#plus ultra weak theory

[givemeanaccountalready]

I got a crack theory for Milgram that is nigh impossible, but hear me out… think of the emotional damage we, as a collective, could get if I’m right?

Now, I know that this is highly unlikely, but what if Kazui is Es’s dad?

Trigger warning: discussion of adultery and suicide under the cut.

I am 100% aware that in the second voice drama, Kazui states: “I don’t have kids, but I’ve heard that this is what it’s like.”

Oh, and this:

The hair colors of Kazui and Hinako are much darker than Es’s and the eye colors don’t match up. Es seems to have grey blue eyes while Kazui has a darker blue. Anime and cartoon law requires that in order for someone to be the child of two people, they need to have the hair color of parent A and eye color of parent B or be the near miniature of one parent. The conditions were not met, ergo, Es is not blood related to either Kazui or Hinako.

Now, why does my little rat brain insist on this crack theory? Well, besides the potential emotional damage, I noticed when I finally watched the voice dramas that Es got surprisingly angry with Shidou’s lack of will to live, and with Kazui in general. Everything Kazui does seems to piss Es off, but it’s the fishing for information and lying that really seems to set Es off.

The fishing for information can easily be explained away as Es clinging to their role as the prison guard because it’s the only thing he can remember. Es gets mad whenever any of the prisoners question their role. This isn’t unique to Kazui.

But why the lying? None of the prisoners, except for Kotoko, are direct with Es, especially about what they did or what they want. Why does Kazui pretending that he’s fine set them off?

In the first voice drama, in response to Kazui explaining that he’s trying to appear calm and collected for the sake of the other, younger prisoners, Es states:

“What’s so good about it? I don’t like this. It’s just a fake smile that you’ve consciously crafted to show yourself in a certain way.”

“Ignoring your pain, pretending that everything’s fine, and taking your losses, well- is that what adults do?”

It’s almost like Kazui has struck a nerve. As if Es, even if they can’t remember they family, knows that pretending everything is fine, especially in front of kids who know that something is wrong, is going to backfire spectacularly. It disappoints them in a way that Yuno pretending to be just as affable to match the person she’s with doesn’t.

In the second voice drama, Es states that they believe that Kazui had an affair and is disgusted by it. Kazui and Es have this series of exchanges:

Es: “You were unfaithful, right? That’s stupid. It’s a personal dislike of mine… The only reason I forgave you is because I was lacking details…People who act on their sexual urges like that, that is.”

Kazui: “It’s personal?”

Es: “Yeah. That’s right.”

Kazui: That’s strange. I did think that, despite being neutral as a warden, you had some things you dislike, but… isn’t it unusual to openly reveal a personal dislike as a personal dislike?”

…

Kazui: “You’re wrong. You said I was unfaithful - in other words, that I cheated or committed adultery of some kind.”

Es: “Yeah, that’s what I deduced from watching your footage.”

Kazui: “It’s not true. It didn’t even turn into infidelity. It didn’t turn into anything like that. For me… in my case, you see…”

Es: “…You’re married… You’re a married man, aren’t you?”

The two continue to talk, where Kazui says he didn’t tell Es something and Es diverts the conversation because they realizes Kazui isn’t wearing his ring. Es then gets mad on Hinako’s behalf, stating that Kazui made a mockery of the concept of marriage and how cruel that was to Hinako. Look it’s not definitive proof, but Es doesn’t really react strongly unless he is trying to provoke a prisoner. Kazui isn’t trying to provoke him, and Es could just be taking fidelity seriously because as a prison warden, he should have strong integrity, but it’s weird because it’s personal to Es. Es doesn’t remember anything but their name and role as prison warden. The brain wipe Es had gotten may have taken their memories, but it didn’t seem to erase their feelings either.

Now, there’s also the question of why Es, if they are the child of Kazui and Hinako, doesn’t appear in Kazui’s music videos and why does Kazui state he has no children? For the first question, Es was not Kazui’s victim, Hinako is. Kazui’s lies are the center of his music videos. He lied about how he loved his wife, but I don’t think he would have lied about how he loved his child, IF Kazui had one. For the second, none of the prisoners seem to remember how they got to Milgram, which could imply that they’ve been mind wiped too.

Now, in the second voice drama, Kazui confirms that his murder victim is his wife, Hinako. But she isn’t dead directly at his hand. She killed herself not because he had an affair, but because he stopped lying to her.

I 100% believe the theory that Kazui is gay. I do think that he loved and cared for Hinako, but not in the same way that she loved him. Learning that broke her heart and she died because of her broken heart. And if Es is Kazui’s child, that would make Hinako their mother, which would explain why Shidou’s plea for the death penalty in Shidou’s first voice drama set him off:

Es, after kicking Shidou: “Well, take that! Even if you boast about wanting to die, the pain you just felt is the exact same thing as your body screaming that it doesn’t want to. While you’re still alive, you should be grabbing at life with both hands! Don’t act as if you’re already dead.”

Es chose to use the fact that Shidou still felt pain to argue that his body doesn’t want him to die and that he’s wrong. Shidou pointed out that regardless of his wishes, his nervous system will still recognize painful stimuli. Es doesn’t have a response to this. Perhaps if Hinako was Es’s mother, Es didn’t have a chance to try this argument with their mother before her death.

Fuuta’s case also deals with suicide, and right off the bat, Es began playing games and provoking Fuuta, setting the tone for the interrogation. Right off the bat, Kazui and Shidou subvert his expectations of how the interrogation will go, and Es is trying again and again to regain control. And it is different from when the other prisoners upset Es’s belief that they are in control of the situation, because they lash out like an upset child when the two adult men upset the roles. They act haughtily and condescend when the other eight prisoners do it, but not with the two prisoners who could qualify for the father figure role.

This theory is based on so many if-thens but, I can’t get it out of my head. It’s an extremely weak theory, but the more I think of it, the more I want it to be true.

[chuya-chuya-blog]

Now that I've read the actual ending of My Hero Academia, (I actually only saw screenshots on Twitter) I have a few things to say.

The ending, in theory, was perfect. It wrapped up nicely, tied into themes of the story, and had a few great callbacks(Horikoshi-sensei is the king of callbacks, honestly). My theory is that when Bakugo reaches his hand out, it's a callback to the whole "take my hand" thing with Aoyama. And speaking of Aoyama, I love that he was in the ending with the rest of the class.

Also, I love that both times, Deku receives his "chance to become a hero" from All Might. And when Bakugo calls him Deku the last time in the end (remember he apologized and was trying to be better, so he was calling him Izuku more) it's Deku as a hero, not Deku the nerd.

I hate that Deku lost his powers, and no, the suit doesn't do it for me(he's basically Ironman, I hate it☹️). But if we're being honest, a few heroes lost their powers, like Hawks and the one from the Pussycats (I forgot her name, but I remember what it does! She can see up to a hundred peoples quirks and weaknesses). Also, let's not forget that some DIED. They really ARE dead(and whatever is going on with Edgeshot). And I always thought La Brava's quirk was really really stupid, but she makes up for it with the hacking. (Side bar, someone pointed out that her and Gentle had wedding bands on. Isn't she too young for him?! I hate age gaps!)

I like that Hawks still meets up with Tokoyami. We got a slight mention of Monama, which I was happy with. I would've loved to see Amajiki again. And class B as well. But if we're honest, Horikoshi put his all into making sure everyone got their Plus Ultra moment during the battle with Tomura, which was super awesome. Including the Shiketsu kids! I was sooooooooo happy when they showed up! So I am thankful for that. With this ending, you can pretty much guess what everyone else is doing with themselves. If Horikoshi-sensei made some one-shot chapters to showcase the others, I would be super hyped to read them. But he's probably done with the series as a whole.

Did you notice Recovery Girl had a syringe for a cane?

Also, STOP FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE WHOLE IZUKU AND OCHAKO THING. They're only in their twenties. I'm sure down the line they do get together and get married.

I like that there's less villans now, too. And Spinner wrote his book! I wonder if it's a comic like Deku suggested.

And what was Tomura appearing for? Why did we need to see him?

Anyway, this is the ending we got, so we gotta live with it...I guess...

Some main characters die in the ending of their series, so I guess this is a happy medium. An imperfect happy medium.

This hurts. I'm gonna be sensitive to MHA related stuff for a while now. There's an awning that a bus I use passes, and it says Tomura on it, for whatever reason(the company name? I dunno). It stung when I first saw it.😣 Emotional damage!!!

This fuels me to make sure my endings will be satisfying, at least to me.

[lokidoctorpugs-wenclair-brainrot]

P3

Enid: ok I got U to wear the Headphones, how did U like them

Wednesday: I must admit...they were...amazing...it was so quite...so...peaceful...so...good? IDK how to describe it but I must admit whatever spell U put on them is...entrancing

Enid: I love the glowing review, did U like the detail of the cat ears 🥰

Wednesday: I suppose

Enid: 🥹 I'm glad u like them, anywho time to move on to the next item

Wednesday: U know I despise plushies so what on earth is that

Enid: it's not a plushie it's a squish mellow 😅 anywho I have a little theory about ur adversion, which is that U don't like it because ur afraid ur gonna hurt people or that it makes U look weak (which we will work on)

Wednesday: I can hear U and over my dead body, but I will humor u with this squish mellow do I squish it?

Enid: YEAH! like a hug but without the human interaction..I hope U like that it's a wolf, I added pink and blue tips on it (maybe it reminds u of a certain cute wolf.)

Wednesday: Huh?

Enid: HUG THE PLUSHIE!!!

Wednesday: mmmmm...this feels nice...but odd (it smells like U mia lupa)

Enid: What

Wednesday: I LIKE THE MELLOW *normal tone but quickly said*

Enid: Oh...☹️ Ok let's move on to the next item, which admittedly isn't related to autism at all I just hate the fact that U still have that stupid, shitty, no good, stinky phone Xavier gave u, So I decided to give U an upgrade with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I mean Galaxy...God why did I say the whole ass name of the phone like a weirdo

Wednesday: Weirdos R what make the world go around, they R the inventories of the world, the prodigies of their time, the ones who defy the will of the masses, never be ashamed of that, weirdos R stunning, amazing, and beautiful people, (Ur beautiful)

Enid: 😳 {did she just say I'm beautiful no I must be mishearing things} hahaha U always no what to say to make me feel better U strange but alluring goth menace hahaha 🥰

Wednesday: 😳 think nothing of it Sin

Enid:...did U just give me a nick name 😳🥰😳🥹😳

Wednesday: Yes...U call me willa...and since U seen to give people nick names as a form of affection I thought I'd do the same

Enid: AWWWW are U going soft on me Addams🥹🥰😉

Wednesday: U wish Sinclair 😊😡🥰😤

Enid: Oh also don't worry I got everything transferred over plus a few bonuses I think U deserve as my roommate and friend {I wish we could be more but I don't think I'm ready to ruin our friendship just yet}

Wednesday: affirmative, shall we move on to the next item Sin?

Enid: indeed we shall Willa indeed we shall.

End of part 3

To be continued

Part 2 of Autistic Wednesday Addams

(check pin for part 1)

A shopping spree and delivery session later.

Enid: remember you said you would trust me on this.

Wednesday: I feel like I'm going to regret this but yes

As Wednesday puts on the headphones everything goes quite her thoughts no longer filled with a million other tiny little things and blurbs but just one coherent quietness, no longer did she feel over whelmed by the wizzing wind causing the leaves to make that annoying sound or the way the Alexa would struggle at certain volume creating a annoying yet subtle background affect, it was just quite.

She got lost for a solid minute in peace, in fact it was so obviously working that Enid allowed her to continue until she Re-engaged which was a solid 30 minutes due to the new found quite

Wednesday: wait what were we doing

Enid: oh your ready for the next thing, cause you can always continue relaxing

Wednesday: no I think I'm ready for the next thing

.......To be continued

[instablamwriter]

Top 10 Mankai Actors

Disclaimer: My onion lol. I think everyone has their own charm but if we’re going with just ‘acting’, I do think some are better than others in-game. I don’t think versatility as an actor is everything btw, but it is impressive to see people do very different roles and to do them well each time.

Warning: Spoilers for at least until act 8 for everyone since I did include the rookies in this list.

We will go 10-->1 Feel free to agree/disagree as long as you’re nice about it xoxo

I didn’t put a read-more just so that it’d be easier to read, but let me know if it’s pretty readable (dashboard or otherwise) with a read-more (and dw I tagged it as a long post)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honorable mentions:

Muku!!!! Muku has gotten so much improvement + has one of the largest range of role types in the whole company. Also helps that he’s in the troupe that does the most adlibs so he’s quick to think of lines to sell to the audience (and they have to be funny!)

Juza is the most improved imo and he has the passion and the work ethic to back him up. He does his role type really well but hmm I’ll explain a bit more later why the others edge him out for me.

Chikage was originally higher but upon reflection, I think he doesn’t make it to my top 10. He’s good in the sense that he was trained to deceive people, but in terms of stage acting, putting his heart into it is a newer sort of thing. Also, between him and Taichi, he was the one who was more obviously up to no good. Then again, was he really hiding it? His default is being cagey and secretive in the first place while Taichi is very much the type of person to wear his heart at his sleeve, so Taichi definitely edges him out.

Side note: I wanted to say Citron bc I adore his Ennis but I’m also aware of /how/ biased I am towards Harugaoka in general. so.

Let’s go on!

10-8) Harugaoka Boys

I’m sorry for cheating but I can’t really rank them properly among the three of them.

Arguably, Masumi would be the weakest because even though he has the natural talent, he doesn’t have the same drive as the other two. HOWEVER, his drive in a way is Izumi and Izumi’s own love of theatre. He’s pretty determined whenever Izumi is involved and he has a pretty good range of roles, making him not only versatile, but just pretty good in general. SPOILERS!!! <I mean, he learned how to play a violin so quickly just for Izumi so he’s pretty efficient at learning in the first place.>

Next, Sakuya is a hard worker and has the passion to keep him going. I say he edges out Juza because while I think the formal training from college (+ all the workshops he goes too, either Yuzo or at school), Sakuya sort of breathes and lives everything theatre. Like not only the acting part, but all the behind the scenes things too. He watches and helps out different companies on the daily so I’d say he’s more exposed to a variety of performances than Juza would be. Let’s not go into Liber underutilizing Sakuya with the range of roles or even the number of lead roles (either main or co), but I’d say he’s just has overall more practice at play (pun unintended).

Banri, as we all know, is naturally good at this lol. He does say his weakness is that he can’t put his whole heart into is character unlike Juza (which is also a reason why I’d say that Sakuya and him are more or less the same level). He’s versatile and has a good repertoire + he does have the drive to keep getting better (he says to beat Juza but I think it’s also because he’s become motivated after seeing /everyone/’s portraits (but yes, Juza’s in particular was the hmm trigger I’d say). And since he’s newer to acting, I think everyone else on the list beats him due to experience.

7-5) Taichi, Hisoka, Misumi

I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t choose AGAIN. I think the next 3 have such different skill sets that put them up there. They originally did have a proper ranking but once I was writing it all out, I just couldn’t decide who was better overall. Not surprising since I’m more of a tierlist person than a straight up list person anyway. Hayz, anyway here we gooooo

Taichi Nanao

I guess I should be upfront with the fact that I’m a Taichi oshi so of course, I’m biased. HOWEVER, Taichi started acting as a child, way back in elementary. He works hard on his roles (as seen in plays where he’s been the lead/co-leads) kind of obsessively and SPOILERS!! <has trouble sleeping and overworks himself for them.>

He was also able to get into GodZa at a young age that even Tsumugi couldn’t get into right out of college (tho I have other theories on why there but anyway). Reni treated him like shit but the fact is, he was still able to pass the strict auditions. Anyway, he has the foundation, the training, and the drive (PLUS IF YOU’VE READ ACT 9, YOU GET IT), so I think he’s earned this spot xD

Hisoka Mikage

As mentioned with Chikage, they were sorta forced to learn how to act or it was do or die. Hisoka can pretty much get into roles quickly once he knows the information he needs about the character. I think it’s fair to speculate that Hisoka got a lot more of the dangerous undercover jobs? He seems more attuned to acting than Chikage plus there was the factor that he had to be good or else.

It’s hard to say if his overall life experience would put him ahead of the other two.

Misumi Ikaruga

Misumi grew up watching all of the plays that his grandfather showed him. You could say he’s one of the less subtle acting geeks in the company but he’s all focus and everything once he watches a performance. He has the talent and the foundation, albeit no formal training. He did have a scriptwriter grandfather though who could have more or less helped him hone his skill. Also another very varied actor.

Still as we see with Tenma in-game, where you act (TV vs movies vs stage vs just the general public) makes a big difference and he still has less experience with stage acting and acting in front of others than the other two).

4. Sakyo Furuichi

Sakyo didn’t really have a lot of formal training but he did have the drive and love for theatre since a young age. He watched Mankai rise and fall. I think he’s the most unique case out of everyone bc he has he experience but he couldn’t grow into his full potential because of all the other circumstances in his life. I think he rightfully belongs in the top 4 though. He’s also another case like Juza who does those certain roles very well.

3. Tenma Sumeragi

Gonna be upfront once again, Tenma is my 4th fave, just after Taichi. Still, you can’t deny he’s been acting since birth and has had the formal training to go with it. He has the drive and work ethic to get even better. What puts him behind the other two is just honestly more life experiences and stage acting experience in general.

2. Tsumugi Tsukioka

We know Tsumugi is very skilled. He’s great at the subtle movements and understanding the characters plus he’s just full-on in love with theatre. Also being less sheltered and older, I think he just has more to draw from life-experience wise. He is edged out by our #1 because of the years he took off acting.

1. Tasuku Takato

Tasuku was #1 in Godza, one of the most popular acting companies in their region. He was consistently #1 until he left and even though he had similar roles then, he greatly diversified when he got to Mankai. I mean, it’s Tasuku, the resident ultra theatre nerd. Of course, he had to be #1.

If you’ve made it this far, then wewz. I hope you at least had fun reading xD

[darkstrangevirgilanxiboi]

I Know Who The UA Mole Is

I have thought about this for hours on end and this is the only reasonable theory I have. I've read the manga and watched the anime , analyzed for DAYS. I truly, DEEPLY hope I am wrong but I believe this will be true.

Principal Nezu is the UA Mole.

- We don't know how long he's been principal and we know nearly nothing about his life BEFORE UA or what his home life is like outside of school now

- We know he has a sadistic side and enjoys toying with humans

- At this point pretty much every student in class 1A and 1B ,as well as the Big 3 have been through extremely traumatic circumstances, or had a near death experience, and yet there is ZERO mention of therapy for anyone. Nezu's intellect surpasses that of humans, so he would know how damaging trauma can be and how poorly having an entire generation of heroes with mental health problems working as heroes would go, and yet he has not provided therapy and proper mental health assistance, instead focusing on the toxic mantra of "GO BEYOND PLUS ULTRA! HEROES DON'T CRY OR SHOW FEAR OR SHOW WEAKNESS, BE STRONG AND BRAVE AND NEVER FROWN! " He is ignoring basic human needs and ensuring future crisises by doing so.

- He shows a cheery and charming persona , but other than liking tea,enjoying messing with people and being extremely intelligent, what do we really know about Nezu? What are his core values? Goals? What does he hate? We know he holds a grudge against people because at some unknown point he was "experimented on" - a reveal that is left concerningly vague. Who was doing such experiments and why? Who do we know HAS been experimenting on humans, and presumably animals? AFO and his followers. Nezu looks non-threatening physically, he's cute and polite and charming, and can't be much of a threat in a hand to hand fight. UA, a school that focuses largely on training physical Quirks and for physical combat, tends to overlook powerful more subtle Quirks, like Shinsou. So who would be the PERFECT spy for AFO to send in? Someone who is physically small and weak, but powerful mentally, and capable of manipulation.

- Nezu is not human, and what he actually is seems to be a mixture of varied animals- a dog, a mouse, a bear. Nomu are hybrids too, different Quirks and body parts mixed together. If AFO and the people producing the Nomu are capable of doing that to HUMANS, then doing worse things to other animals would not be taboo. If Nezu was created from in a lab, in an experiment as a precursor to the Nomu, then surely, just like the Nomu, AFO would have a way to control him. Maybe he was groomed , like Shiggy, into being a devout follower and is willingly working for AFO, maybe he's being controlled, maybe he's being threatened into it. But Nezu's behaviour as a principal with profound intelligence does not add up. He's seemed largely aloof to the many disasters UA has faced. And wasn't it Nezu himself who suggested UA had a mole? What better tactic as a spy than to accuse everyone else?

The other spy candidates offered by the fandom have far less motivation compared to the most mysterious character at UA.

- Aizawa seems like a good fit at first because he can be anti-social but we have seen this man risk life and limb to protect his students, and due to his past we know how deep his hatred for villains runs.

-There are a few students I've seen suggested but if you really look into the students there's little motive for them to be the mole, and little evidence . "But they acted weird once" have you ever seen a teenager? Aoyama- awkward and a little socially backward but utimately harmless and just wants a friend. Kirishima- do you think someone working for VILLAINS would have risked his own life to help Fatgum, a popular hero? Or saved civilians from a gang member? Stop accusing him, he's a good kid. Bakugo- we've been over this. He's angry and has some serious issues to fix but he wants to be a hero and has had countless chances to betray everyone and has not. And if he was the spy he could have revealed that during his kidnapping.

- Nezu is the mole

[mk-wizard]

Let me explain how Transformers are not robots

Hi, fans. Today, I am not discussing a theory, but something that is a fact and perhaps the most denied, resisted and challenged fact in all of Transformers lore: they are not robots.

I have gone as far as having long debates with even my own husband about this subject, but the truth is the truth whether you like it or not. Maybe they were introduced as robots and maybe their definition of what a robot is can be different from Earth’s, but they are not robots and when you stop and think about it, they never were. And here is the list of reasons to back it up and I am only counting facts that Hasbro has confirmed as officially part of the Transformers lore;

They have parts (organs) that cannot be replaced by building a new one from scratch. They either get crude replacements or they require an organ donor to replace the part that is lost. Also, these same parts can sometimes be deformed which affects performance. The most obvious they cannot simply replace is their T-cog which is the unique organ that Transformers have that gives them their ability to transform. If this gets damaged or lost, it cripples that ability leaving them as an unchanger. It is also possible for a T-cog to be deformed in which case the Transformer is an unhcanger at birth or has trouble transforming. This organ can only be replaced by a donor or corrected with surgery. It cannot be built. In fact, even body parts like hands, optics and even a foot cannot simply be replaced. They can be put back on, but trying to make a new one is not that simply and at times, the fact that it is a prop shows as seen with Prime Ultra Magnus’ hand, Prime Breakdown’s optic being lost for good and Animated Red Alert’s hand being replaced with a tool. If they were robots, their parts would work like an assembly line of which they are easily replaced and made from scratch. The fact that not even a hand can work this way for Transformers is proof that they are not robots. Like us, if they lose a body part, they won’t be the same. They are even made up of something called CNA which is what DNA is to us. In fact, they share many organs with us like bones and veins.

They have genders and this has been confirmed since the IDW comics and Beast Wars. I admit that initially, they didn’t have genders in the time of G1 which caused confusion for the G1 fans later, but this fact was officially changed by the Beast Wars era. They have biological genders and work the same way as ours. With that said, as radical as it sounds, they come to be through reproduction like us not through being built. Yes, they can be put back together if broken apart, but they don’t come into the world like that. Every Transformer has a mother and father biologically just like you and me.

They can age and die which is something robots cannot do. A robot may wear and tear with time and its batteries will eventually run out, but it never actually was alive to begin with, it never ages and it doesn’t die. You can simply replace the robot’s batteries and they will be fine. As we have seen especially Alpha Trion since G1, Transformers can age and even grow old. And in Rescue Bots, we see that they even start off in the world as children. And most notably, once a Transformer dies, it’s for good. Optimus was the exception through a miracle of Primus. The norm is that death is forever with them. And if you want to look at this from a spiritual perspective if you’re devout like me and believe in that stuff, they have an afterlife where their souls go which is the Allspark. If the ability to age and die while having a soul is not the definitive trait of being a living being, I don’t what is.

They have biological familial relationships which is impossible for a robot. Since the days of G1, we saw many examples of this; - The Lamborghini twins are twin brothers. - In some continuities, Optimus and Ultra Magnus are either cousins or brothers. - Hound and Mirage are cousins. I don’t know if they are close or distant ones, but it is why they share similar powers. - In some continuities including G1, it is subtly hinted that Elita-One is Alpha Trion and Beta Maxx’s biological daughter. - G1 Arcee is Beast Wars Rattrap’s great aunt. - In some continuities, the Prime system is hierarchical meaning from parent to child so all Primes are family. The Megatron system works the same way. - In some continuities, Ratchet is a father and grandfather. - In Rescue Bots, Ratchet is Medix’s uncle. - The Constructicons are brothers. - In Animated, Jetstorm and Jetfire are twin brothers. - While it was initially a joke that he had a mother, it is now a fact that Optimus Prime had loving parents who sadly, were two of the many casualities in the war. I don’t know which one was the Prime though. - In current times, each Dinobot is a parent. - In Animated, Bulkhead came from a big family. - In Animated, Kup has a nephew. - In the comics, it is hinted that Wheeljack has a son out of wedlock.

They can get sick or hurt which is also impossible for a robot. As we have seen since the days of G1, Transformers have health needs and cannot only emotionally feel, but also physically feel for better or for worse. When they get injured, they don’t just simply break. It hurts and in some cases, the severity of an injury can have repercussions such as permanent damage. In the case of Fixit, he is handicapped for life because of the injuries he sustained from his crash. In some fights, Transformers have wound up dead. Which leads us to the diseases they can endure which can be fatal. And unlike a robot that simply acts wonky or nutty when bugged, Transformers act like we do when they are sick. They are weak, they are in pain, they moan and even physically look awful hence needing to stay in bed. And like us, these diseases require treatment.

They can have handicaps and imperfections which cannot simply be corrected by repairing or rebuilding. If a Transformer has a handicap of any kind especially a mental one or suffers from some kind of insanity, you can’t just simply reboot them or fix their processor (brain). And they can have imperfections such as not all having the same level of fitness or even being fat or possibly even being physically deformed. And like an organic person, sometimes, you cannot simply operate on them to fix it because it can be dangerous. For example, it has been confirmed that Lugnut is hideously deformed (though that didn’t stop Strika from loving him), it is hinted that Megatron is a mutant and years of forced surgery to be a great miner mutated him further, and it has been confirmed that out of all the cop Autobots, Prowl is chubby and a lot of evidence points to most versions of Optimus being fat. A robot cannot suffer from insanity, it cannot gain or lose weight and they cannot mutate because they don’t have a biology.

So there you all have it. Proof that the Transformers are not robots and these are facts Hasbro backs up. I hope it has cleared the air and ceased the confusion. Take it or leave it. Personally, I like the fact that they aren’t robots because I find it makes them more interesting and dynamic. That and I find the fact that they can have families endearing. And as side note, the fact that Optimus Prime had kind loving parents.

If you have a Transformers theory or fact you want explored, let me know in my ask box and I will delve into it.

Thanks for reading and talk to you later. EDIT: Forgot to add a fact. Added sickness and injury now. EDIT 2: More significant things have been added to the family list. Plus, another significant fact came to mind.

[starvonnie]

Love Languages

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Fandoms: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types Relationship: Megatron/Rodimus | Rodimus Prime Characters: Megatron (Transformers),Rodimus | Rodimus Prime Additional Tags: Kissing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, In a way, Suggestive Themes

Prompt: Patience

Also on AO3 “Be patient with him.”

That had been Drift’s advice when Rodimus broke the news to him that Megatron and him were now “a thing.”  He’d little more to say on the matter at all.  Just that he was happy for him.  Oh, and that he’d kill Megatron if he hurt Rodimus.  Which was fair.

Rodimus regretted that he hadn’t really asked for clarification on what he’d meant.  Be patient with what?  Did he just need a lot of foreplay or something?  

Whatever.  He didn’t dwell too much.

They kept to themselves for a little while.  Just long enough to spread the news to close friends and to smooth things over with Ultra Magnus before it got to the rumour mill. It took a week or so before they decided to just announce it (which was weird and awkward… but necessary), so now the whole ship knew.  Now they could just be a normal couple, right?

Rodimus strolled onto the bridge happily, for once. He walked right up to Megatron, touched his arm, and went to get up onto the fore of his pedes when Megatron took a half-step away.

“Good morning, Rodimus.”

Rodimus tried not to look hurt.  “Morning.”

Megatron awkwardly patted his hand, then got back to what he’d been doing.

Rodimus sheepishly made his way to the office, feeling optics on him.  The day passed slowly in a haze of rejection and paperwork.

The next day, he tried to walk normally and keep up a smile.  Again, he made a beeline for Megatron.  This time, he wasn’t engrossed in any work, and noticed Rodimus before he got to him. He went to do the same thing, and again, he stepped out of his reach.

“What gives?” Rodimus hissed.

“We’re at work.”

“Hmph.  Fine.” Rodimus stewed for a bit, but managed to lose himself in his work.  Plus, it was easy to look forward to the end of the day.  Megatron had agreed to go with him to Swerve’s for trivia night. If I must, he’d said.  

Still.  They wouldn’t be at work.  He couldn’t refuse a kiss then, right?

“I’ve got an idea to make this a little more interesting,” Rodimus said later, sitting across the table from Megatron.  

“Oh?”  Megatron looked wary.

“Well, I know most of the people here are on teams, but what if we competed?”

“I thought the point of this night was to be a couple’s thing?” Megatron asked, looking confused.

Rodimus shrugged.  “It’s not like a rule or anything.  That’s just what tends to happen.  But we’re both pretty smart, so I think it’d be fun to see who’s the smartest.”

Megatron shrugged.  “If that’s what you want.”

“Hold on, I’m not finished.  I haven’t gotten to the stakes.”

“I’m beginning to regret agreeing to this.”

Rodimus rolled his optics, annoyance creeping into his field.  “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.  I just figured that if one of us gets an answer wrong that the other gets right, the one who got it wrong owes the other a kiss.  Kind of a win-win situation, y’know?”

“Or you could just ask for a kiss.”

“Come on, Megs,” Rodimus whined.  “Can’t we just have a little fun?  Please?”

Megatron sighed.  “Alright, Rodimus.”

Fortunately, or unfortunately for Rodimus, they were both either really good at trivia or Swerve was really bad at coming up with trivia questions.  Either way, they hadn’t gotten any answers wrong.  It was time to take matters into his own hands.

“Whoops, looks like I got that one wrong,” Rodimus said, sarcastically feigning disappointment.  “Darn! Looks like I owe you a kiss.”  He crooked a finger at Megatron, pursing his lips slightly.

“Here?”

“… Yeah?”

Megatron shook his helm.  “Just keep a tally or something.  I’ll give them to you once we’re back at our habsuite.”

The rejection stung again, but at least he was able to soothe it with that fact that Megatron had called it our habsuite.

“Fine,” Rodimus muttered.

He had no trouble getting the rest of the questions right.

At least when they were walking back, Rodimus managed to capture Megatron’s hand and he didn’t take it back.  He seemed surprised at first, but then squeezed back with a smile on his face.  What weird rules did Megatron follow?

Whatever.  They were holding hands and heading back to their room together.  And maybe once they were inside…

Finally, Rodimus got his kiss.  He’d been so starved for kisses that the first one sent a rush of electricity through his frame.  His knees literally felt weak.  Really, every trope he’d ever heard was taking over his frame.  He did his best to steer them towards the berth, but he had no strength in his limbs.  Megatron had to be the one to do it.

“Satisfied?” Megatron asked with a little smirk.

“With you?”  Rodimus pulled him down again.  “Never.”

Rodimus wished the hands sitting courteously on his waist would slide lower.  After all, it had been long enough.  Too long, in Rodimus’ opinion.  If Megatron were one of his exes, they’d be getting into the kinky stuff right now. But here he was, stuck on first base.

Maybe he was just being cautious.  There were a couple conspiracy theories circulating around the ship.  One was that he’d manipulated Rodimus or was blackmailing him.  The other suggested literal brainwashing.  So… Rodimus would just have to make his intentions crystal clear.

Rodimus fixed Megatron with a lustful gaze.  He softly bit Megatron’s bottom lip during their next kiss and tugged on it as he pulled back.  With a sultry smile thrown over his shoulder, he guided Megatron to the berth and lay down.  He put his hands above his helm and spread his legs a bit, giving himself wholly to Megatron.  Wherever he wanted to touch, he could.

“Could you move over a bit?” Megatron asked, a little irritation in his voice.

Rodimus gave him an annoyed look, but obliged.

“For someone your size, you manage to take up most of the berth,” Megatron commented as he climbed in.

“We’re supposed to share,” Rodimus said.

“And that’s a two-way street.”

Rodimus stifled a frustrated growl and rolled onto his side.  He pressed himself flush to Megatron’s frame and kissed him again.  At least he seemed to be okay with this.  

Trying to be subtle, he slid his hand down Megatron’s frame. Just before it got to his array, however, Megatron grabbed his wrist.  He froze, his field crackling with confusion as he met his lover’s gaze.

“Sorry,” he said, when he realized how forceful he’d been. He lifted his hand to kiss where he’d hurt.  “Not tonight. I’m a little too tired for that.”

Not tonight?  More like, not ever.  Why didn’t Megatron want to frag him?  Did he not think he was hot?

“Okay…”  Rodimus tried not to let it show, but disappointment flooded his field.  His spoiler fell, too.

Megatron lifted Rodimus’ fallen chin.  He kissed him and pulled him close, instead.  It was nice, but… all of these rejections were piling on top of each other and weighing him down.

Did Megatron not want him anymore?  Maybe there was something to those conspiracy theories…

It didn’t help when he woke up in berth, alone. Tears pricked at his optics.  He was going to look so stupid in front of everyone when they found out he’d already managed to screw things up.  This was Megatron.  He should be happy anyone looked his way!  And why go to all the trouble of telling people and announcing things and even filling out paperwork because of their “working relationship?”

Well, frag him.  He can go to hell and he wasn’t even that hot and—

Rodimus cursed when he knocked over a glass on the nightstand and spilled energon everywhere.  He was already berating himself for forgetting about leaving it there when he saw the note.

Had to leave for an emergency.  It’s nothing major, and I can handle it.  

Ah.  He hadn’t forgotten.  But that meant he’d spilled what Megatron had left for him.

Sighing, but feeling a little better about things, Rodimus cleaned up the mess and mixed his own ration before heading to the bridge. He was thankful Megatron was in the office when he got there.  After checking in with Ultra Magnus, he went to the office, ensuring that he left the door wide open, since he could feel Magnus’ optics on his back.

“Thanks for dealing with whatever.  And for getting me my ration.”  He left out that he spilled it.

“You’re welcome, Rodimus.  I know you forget some mornings and the last thing we need is a cranky mech capable of creating fire.”  He smiled at him.

Rodimus chuckled.  He considered trying for another kiss, but decided against it.

He nodded towards the stack of data pads.  “A lot of paperwork today, huh?”

“I’ve got it today.  You go keep an optic on things out there.”  Megatron gave him a small smile.

“Okay.  And, um… we’re still on for tonight, yeah?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

 Rodimus had gone through every possible reason for why Megatron might be late until he landed on the only one that really made sense.

He wasn’t late; he wasn’t coming.

He dangled his pedes into the oil reservoir, pointedly choosing to not look at the stars.  Maybe then he could just pretend he wanted to be here alone.  It wasn’t meant to be romantic.  Maybe he was just checking the integrity of the oil, or making sure they had enough or…

Or maybe he was alone because he was so undesirable that even Megatron didn’t want him.  He was ready to slink back to his habsuite—his, not theirs—and cry himself to sleep when he heard the door open.

“I’m so sorry I’m late, Rodimus.”

“Oh, did we have something planned?” Rodimus said sarcastically.  “Well, there goes my plans to drown myself.”

Megatron sighed as he took a seat next to Rodimus. He refused to look at him.  He’d see anger in his optics, yes, but also the tears threatening to escape.

“I was on my way here when I saw Brainstorm… being Brainstorm.  I had to get him to stop what he was doing and then find some experiment to give him permission for that wouldn’t blow up the ship or tear a hole in the time-space continuum.  You know how he is.”

“Yeah, and I know how you are,” Rodimus said bitterly.

“I truly am sorry, Rodimus.  I wanted to be here.”

“Uh huh.  Just like you wanted to kiss me all those times, or, or frag the night before or like a week ago or when you wouldn’t hold my hand, or…”  Rodimus clenched his denta to keep himself from crying. He must already look so pathetic. He certainly sounded pathetic. It all sounded so petty when he gave voice to his thoughts.

“I’m sorry, Rodimus, this is… difficult for me.”  He sighed again.  “I apologize.  I didn’t realize this was weighing on you so heavily.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Yeah!  Well!  If you don’t want me why did you even agree to date me?”  He turned flaring optics his way.  His anger fizzled out a bit when he saw the apology in Megatron’s gaze.

“Because I do want you.”

Rodimus scoffed.  “You’ve got a great way of showing that.”  He swiped at the one errant tear that leaked from his optic.

Megatron took one of Rodimus’ hands in both of his. He sighed, deflating.  “Let me explain.  I should have told you this from the start, but…”  He looked away.  “I suppose I was hoping I would just be able to get over it, but it’s clear that won’t happen just because I get to court a beautiful mech.”

Rodimus said nothing, but a blush tinged his cheeks pink.

“I’m sure you know that war can change someone.” He met Rodimus’ gaze, but wasn’t able to hold it.  “For me, one of those changes was touch.  Affection, really.  It’s…” He sighed again.  “Believe me when I say I want to hug you and kiss you and everything you want me to do.  And I will, eventually.  It will just take me a little longer.”

“Oh.”

Megatron brought Rodimus’ hand to his mouth and kissed it.

“But… I mean, you let me kiss you when we’re alone,” Rodimus said.  “So it’s clearly not the kiss that’s the problem.”

“It’s not inherently the problem, but, yes, it’s easier to do when we’re alone.  I was caught off-guard at Swerve’s.  But if we’re on the bridge we won’t be kissing.  We’re at work.  We have to be professional.”

“Fine.”

“For everything else, though, it’s… complicated. The want is there, but doing it…”

Rodimus put his free hand over Megatron’s.

Megatron looked up and smiled at him.  “I think I’m just having trouble letting my guard down. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Okay… so… what can I do?”

“If you want to do something, just ask me.  At least for now.  Whenever you…”  His face scrunched up in thought.  “You know when you hear a loud noise you weren’t expecting?  How your weapons seem to power up on their own?  Or your plating clamps down to prepare for a fight?”

“Yuuuup.  Fun stuff.”

“It’s like that.  In a way.  If I’m not expecting someone to touch me, well, that could be someone coming to stab me in the back.  Or you’re trying to get me to let my guard down to launch an attack when I’m not prepared.  And before you say anything, yes, I know how crazy it sounds.  I’m working on it with Rung.  Because I know you don’t want to hurt me.  I’m fighting my instincts here.  Instincts that kept me alive for millions of years.  I’ll get there, eventually.”

Drift’s words made a lot more sense now.

“Okay.  I’ll be patient with you.  But you gotta be patient with me, too.  Or understanding, I guess.  I’m pretty touchy-feely.  If I’m honest, I thought you’d just already gotten tired of me.”

Megatron chuckled and then gave him a sympathetic look. “I don’t think anyone could tire of you.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Well, I can’t see it happening with me.  That being said, can I kiss you?”

Rodimus beamed.  “Of course.”

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Mr. Line

“If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody is around to hear it, and it hits a mime, does anyone care?” ~ Gary Larson

DESIGN

Mime Jr.’s actually pretty cute, looking like a tiny little silly clown. The design is a bit generic but also very effective, making it a creature with just enough clown parts so that you know it’s a clown without so many clown parts to look terrifying. It also manages to look a lot like one of those clown-faced ice creams you can get at some places, where the cone is upside down as a hat. The point is, Mime Jr. is a small, cute pokemon that works perfectly fine.

Next is “Kantonian” Mr. Mime, and I put that in quotes because this Pokemon isn’t actually Kantonian. As with Farfetch’d, Mr. Mime is called Kantonian because that’s the first region we as players could get it, but the only ones available in Kanto outside of Let’s Go are either from trades or from the game counter, plus a very tiny amount that appear in the grass patch south of Pallet Town in Gold and Silver but not Red and Blue, implying that someone in Pallet Town has been breeding and releasing Mr. Mimes, and I’m not going to say who, but we all know these Mimes are a certain protagonist’s half-siblings, don’t we?

So where is Mr. Mime from? Well, we’ve established that the first Mr. Mime we met, Marcel, didn’t come from Kanto, and there’s no Mr. Mime in Johto, Hoenn, or Unova. Alola’s a weird one, as they don’t appear in Sun and Moon but they do appear in both Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Still, they’re only in one location and Alola is known for having many imported Pokemon.  Sinnoh’s a possibility- while the Trophy Garden is clearly cultivated, Mr. Mime and Mime Jr. both appear in the wild in Diamond (but not Pearl). Still, I think the actual natural habitat of this Mr. Mime is the Reflection Cave in Kalos. Not only would a mime Pokemon make the most sense in the Kalos region, but it’d make far more sense for it to be living in a hall of mirrors than simply wandering grasslands as it does in Diamond. Further, this is in much closer proximity to the Galar Region, where Mime Jr.s and Galarian Mr. Mimes wander freely.  Thus, for the rest of this article I’m going to refer to this creature as Kalosian Mr. Mime.

And Kalosian Mr. Mime is terrifying. This thing is so Uncanny Valley that it goes down to becoming some sort of Uncanny Trench where light vanishes and there’s no hope for escape. It has all the most terrifying aspects of a clown, with a vaguely human form that isn’t quite right, hair that resembles horns, and an uncomfortably close relationship with your mother. Its bright coloration and curly feet are just sort of haunting, giving the illusion that it’s wearing clothes while in actuality that’s all just part of it’s horrible, horrible body.

In contrast, Galarian Mr. Mime is much friendlier looking. The pants help a lot, but so do the big gloves and the nose. It looks less like a monster and more like a cartoony man, and while it’s still weird to see a Pokemon that’s so humanlike, this version doesn’t feel inherently wrong and unsettling. Much better design here, unless the goal is to freak people out. That said, I just don’t buy this as an evolved form of Mime Jr. Galar really needed a Galarian Mime Jr. to finish the set, because as is Mime Jr. turning into Galarian form in Galar and Kalosian form anywhere else just feels off.  The other weird thing is that Galarian Mr. Mime, with its new focus on tapdance, doesn’t still feel like it should be called Mr. Mime. It’s something I complain about a lot with alternate forms, but if a creature’s called Mr. Mime it should be miming, not dancing, and if a creature’s called Sandshrew it should be sand based. 

Visually, I love Mr. Rime. He’s got all the charm of Galarian Mr. Mime but now has a silly hat and an ice cane. He also gets the red bubble on his stomach back from being a Mime Jr. which makes me question why Galarian Mr. Mime doesn’t have it. Mime Jr. links fine to Mr. Rime, but through features lost along the way, like its hat and its big red poofs. Mr. Rime is also clearly Charlie Chaplin, and I love the pun of its name in that it’s both Rime and Rhyme.

EVOLUTIONS:

Oh god this line is a mess.

First we get Mime Jr, which has first form starter stats, but evolves when knowing the move Mimic. With no TM or TR, Mime Jr. learns Mimic at 32, finally evolving into a Pokemon whose stat total is still a bit small for a final form. If it’s not in Galar, it stays a Psychic/Fairy type. If it is in Galar, it becomes a Psychic/Ice type, which then evolves again at 42 into something that’s not actually that big a boost over its previous for, making Galarian Mr. Mime a good user of the Eviolite.

And then Mime Jr. is an incense baby, so if you breed two Mr. Mimes (and you can because despite the name half are female) you get a Mr. Mime if you’re not using incense. This is a stupid mechanic that they need to get rid of. 

As with Farfetch’d, the fact that the original doesn’t get a new evolution while the regional form does bothers me, because it doesn’t do anything to bring the original back into playability, it just gives us a new different Pokemon that makes the original less relevant.

I will say Mime Jr. was a good addition. While some baby Pokemon are a waste of time, Mime Jr.’s actually a really solid early-game Pokemon, and Mr. Mime’s strong enough that it shouldn’t be appearing until mid to late game anyway. Adding Mime Jr. adds a lot of playability to this line in PVE.

Art by Zerochan923600

TYPING:

Kalosian Mr. Mime spent a lot of time as a Psychic type until we actually went to Kalos and found out it was a Psychic/Fairy type this whole time. Defensively, this is decent. It only has three weaknesses, and while it only has three ‘resistances,’ one of them’s a double and one of them’s an immunity. Offensively, it’s super-effective against four types and neither type works well against Steel… but that’s Steel, and most things don’t work well against Steel.

Galarian Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime are Ice/Psychic types, with their only competition in that type combination being Jynx and the legendary Ice Rider Calyrex. Defensively, this is a really bad combination, with six weaknesses and only two resistances- Ice and Psychic themselves. Offensively, this gives super-effective options against six types with only Steel as a shared resistance. 

Art by DarkraiLady

STATS

Kalosian Mr. Mime has a whopping 120 Special Defense, but a mere 40 HP, seriously inhibiting its ability to actually tank, and only 65 physical defense. It’s 100 Special Attack is respectable, but Speed 90 isn’t really enough to make a sweeper out of it,  even with Nasty Plot.

Galarian Mr. Mime balances its stats a bit, trading Special Attack and Special Defense for a bit more HP and Speed, but the only thing here that really works out in its favor is that it can equip an Eviolite, turning it into an actual defensive Pokemon, albeit one that still has poorer HP than most. 

Mr. Rime brings up most of its stats as evolutions do, but weirdly drops its speed from 100 to 70. It manages to be more defensive than average post-evolution, but its key stat becomes its 110 Special Attack. Overall, its stats are fine, able to dish out hits and take them, and its worst stats are only a bit below average.

Singin’ in the Snow by Pizapioart

ABILITIES

Kalosian Mr. Mime and Galarian Mr. Mime have entirely different abilities, with Mr. Rime having another.

Like Electrode, Kalosian Mr. Mime can get Soundproof, and there’s plenty of Sound based attacks out there, making this a decent defensive option. This improves in 2v2 where you can pair it with Boomburst.

Filter, a near-Signature ability of Mr. Mime, is another powerful defensive option, reducing the damage of supereffective moves from 2x to 1.5x. As you can reasonably expect most opponents to have Poison, Steel, or Ghost moves somewhere in their lineup, you really can’t go wrong with this.

Technician increases the power of any of Mr. Mime’s moves of 60 power or less by 50%, and in theory this is a good ability, but Mr. Mime just learns all the good moves anyway. There’s no reason to use a Technician’d Confusion when you can learn Psychic, or a Technician’d Magical Leaf when you can learn Energy Ball. Skipping this should be easy, because it’s Mr. Mime’s Hidden Ability.

Galarian Mr. Mime (but not Mr. Rime) gets Vital Spirit, which grants immunity to sleep. This is fine and usable and plenty of enemies will try and put you to sleep, but this isn’t the reason you’d be using this Pokemon.

Mr. Rime gets Tangled Feet, which is a garbage ability for garbage Pokemon. Nobody needs raised evasion when confused, what they need is to not be confused.

Ice Body, hidden ability of Galarian Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime, causes a Pokemon to heal in Hail. Of course, every Pokemon that can get this, other than the not-fully-evolved Seel, takes no damage in Hail anyway, and it really takes a fully defensive playstyle to worry about using your ability on sometimes healing 1/16th max HP a turn. There are ways to build Mr. Rime for this, but it’ll involve other Poekmon on your team setting up the Hail and wanting it, too.

Besides, Galarian Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime have the signature ability “Screen Cleaner” which negates Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil upon switching in. This ability is honestly the best reason to use these Pokemon, more than anything they’ll actually do once on the field. Any ability that has an effect on switch in tends to be good, because as long as it’s something you wanted done, you basically just got a free action. 

Art by  PeregrineJazmin, formerly Retkikosmos

MOVES:

Psychic and Psyshock are both great options for your primary attack form. Psychic is a bit bigger, but as you’ll have a special move of your other element to fall back on, Psyshock adds a bit more versatility.

Kalosian Mr. Mime’s only Fairy attack is Dazzling Gleam so you take Dazzling Gleam. Galarian Mr. Mime/Mr. Rime gets your choice of Ice Beam, Blizzard, or Freeze-Dry. Freeze Dry has the drawback of being weaker most of the time, but extra strong against Water Types, which are rather common. Blizzard is more likely to outright end something, but without Hail its accuracy is rather poor.

Coverage options are pretty wide for the mimes. Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, and Focus Blast are available to both, with that last one being super effective against the Steel types that resist Psychic, Fairy, and Ice. 

If you think you’ll get a moment to build up, Nasty Plot is always a great move, as is the more defensive Calm Mind.

Mr. Rime gets two particularly interesting options: it can Rapid Spin, which combines well with Screen Cleaner to reset the field, and it can learn Slack Off, the normal type equivalent of Recover. 

The Mime family’s move pools are actually rather deep, and there’s plenty more options in there, like Hypnosis, Reflect and Light Screen, Baton Pass, Iron Defense, Stored Power, and, via older gens, Healing Wish.

Art by albrt-wlson, which I have to assume is short for Albert Wilson, but might actually be Alberta Walesong.

OVERALL:

I love to hate Mr. Mime, though overall the whole family winds up in the range of ‘fine.’ Mr. Rime’s speed loss is its biggest hit, but other than that there’s a lot of good stuff it can do, especially with both Screen Cleaner and Rapid Spin.  Having below average speed on a Pokemon with so many weaknesses is a problem, but with such a strong variety of moves there’s a lot that can make up for it.

Kalosian Mr. Mime, unfortunately, really needs that stat boost that Mr. Rime got or the ability to use Eviolite like Galarian Mr. Mime, and it just doesn’t have either. 

The other thing that really bugs me about Kalosian Mr. Mime is its abilities or lack thereof. In flavor, Mr. Mime is THE Barrier Pokemon. Reflect and Light Screen are supposed to be what it does better than anyone else… but it just isn’t. Sure, Soundproof, Filter, and Technician are interesting, but I’d have loved to see Mr. Mime have something like Prankster or an ability that mimicked Light Clay, anything to say ‘this is the Pokemon that is best at Reflect.’ Honestly it’s a problem I see in the game a lot, a Pokemon having a specifically mentioned ability or a clear signature move that the Pokemon just has no reason to use. At least Mr. Rime clearly wants to use Teeter Dance with Tangled Feet, even if that strategy isn’t a strong one.

It just really bugs me when a Pokemon isn’t good at what it’s supposed to do, even if it’s good in other ways.

[kuzocho]

Scarred. | Kaminari Denki x Reader

I’m not even sure what this is, lol. But my boy Kami needs more love. So here’s some h/c with him.

tw: scars (not from self-harm)

Kaminari moaned when your hips rolled against his and it took all his will power not to go any further than this heavy make-out session. Your hands pulled harder at his hair from the sound he made and with half-lidded eyes, you breathed his name. Feeling his blood rushing through his veins at that, his grip on your waist got stronger. He couldn’t help but crane his neck to kiss you once more. Your fingers left his hair and wandered down, cupping his face for a second before they found hold on his shoulders as your hips moved again.

A sight left both of your lips, yours leaving to trail down kisses along his jawline while he closed his eyes. The feeling of your kisses on his neck send shivers down his spine and the way your fingers touched him was intoxicating. They roamed his shoulders, taking in the warm skin of his arms before they explored his lean muscles on his chest. He quietly moaned again when you draw a slow circle over his crotch and your digits left patters on his stomach and with his name falling from your lips again before they sucked at his neck, it felt so good that he almost missed how your fingers played with the hem of his shirt, leisurely finding their way under it. His eyes flew open and you nearly fell from his lap when he pushed himself up to grab your wrists.

“Stop”, he said, his voice was pressed and full of panic.

Leaning back on your heels you asked, “Are you okay?” Your hands moved away from his shirt and he let go of them. Instead, he intertwined one of them with yours and gave it a gently squeeze.

“Yes, baby, it’s all good. I’m just not in the mood, y’know?” The lie left his lips in an instant, given that it was not the first time he had told you that.

“’kay…” You didn’t buy his answer. Hell, how could you after you felt his arousal just mere moments ago.

But as much as Kaminari wanted to tell you, he couldn’t do it yet. He knew that with the direction you two were going, he had to at one point, but because of his own selfishness, he wanted to delay that as far as possible. When he had literally run into you in that cute little ramen shop close to his work a few weeks ago, he had been immediately smitten by you. Fortunately, you had been interested as well, giving him your number and he had taken you out for some coffee the next day. On your second date a couple of days after, he had kissed you.

Ever since then, he had met you regularly, either eating dinner somewhere, cooking together at your place or playing video games at his, but always ending up with locked lips and roaming hands. And every time he had to end it. Along the way of all this, Kaminari had developed feelings for you which only made it harder for him. He was certain that you would react like all the other women and after the last few weeks, he wasn’t ready for you to leave yet. So he was being a dick, telling you lies why he stopped you when your hands found their way under his shirt, because he wanted to have more moments with you, even though the guilt made his stomach turn.

The feeling was even worse today, seeing you chewing your bottom lip and knitting your eyebrows together.

You turned your head to the side. “You know, you can tell me if you don’t find me attractive enough.”

“W-What? No, that’s not it!”

“I won’t throw a tantrum or be mad at you, just tell me.” Your voice was quiet.

He squeezed your hand. “Hey, cupcake, look at me”, he gently demanded. When you did, he added, “I swear, this has nothing to do with you and everything with me.”

His heart fluttered a bit as you chuckled. “That’s such a cliché, Kami.”

“It’s true though. I wasn’t lying when I said you took my breath away the first time you smiled at me, sweet cheeks.” Kaminari tried to give you one of his cheeky smirks, but it felt weak and shaky.

“But you’re lying every time I try to initiate something.”

It was his turn to look away. “I know.”

“Why?”, you asked as you kept looking at him. There wasn’t any anger in your voice.

Pressure formed in his chest, making his heartbeat faster as he realized that this was the moment he had tried to run away from. Of course he despised lying to you. But leaving you with the feeling his behaviour was your fault? He’d rather got beaten up by Bakugou. Despite thinking about it a lot beforehand, he didn’t know what to say and the first thing was, “You’re not gonna like me anymore after you’ve seen it.”

He sounded like a whiny teenage-boy, making the pressure worse. He felt like he was choking on the air.

You leaned closer to kiss his cheek and oh god, this would be the last time you would do this, he knew it. “Kami, I’m sure that’s not possible. It is about your body, isn’t it? I know that everyone has some parts that they don’t like about themselves, but from what I’ve could feel and see so far, there is nothing wrong with yours. Nobody is fla-”

The bubble in his chest exploded like a balloon being picked by a needle and he blurted out, “I’m scarred!” Warmth crept up his cheeks and the need to hide was almost unbearable. That was definitely not the way he had wanted to tell you.

You quirked and eyebrow up. “You are a hero, of course you would have some scars.”

He licked his lips, his eyes searching the room for something they could focus on. “It’s worse than that.”

Placing another kiss on his cheek, you mumbled, “Sunshine, why don’t you just show me and then we can argue how bad it is?”

His gaze wandered back to you and your relaxed complexion. Maybe it won’t be so bad this time, a tiny voice in his head said and suddenly he nodded. Sensing that nothing would come out if he tried to speak, he waved his hand to gesture that you should get off him. Letting go of his other fingers, you sat next to him on the couch. Kaminari took a last glance at your face before he turned away, his back facing you. Taking a deep breath in a weak attempt to calm himself, he resisted the urge to just run, grabbing his shirt with trembling hands at his neck and pulling it off. Once he was out of it, he let his head hung low.

Your shocked gasp filled the room for a second and Kaminari closed his eyes. He memorised the picture that you saw a long time ago.

Dozens over dozens over dozens of scars littered his whole back. They were small, each only less than an inch long, but there were so many that it didn’t mattered anyway. Some of them were straight, some cracked ironically like a lightning bolt and the white colour and shiny surface only added to that even more. It was the worst around his spine. They gathered along it, covering almost every part of skin of it before they spread out. In two years or so, his sides, shoulders and neck would be coated with them as well. And after that, his front and his arms would be next, maybe even his legs. At least they didn’t hurt or made his skin tight.

“How?”

“Every time I short-circuit myself.”

It had started to happen at the training camp during their first summer break. While he had changed in front of his friends, Sero had spotted them. On that day, Kaminari hadn’t bothered, thinking that they might be scars from his childhood since they weren’t that many. It only had occurred to him that they could be quirk related when Kirishima had pointed out more of them the next day. When they had been back at school after the incident, he had overused his quirk on purpose, confirming his theory. There had been nothing Recovery Girl could have done to remove or undo them and he also hadn’t minded, assuming that he would solve the problem of going into his yay-mode quite fast.

But he had forgotten that he had been at UA, so they had pushed and pushed and pushed him, always going plus ultra. The self-awareness had kicked in when all of the boys had started to send hidden glances at his back and as the cherry on top of it all, Bakugou had stopped calling him stupid and dunce face.

Now, a few years later, they didn’t increased as frequently as back then, since he actually managed to raise the limits of his quirk ridiculously high. The damage had been done anyway, especially on his confidence, masking his insecurities by being even more awkwardly flirtatious. When there hadn’t been that many, he could still explore intimacy with girls, but even that had changed after the scars had covered all of his lower back, making him feel the need to either warn them beforehand or not anticipating anything at all. He bad become used to the different reactions, so much that he could foreshadow them based on the personality most of the time and slowly finding peace in never finding a significant other.

But then you came, knocking him straight out of his Pikachu socks and he wanted nothing more for you than to stay. And now he was sitting in front of you. He felt naked in a way that had nothing to do with clothes. It was as if you could look right through him, like his soul with all his insecurities he developed over the years laid directly in front of you, ready to get stumped on again. At any moment now, you would get up and tell him that you couldn’t to this and that it’s dis-

“Can I touch them?”

“What?” His head whipped around and he saw your face out of the corners of his eyes. Your hand was already hovering in the air, mere inches away from his skin. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint your emotions; there was sadness, maybe a hint of anger – but he felt that it wasn’t towards him – and something softer, calmer, something he had seen before in your eyes when you looked at him. Your question threw him off guard, obviously. No one ever wanted to touch them willingly, but before he could think about it further, he nodded and turned his head back, missing the reassuring smile you gave him.

His heart was beating a mile per minute and a shiver ran through him as your fingertips tenderly touched a scar on his right shoulder blade. It wasn’t bad per se, but a completely new feeling. He experienced sensory overload as the pads of your fingers followed the thin lines. The silence buzzed violently in his ears and the clock was ticking so loudly, leaving him suddenly wishing he had put some music on before you came over and your breath fanned his neck, making him feeling hot there while the rest of his body was cold from his anxiety.

And then you kissed one of them and his heart missed a beat at the feeling. It was gently and warm and loving. His vision blurred.

“That”, you started lowly, pressing your lips on another scarred patch between the words, “doesn’t change a damn thing.” Your arms came around his waist, pulling him closer. Embracing him with all his flaws and he barely could hold a sniffle in. “And you know why?” Another kiss, this time closer to his neck. “Because you’re still beautiful.”

He pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes, forcing the tears back with a mess of white dazzling dots behind his eyelids, pleading, “Please, stop.”  

But you would have none of that. “And that has nothing to do with your looks. I fell for you, because you’re funny and smart and adventurous and so unbelievable lovable.”

There were more kisses and it got too much. The last word ripped a sob through him. One of your hands were on his chest, pushing him down with you while the other was waving through his hair as he let himself fall. The tears were streaming freely now and Kaminari couldn’t tell if it was because the anxiety had deflated the second you had hugged him or because your words had awoken an emotion deep within him. Either way, he didn’t hold back, couldn’t bring himself to do so anymore and you didn’t seem to mind as you cooed at him.

God, how long had he been longing to hear these words? Not the ‘you can still be a hero, bro’, the ‘it just means you’re pretty strong’, the ‘don’t worry, with your face and chest you’re still sexy’, but the simple confirmation that he was enough. That he wasn’t his scars. That he was more than that.

At some point, you turned him around and pulled him even closer and he pressed his face into your neck, babbling incoherent words about all the pitiful looks with the reassuring pads on his shoulder afterwards and the countless rejections he had gotten over the years, because yes, he was nice, but that’s not what they were looking for.

Eventually, the sobs stop wrecking through his body, turning into sniffles and after a while they were gone too. Your hand drew small circles on his back and just the sheer thought of such a tender affection on something he despised for so long had him almost bawling his eyes out again.

He closed his eyes, whispering, “You meant that?”

“All of it”, you answered, giving him a kiss on top of his head.

Thinking what to say next to express his feelings, he sat up. His back was turned to you again, this time however, he felt comfortable. It was still weird, of course, but he had nothing to hide anymore. You’ve seen everything, you’ve seen him – and you were still here.

“I’ll go and get you some water”, you said quietly and stood up. You were right, he really needed that. The headache grew with every passing second and he probably looked like shit with blood-shot eyes and reddened cheeks and god knows whatnot, but he grabbed your wrist, looking up to you. Your gaze and smile were warm and there wasn’t any need to ask, but, “So you’re going to stay?”

You leaned down to him again, faces mere inches from each other. “Yes, Denki, I’m staying. Takes more than that to scare me away.”

He ignored the wet patch on your shirt – you could wear one of his shirts soon, he definitely wouldn’t mind - and the fact that he absolutely needed to wash his wash as he cupped your face to press his lips onto yours. He hummed into it, smiling. He really liked the sound of you saying his name.

[dashmendoza]

DASH MENDOZA ( EVAN MOCK ) is an EIGHTEEN year old from TAMPA, FLORIDA. HE is known around the island as THE HEDONIST because he is PASSIONATE and CREATIVE but can also be SARCASTIC and JEALOUS. HE reminds of chipped painted fingernails, ear-bleedingly loud EDM, empty beer cans stacked into a pyramid. 

BASIC INFORMATION

NAME: Adam Mendoza

NICKNAMES: Dash

BIRTHDAY: October 19

AGE: 18

HOMETOWN: Tampa, FL

BIRTHPLACE: Tampa, FL

RELIGION: Lapsed Catholic vibes

ETHNICITY: Half Bisaya/half random mix of European

LANGUAGES: Tiiiiiiiny bits of Tagalog, a lil’ more Cebuano, and high school level Spanish

NATIONALITY: American

EDUCATION: High School

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single and always ready to mingle

SOCIAL CLASS: Upper middle class (dad’s an uber-successful smarmy realtor for multimillion dollar real estate on the bay and etc.)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

HEIGHT: 5′10″ (listed as 6′ on all dating apps lmao)

EYES: Dark brown

HAIR: Naturally black, dyed pink

BUILD: Slim, kinda toned

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Smiley face tattoo on his pinky finger that was a stick-and-poke moment when he was 16 and an unfinished tiger on his calf (his second appointment was scheduled for post-Hawaii weekend). Also, an alligator dressed in a sort of Moulin Rouge outfit on the inside of his bicep.

NOTABLE FEATURES: Cheekbones™, pink hair and the smattering of small birthmarks on his face, including one on the white of his eye

PHYSICAL DISABILITIES: N/A

ALLERGIES: Cats

PERSONALITY & BEHAVIOR

HOBBIES: Sewing, digital art, photography, shopping, swimming, surfing, being a simp

LIKES: Fashion, mysteries/conspiracy theories, teasing, dancing, jewelry, shitty movies, loud music, being the loudest person in the room (sound-wise and fashion-wise), making shit up

DISLIKES: Violence, conformity, other loudmouths, passive people, boring people who just wanna sit around and not do shitttt (doesn’t necessarily mean that the “shit” has to be beneficial to the group)

QUIRKS: Will take whatever pill you hand him (is that quirky or a red flag), arachnophobia (hehe), takes huge bites of food (and always gets hiccups), cracks his knuckles constantly, will assume the Lounging position whenever he pops a squat (hands behind head, ankles crossed), dresses like.... That (see below)

STRENGTHS: Collaborative, open-minded, seeks fairness/harmony, easy-going

WEAKNESSES: Indecisive, hypocritical, passive aggressive, can be v consumed by neg emotions in the moment

POSITIVE TRAITS: Resourceful, social, clever, fun-loving, good-ish listener

NEGATIVE TRAITS:  Unreliable, vain, manipulative, and again he’s a simp

MENTAL DISABILITIES: General disordered eating and body dysmorphia

SHARE 5 FUN FACTS ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER

Get ready for an ultra-fun fact: Dash’s mom died a year ago. He’s sort of been spiraling ever since, but he’d tell that actually he’s having like, a really good time and he’s totally fine, guys!!!!

Dash’s dream job? Fashion, baby. <3 He designs and creates a lot of his own clothes.

Dash is an all-around passionate, outgoing, sometimes-intense guy. He is very in tune with emotions and enjoys experiencing the world around him, whether that be nature walks on shrooms or deafening dance music. He wants to feel, and to feel those things with other people, but that also goes for the less-than-rosy emotions as well. He gets very caught up in the negative ones, too. He can be very abrasive when annoyed, angry, or offended, and can’t quite mask when he’s upset.

TBH his nickname comes from his mom’s dog that she got a couple years before he was born sdkagsad. it started as a joke but Sorry man it stuck :/ But he does prefer to be called Dash. If you call him ‘Adam’ he’s just gonna assume he’s in trouble for something and you’re pulling a His Grandma and threatening to throw a slipper at his head. Plus, “Twilight of Adam”? He’s gonna avoid telling people his name’s Adam to at least spare himself the jokes.

While not all-in w conspiracy theories, he finds them to be both a fun topic of research and conversation. Aliens hacked into the plane’s hardware and took control of it and the island is a simulation and now all the boys are living a Truman Show-esque life for the people of Mars, tbh.

WHAT WAS YOUR CHARACTER WEARING ON THE FLIGHT?

His dad made him change twice before he allowed Dash to get away with this. And yes, that’s a waist bag/fanny pack that matches his pants (there’s a Juul and chapstick inside and that’s it).

PLEASE LIST 3 PERSONAL ITEMS OF YOUR CHARACTER THAT WASHED UP ON SHORE

Faded, old ass Tampa Bay Rays hat that his dad gave him when he dropped him off at the airport. Dash put it in his backpack because it didn’t go with his outfit, tbh.

Sewing kit (a man’s gotta be prepared in case something happens to his precious Neil Barrett sweater)

Bag of cool ranch Doritos procured at the Tampa International Airport

EXTRA

PINTEREST

MUSE TAG

[cyberramblings]

Pokemon Black 2 Reflections

I...generally liked Black 2. The plot failed to impress me nearly as much as the original Black, but I really fell in love with my team more than ever this time. This was the first time I really checked out base stat totals form the start and tried to ultra-optimize my team. Ironically, this led to my team of 6 technically encompassing 10 different types but sharing one too many weakness/strengths. I ended up with a powerful team that was diverse in theory, but had huge flaws beneath the surface.

Not too fret! That just made the struggle with the Elite Four and Champion even more meaningful and puzzle-like. Specifically, my team contained:

Lucario Aggron Virizion Walrein Krookodile Crobat

Which meant that huge swaths of my team could be cut down by fire, fighting, grass, etc.

I originally had a Leavanny on my team, which was very cute back when Riolu and Sewaddle were my entire team (along with 2 Lillipups for pickup). Originally my goal had been to have 12 unique types on my team, but I ended up settling for 10 so that I could fit Aggron (a personal favorite) as well as Virizion in place of Levanny (for the 80 base stat total boost and superior moveset).

This was by far the strongest team I've ever had in terms of weakest link base stat total. I think the weakest was Krookodile at 519. I suspect that my SoulSilver, Red, or Platinum teams were stronger in terms of average base state totals just because they contained more legendaries, but there truly were no weak Pokemon on my team this time. I was really proud of these fellas and how they managed to overcome type disadvantages right at the end.

Gameplay aside, Colress was a...fine villain. I thought it was kinda fun that he was evil, but nothing could possible fill the hole that N left. I spent the whole game wishing he had more of a role in the plot.

I gained more of an appreciation for the Gen V music in this game just because I started to use headphones instead of the 3DS speakers, but also because the Gen V music is amazing.

I was really surprised by how fresh and new this game felt compared to Black. All-new beginning, gyms, Team Plasma encounters, routing, etc. all made it feel like a totally original game. I think there was only really one route that stood out to me as being comparatively unchanged from Black. The addition of previous generations' Pokemon also really helped give the two games their own identity (and also the fact that I ditched my starter as soon as I found Riolu).

Overall, I think I enjoyed playing Black 2 more than Black but that is mostly just because I really fell deeply in love with my team. I vastly prefer the story and charm of Black over Black 2, but I think every subsequent playthrough makes me a better Pokemon player and lets me build a better team from scratch.

This is the end of my Pokemon journey! Well, for now anyways. I have now beaten X, OR, UM, Red, SS, Platinum, Black, and Black 2. That is one from every (pre-Switch) generation plus both Gen V games! I now have the full story, I suppose. I think Ultra Moon was my favorite of the 3D games, Black was my favorite of the 2D games, but Red was the most satisfied I felt. Now it is time for me to check out the Pokemon spinoff games and then maybe take a break from the franchise, at least for a couple days or weeks if nothing else.

[jarmes]

Beating Pokemon Sapphire with (almost) no damaging moves

Last year, I decided to beat Pokemon Leafgreen without using any damaging moves. It was hard, but doable. A few weeks back, I decided to try and find out if you can beat Pokemon Sapphire under the same ruleset. The answer is no. You can’t. It is physically impossible. Let me explain why.

I started the game up, fast-forwarded through the introduction, and chose Mudkip as my starter. Unlike Leafgreen, which features Bulbasaur, one of the best stall Pokemon in Gen 3, all of the starters in Hoenn are terrible for this run, lacking any real way to stall. I went with Mudkip because it’s the most defensive. Tackle is a damaging move, so Mudkip is unable to use anything but Growl. Fortunately, the Poohcheyana is programmed to run away before it beats you.

I named Mudkip GarbageBoyStinkman (technically GBSM because of character limits) and traveled to Route 103 to meet with May. Having no way to deal damage, I ran from all wild Pokemon along the way. Unfortunately, this is the point the run becomes unwinnable.

You cannot beat May without dealing damage. It cannot be done. None of the starters have any moves that can take out opponents through status moves. Now, you may be thinking, what if I caught another Pokemon on the route? Well, you can’t. You can’t buy Pokeballs until after you beat May. And you can’t trade because you only have one Pokemon. We can’t beat May because her Torchic takes us out in a few hits, and we can’t level up before May because all of the wild Pokemon around do the same. So, the run is over. Game over.

Hence the “almost” in the title. Because May is impossible, we’ll try to beat the game without attacking anyone else. It takes four tackles to take out her Torchic. Technically, because criticals do double damage, two criticals could take May out in two hits, setting our minimum attacking moves at two. Getting two crits in a row only happens one percent of the time, but it is possible. I opted for four hits because the battle was already a wash and moved on.

Birch gives us five Pokeballs and we finally have a little breathing room. Our best strategy, for now, is going to be stalling until enemy Pokemon struggle themselves to death. Mudkip lacks the bulk needed to take a few dozen hits and would end up struggling before the opponent, so I need to get some reinforcements. I caught five Zigzagoon: Chocolate, Caramel, Taffy, Lolly, and Liquorice. Full party in hand, I marched to Route 102 and ran into Youngster Calvin, a six-year-old with a single level five Zigzagoon.

Calvin is the hardest trainer that I’ve ever beaten in any challenge run. Calvin is so insanely difficult that he made me question if the run is actually possible.

At level five, Calvin’s Zigzagoon knows three moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, and Growl. Combined, these two moves have 75 PP, meaning I need to stall for 105 turns before the Zigzagoon will struggle. Growl and Tail Whip are fine, but Tackle deals damage, and my team needs to shrug off 35 of them, plus however many struggles it will take for the Zigzagoon to knock itself out.

Even when my team has used Growl six times and Calvin has avoided all uses of Tail Whip, Calvin’s Zigzagoon can take a member of the Candy Squad out in five hits and GBSM out in six. Now, looking at those numbers, it seems that Zigzagoon should just barely be beatable. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Cal’s Zigzagoon is able to take out the first two of its brothers before they minimize its attack and tail Whip lowers the number of hits we can take. Plus, Struggle does just as much damage as Tackle but only does half as much in recoil, meaning that, if my math is right, it’ll take ten struggles for it to die, meaning that even in the absolute best circumstances, we’d need to survive 45 hits when we only have enough HP to take 36.

Now, there are a few random factors that make me think this battle may be technically possible at this point. Zigzagoon chooses its moves at random, meaning that it could in theory save all of its Tail Whips until after wasting its Tackles. And, as previously mentioned, Tackle can miss, which gives us a free hit to survive. But, at the same time, Zigzagoon can get criticals which effectively doom us. After two more tries, I decided that this battle wasn’t winnable, at least not yet.

So, we can’t beat a level five Zigzagoon. But, the question is, can we beat a level two Wurmple? Because if we can beat some wild Pokemon on Route 201, we can get some EXP and become strong enough to beat Youngster Calvin. Unfortunately, my team right now is just barely too weak to survive a single battle.

Fortunately, I bought a couple of potions. If I use a potion right before the Wurmple can take out Mudkip, I can just barely survive. Now, I only had a few potions, but I wasn’t too worried. After each battle, Zigzagoon has a 10% chance to give a random item after battle, including Super Potions, Rare Candies, and things like Nuggets and Full Restores that I can sell for money. With five Zigzagoon, I had a ~40% chance of getting an item after each battle I won.

But, luck wasn’t on my side. By the time Mudkip reached level eight, I was completely out of items. And Mudkip still wasn’t tough enough to survive a battle without a potion. Game over.

So I completely restarted. This time, I was smarter with my Pokeballs. Instead of throwing them willy nilly and having to buy ten more after running out, I saved and reset until I caught five Zigzagoon using the five balls Birch gave me. I also avoided Calvin until I was ready for him, because losing to him wasted money. The extra money this run gave me was enough to start my grind with ten potions instead of three. Also, I made sure that all of the Zigzagoon I caught were level three this time, hoping that the one extra HP would help. I made a save state and started grinding.

I also switched to hunting Poochyena instead of hunting Wurmple. They deal the same damage at level two and don’t know string shot, which made things go quicker. After my first Poochyena defeat, one of the Zigzagoon picked up a Full Restore, which I was able to sell for five extra potions.

Finally, after hours of grinding, Mudkip hit level ten and was able to survive a battle without a potion. I was ready. I marched up to Calvin and stalled. The battle came down to the wire, with Mudkip being the only team member standing when Calvin started struggling.

And then I ran out of Growls. I could not switch out, I could not attack. I was at full health from the last potion, so I could not use another. Calvin was struggling and I was without any means to beat him. Fortunately, one of the Zigzagoon picked up a Revive while I was grinding and I was able to use it to revive a Zigzagoon and switch to it. Still, I came dangerously close to losing.

After Calvin was defeated, I knew the run was possible. There were half a dozen trainers between me and Petalburg Woods, but fortunately, all of them could be avoided. Petalburg Woods contains two things that were useful for me: Cascoon and Silcoon, who only know Harden and can be trained on easily, and Shroomish, the first member of my actual team.

I caught the Shroomish with an Ultra Ball one of the Zigs picked up and named it Plus Ultra. Shroomish didn’t have any status moves yet, but it did have the ability Effect Spore, which could in theory be used to poison opponents. Effect Spore was too unreliable to rely on, though. I trained Shroomish up to level ten, where she learned Leech Seed. Finally, I had a consistent, controllable means to deal damage. Leech Seed drains one-eighth of the target’s health each turn, giving me a way to slowly whittle down opponents. It doesn���t work on grass types, and it’s slow, but it works well enough for now.

I stormed my way through the early game, beating Roxanne without issue. In Dewford Cave I got the TM for Flash and taught it to Shroomish. Flash is actually a decent stall move; the lowered accuracy does wonders to help Plus Ultra survive while waiting for Leech Seed to kill. I also grabbed the Everstone and gave it to Shroomish to keep her from evolving. Brawly was tough. His Pokemon hit hard, especially after a few Bulk Ups. I managed to get lucky and beat him on my second attempt. All of what I’ve said so far happened in a single six-hour play session, by the way. After beating Brawly, I saved the game and went to bed.

I booted up the game the next day and, for some odd reason I was back in Odale town. That’s weird. Also, I didn’t have any badges. And I didn’t have Shroomish. And all of my Pokemon were as weak as they were before the grind. That’s really weird.

I’m sure I saved after Brawly, but for some reason, it didn’t go through. I reverted to my last save before that. So, naturally, I did the only sane thing: redid everything until I got back to Brawly. It was...fun.

I went through Slateport without much issue; I ran out of Leech Seed PP against a Marill in the Seashore House and had to struggle it out, but that only took an eternity. North of Slateport I caught a new team member: Tex Mex the Gulpin. Gulpin had a decent bulk and comes with Poison Gas and Yawn, giving me a second way to take out opponents and a way to deal with Grass types.

I ran into a trainer with a Roselia on Route 110 and was reminded that Grass/Poison Pokemon are nightmares. Fortunately, I was able to walk around her. I mean, in theory, I could either take a Roselia out with a Zubat that knows Supersonic, by struggling it out, or getting it to kill itself by using Mega Drain on Gulpin because of her Liquid Ooze ability, but none of those plans are worth the effort.

May was, like before, annoying. I took out her Wailmer and Numel easily enough, but her Grovile took out Gulpin with Quick Attack. Fortunately, it poisoned itself thanks to Effect Spore. I made my way to Mauville, grabbed the Mach Bike, and made my way to the Day Care. I abused the Day Care to get both of my main team members up to Level 28. Gulpin evolved into Swalot and gained the new, fantastic moveset of Toxic/Poison Powder/Encore/Amnesia.

Leech Seed and Poison Powder both kill in eight turns. Toxic kills in five, making it our new method of taking things out. Also, I kept Poison Powder because it has a lot of PP making it a good move to waste time with.

I also evolved Mudkip, hoping the new Ground typing would help me beat Wattson. I ended up not needing it, because Shroomish and Swalot took him out with ease. I kept moving through the game until I reached a roadblock on Route 112. An unavoidable trainer with a Roselia. Fortunately, I had a plan.

In the Fiery Path, you can find wild Slugma. Slugma has the ability Flame Body, which has the ability to burn your opponent if they hit you with a contact move. The roadblock Roselia knows Poison Sting, which is a physical move. So I caught a Slugma and named it Sheers. Unfortunately, it has Magma Armor instead of Flame Body. So I caught a second one and named it Sheerz. It also had Magma Armor. The third Slugma, Shers, did have Flame Body. I took it to the Roselia, let it get pounded by Poison Sting, and...it fainted. Turns out Poison Sting doesn’t do contact.

So anyway I released the three Slugma and struggled out the Roselia. On Route 113 I caught a new team member: Punji the Skarmory. Skarmory is a famously bulky Pokemon, with great defensive stats, fantastic typing, and access to the interesting combination of Spikes and Whirlwind. Unfortunately, it doesn’t learn Spikes until level 42. And I caught it at level 16. So, he’s going to be wearing the EXP share and working as a tank for a while.

I stormed through the game until reaching Lavaridge. Lavaridge features cheap herbal medicine, which I used constantly throughout this run. Flannery’s fire Pokemon were a nightmare for Shroomish and Skarmory, but Swalot saved the day, using Amnesia to boost her Special Defence and tank Torkoal’s Overheat. After Flannery, I ran to the desert and grabbed the Sandstorm TM, which I taught to Skarmory to give him a way to deal damage. Sandstorm kills in sixteen turns, which isn’t great, but it does give us a way to take out Roselia. I also caught a Baltoy. I named it Tick because the first two I tried to catch Self Destructed. Baltoy doesn’t learn any status moves until 31, so I taught it Flash and kept it on the bench for a while.

Norman was tough. Poisoning his Pokemon allows them to decimate me with Facade, so I was forced to rely on Leech Seed for damage. Even then, he was able to use Focus Punch flinching, making the battle brutal. Fortunately, Truancy gave me time to heal my team and Norman eventually went down.

I ignored Wattson’s pleas for help and made my way to Fortree City. Along the way, I picked up an Absol I named Obama. His only good move at that point was Taunt, meaning that I had another near useless Pokemon to babysit. Wiona was tough, but Skarmory’s bulk and Swalot’s toxic helped me survive. I had my new Absol Taunt her Altaria to keep her from spamming Dragon Dance. Her Skarmory ended up being the most frustrating one to take out, because it kept killing Shroomish before I could get a Leech Seed off.

After Wiona, Baltoy learned Sandstorm and I taught it Reflect and Light Screen via TM, giving it a use. I caught a Duskull and named her M87. She started with Confuse Ray and Disable, making her a good Pokemon to shut down opponents while waiting for Toxic to kill them. Tate and Liza hit hard, but they only had two Pokemon, both of which Swalot was able to Toxic before going down. At the end of the battle, only Duskull and Baltoy were still standing, but the twins were down. I saved the game and ended another lengthy play session.

And I ended up back at Norman. It was at that point that I learned a fun quirk of my emulator. If you make a Save State, then play for a few hours, then make a battery save, it deletes the battery save and instead opens the save state next time. This also explains the weird issue with me ending up back at Odale Town.

This time, I didn’t have the patience to go through the game fighting trainers. Instead, I snuck past trainers until I caught Absol and Duskull again then abused the Daycare to get all of them up to level 42. This left the team without EVs, but I considered it a good sacrifice for not having to sit through dozens of slow battles.

After my Day Care abuse, I had a few new toys to play with. Duskull evolved into Dusclops, learning Will-O-Wisp and Curse along the way. Baltoy learned Cosmic Power and evolved into Claydol. Finally, Skarmory learned Spikes which, when combined with the Roar TM, gave him a reliable damage method. I also taught Obama Protect from a TM. I stomped the rematches against Wiona and the twins and made my way to the undersea cave.

The Undersea Cave was annoying, both because I had to leave Claydol and Absol behind for HM requirements and because the grunts kept using Taunt. Archie revived Kyogre and I went to Sootopolis to defeat it. Kyogre, the monstrous God of the sea, went down in four turns thanks to Dusclops’s Curse.

Wallace’s Milotic’s spamming of Recover was annoying, but I taunted it and stalled it out. With my eight gym badges, I was able to take on Victory Road. But I wasn’t ready, not quite. The late game battles had been getting harder and harder, so I decided to do a bit of prep work. I fought one hundred different Marill to give my team some HP EVs. I was going to do the same with Cascoon/Silcoon, but decided that I value my own time too much. I grabbed the Focus Band from Meteor Falls. I also made my way through the Ruined Ship because I remembered that the Leftovers were located in a trash can; they aren’t, they’re on the boat that you unlock by beating the Elite Four. Finally, I went back and fought some of the trainers I skipped so I could get money for healing items. My prep work done, I marched through Victory Road.

The trainers were tough, but beatable. I did have to keep leaving to heal my team at the Pokecenter, which was annoying. Waiting at the end of Victory Road was Wally. He sent out his Roselia, that devil, and I took it out with Dusclops’s Curse. I did some quick grinding before the Elite Four and Absol learned the move I caught it for: Perish Song. Perish Song essentially allows me to automatically win if I can get an opponent down to a single Pokemon. Going into the Elite Four, this was my team:

Plus Ultra (Shroomish)

Leech Seed/Flash/Stun Spore/Toxic

Tex Mex (Swalot)

Toxic/Amnesia/Protect/Attract

Punji (Skarmory)

Spikes/Sandstorm/Roar/Sand-Attack

Tick (Claydol)

Sandstorm/Cosmic Power/Reflect/Light Screen

M87 (Dusclops)

Will-O-Wisp/Confuse Ray/Disable/Curse

Obama (Absol)

Perish Song/Double Team/Taunt/Protect

I started out my battle with Sidney with some Spike/Roar comboing from Skarmory. After Skarmory went down, I switched to Swalot and took out a few Pokemon with Toxic. His last Pokemon, his Absol, went down to my Absol’s new Perish Song.

Phoebe’s team of Ghosts abused status moves, forcing me to keep switching out Pokemon. None of the team was knocked out, but the whole team had to step in to get rid of Phoebe.

Glacia was a challenge. Her super effective Ice Beams and Shadow Balls cut through my team. Worse, she managed to freeze Swalot twice. Her Walrein hit like a truck and would have taken out the entire team without Perish Song. At the end of the battle, all I had left was a red health Absol.

My plan for Drake was to have Swalot use Toxic then switch to Claydol. Unfortunately, I was out of Toxic when the battle started. Shroomish managed to take out Shieldon, but was one-shotted by Drake’s Flygon. I sent out Dusclops to use Will-O-Wisp, which missed three times in a row. Dusclops went down to a super effective Crunch, but I revived it and took out both Flygon and the Salamence with Curses and heal item spam. Altaria went down to a Perish Song, opening up the Champion battle, but I knew I was far from ready.

I used my Rare Candies I’d collected over the run, thanks to my Zigzagoon, to get a few last minute levels in. Shroomish finally learned Spore. I took off the Everstone and my boy finally evolved into Breloom. Would it have been easier to just forget about Spore and evolve at 23, as opposed to carrying around a near useless Shroomish for half the run? Yeah, probably. But whatever, I wanted the cool 100% sleep chance.

So, how did my fight with Steven go? Well, I recorded it and uploaded it here.

By the ingame timer, this run took 72 hours. But, I used superspeed. In reality, it only took 17 hours, mostly done during college lectures. I enjoyed this run, it was a fun challenge. I’ve already started on another run, this time in a much more difficult Pokemon game, so look forward to that. Thanks for reading.

[beautifulpurpleflame]

Look, I’m not saying that Horikoshi is foreshadowing that Kirishima will be/has been involved with One for All but...

...I’m not not saying that Horikoshi is foreshadowing that Kirishima will be/has been involved with One for All.

And while I’m here...

I’d like to explain why Kirishima being chosen to inherit One for All makes complete sense.

Kirishima possesses the right personality and convictions for One for All. He’s cheerful and is able to bring everyone together and get through to even the most stubborn and cold of people *cough*Bakugou*cough*. And he’s usually smiling. If you remember, one of Nana Shimura’s lessons to All Might when she was training him was to always smile.

“When you have to save someone, they’re usually in a scary situation. A true hero saves not only their lives, but also their hearts… That’s what I believe. So no matter how scary things get, give ‘em a smile, as if to say, “I’m a-ok”. The people in this world who can smile are always the strongest.“

And who’s always got a smile on his face, more than any other 1-A student? Kirishima.

The top candidate to inherit One for All before Midoriya came along was Mirio aka Lemillion. Sir Nighteye believed that Mirio was the ideal candidate to inherit One for All because he and All Might had similar charismatic personalities, upbeat and positive.

Mirio’s best friend Tamaki aka Suneater works closely with Kirishima during his internship with Fatgum and who does Tamaki say Kirishima reminds him of? Mirio. His best friend. A man he’s known since they were small children. And he says that Kirishima has the same personality as Mirio, the UA student that not only Sir Nighteye but also Principle Nezu preferred to inherit One for All. Because of his personality.

So if Lemillion was the top choice for One for All because of his personality and Kirishima is just like him, I think it’s fair to say that Kirishima is certainly worthy of the power. He has an upbeat personality and is always seen smiling brightly at the people around him. He has strong convictions and feels empathy for everyone, even the Villains he’s chasing or battling.

He understands his own limitations and weaknesses and despite his frustrations and fears he continues to move forward.

He’s earned the respect of Pro Heroes like All Might and FatGum as well as Villains like Rappa.

Choosing Kirishima to inherit One for All makes complete sense. Kirishima is everything the previous possessors of One for All stand for. He isn’t out for glory, he isn’t out for fame. He wants to help, to protect, to save people. He’s strong, he’s brave, and above all else he’s kind. In my opinion, he’s more than worthy.

Thank you for your time. Plus Ultra!

EDIT: I’m not saying that Kirishima is going to become the protagonist of the story. That’s a really silly assumption and assessment of what I’ve written. What I am saying is that there's evidence that he will be very important component in the final arc. There are a few theories flying around about One for All that I’m not going to get into right now but just know that there is a strong possibility of either time travel occurring in the story or One for All being split among three worthy successors because it’s gotten so strong that a single body can’t contain it. And to those of you saying that Kirishima isn’t a main character, I’m assuming you only follow the anime. And if that’s the case then please enjoy this next season. And tell me you don’t think Kirishima is a main character by the end of it.

[thekaijudude]

I honestly feel with how cunning Tregear is, he can easily defeat Belial. Wouldn’t you say?

Hi!

Saw this question coming from a mile away lol

From the outset, I don’t think anyone that watched UZF s2 and Geed would say that outright as you’ll see later

Ultraman Toregia (Unsealed, Known Power)

https://thekaijudweeb.tumblr.com/post/188061488078/could-zero-handle-tregear

Ultraman Belial

Note that I will be including the term ‘Comparative Level’ as throughout the Zero-Belial Saga, TsuPro has been rather explicitly showing how Belial was becoming stronger and stronger with each appearance by scaling him with Zero’s forms as you’ll see later

This is largely due to the fact that

1. Belial was considered to be a prodigy for his time as well like Zero and Taro

2. Belial is an M78 Ultra, so its expected him to get stronger over time

3. Belial is over 150 000 years old, so any boosts would be of an exponential degree

4. This is my personal theory, which is that cause Belial is a reionyx, his boosts are further increased, which was why we see him getting stronger at a faster rate than even Ken 

Ultraman Belial (Pre Reionyx)

Was implied to be equal to Ken in capability (That’s why he felt so disappointed when he wasn’t chosen to be the Supreme Commander, Alien Reiblood also acknowledged Belial as ‘one of the best’)

Ultraman Belial (First Movie)

Used a single hand to block 2 finisher beams fired from normal ultras

Was able to lift 2 Ultras at once (at least 70 000t) with the Giga Battlenizer using one arm

Using the Belial Whip, was able to throw Mebius (35 000t) into the LoL’s orbit (LoL diameter) is 6 times bigger than Earth

A single kick was able to launch Zoffy across a significant distance

A single swipe of the Giga Battlenizer sent Jack flying

A single swipe of the Giga Battlenizer was able to generate powerful shockwaves that broke solid ground and was able to send Zero flying back

Had enough strength to push back (with mid diff) a combo beam from Ace, Jack and 80

Low diff Taro (but note that Taro’s color timer was still blue after the fight)

Low diff Zoffy, Seven and Ultraman simultaneously

Able to take on a dozen plus Ultras at once, including fast members like Max (Mach 7), Powered (Mach 9.99) and Great (Mach 9)

Has fast enough reflexes to dodge finisher beams

Had enough energy to fuse all his kaiju and form Beryudora

Was able to absorb the spirits of dead kaiju

Giga Battlenizer (First Movie)

Was able to negate Ultraman’s Specium Ray with a single swipe, and Zoffy’s M87 Ray by spinning it

Was able to withstand a combo beam from Ace, Jack and 80

Belial Shot was able to take out 4-5 ultras and one shot 2 kaiju at once

Belial Deathscythe was able to take out a dozen Ultras

Belial Geno Thunder was able to one shot Alien Zarab, the same attack was able to put Ken out of commission by attack his weak spot

Comparative Level: Below Zero base

True Level: Ken would’ve been able to mid diff Belial without the Giga Battlenizer

Ultraman Belial (Revenge Movie) / Kaiser Belial

Claws contain the Belial Virus, which is able to corrupt the minds of his victims to follow his orders

Deathcium Ray tore through Zero Twin Shoot

Was able to absorb Esmeraldan emeralds to become Arch Belial

Comparative Level: Above Zero base

Arch Belial

Able to drain the power of Ultras

Ultraman Belial (Ultra Zero Fight Part 2, 2013)

Exists as a spirit even though he was physically dead

Able to possess beings

Soul cannot survive for long without possessing a body

Kaiser Belial

Amplified Armoured Darkness’ strength so much that he managed to vaporize his head with a single stomp, something that even Pheonix Brave was not able to do

Was able to push back SCZ’s punch with just a single swing of his neck

Able to accelerate to match Ultimate Zero’s own acceleration

Zero Darkness

Basically no diff the entire Ultimate Force Zero

Comparative level: Above Ultimate Zero but below Shining Zero

Ultraman Belial (Geed Series, 2017, Crisis Impact, 19 Years prior to Geed Series)

Was able to take out Ultimate Zero

Belial Deathscythe can now one shot more ultras than he did in the first movie)

Survived the Super-Dimensional Eradication Bomb, which destroyed the Earth and caused a black hole that threatened it’s host universe but managed to escape into his own pocket dimension to recuperate, even Ken wasn’t able to detect him with his Clairvoyance

Comparative Level: Above Ultimate Zero

Ultraman Belial (Geed Series, 2017)

Belial Deathscythe was able to launch Zero Beyond and Primitive simultaneously

Withstood Zero Beyond’s Hundred Fierce Punches and Quattro Slugger

A single palm strike was able to launch Primitive (41 000t) flying

Even as Arie, he was able to empower Kei to still allow him to be able to Fusion Rise

Chimeraberus (Geed Series, 2017)

Including Belial Fusion Beasts in case Belial still has access to the Geed Riser like Zero

A single push was able to launch Primitive (41 000t)

Able to absorb beings like Ultras to empower himself permanently, but takes time to integrate or ‘digest’ his victims

Able to cast illusions

Was able to tank blows from P, SB, AS, Magnificent and RMM, including Strike Boost at point blank range as well as Swing Sparkle before finally being only put out of commission by Royal End

(Although it was debatable whether Belial himself had planned his demise as Chimeraberus to enact phase 2 of his plan once Geed achieved RMM)

Beros Inferno required the Brother’s Shield to be blocked (The 6 Ultra Brothers Capsule presumably equals to the power of 6 Ultra Capsules)

Belial Atrocious (Geed Series, 2017, Sturm Organ, disabled Carellen Element)

(Note that I’m going off of feats after the Carellen Element was neutralized so it's unlikely will see a return with Belial)

(But Kei's Sturm Organ is still within Belial as the neutralization enzyme only disabled Belial's ability to absorb Childhood Radiation but not negate the base transmutation ability of the Sturm Organ, or if so, wasn't specified)

Fused via Fusion Rise with Alien Empera and Dark Lugiel Capsules, which are abnormally powerful capsules

For comparison, when Kei absorbed just two of those capsules as PZ, he was able to grow up to 300m, as compared to ep 12 when he absorbed 6 Ultra Capsules that Riku had even didn’t even had a reaction close to this

Able to use the Giga Battlenizer in this form

After absorbing some Childhood Radiation, his power was so great that it was able to be picked up by Ken who was in a different Universe

Was implied to be above Ken currently

Atros Burst is stated to be 10x stronger than Wrecking Burst

Able to take on P, SB, AS, M and RMM simultaneously (note that they were all likely amped by King beforehand)

Proof of Geed only managed to revert him back to base form

This also implies that Base Belial should be at the least above Shining Zero in his next return if we go by the pattern here

Also, we also saw that Belial’s ingenuity is definitely nothing to sneeze at ,cause he literally was able to basically conquer an entire universe, set off a plan that took place after 19 years and even faked his death like Toregia

SO

Firstly, I’d like to clear up the whole ‘Zero > Belial’ inconsistency and explain how Zero almost always manages to beat Belial in the first few installments as I usually get this follow-up question, but well, itll definitely shatter many fans’ dreams

First Movie

Considering that not even the Ultra Brothers and Ken could beat Belial and King knows very well how strong Belial is, it would’ve been retarded to say that King just decided to just send Zero to the Monster Graveyard without ANY form of amp beforehand

Not to mention that since the Plasma Spark ‘acknowledged’ Zero (fishy point in and of itself), and we know that the Plasma Spark has at the very least a range that is big enough to encompass the entire Monster Graveyard, of course it also further amped Zero’s stats

Revenge Movie

Noa literally amped Zero right before our very eyes, also that distraction tactic from the Ultimate Force Zero

UZF s2

Belial planned for Zero to ‘kill’ him right from the very start as stated by Armoured Mephilas

Hell, we even see Kaiser Darkness being able to keep up with Ultimate beforehand

Geed

King deus ex bullshit

With that being clarified, lets start,

Analysis:

Along with contextual evidence, Toregia in his unsealed form would be around Taro’s level

Base Belial back in the first movie was able to already easily trash Taro, doesn’t even need to access higher forms

But you can still argue that with the amount of time that has passed, Taro, being another prodigy, would’ve grown even stronger than back then, which further raises unsealed Toregia’s power level

However, as I pointed out the 4 points on what makes Belial’s boosts in power much more formidable, its not even a fair comparison

With that being said, direct confrontation is gonna be a stomp

Now with regards to their comparative ingenuity, I’d like to start off from the perspective of how Toregia can first maximize his chances of beating Belial

Considering that Skull Gomora is gonna appear in ep 15 of Taiga as well as his knowledge of the Geed Universe as shown in the RB movie, im sure that Toregia is well aware of the Geed Riser and so to maximize his chances, he’ll definitely try to get rid of Belial’s Geed Riser first. And tbh, I just don’t see that happening unless Toregia pretends to work with Belial first to gain his trust. 

But now we have the issue of whether Toregia has any resistance against the Belial Virus if push comes to shove in that scenario

Supposedly Toregia has resistance to that, then we have to deal with the issue of whether he can weasel out of his way to explain his resistance to Belial

And not to mention that considering that the only known way to really kill Belial is to prevent his spirit from possessing anything after he physically dies, which took Noa and King amping someone to do it on 2 separate occasions in the first place, so physically killing Belial itself is already something quite difficult to do

Also we would now have to deal with the interesting possibility of Belial’s spirit possessing Toregia himself

Can that be prevented?

Can Toregia see that coming?

Can Belial see that coming?

(I’m not talking about the Giga Battlenizer cause its basically the same issue with the Geed Riser)

With that being said, based on that limited information we know about Toregia currently as well as the predictive model of Belial, it just dosent seem that Toregia can do much to the latter imo

This is basically a more convoluted form of the question ‘Taro vs Ken, who wins?’, cause that’s basically the crux of the power scale that we’re looking at with this

But I don’t want to say that difference in power would necessarily translate to the same difference in ingenuity

However, until further information, Belial takes this

Thanks for the question!

[comicteaparty]

July 8th-July 14th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from July 8th, 2019 to July 14th, 2019.  The chat focused on Court of Roses by Kelsey Peterson.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Court of Roses by Kelsey Peterson~! (http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until July 14th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. What do you think is the story behind Merlow’s bad dreams? What demons is Merlow fighting exactly, and why do some of those “demons” want him to hurt others? What does it have to do with Merlow being triggered by Nocturne?

khkddn

1) hmm visually speaking I think my fave scene is when Diana shoots all those arrows http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/117/ it just looks so cool

But I also liked when merlow bonded with the kiddos who were curious about his bagpipes, that was a cute moment

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What do you think is the cause of Nocturne’s unfortunate circumstances that he mentions having to make due with? What might this have to do with his poor amount of stamina or immense magical gifts?

RebelVampire

1) Probably the scene where Nocturne and Merlow sleep in an alley under the rain. I am a sucker for rain, and I liked seeing Merlow's acknowledgement that he was kind of a dick but that Nocturne was still able to forgive him. Plus, the atmosphere the rain added was too perfect. Somehow a spot of warmth among the cold and bleak. 2) I see this going in one of two ways in terms of my current theories. Way 1 is that Merlow's dad wasn't just an elf, but like, ultra evil wizard elf. And his dad is trying to control Merlow and use him as a beautiful and dangerous pawn. Way 2 is that Merlow got possessed by a literal demon and that fighting the demon from taking control is a daily battle. I think in regards to hurting others, asides it just being that's what evil things do, having Merlow hurt others is a pretty quick way to break his spirit and just have him cave to the dark side. Nocturne kind of looks demon-y so there could be that connection. Or maybe whatever Merlow has within him just hates Nocturne's species since that seems to be a common theme in the world.

3) Nocturne. Nocturne is classy, powerful, but has that cute smidgen of vulnerability that makes him endearing. Also very classy, and how can you not like classy people? 4) Nocturne maybe had a fight that did not end well due to overconfidence maybe. And this left him permanently weakened with poor stamina. I also get the sense that there is some deeper emotional trauma hidden in this. Like the person that caused his weak stamina was someone super close who probably betrayed him. Cause every story needs a good betrayal? XD Alternatively, maybe he just had a poor dice roll to begin with for the game.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

Those theories with Merlow and Nocturne are really cool, Rebel! aaaaa it's so neat to see people speculating this stuff.

That alley scene came out so nice too, I was happy with it. My own favorite scene so far... it's hard to pick, but I think it was the whole sequence of the main bards fighting the bandits that stormed the festival. Getting to let everyone show off, from Sven's muscle, to Feliks' conjuring madness, to Diana's enchanted tidinit, to Nocturne's mysterious power saving Merlow.(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. What do you think the background stories are for Feliks and Sven? How might Merlow’s pre-established friendship with Feliks affect his interactions with the rest of the bards given they have more history?

Attila Polyák

I like had no time the entire week and could only read till the page where we see Sung from a distance. I didn't want to comment before I catch up, but now that I found a bit of time I get a server not found error. My luck is horrible. :( That said I do feel like my favourite scene will be the bit where Merlow performed and the cats came to listen. That was soo hear warming, but I'd like to read the rest before saying anything.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

Ugh, sorry, comicfury just, goes down sonetimes...

khkddn

3) merlow is my favorite character, he just seems so nice and sunshine-y! Diana is also cool too though, and I also like Feliks... decisions is Hard

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

I don't feel like I know any of the characters well enough to have a favorite yet! I know how they act on the surface -- so far Merlow is the most entertaining and Nocturne is the most aww-inducing -- but we haven't gotten into the depths yet. Anyone could become my official favorite with the right reveal.

Was Merlow actually "triggered" by Nocturne, or just upset? Important difference there! I took it as the standard fantasy trope of "these two species have a history of antagonism, but after fighting on the same side for a while they'll develop an Unlikely Bond, and discover that they are Not So Different After All."

Favorite scene so far, hands-down, this page. Perfect cinematic smash-cut, makes me laugh every time. http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/22

...no elaborate backstory theories from me, pretty sure Guilded Age permanently ruined me for theorizing about fantasy comics. Just looking forward to seeing where things go.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

That's a really popular page lol!!!

keii4ii

I have yet to catch up with the archive, but omg that is an awesome-tastic page (and now I wish Discord had a horrible bleeding music note emote to go with this)

snuffysam

real talk? my favorite scene in the comic was this: http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/ not even technically a scene, but the two panels side by side of merlow drinking alone, followed by merlow having a good time with all his friends, just got me right there in the feelings instantly. and the way the panels link to the first and latest page respectively is a stroke of genius. instant hook.

besides that, my favorite scene is the one of diana, sven, and feliks banding together to stop the bandits. these three were at each others' throats a second ago, but having to fight off those attackers brought them closer together. and we got to see them performing as a band while doing it. really makes me look forward to more things to come with the protagonist quintet working together.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

That makes me so, so happy, Sam, I was really excited to make those and code them properly, and I'm happy they have such an impact. :3

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. Do you think Merlow will ever meet his father or open up regarding the subject? What about Diana and her mother? Will something regarding Diana’s enchanted instrument and the history behind it come to play in the story?

RebelVampire

5) Favorite illustration is definitely this place. http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/135/ I adore the particle effects, the change in colors and tone, and everything just works really well together. It's super awe inspiring to see Nocturne get a moment of badassery. <3 6) Feliks probably got banished for too many shenanigans. Since I'm pretty sure Feliks is a bit too comfy with spending nights in jail. As for Sven, I don't know. Maybe he's the one without some sort of tragic back story. Or maybe Sven has a tragic backstory but the tragedy of it all just flew over his head and he didn't notice. I do think there's gotta be at least something bad that drove his desire for justice. Like maybe he had a hero who died tragically or something. I don't know. But I do think Merlow and Feliks' past relationship is gonna drive some wedges. Cause Feliks seems like the type to go "well I've known Merlow longer than all you have" so ya know, everyone will be mad cause it can mean nothing while also being still true and itll just make everything awkward. And Merlow will make adorable faces and try to peace keep.

7) Merlow and Nocturne. They're both really different in terms of their relationship with being bards (or w/e Nocturne wants to call himself). And I think that their different viewpoints really bring out different sides to them that we wouldnt normally get to see. And theres no like bitter conflict either. Just two ppl filled with warm fuzzies trying to get to know each other and navigate the world. 8) Yes to both. The latter because I think he'll have to explain his past more in detail at some point, and that probably means telling everyone the circumstances of his birth. The former because wishful thinking cause there's nothing like meeting your long lost dad who went to get some milk and never came back. Diana too, of course, will probably have to talk about her mother who probably died tragically or, at the very least, when Diana was least prepared for it. I do think Diana's instrument will create conflict. In that someone will go, "Let's steal that enchanted weapon." And then it gets stolen and Diana freaks and everyone does bard battles to get it back for her.

Copper Mouflon

Been reading the comic and so far I'm really enjoying it! Didn't expect to as it's not what I usually read, but hey you kept me hooked and going for the next page! Absolutely loved http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/118/ made me laugh out lout. There's obviously a lot of backstory in these characters and I'm curious to see where this will go!

Copper Mouflon

NNNooooo! I reached the end! Job well done! It only gets better as the story goes along, by the way, Nocturne is BAD ASS, but most of all I love who they all seem rather normal (in the context of the story) yet they all turn out to ... well be so awesome.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

:D!!!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Besides getting hired for a murder investigation, what other consequences do you foresee for the group in regards to what happened at Saung? Will it gain them notoriety, or will it be swept under the rug?

RebelVampire

9) Honestly the detail I'm addicted to is Merlow's hair. Like I like the thought that goes into that colored bit of it, cause that seems like it'd be annoying to remember to include all the time. But more than that, I like seeing the fact that Merlow will actually undo the braid http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/70/ . Like there's several scenes like this where theres recognition that hair isn't plastic and displaces and people don't wear their more elaborate styles to bed usually. It's a nice realistic depiction of how hair works in everyday life. 10) I 100% think they're gonna have some notoriety from it. Cause what makes a better story than some bards who beat up bad guys at a festival. Plus, I'm sure other important people will sing their praises as well. Of course, this notoriety doesn't always mean good. Like sure maybe the king's 2nd cousin's butler will hire them for a job, but now bandit dude's secret twin brother can come and exact revenge on them. It's gonna be a dual edged sword where benefit and trouble will both come looking for them all.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Who do you think murdered the count and for what reason? Was there any specific reason the murder took place during the festival? Do you ultimately feel Merlow and company will be able to help?

Attila Polyák

Okay, so questions, yummy! 1, Definitely playing for the cats in the alley, buut the beginning of the bard festival was pretty cool as well. That said, I just feel like that scene grabs the essence of performance so well. I really liked it. 2, I feel like his demons are literal demons and they cause his nightmare, tho I have no idea how he met/got posessed by them. Connection to Nocturne? Probably looks, he is an infernal after all. 3, Torn between Merlow and Nocturne. Merlow is just an ultimate positive dude even tho his demons seem to be rather messed up and Nocturne. Well... He's just plain awesome. 4, I think Nocturne is in this state mostly because of his own decisions. While we do not know much about him, we do know that he is: Not a bard, Someone used to having money around but not in any fear of not being able to use it, Fond of music, Is, magically speaking, rather powerful, In general a sophisticated person, In possession of some rather unusual items. While these circumstances could mean a lot of things, my guess is that he's kindof an alchemist and he somehow traded his stamina for magical capabilities in pursue of another, probably greater, goal. 5, I think my favorite illustration is the middle panel on http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/comics/134/ but really anything on this and the next to pages are. Just. Pure. Awesome. 6, I don't think Merlow's earlier friendship will influence the rest of his relationships as he seems to be generally friendly with almost literally everyone. 7, Merlow and Nocturne. I just find it to be a cool friendship, even though there are quite a few hints that there should be some friction between them for very real and serious reasons. Also Merlow "fanboying" about cool music is just adorable to see. 8, For Merlow... Yes, and I wouldn't be surprised if the topic was very eeply connected to his demons. Diana and her mother... I donno, maybe, but I'm more leaning towards no right now, but it could still happen.

10, I think that being part of the murder investigation will literally mean that they will be doing less bard stuff, which is obvious, but considering that they specifically came to town for the bard contest, it's still a shame. Now... beating the bandits already started them on an inevitable ride to notority, and being involved in the investigaton of such an inportant murder case. That will also boost them on their personal hype trains'. 11, Imo the greatest strength of the comic is the simple fact that even though a lot of not so great things happen to the characters (being thrown out to the streets for night, a murder case, bandit raid, inner demons, etc...) both the characters and the general tone of the story manages to be very positive. That's kinda odd, because this should be like... a bit of a dissonance. But the positive tone is just, simply there. I'd attribute that mostly to how Merlow reacts to everyone around him, but still since we see the story mostly from his perspective it just shines through a lot. Even when he is in pain, literally at times, he just somehow manages to feel positive. 12, I'm really unsure about the murderer, but I kinda feel like it's somehow directly connected to Merlow. Thus I ultimately think that the party will be able to help, one way or another, but the entire situation still feels a bit hazy.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Overall, do you think the new troupe of bards will be able to get along? What obstacles do you think there will be in them learning to cooperate with one another?

RebelVampire

11) While there are a lot of strengths, the one that stood out to me the most was the character designs. They're all so individualistic, yet each one is very specifically tailored to the character's personality. Like the minute I saw Merlow I was like "this is just a nice dude who maybe is a bit sensitive." and thats exactly what i feel like i got. and i always appreciate when the writing and visual design go hand in hand. 12) I think the count was murdered because nice counts disrupt the order of corruption and makes all the other nobles look back. As for the festival, yes. I actually think someone is trying to pin it on a bard. Especially if that bard's name is Merlow cause Merlow seems to have shitty luck. As for helping, I mean, I'm sure Merlow and company can find something. Although I personally feel like investigative wise Feliks and Nocturne are probably the best suited for the task. But hey the others can provide moral support?

13) I'm looking forward to just finding more out about Nocturne and why people seem to hate Nocturne's species. But just more Nocturne being fancy and classy is fine too. 14) I think the group will get along, but I think some relationships will fair better than others. Like I don't think Feliks and Sven are gonna become best pals anytime soon. And I kind of feel like Sven is gonna struggle fitting in cause he seems a lot more high energy than a lot of them can handle. Outside of that obstacle, I do also think that the biggest obstacle for them will be secrets. Cause they all seem to have something they want to hide, and hiding things from people who are supposed to be your allies can lead to bitter feelings. as everyone wonders why they arent trustworthy etc. etc. so i guess a better way to put it is trust will be their biggest obstacle, and that theyll have to accept a certain level of vulnerability.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Court of Roses this week! Please also give a special thank you to Kelsey Peterson for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Court of Roses, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/

Kelsey’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kelseynuttyp

Kelsey’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/kelseynutty

Kelsey’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/CourtofRosesCmc

[happyfourthhzb]

5 Ultra-Popular Stocks That Could Lose 50% (or More) In 2021

Over the last decade, Jamie Dimon has repeatedly clashed with his own trendy boutique holders, first over his decision to chair the board of directors that is supposed to oversee him and multiple times about his compensation. To give Mr. Dimon his due, he is a very good banker and has excellent political skills, a plus at the top of a money center bank, but he is definitely not someone that I would view as putting shareholder interests first. If you ignore the price, you will a have good bargain with the owner, who might be expecting exactly that. I have closed my positions in AnAn and Samko Timber and also reduced my stake in Ecowise. The weakness in copper and other commodity prices is worrying as there have been reports that the Chinese have been speculating in commodities on margin and possibly pyramiding their positions. Conspiracy theories are always difficult to confront, but at the heart of this one is the belief that central banks set interest rates, not just influence them at the margin.

Unlike PE ratios that focus just on stock prices or treasury bond rates that focus just on the alternative to stocks, the implied equity risk premium is a composite number that is a function of how stocks are priced, given cash flows and expected growth in earnings, as well as treasury bond rates. Note that my comfort with equities stems from the equity risk premium being 5.55%, but that number is built on solid cash flows, a very low but still positive growth in earnings and low interest rates. In fact, the valuations that I will do in October 2019 will use an equity risk premium of 5.55% (the implied premium on October 1, 2019, for the S&P 500) as my mature market premium. I know that some of you will disagree strongly with my market views, and I will not try to talk you out of them, since it is your money that you are investing, not mine, and your skills at market/macro forecasting may be much stronger than mine.

I am not a macroeconomic forecaster, and I am going to pass on market timing, accept the fact that the markets of today are globally interconnected and more volatile than the markets of the last century, and stick to picking stocks. Second, though I have confessed to being a terrible market timer, the implied ERP has become my divining rod for overall market pricing. If you buy into the proposition that central banks set these rates, it is easy to then continue down this road and argue that what we have seen in the last decade is a central banking conspiracy to keep rates low, partly to bring moribund economies back to life, but more to prop up stock and bond prices. 1. The first is that there is little evidence that companies that buy back stock reduce their capital expenditures as a consequence. Cash flow pullback: This recession in conjunction causes earnings at companies to drop and companies to drastically reduce stock buybacks, as their confidence about the future is shaken. For the crisis to have sustained consequences, it has to then feed into economic growth, perhaps through a drop in consumer and business confidence, and also into earnings and cash flows.