is perfect for the confidence of the Kwangya rider anthem, with his “mixed and mastered on a BlackBerry in the best way possible” sound adding to the daring, cosmic atmosphere. He definitely needs to be involved in aespa’s Japan debut and quite frankly, he’s not an unrealistic pick even for SM.

Below attached is Freedom Kingdom by 4s4ki feat. Swervy, produced by him, which is my favorite example of his frequent trance incorporation and use of gritty motor-like synths. Spoiler: this will not be Miss 4s4ki’s only appearance in this post.

Track 3: Savage - A.G. Cook Remix

In all honesty, I don’t believe this needs much elaboration. This man is considered the father of hyperpop, one of the genres aespa are the most influenced by and certainly a genre they could take more advantage of. Savage, the song that solidified aespa as experimental trendsetters in K-pop, becoming more of an outrageous banger than it already is with the A.G. Cook touch, would be a K-pop moment going down in history books.

The track attached below, produced by him, summarizes my vision for a gritty, banging dream Savage 2.0.

Track 4: Drama - umru remix

Let’s preface this with a fun fact: umru’s splice pack was put to good use in Savage, confirmed by the song’s producers and umru himself! His involvement would transform the twinkling, forceful, electric Drama into an even more hardcore anthem. The synths in the song’s chorus already catch your attention before you’re able to catch your breath after the beauty of the intro and verses, and making all the instruments hit even harder would be a move that totally suits aespa to the core.

Below attached is umru’s take on Fire Truck by SG5, which is one of my favorite productions by him and one of the most hard-hitting of his too. I recommend comparing all the remixes in this post to their respective originals to get a better sense of how these producers can change the tracks.

Track 5: I’ll Make You Cry - Iglooghost Remix

From the 8-bit synths to the sudden kicks and claps and the video game finale soundtrack vibes, I’ll Make You Cry and Iglooghost’s production go hand in hand. If I were to pick a word to describe the style of his work, without hesitation, it would be “cyber-sigilism”, and he converts it into sound like no other. I’ll Make You Cry could become more even more mystic and mellow, making aespa’s darker side visible once again. (Word to SM: this is how you expand aespa’s range instead of making an EDM-based group release country song demos.)

Below attached is Iglooghost’s take on Crybaby by ABRA, and if this is what he can do to the original Crybaby (love both and please listen to both versions), that IMYC remix would be something never seen in music, let alone K-pop. I also highly suggest checking out his own work to understand the sigilism bit better.

Track 6: Yeppi Yeppi - Giga/Reol Remix

When I first listened to Reol last March, specifically starting off with the Kinjitou album, “I have to make this woman collab with aespa one way or another” was the second thought to cross my mind. Her and Giga, the producer she works with the most frequently including on Kinjitou, have kept their high spots on the list of Japanese artists I NEED to see working with aespa ever since. Giga’s production is fun, bouncy and radiant, allowing Reol’s expressive songwriting and masterly vocals to shine. I don’t need to mention who else has top-tier production and vocals, you already know who this entire post is dedicated to. The duo, who are also some of the most well-known in Vocaloid/utaite communities, creates pure pop excellence, some of which I’m still convinced were created FOR aespa, to the point I’m genuinely surprised they’ve never mentioned our beloved girls. Reol, I know you’ve been streaming aespa’s music, don’t be shy, at least give them a follow on IG or something.

Kinjitou the title track is Yeppi Yeppi’s older sister and there’s not a single soul that can convince me otherwise. Just tap on the Youtube embed and see for yourself. These two could do WONDERS on Yeppi Yeppi itself. The even crazier instrumentals, and a Reol feature on top? A dream. I also HAVE to see an aespa-ified Kinjitou, to the point where I made a whole line distribution of how they would sing it. At this point I’m begging SM to steal my ideas verbatim. I’d still like a check though.

Track 7: Illusion - 4s4ki remix

Two scrolls through my account and you’ll immediately know I am THE aespa x 4s4ki truther. President of aes4ki nation. aes4ki priest who has converted three people so far into believers of their joint supremacy so you know it’s tried and tested. 4s4ki and aespa are musical soulmates: the mixture of cybercore and ethereal real world aesthetics and mind-blowing composition on every single song and the lyrics ranging from game/fiction themes to genuine confrontations of virtual worlds to love and sorrow and recovery and the artistry and excellent execution are some incredible traits they have in common as musicians. About Illusion specifically, well firstly I just know that 4s4ki, openly a gamer and anime nerd, would have so much fun working on a song about a virtual snake slurping up some heroines, and she’d eat up aespa’s lore in general. Second, her use of autotune somehow makes her vocals magical and she’s very unafraid to take risks when it comes to music. Illusion’s voice filters, the bass, the surreal atmosphere and that hyper-cosmic feel would be so much more elevated and outrageous with her involvement. If we can’t get a whole album produced by her (I NEED IT SO BAD) at least make this happen. Besides, it would be an incredible full-circle moment for 4s4ki herself, as she has a history of songwriting and producing for others pre-debut, and now she’d be doing it with infinitely much more confidence in her skill and vision.

Now introducing you to into the darkness, my personal fave song of hers and my most played song of 2023. Look at the album cover and listen for yourself. I swear I could praise this woman all day, but I’ll leave it at saying artists like THIS is what aespa deserve, nothing less. MYs, stop what you’re doing and listen to the Killer in Neverland album right now if you haven’t, and you will thank me later.

Track 8: Thirsty - Donatachi Remix

There are artists who just know the recipe to fun, exciting, girly yet still intriguing pop music and Donatachi is a producer who undoubtedly mastered exactly that. Thirsty already has the bubbliness and joy you could ask from a summer jam so why not double it with this remix? This would be perfect to amplify aespa’s ‘00s spy cartoon-coded colorful real world side, and Donatachi is also a perfect choice for this if you take into account his bright cartoon-avatar 3D visuals. aespa’s real world aesthetics and soundscape should definitely be utilized and expanded to truly fit how surreal their concept is.

Below attached is b2b heartbeat feat. Cowgirl Clue, demonstrating the upbeat drum patterns and euphoric feel that could also be used in a Thirsty remix.

Track 9: Trick or Trick - Safety Trance Remix

Trick or Trick is the trick-or-treat anthem MYs deserved, and a remix of it needs to maximize its spookiness while setting it apart from all the familiar creepy-ish K-pop songs. Safety Trance brings his grimy industrial genre-bending sound wherever he goes, which hits the target of creating a more experimental, haunting version of the track. Additionally, as reggaeton and dembow influences become increasingly wide-spread in K-pop, a techno-infused neoperreo take on the wave is the most fitting choice for aespa. With the lead of a prominent figure in the electronic neo-reggaeton scene, the execution of this would turn out flawless.

Below attached is his remix of Incredibly Annoying by VTSS. One of my favorite examples of his consistent style and shows how all-in Trick or Trick could possibly go.

Track 10: Better Things - Florentino Remix

You might be wondering why I chose to give Better Things yet another remix when we already have like 3 of those. Of course the existing remixes are wonderful in their own ways, and the Tropkillaz one is my personal favorite due to its blending of funk, however there’s always room for a full-on Brazilian funk Better Things mix, especially if it’s produced by Florentino. Florentino works with and often seamlessly fuses many genres I have a soft spot for as you could tell, including deconstructed club, neo-reggaeton, baile funk, jungle, breakcore and grime. With such a concoction, the summer anthem could become more distinctive and timeless than it already is.

Below is Florentino’s remix of the adored Nice To Meet You by PinkPantheress, adding in glitchy UK bass, jungle and classic funk drums and grime. The vision for the Better Things remix is crystal clear.

Now, I want to end this post by talking about fans’ wishes for aespa’s future sonic direction. I find many MYs wanting aespa to release hyperpop albums or stick to hyperpop, and while I understand that it’s the bare minimum after the horse girl harmonicas and meemaw ballads that somehow make their way into their God forsaken EPs, even this is nowhere near what’s beneficial for the group in the long-term. Again, aespa have this lingering (thankies to SM 😒) potential to be a multi-faceted EDM group and have one of, if not the, most sophisticated, one-of-a-kind discographies in all of K-pop. It is crucial for them to explore all these EDM subgenres and more instead of getting swayed by shallow trends that come and go. That’s the way to becoming a truly futuristic group that will stand the test of time.

Thank you for reading some of what I got off my chest. Show some love to Drama and Trick or Trick. Being an aespa fan is not for the faint hearted though.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Hello.

You and gay-jesus-probably have successfully made me question everything with your view that Tears of the Kingdom is imperialist propaganda, so that's been fun.

Anyway, I decided to share this discussion with the Zelda fans on reddit, and perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of them disagreed. Here is what they said (I'm Alarming_Afternoon44):

So what do you think? Have I and all these other people just been duped by the game's manipulative framing? Or do they actually have a point?

And if you'd rather not answer this, or would prefer if I censored the usernames, just tell me and I'll delete this.

Hey! Thanks a lot for reaching out, and I'm glad it made you think stuff through!!

Honestly, as I mentioned in this post, I am not super interested about in-world conversations about who oppresses who, because what can be assessed from the game is super vague and more vibes-based than evidence-based. Within the text, of course that the Good Zonais are good and the Bad Ganondorf is bad! But that's my whole point! The narrative has been deliberately crafted so that the zonais and Rauru (and Hyrule) are as blameless as possible (and it's not doing a great job at it overall to be frank; we would not be having these conversations about how offputting it all feels for a non-zero number of people if it did do a great job). More importantly, I want to focus on what sort of real-life narrative it all parallels. Because people make stories, and people live in the real world.

Not going after everyone's throat here, gamedev is hard and the hydras that are AAA game production do end up doing super weird stuff, especially since the thematic ramifications are absolutely never prioritized (and it's also always the same kind of people who make the final calls and push out what can and can't be talked about also). And as fans, we tend to have trouble stepping outside the lens of lore and take a look at the bigger picture sometimes; not as an attack on any individual part of that decision-making process but to just pause, stop, and question our standards, our priorities and the kind of reality (or skewing of reality) the stories we tell each other reflect.

Again: do we want to take videogames seriously or not? If we do, then we need to accept they are a vehicle for ideology, just like any other artform. And sometimes, you push out questionable ideology, sometimes without meaning to, because you didn't unpack your own biases as you did. And it's even fine to do it, nobody is perfect, a 300+ people team spread over 6 years certainly will not be that. But that it wasn't prioritized is, in my opinion, a problem. As a narrative designer, I want games (at least the narrative side) to be held to a higher standard than this. It's literally my job to work with the industry so it can hold itself to higher standards of quality --so the whole TotK situation is quite frustrating to witness from a very pragmatic, work perspective where I already spend my days trying to convince people that things mean things. I have a vested interest here in not having the companies I work for being given a free pass by gamers to do literally whatever as long as it's fun, especially when we're talking about a billion-dollars company suing its own fans left and right for any perceived slight. Nintendo are not underdogs here. It's fine to point out they cut corners and maybe promoted messy ideologies, voluntarily or not.

So long story short: no I don't believe anyone here has a point in regards to what I think is actually important, which is why these choices were made in the first place. If you look at an imperialist text expecting the text to tell you that it's imperialist instead of recognizing a framing used for propaganda by yourself, you're never gonna find any imperialist text ever, obviously not!! I'm sorry if I sound a little gngngn here, but I don't know why audiences have, at large, this feeling that lore and story beat decisions materialize themselves already formed and without any human bias, meddling, intervention, internal politics or approximations (it seems that people can only conceptualize this part if they have actual names to attach to the story, but without clear authors it's like there are no authors and so no bias, which is... a very strange bias in itself). I can promise you that it does not work that way in practice: every narrative department on every big game is a battlefield --some nicer than others, but all of them very emotionally draining either way.

So yeah, I guess that on these grounds, I disagree with every point raised here. Sorry Reddit :/

But thank you for the ask and sorry if I didn't go more into details as to why. The big Why I Dislike Rauru Post and the Gerudo Post might have some more specific rebuttals, but I am not super interested in debating small detail stuff tbh. I feel like it's no use if the frame of reference isn't being understood in the first place.

[eaglesnick]

“We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” - Peter Mandelson

The other day I made the assertion that when the people of Britain voted for Keir Starmer, what they were really getting was Tony Blaire. To be fair this was partly tongue-in-cheek but having read the Kings Speech setting out the Labour Party's plans to change Britain it is closer to the truth than is comfortable.

The Tony Blaire Institute for Global Change has a paper entitled: The Economic Case for Reimagining the State that was published July 9th, 2024, just five days after the UK elections. Some of the wording in this report is almost identical to some of the wording in the Kings Speech.

Tony Blaire Institute:  “reforming the UK’s antiquated planning system is a high priority that could unlock much needed infrastructure investment and help un-gum the UK’s housing market.”

Kings Speech: “My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing."

Tony Blaire: "Normalization of relations with the EU: A full reversal of these losses may be politically unattainable during this Parliament, but there is a path to a better post-Brexit relationship in the coming years"

Kings Speech: My Government will seek to reset the relationship with European partners and work to improve the United Kingdom's trade and investment relationship with the European Union

Tony Blaire: "The new government will need to lean in to support the diffusion of AI-era tech across the economy by adopting a pro-innovation, pro-technology stance, as advocated by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.”

Kings Speech: "It will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models.”

The Kings Speech is, by necessity, very brief and gives virtually no detail how the government’s aims are to be achieved. We will have to wait and see how much more of Keir Starmer’s vision for the future of Britain mirrors that of Tony Blaire. If Starmer is as closely aligned to Blaire as these comparisons suggest then public sector workers beware.

Blaire places great reliance on the introduction of artificial intelligence to ALL sectors of the economy, but  especially within the public sector. Once introduced Blaire predicts a productivity gain of “one-fifth workforce time”

 Public sector workers, having adopted the new AI and having increased productivity by 20% can then expect the sack.

“If the government chooses to bank these time savings and reduce the size of the workforce, this could result in annual net savings of £10 billion per year by the end of this Parliament and £34 billion per year by the end of the next – enough to pay for the entire defence budget.”

This is the true Blairite mindset. Nothing about sharing the productivity gains made by workers in the form of higher wages, nothing about the redistribution of wealth or tackling income inequality. In Blaire’s Case for Reimagining the State poverty is not mentioned once. Inequality gets one mention but only as a statistic relating to workers forced to use food banks. 

What Blaire and Starmer – like the Conservative Party - appear to have forgotten is that  public services are exactly that –  services.  Yes they need to be efficient and cost effective but NOT to the extent that the service element is lost. The rich can afford to buy service, ordinary working people have to rely upon government for basic services and over the last few years they have been badly let down.  Poor pay, increasing workloads, job insecurity and private sector creep have all contributed to bringing Britain’s public services to the verge of collapse. Let us all hope Starmer and Blaire don’t push them completely over the edge.

[yanderefairyangel]

Hi @runictablet if you don't mind I will answer here because I think my answer will be a little long.

So honestly I find the idea to name eahc character after one common theme very well thought.

Because it's giving Engage a strong worldbuilding identity and it's also relying on a simple and yet effective art direction.

That's not high far fecthed reference sure, but that works just as well, simple and efficient.

@emblematicemblazer made some post regarding this topic as well and I got a very clever anon pointing to how Firene's branding name was linked to how it's canonically the Kingdom of wealth and I did hope to be able to make a full post centered about the meaning of the game but I am just going to focus on Brodia for this one ok ?

So in the case of Brodia I think the name being around gemstone is pretty clever.

Brodia from what we know is a meritocracy based on physcial strengh and gemstones can be classified in a hierachical way because of the carat. Gemstones with little carat have little value and in Frech, you can use that expression in general to speak of things that are of high quality. And combined that way, it helps showing the Brodian meritocracy and tie to the economy as we know it highly relies on mine.

And then it connects as well to how our Brodian cast all suffer from different sort of impostor syndrome and are pressured by society to be "perfect" "strong" etc, like the most shining and high valued gemstone.

To take two examples of character whose name I think works perfectly I would choose Lapis and Diamant.

While Lapis name seems to come from the lapis lazuli, in reality it's the just the word lapis meaning stone in latin. And seeing how Lapis is a commoner, it all makes sense. Symbolically, her name being that makes her insecurity and inferiority complex due to her rank emphasized. Lapis is a commoner however we know that in Brodia strengh is valued and this include the hierachal rank that nobles have superiority towards commoner. This makes Lapis feel highly insecure : she is a stone in a kingdom of gems, symbolically. That's what her name represent. Lapis herself in chapter 7 state that she is aware that the weak in Brodia will get robbed off, she know she cannot shows that her position is weaker. But at the same time, the ambiguity makes sense within universe as Lapis tries to hide her real origins by making as if she might be from a higher family but she never outright lies since she is that honest. So when you think of lapis-lazuli the gem when hearing her name, it's part of this "imposture" that isn't really one, just a misunderstanding due to her name so she is at the same time Lapis (the stone) but not Lapis (the gemstone) like she is in truth a commoner (a stone) but not a noble (gemstone) and her name also refers to her strengh to some extent with stone not breaking as easily as some gemstones.

And for Diamant now. His name is the french word for Diamond. Diamond are precious gemstone reputed to be unbreakable and to be a symbol of perfection. Some people view it as the tears of God. Diamant is a character seen as perfect and flawless by those around him, strong and unbreakable. However we do learn in his suppor it's not true. He has flaws, he has weakness and there is something he fears = Fire magic. In fact, in his design, part of his hair is lighter then the rest probably to signify that he is indeed someone with flaws but he tries to hide them. In greek, the word ἀδάμας that gave the word diamant in french meant unbreakable to refer to the fact this gemstone would not break. However, it also refers to the indominable state of the mind and more then his physical strengh, that is what Diamant demonstrate notably in chapter 10 of the main story and yes, that why in contrast his Alter ego have no strong will, which Diamant will call him out on would he fight him. And finally diamond are symbol of purity. Diamant is a man of pure intentions. In FE, the common them about nobility and monarchy is that nobles are not above the people, but at their services. They must not make the people innocent civilians suffer from greater ideals or for their greed or treat them as if they were inferior, the nobility and the governement/ruler have the responsability to protect their people, to ensure their security, their well being their happiness, like a retainer would do with their liege. Diamant by his pure wish for prosperity based on peace and opposing a greedy nobility illustrate that. He also got support where he gets to laugh and being a bit goofy. And most importantly, something that is also shown in the most recent chapter for the manga, is sought for strengh isn't based on the same motives then the nobility but on a pure wish to protect others : he pushed himself as a child to be able to protect his brother, to protect his people and all he does is in that mindest. That's what is droving him to perfectionate himself not matter what hardship he face which makes his association to the diamond and to Roy whose incantations means standing up very relevant as in reality Diamant is more of a perfection of the mind over the body.

I hope this answer your question ! So yeah I find them very interesting to analyze

[pandoramsbox]

Sci-Fi Saturday: Once in a New Moon

Week 14:

Film(s): Once in a New Moon (Dir. Anthony Kimmins, 1935, UK)

Viewing Format: Streaming - Amazon Prime rental

Date Watched: 2021-08-27

Rationale for Inclusion:

For all the influence British authors had in shaping the science fiction literary genre, it's taken 14 weeks of posts to get to a film from the United Kingdom. As with most of the new-to-me films watched thus far, I discovered the existence of Once in a New Moon (Dir. Anthony Kimmins, 1935, UK) via the Wikipedia list of 1930s sci-fi films.

Filmed in black and white and clocking in at an economical 63 minutes, Once in a New Moon was a "quota quickie," or what in the United States would be called a B-movie: a low cost, low quality film that would ideally make more money than it took to produce. In other words, the classification of cinematic works more widely associated with film noir and 1950s sci-fi cinema.

Reactions:

It never occurred to my partner or me that we were watching a "quota quickie" in terms of production quality or effects whilst watching Once in a New Moon. The contrast between its quality versus higher budget sci-fi films of the 1930s is not as apparent as the films of the 1950s.

Narratively, Once in a New Moon is more fantasy than science fiction due to only the loosest of cosmic explanations being put forth to explain why the English village of Shrimpton-on-the-Sea would temporarily break away from the Earth and become a self-contained planetoid. At least Harold Drake (Eliot Makeham) is enough of a man of science to attempt a scientific investigation of the phenomena impacting the village, even if many affluent citizens dismiss his theories, insisting that the surrounding countryside has simply been flooded.

The film, however, is more concerned with being a satire of British class and social structure than a sci-fi or fantasy film, which is fine. As someone who grew up on Twilight Zone reruns, I am a sucker for genre tales as social commentary. The satiric bent took my partner and me by surprise, but it also provided an interesting change of pace from the sci-fi films we had watched thus far, which were more concerned with having a general moral than direct commentary on a specific aspect of humanity.

Although, I doubt that Owen Rutter, the author of the original novel on which it was based, or writer-director Anthony Kimmins expected the satire in Once in a New Moon to age as well as it has. Shrimpton-on-the-Sea eventually reconnects with the Earth, albeit after a civil war nearly breaks out amongst its residents, and normality is restored, with little to no immediate evidence that Drake's theories about the phenomena were correct. One of the last lines of the film is Lady Bravington (Mary Hinton) reiterating to Drake that the phenomena that impacted the town was, "just a flood." The audience knows that the supercilious woman is wrong, and it underscores the refusal to accept facts that are inconvenient to her and her class that had been witnessed throughout the film. The moment is a perfect note to end the satire on.

Watching Lady Bravington needing to get the last word in with her incorrect position stung in 2021 though. Yes, by then most shelter-in-place restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic had been lifted thanks to the first version of the vaccine being available to the general public, but anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers and people who insisted that the deadly and debilitating virus was "just a cold" remained an ever present reality, as additional variants of the disease continued to be a threat to public health. Lady Bravington turned out to be the archetype of every conservative, science denying, self-assured white lady of recent memory.

Maybe I should not be too shocked by this commentary, as both the author and screenwriter had lived through the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, and anti-maskers existed then too. Still, it adds to the reality of the satire in Once in a New Moon and makes the film one of my favorite discoveries of this survey.

[quibbs126]

Okay, I just wanted to do this for posterity’s sake, but basically this post is: Things About Dark Cacao Cookie That (At Least to Me) Point to Him Having Odd Origins (But I’m Probably Overthinking It)

No I will not shorten that name

So I really only have three points (at least that I can currently remember) that apply here, but let’s just mention them regardless

So first up: his abnormal strength

As shown below, his story specifically states that his sword takes 3 average Cookies to even budge, yet we see in game that he’s able to wield it with seemingly little struggle. There is no explanation ever given for this. I mean I suppose you could say that it’s the Soul Jam that gives him the strength, but given that none of the other Ancient descriptions mention their Soul Jam bestowing upon them enchanted physical attributes, it’s little more than conjecture, and it seems more likely to assume that this is just natural for him. But then the question remains: how and why?

Next up: the slit eye thing

In these two sprites, we see Dark Cacao have these slit eyes that he never has in any other sprite. The Wiki names them his “rage sprites”, and while yes, the Wiki is unofficial, the only times we really see these sprites in game seem to be when he’s incredibly angry, or in other words, enraged

Again, no explanation is given for these. I have seen some people say that it’s because cacao and chocolate have small amounts of caffeine in them, and the coffee Cookies are noted to have dilated pupils due to their amounts of caffeine, and thus this is a reference to him having small amounts of caffeine. And yeah, I can accept that as an answer. But also at the same time, these eyes don’t exactly operate like the other coffee eyes, given that they only show up at certain emotionally driven points for Dark Cacao, as opposed to them where it’s just natural and doesn’t seem to ever go away. Also again, this is just a fan theory, and in canon there is no official explanation for this

Now let’s get into my third point: his younger self’s clothes

I know that sounds a weird one but hear me out

Now there’s two parts of this that I want to take note of

First, let’s compare this to the other young Ancients’ outfits

I’d say that by comparison, Dark Cacao’s outfit looks much nicer than theirs

Now yes, you can have explanations for why theirs aren’t the nicest looking. From what I’ve gathered, Pure Vanilla was a pilgrim, and if the art book is to be believed, was once a shepherd, and let’s just say that kind of lifestyle probably isn’t leading you to be wearing particularly nice clothes. As for Hollyberry, while she know she came from a noble house, you can just say this is her adventuring attire, made for battle and roughing it out in the wild rather than looking nice

But that in itself isn’t the weird thing. The weird thing is that Dark Cacao’s clothes look a lot nicer than theirs, which is odd considering the Dark Cacao Kingdom doesn’t seem to be known for having clothes that look particularly high quality. I’m not saying their clothes aren’t of nice quality, it’s just that clothes like this look a bit too nice for just a presumably normal villager, no?

I mean, both the cape and top have those trims you usually put on clothes to make them look nicer (at least I think that’s what it’s called, sorry I’m not good with how clothes work), as well as his nice looking brooch that has a small gem in it. Not to mention the sword he’s carrying, which looks like it has engravings and has what looks more like a dark gem at the pommel. Compare that to the swords we see the Watchers at the Citadel use, and it looks much higher quality. Again, odd for a normal person of a kingdom that isn’t known for its wealth or high quality of clothes or swords (again not to say they can’t have it, it’s just odd in this scenario. Those people who do have high quality stuff are cookies of high ranking in the kingdom, not normal cookies. I don’t think I’m wording this well)

There’s also the fact that it’s purple, which back in the day, was hard to come by and rather expensive. Yes in the current day kingdom, we see people wearing purple, but first off nowadays purple isn’t as hard to obtain, and second those cookies are all those who are at the Citadel, the place of highest ranking in the kingdom. They’re probably allowed higher quality clothing. But also keep note that these are Cookies, not humans, and how clothing colors work could easily be different, so take this point with a grain of salt, it’s probably not all that strong. And I know he’s associated with purple, so it makes sense for him to wear it, but it doesn’t look a particularly dull shade of purple (I mean it does somewhat, but it’s nice enough that it doesn’t just look like grey fabric with a purple tint), and that’s why I call it out

Secondly, there’s the fact that aesthetically, it doesn’t really match the Dark Cacao Kingdom

Now sure, fashion isn’t constant, and it’s not ludicrous to imagine that outfits 1000+ years ago would look radically different, but let’s compare this to the only other cookie we see of the soon to be kingdom from this time period

Just compare the two and they look nothing alike, which is odd considering they’re supposed to both be from the same place. (also it again affirms my point about his clothes looking pretty high quality; Reluctant Cookie here looks like they’re wearing torn and ragged clothing unlike Dark Cacao)

Like Dark Cacao has said himself that he is native to this land, and his features compared to other members do support this idea, so why doesn’t he dress like them?

I mean sure, at this point the land was a bunch of different tribes, and you can assume they probably each have their own style and don’t all look the same, but still, the radical difference

Now okay, those last two points are more speculation on my part, while the other two are objective facts, but you see what I mean? Him being a normal Cookie from the (future) Dark Cacao Kingdom just doesn’t seem to add up

I mean yeah, I know he’s an Ancient, he’s not a “normal Cookie”, but like, everyone else only became “different” later in life, they seem to have started out relatively normal. Dark Cacao stands out as the odd one of the bunch (I mean other than Golden Cheese, but that’s probably because we don’t know anything about her yet)

Originally, back when I was first getting into Cookie Run, I speculated his oddities could be because he’s related to the dragons or was raised by them, hence his unusual traits and clothes. However, Might of the Ancients seems to disprove this, as there, he seems to not be familiar with the dragons at all, not even knowing they were the ones causing the odd storms and snow, simply trying to find the sources of these “anomalies”. And when he does know, nothing tells us that he has any familiarity with them. So I think it’s safe to say he’s not connected to the North and South Dragons

Alright, I so I should mention here that I don’t actually have an answer for all these oddities. I just made this to point them out and say they were weird, at least to me. Hopefully at some point these things get answered. Or again, I’m just overthinking it all

[alyskaterartist]

Devlog #1

Dear readers,

I have an itch.io account for all my upcoming games I am making. Let me explain a little about my projects so far.

FIRST PROJECT:

The first project I ever posted on Itch.io was Spores. Spores is about a mushroom girl, Miylla. Basically, the summary is that she gets snatched by a big bird and is taken away from her mushroom village. She must escape the bird's nest and find her way home.

SECOND PROJECT:

Now my second and newest project I actually just posted to my itch.io account is My Little Pony: The Quest for the Stolen Artifact. Which is a fan game based around My Little Pony (MLP). The summary so far is that players embark on an exciting adventure to recover a powerful artifact that protects the kingdom. This precious relic has been stolen, and it's up to you to find it and save the day! To succeed, you'll need to build friendships with other ponies in the kingdom. As you form bonds and strengthen relationships, you'll uncover vital clues and receive help from your friends. Each pony has unique abilities and can assist with different tasks, making the power of friendship essential to your quest. With the option for romance, you can deepen your connections even further.

A GLANCE INTO THE FUTURE:

If I get enough support, exposure, etc within the future. There will be higher quality, voice actors, more projects, and projects will have a higher chance of being completed. If you want to see this all happen and more in the future. Please support me in any way you can. Follow, like, subscribe, donate, share, etc. I have many socials. If your having trouble finding them. Please let me know and I will help.

Sincerely, AlySkaterArtist

[dreamywolfdd]

Sonic Thoughts

this will be different than most of my posts, but id like to type this out since i been thinking bout it alot, nothing wrong is going on btw this is mostly me typing out my thoughts

________

but if you want a tl;dr:

not entirely leaving/done with it, but i want to focus on other stuff aside of sonic the hedgehog in general, i want to focus on my other interests and obsessions

________

i been thinking bout it and i decided that sonic superstars will be my last sonic game i'll buy for who knows how long

this does not mean i hate sonic now or i'm done w it or anything, but i been recently thinking bout how sonic's been these past few yrs, content wise and what i personally think bout it currently

latest releases such as sonic prime, sonic movie 2, idw comics and sonic origins made me think bout it alot, as much as i enjoyed the movie and liked the idw comic i got as a gift, this is a whole new generation of fans we speaking of now, its been more noticeable how a new era of sonic is here thanks to the movies and that makes me so happy but it also makes me realize how some of the recent stuff flat out isn't rlly my thing (like sonic prime), sure, they may be good on their own and such but there's some stuff i just dont think its worth for me to look at, but i do however hope the newer generation enjoys it alot, i dont feel like part of that target demographic anymore

one major thing that made me question it too is pmuch with the quality of games, i recently gave frontiers a second playthrough and it made me remember why i had a fun experience with it, but it also made me see the flaws it has aswell too, its not a perfect game by any means but you can tell morio kishimoto, lizuka and everyone at sonic team have been wanting to deliver an amazing experience for a while now, remembering how the director had to convince higher ups to get more time for development made me think alot, this will be a dumb comparison maybe but if there's one thing i would love for sega to have its give more time and budget for its developers and such, recently, even if sometimes nintendo has been very questionable and sometimes bad, i will give them alot of credit and respect by how they been treating their artists and devs recently, games such as tears of the kingdom and smb wonder, seeing how they gave alot of time to their developers and artists to craft such wonderful games, i definitely want that for sonic games to have as well too, it has been admitted before and it has been a thing i been agreeing for yrs too

whenever i look back at sonic fondly, its mostly games i played in the past and still replay and hope i will for many yrs to come, same with the era and type of sonic i usually enjoy the most too, its just something thats not there anymore and its usually what comes up in my head whenever i think of sonic rather than the recent stuff, not saying its bad or anything but its my prefered one just like how many ppl have their prefered and definitive version of sonic

i been playing and enjoying many other stuff aside of sonic for many yrs now, as a kid i remember always being sattisfied with a game from the famicom for example, or how games like cave story and super meat boy made me have a blast for hours, but i do noticed how in recent years its been lowering with sonic and what i mostly do is revisit the older games and played frontiers when it came out, for yrs i been enjoying exploring and enjoying many different types of games old and new, i highly recommend sonic fans to also widen their library of games (and media in general) to explore many hidden gems

i have many other interests and obsessions that cannot leave my head, so i want to give more love to those as well too, at a far distance, ppl will know right away im a sonic fan, but will completely ignore my other interests and outside of gaming as well too, so its also why i been thinking bout this too

so yeah, if you notice my lack of sonic stuff is because of that, again, i do not hate sonic or im done with it, but its been a question in my head i been contemplating for some time now since sonic pretty much is one of the main things i literally cannot live without (xd), i will still do sonic fanart stuff from time to time, i will still replay my favorite games and such and of course, i will play and enjoy sonic superstars as my last sonic game for who knows how long, i hope ppl who have known and met me because of my sonic stuff have that in mind maybe

if you've read all of my wall of text, ty, i dont think this will be read either way but if so, ty very much and hope you have a good one

[sophiaredwood03]

As inspired by @shaakyhaands 's reblog of @atomsminecraft 's post.

Aftermath of what happened to MC after Iritium was destroyed, only I wanted to make it a bit more cheerful.

Also, I haven't done fics in a long while, so forgive me if my writing isn't the best.

Enjoy!

There is a red moon hanging in the sky today, just like the night I first came, all those years ago.

The room I am in, is too, so like the one I spent my first night in Saligia, shaking and shivering in fear when I woke in the dead of night, wondering what had happened to me. Things are so different now. 

The cool sheets fall to the floor. A beautiful face looks back me in the mirror. I no longer wear the choker anymore. It is of no use to me, and anyways, what device could ever contain my power? The pale red moonlight shines on a sleeping black cat. From outside, I can feel the gentle rumbling of a dragon whose scales are as a deeper blue than even the ocean itself. Pulling on my cloak, I decide not to wake them. I will take other means of transport. 

The sand feels incredibly fine between my toes. I didn’t bother to wear shoes; I can always get as many pairs as I like at any time. The vast ocean ripples, and then churns beneath my hands. A wave rushes up to the shore, and I am on my way.

The waters swirls beneath me. I can see Colde more clearly now. It once used to be so full of life and merriment, now it is akin to a silent graveyard. The academy on the isle has changed too. Students have reduced greatly in number, preferring to pursue their magical studies in their own kingdoms. Townfolk there also fled, in fear for their lives. No one wants to be near me, even though I no longer stay on Colde. 

The wave deposits me on the dock. Guards from all the seven kingdoms immediately stiffen,some grabbing their weapons, others secretly calling upon their magic. I can sense it, even without looking. I walk past them, leaving wet footprints on the dock. None of them dare to launch an attack on me. 

The first thing I do is to buy a pair of shoes. Beautiful leather boots, of the finest quality. The shoemaker was shaking when I paid him, after he tried to give them to me for free. It reminds me of the days when Sherry, Violet and I used to go out early in the mornings and shop until the sky turned dark. Once or twice, we even had to get a separate carriage to carry back all our new purchases. I pull them on and walk out into the streets. The few townfolk there recognise me. They all cower at the sight of me and vanish into their homes and shops.

Ever since I unlocked my full power, everyone started to distance themselves from me. I remember the day I tore down Iritium and set down the people of Vanum. People worshipped me and revered me like they did Vane, but after a while it gradually changed to whispers and open hostility. Maybe they don’t treat Vane this way because they didn’t know her. She was not the one who fought with the kings to let the Vanum people not be a part of Qelsum or any other kingdom anymore; not the one who worked tirelessly in the shadows to try and improve the status quo of the poor, the unfortunate, the trodden on. I wonder if she knows what I have done. What would she think?

From far above, I can see all the seven kingdoms. They have remained mostly unchanged, for the most part. The wind streams through my hair, gently caressing it as though to comfort me. A shower of gold sparks swirls around me and lifts me ever higher. My eyes are no longer plain black; they are like crystals, reflecting and illuminating everything around me. “Vane?” I murmur into the cool air, and a sense of peace fills me. I have a feeling things will soon look up for me. Closing my eyes, I turn giddy somersaults in the air and drift home.

[married-2-the-music]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: ATEEZ

ATEEZ was formed in 2018, at the beginning of the 4th gen, with eight members: Yunho, San, Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yeosang, Wooyoung, Mingi, and Jongho. They, like Dreamcatcher, have very in-depth storylines through their songs and especially music videos, and, also like Dreamcatcher, I won’t be going incredibly specific with every comeback’s meaning unless I think it’s vital to understand the song.

Here are my credentials: I’ve been a fan of ATEEZ for about a year or so, after I watched them on Kingdom, and a kind-of (?) ATINY for a few months. I admit that from what I’ve seen, I prefer their older work to their newer work, but so far that’s only true for their titles, and may not be accurate to their b-sides. I haven’t had the chance to listen in-depth to their new albums yet, so I figured that this was a good opportunity.

They debuted with Pirate King, which, though a little unpolished, already has what would become the pillars of ATEEZ’s later work: anti-drops, hard hitting EDM beats, a focus on raps, sharp choreography, and a mix between deeper and higher voices. Though it’s not for me (it takes a lot for me to enjoy this kind of “I’m-so-cool” track), it is admittedly a very good introduction to ATEEZ as a group, and I respect it far more than I respect most other songs in this vein.

Treasure is also a single from this album, and is more minimalistic and more rap-heavy than Pirate King. Rather than the anti-drop of their debut, though, Treasure’s chorus follows through on its build-up and is ultimately far more satisfying for it. It’s still an “I’m-cooler-than-you” track, of course, but at least it’s also a bop. From the EP, Treasure Ep.1: All To Zero, I didn’t have a hidden gem but I enjoyed the rhythm of My Way.

Say My Name is one of the ATEEZ songs that I would say I know best, and distinguishes itself right away with its unique whistling hook and the time it takes to set up its great build-up. It also includes a drumline—though it’s slight—in the pre-chorus, and I really enjoyed how the bridge flows into the last chorus and eventually the outro. I wanted to point out that though I normally would have a problem with the raps, I don’t here, because they honestly fit it quite well and don’t feel like a random digression shoved in to give The Rapper™ something to do.

Hala Hala, the other single from the album, gives me a bit of whiplash, truth to be told. Many of its parts are good, especially the pre-chorus, but together none of those good parts are done justice. From the EP, Treasure Ep.2: Zero To One, my hidden gem was absolutely Promise. It falls more into the dark synth genre, and manages to do something of an anti-drop while subverting the usual stagnation that one usually falls into, creating quite a catchy song.

Wave immediately stands out from the rest of ATEEZ’s discography, not only with its tropical beats and “Hakuna Matata” chorus but also just the general happy vibe that the song’s imbued with. After going through so many dark and serious tracks (with many more to come), Wave is both a very welcome break and a head scratcher, to be honest. I do like the song in isolation—the outro is truly excellent—but I get too distracted by how out of place it is to fully enjoy it.

Illusion, the other single from this album, is also more upbeat than is usual for ATEEZ, and though it’s a bit of a goofy track, truth be told, I’m more than willing to throw up my hands and have a good time. From the EP, Treasure Ep.3: One To All, I enjoyed the high notes and chanty post-chorus of Utopia, the catchiness of the pre-chorus and ethereal quality of Dancing Like Butterfly Wings, and the drumbeats of Aurora. I think this is my favorite EP so far!

Wonderland, like many excellent k-pop tracks, feels like it arrives rather than starts, and though its mostly-English intro is utterly nonsensical, this song is too good not to win me over. At first, you’ll think it’s bound for an anti-drop, and it almost has one, but then it drags itself back from the brink and shuttles forward, managing to combine EDM, a marching band, and a deranged sea shanty together into a concoction so crazy that it works. And that bridge? Gets me pumped every time. I will say that I prefer the Symphony No.9 Version from their “The World: Epilogue” version, which really elevates it.

From the full album, Treasure Ep.FIN: All To Action, while I enjoyed the electro-breakdown and “tell me who are you, who am I?” of Dazzling Light, the great buildup of Win, and the encouragement in Sunrise, my hidden gem was definitely the sentimental, warm, Thank U. Thank U is a song that I have a background with: Hongjoong wrote this for Seonghwa about their friendship, as thanks for his support and a promise to always support him in return. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sap; give me a cheesy song about friendship and I’m 100% there.

When I mentioned being more of a fan of ATEEZ’ earlier discography, it was really Answer that I was mainly talking about. Since the first time I heard it, it’s never lost its spark for me, and I think it honestly has one of the best builds I’ve seen in a k-pop song. The pre-chorus, then the chorus, then the post-chorus, and finally the vocalizing to cap it off are full on excellent, and I do mean that. Plus, I’ve never been able to resist a “let’s burn it all down” song as long as I’ve been alive, so you better believe that whenever I hear this one, I get the urge to turn up my headphones to ear-splitting levels of loudness and spin in circles.

From the EP, Treasure Epilogue, I loved the return of the sea shanty with a more broken-down and distorted follow through in Horizon (my hidden gem), and the vocal showcase in the softer, more vulnerable Star 1117. I also enjoyed the strings in the outro; ATEEZ should use strings more often.

Inception, as the start of a new series in the “lore”, has a different vibe than the Treasure series. Though there’s still the great build, the EDM, the chanting and the fight-against-the-system messaging, it feels more contemplative and almost…melancholy? It honestly feels a little like one of TXT’s later, moodier title tracks, especially with the more romantic lyrics than are usual for ATEEZ and the climactic vocalizing. I quite like it.

Thanxx, the other single from this album, takes some inspiration from Latin Pop for its beat, and while I don’t dislike this one, it’s very much not for me, being quite rap heavy, veering a bit too close to an anti-drop for my liking, and having an overly-chanty post-chorus. From the EP, Zero: Fever Part 1, I enjoyed the more melodic take on EDM mixed with the acoustic guitar in Good Lil Boy, which was my hidden gem, but also the more ballad-inspired closer in the comforting, all-English One Day At A Time.

Fireworks is, right from the outset, quite heavy on the autotune, to the point where it’s honestly distracting. While I do like the buildup and the chorus is pretty alright, this one just…doesn’t do it for me? I’m not entirely sure why, though the autotune is part of it, but for some reason, no matter how much I want to like it, it’s just not happening. The chanting is catchy, especially in the last chorus, I’ll give it that.

From the EP, Zero: Fever Part 2, though I did like the bubbly synths in Time Of Love, there’s nothing else I could choose as a hidden gem besides Take Me Home. I think that part of the reason I’m so hard on Fireworks is that Take Me Home is quite possibly my favorite song of ATEEZ’ entire discography, and to this day it kills me that it wasn’t a single. Its dark city-pop-meets-jazz is excellent, and the subject of loneliness brings it so much pathos that it made me feel something even before I looked up the words. And that saxophone riff in the outro? Absolute perfection. There’s no beating this one.

Deja Vu is up next, and has quite a smooth, minimalistic instrumental, which I honestly prefer since it seems that the autotune is less over the top here. Though I didn’t really dislike this one either, I just feel like it doesn’t go nearly as far as it could, just kind of marinating in a weird middle ground between average and something more interesting, like the last chorus, which brought much more of an interesting composition. The quiet rap was actually my main highlight here, so congrats, Hongjoong.

From the EP, Zero: Fever Part 3, I enjoyed the catchy pre-choruses and surprisingly upbeat follow-through in Eternal Sunshine, the melodic sing-talk mixed with synths in Feeling Like I Do, and the more vulnerable delivery and stripped-back instrumentals of Not Too Late.

Turbulence returns to the quieter, more contemplative style of Inception, with vulnerable and inspiring lyrics and a gentle acoustic guitar that carries through the track. This song is one that finally gives their vocals time to shine, and I found myself being won over by this one basically right away. I loved the harmonizing and the emotions they carried through their voices, and though it’s a simple track, it’s a very comforting one. I really liked it! I didn’t have a hidden gem from this album, as it's mostly revamps, but I did enjoy the symphony version of Wonderland, as mentioned before.

Guerilla is the start of ATEEZ’ most recent saga, and unfortunately (for me, anyway) embraces the NCT 127 idea of sing-talk-I’m-cooler-than-you in spades. Though the build-up in its pre-chorus, the bridge, and the great vocals in its chorus do put it quite a few steps above that, it’s still not a pleasant experience for my ears, and probably feels a bit harsher than it actually is with how gentle Turbulence was. It’s more of a performance piece than a song, but to give credit where it’s due, it’s a great performance.

From the EP, The World Ep 1: Movement, I think that the thudding EDM of Sector 1 would have made a better title track for how it follows through on its premise and makes better use of the members’ vocals, though it’s still not free of issues. My hidden gem was the synthy Cyberpunk, though, to no one’s surprise; it’s not quite as excellent as Take Me Home but it absolutely comes close. I also enjoyed the build-up of New World.

Halazia, though it’s from a “spin-off” single, is actually the song I enjoy most from this section of their work. Though its use of autotune is still a bit too heavy for my liking, I greatly prefer its somewhat understated feeling and gentler anti-drop after its build-up to the shouty choruses of its peers. Also, I appreciate, again, the vulnerability and frustration its lyrics show, as I can relate much more to its point than the emptiness of the other tracks.

Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers) had me concerned from the title, and unfortunately, I think that those instincts were right. Again, we have a shouty, empty, “I’m-better-than-you” track with a chorus that overuses autotune, makes absolutely no sense, and of course, just enough good in it to make me hope for more. Again, that pre-chorus is great, but…nope, no pay-off. I cannot stress enough how angry songs like this make me, although I’m aware a lot of that is how they embody all of my pet peeves and not exactly the song’s fault itself. Boy, I’ve got to take a deep breath and calm down. From the EP, The World Ep 2, I enjoyed the “I’m ready for the dark, I’m ready for this world,” hook from This World and the sing-talk-meets-slower synths of Django.

Crazy Form is ATEEZ’ most recent release, and I was hopeful when I didn’t dislike the verse from the outset. Though I’m not the biggest fan of rap, I can appreciate when it’s used well, and the lead-in of it to the pre-chorus was quite good. But then, as I had a feeling would happen, there’s an anti-drop and all that hard work spent building just…falls. Ugh. Come on guys. We were so close! I’m not gonna repeat myself, because my thoughts on this one were pretty similar to Bouncy. I did like this one’s bridge much more, though.

From the album, The World Ep.FIN, I enjoyed the great build-up and post-chorus from We Know, the pulsing synths in Silver Light, the softer acoustics backed with drums in Dreamy Day, and especially Jongho’s breathtaking voice in Everything, since I wish he got more of a chance to use it.

So, I’m glad I did this. Though I didn’t really decide if I’m an ATINY or not, I did still enjoy finding a lot of songs that I’d missed in their work, especially their calmer titles and genre-hopping b-sides, which were a nice surprise! I guess we’ll have to see what the future holds in regards to my fan status, but for now the interviews I’m watching are giving me a good laugh while I type this up, so thanks guys.

My Top 5 songs are Take Me Home, Answer, Turbulence, Cyberpunk, and Wonderland (Symphony No.9 Version), with Not Too Late and Thank U as honorable mentions. ATEEZ gets an 8 out of 10 from me, which is about what I expected. Most of their titles aren’t for me, unfortunately, but they have a lot of good in their b-sides, and the sheer diversity of the styles really worked in their favor. When their excellent build-ups pay off, they’ve made some of my favorite k-pop tracks. But when they don’t, you’re left with something empty.

Next time, we’re up with another girl group! Tschüss!