#primary downside is that a lot of the time these shows only have like one season 😡

[pertinax--loculos]

I've got this habit with media consumption lately where I'll watch an old tv show or something and get, just, utterly obsessed with one of the actors. This then generally leads to me looking up their filmography and watching basically anything they've ever been in.

And honestly it's helped me discover quite a few new shows that I wouldn't have otherwise watched. Sometimes they're gems, sometimes they're awful, but it's kinda fun to throw myself in without knowing much about the premise except that an actor I like has a prominent role.

[uboat53]

I think I've figured out what's behind all the calls for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, it's panic, and not the kind you think. It's all in their actions. Let me explain.

There's a few things I've noted about the calls for Biden to drop out. First, that many of them seem overly sanguine about what it looks like to change candidates. Running a national race means putting in place a huge ground game, particularly in the swing states, a massive fund-raising organization, and introducing yourself to tens of millions of people. Someone who ran a primary that stretched over a year in order to get the nomination will have that, or at least a strong start on it, but whoever replaces Biden won't.

I mean, sure, some of Biden's ground game and fundraising could be transferred to them, but there's a lot of stuff they're going to have to get in place very quickly and, of the proposed alternatives I've seen (Harris, Buttigieg, Newsome, and Whitmer), only two of them have even run in a primary before. There will likely be a lot of kinks to work out and not a lot of time to do it.

(The old adage that X amount of time is a lot time in politics gets thrown about a lot, but this is pretty much only true about media coverage and messaging. All the other stuff takes a long time to put in place and four months is barely enough to slapdash it.)

The second thing I've noticed is that none of the calls for Biden to withdraw have acknowledged the inherent risk in elevating a new candidate (at any point in the race, much less this point). None of the other candidates are as well known as Biden and, while that leaves room for them to go up as people hear their message, it also leaves a lot of room for them to go down as the opposition trains its fire on them. Unknowns have the potential to explode in popularity like Obama, but they also have the potential to crater like Palin. It's much more of a risk than most of those calling for Biden to withdraw seem to have acknowledged.

Finally, one thing I've noticed about most of the calls for Biden to withdraw is that they come coupled with a demand that, if he doesn't withdraw, he should provide some proof of his ability to win. That's not an insane ask, but what kind of proof are they demanding? If they demand proof that he can win, fivethirtyeight's model (which has a pretty solid track record) shows the race between Biden and Trump dead even which sounds winnable to me. There's also the public polling which, despite all the negative news about Biden over the last two weeks, still shows the race between Trump and Biden at a dead heat.

More to the point, no poll so far has shown any other candidate dramatically outperforming Biden against Trump. Sure, there's the occasional outlier poll that shows someone far outside of politics like Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton ahead, but the challenges they would face entering the race are even greater than what established politicians like the other options would.

In other words, it would be very difficult for someone entering the race today to build the infrastructure necessary to run a national campaign, every alternative faces at least as much (if not more) downside risk than upside risk, and at this point there's no evidence that any candidate can actually do better than Biden at all.

So why the calls for him to withdraw? As I said, panic.

Go back to what I said about the polling, how Biden is in a dead heat with Trump. Most Democrats, liberals, progressives, whatever you want to call them, view a possible Trump second term as a catastrophe with many even arguing that it could be the end of democracy in the United States. If that's your view of the situation, a dead heat isn't good enough, you need to be winning and doing so by a landslide!

So a lot of Democrats saw Biden's debate performance, which wasn't great, and panicked. Every incumbent president I could find stories about flubbed their first debate and then improved later, but being in line with former incumbents isn't good enough if you're staring down the literal apocalypse.

And that's the thing, people in a panic don't think clearly. They're not thinking about the difficulty that a new candidate would face in building a campaign or getting their message out and they're not thinking about how other candidates do in the polls; all they can see right now is an incumbent president who is in a dead heat with Satan and didn't come out of the gate roaring to victory.

I'll admit, I'm worried about a second Trump term too, at the very least, it'll mean a lot of harm to a lot of vulnerable people, but I'm not convinced that we're so far gone that democracy could end in the space of a single presidential term. It's also the case that, while this is a common view in democratic/liberal/progressive circles, most of the country simply doesn't view it that way and, in order to win, you either have to convince them that he is dangerous or give them a better reason to vote for your guy. Not an easy task when the political media seems determined to repeat 2016 by strictly scrutinizing and investigating the Democratic candidate while largely ignoring or waving off any of Trump's issues as "old news"; but that's not something that would get better with a new candidate. Arguably it would probably get worse since they'd need to get up to speed on the new candidate leaving even less time and energy for anything else.

Look, don't get me wrong, it's totally fine if you have concerns about Biden's age, he's old (although I will side-eye you if you have questions about Biden but not Trump), but he's done dozens of events and multiple interviews since the debate and shown no major repeat of the issues we saw in the debate. At this point I think it's on the people who are calling on him to withdraw to make a positive case for it instead of relying on the negative; if you can't show me that someone else can build a national organization, make themselves known in a positive way, and perform better than Biden can in the race, then I'm thinking it's a good idea to just stick with the old guy who's passed the most progressive legislative agenda since the 1960s.

Anything else is just a panic reaction and those don't tend to lead to positive outcomes.

[erose-this-name]

Hey, I really like your whole universe and how you set up your lore, and kinda want some tips.

I want to finally work on a story I have been fleshing out in my head for over half a decade, but I don't know where to start, or what information is needed, or even which character to follow.

Do I start at the basics of the multiverse, a multi paragraph info dump that is basically integral to understanding the system, do I start with the character, the setting, the themes?

I can't even choose which plotline to do because I have such a backlog of cool story ideas that I basically am stuck in decision paralysis. Same exact problem with characters too. Turns out, having around a hundred characters, each mostly fleshed out and with unique personalities, causes problems when you gotta focus on one

The first step is to not be worried or intimidated. Anyone can write. It's not a task of innate talent or current experience, but of passion and willpower. If you don't have those then idk, advice givers usually just assume you do. But they're the main thing.

Writing is as easy as bleeding.

You start with world building, but you probably already have enough to get started. World building is easy, just write shit down when you think of it and keep doing that. When you can't think of something, just plagiarize Tolkien or Dune. Everyone does it.

Btw, the world building is the least important part. Never exposit on it unless it's relevant to the story, and try to do so with show don't tell. Readers are only interested in relatable characters going through relatable character development. Not even hyperfixating autistic people will read your multi paragraph lore dumps without those relatable character arcs to draw them into the world.

This is very unfortunate if you are autistic like me and care most about world building.

Where you start depends on your writing style.

If you do an episodic shonen/journey to the west style format it's a lot easier to just do all the stories, but that's a lot harder and time consuming and might not be as impactful. (I do that because shorter plotlines helps with ADD, but it has it's downsides).

You can just write individual short stories for them all and never really have any central plot. This is a lot more difficult than writing a long story, though.

If you do want a single main plot, you might have to accept most of the characters and plotlines won't get any attention.

KILL YOUR DARLINGS.

Just look at Arcane. There are 168 champions in League of Legends lore, all with varying degrees of having their own character arcs, plotlines, and fleshed out-ness. Only like 9 or 10 of them appeared in season 1 of Arcane, and I imagine season 2 isn't going to introduce nearly as many new ones in addition to that cast.

Would Arcane have been better if there were 168 deuteroganists? Hekatonhexekontoktoganists? Of course not!

Don't worry about getting all the OCS. Just pick the one or two or five you like the best. Those are your primary cast. Then picking the rest is easy because you only need the ones that would best support that story line. If they come up, you can give a few others passing mentions to give the world a feeling of being big a fleshed out, but most you can just forget as they will serve no purpose.

Cut out the fat.

Think about identifying characters that would make good narrative foils to the main cast, or could logically be involved in the main plotline. Then give some of those guys their own character arcs / b plots. Then you're done!

Well, you still need to actually write the story. Some people just start writing without really planning it out, which is valid and lots of famous authors do this. These authors are cowards.

What I do is start with a rough plot outline. Decide on the basic narrative arc, what happens at the beginning, the climax, and the end. The consequences and how/if this furthers any character arcs.

Make a checklist of all the events that have to happen between those points (don't waste time on complete sentences here, no one but you and maybe a coauthor will see this). Then think of all the other stuff that will happen between those to make sure its actually a logically possible chain of events (you will really regret it if it isn't).

Now delete it and start again because you realize it will have poor pacing or have irresolvable plot holes or just isn't very clever. Do this several times until you're happy.

Perfection is when there is nothing more that can be removed.

The whole process should only take an hour or two at maximum. (For me, one page of plot list roughly translates to 5-10 pages of short story, unless there's combat or dialogue. Then idk, it just takes longer.)

Oh, and don't forget to kill your darlings! Like, literally kill them. You're not really writing unless it's physically and emotionally painful. Painful for who? Yes.

Then you just keep fleshing that list out until it becomes your book's first draft. (You will need lots of complete sentences for this step) (it will also take quite a bit longer than an hour or two) (it's very satisfying to mark off each point on the list)

Now delete your first draft because it's terrible and painful to look at. Restart this entire process several times until you become good at writing. This will take several years, so don't put it off!

NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

So now you've finally written a story you can say your proud of? Great! The last step is figuring out how to publish it. SURPRISE! That should have been your first step.

You now realize it's virtually impossible for you to ever publish because publishing agencies hate you as a person, and also they only publish romance and mystery authors who are already famous so they don't have to spend money on marketing. Realize this is why new authors suck this past decade.

Congratulations! You are now depressed and aimless in life. Just like every great author! Use this pain to fuel yet another book!

This will be your best work yet, as it is genuine and made for no one but yourself. You will never find such happiness anywhere else. 👍

(btw, this post is an example of how important character arcs are to maintaining interest. It has a story of me slowly losing my mind for EDUTAINMENT PURPOSES. Do this when world building ❤️‍🩹)

[myfairstarlight]

You have truly spoiled me today, gentle author, thank you so much for taking precious time to respond to my ask <3 You have put into words so many thoughts I've been having, jumbling around in my head, and much better than i ever could! I am grateful for you!

I agree with you on all counts, especially Colin's jealousy!! It's rather sad that it had to be relegated to the backburner in order to fit everything else, when them being writers was one of the ways they truly bonded in the book. And that Penelope was old hat and had something to teach him--as an accomplished writer herself-- which paralleled the fact that he could teach her about sexual intimacy, that was nice too.

If I may ramble some in your inbox a little longer, although I admittedly lean more towards enjoying the show than the books (not to say the books aren't also enjoyable, of course, its just a matter of preference), another thing that the books have over the show as a whole, in my humble opinion, is because they are so exclusively focused on their primary couple, we get so much more time and attention on them as both individual characters and a couple--apart, together, in a room full of people, just the two of them, etc.

The shows side plots can be a bit of a double-edged sword in that way. On one hand, it's nice to meet characters and see interactions we didnt have in the books--we got to know Penelope so much earlier as a result, for example, which I liked a lot. But, I feel some show subplots dont always make the most sense or are resolved in such a way that it's kind of like "what was the point?" As a result, we also lose time with our primary love match of the season, literally LOL

Both mediums certainly have their pros and cons, but I guess what I'm getting at overall is I'm so glad we get to have both ha!

Good night and sweet dreams, gentle author, thank you again for your kindness <3

Dearest anon, the pleasure has been mine!

What a lovely message to wake up to, thank you (let's ignore that I'm answering in the afternoon as I type this).

That is the main reason I always try to not compare books and show too much, or you just sign up for disappointment if you only care about the main couple.

I personally like that the show decided to make it an ensemble show, like you said it allowed us to be introduced to Penelope much earlier, and even other characters have already been introduced like Sir Philip who casual viewers won't think much of, but those who read the books get excited as they point to the screen. It allows us to see all the Bridgertons be a family as well, and see them grow and expand, as well as see new relationships the book would never explore (Penelope and Madame Delacroix come to mind, they were a delight this season! Gen is the only woman who understands what it means to have a business and not wanting to let it go, she is the only one who understands Penelope in that regard). Now the downside is that, with only 8 episodes per season, and such a large rooster of characters, there's only so much they can fit without things feeling overwhelming or rushed, and that's an issue all 3 seasons have in my opinion. I do feel like it could be easily fixed by having more episodes per season because it is clear they have a lot to tell, but oh well.

Bridgerton as a show is definitely more of a drama than a truly romance show in my eyes, especially with the way they used Lady Whistledown compared to the books where she did not have as much of a power, and with the addition of Queen Charlotte as a character. S3 challenged that a bit by introducing rom-com elements especially in part 1, but part 2 did show that it thrives with drama and tension as well. But the books are definitely a good addition for those who wish for more content focusing solely on the couples and their struggles. The show is adjacent-enough, but it took a lot of liberties. I suppose it depends on the individual to decide if that is a good or bad thing, personally, I like that it's so different (especially in how it portrays the men, actually, though I would still like to duel Show!Simon), you still get to be surprised, whether you start with the show or the book. I know people have been complaining about the lack of more polin scenes this season, but I fear that is just the standard Bridgerton formula, saphne and kanthony were not spared this issue either, and I fear the other couples will find the same fate. We can still complain though, we definitely did not need so many cuts back to Benedict having a threesome in e8.

Finally dear anon, if you ever wish to continue discussing even more on our mutual love for Colin and Penelope, know that my messages are open <3

[whumpster-fire]

OP has already pointed this out numerous times in the replies and reblogs but Mercator Projection is not used because the kind of distortion it creates is seen as morally superior, it's used because it makes certain kinds of math easier.

This includes Rhumb Lines (i.e. if you draw a straight line between two points on a Mercator Projection map and then measure the angle from that line to the latitude longitude lines you can theoretically find that direction on a compass at the first point, go in that direction and reach the second one even if it's not the shortest distance). This is extremely useful for navigation without computers.

However for navigation with computers, it's still very useful because of a related property: while the shapes of very large things are distorted, it shows the shapes pretty accurately for small areas at most latitudes: e.g. North America or Asia are both heavily distorted, but if you look at, say, Borneo and Iceland on a Mercator map, they're both approximately the right shape, the projection just makes Iceland look almost as big as Borneo. This is very convenient for making a computerized map system like Google Maps that you can freely zoom in and out on to almost any scale, which is why most map websites / softwares use a variant called Web Mercator, which I think is just Mercator that doesn't bother accounting for the Earth being not quite spherical.

There's some other "Makes the math easier" projections too, like Equirectangular, which, as Randall Munroe puts it, maps X and Y to latitude and longitude, or Azimuthal Projections, which preserve direction and distance to a specific point.

Other map projections are used plenty, especially for things like infographic maps showing the entire world, which Mercator isn't very good for. This is where the controversy really happens: if you're making a map of something like the geographic distribution of Tumblr posts arguing about map projections, the map's primary job is to "look right" and "look fair," which means the most important things are subjective, which means there's room to fight over why your favorite projection is better. Some of the more commonly used ones include:

Equal Area Projections: these show the relative sizes of things correctly but have a lot of shape distortion.

Cylindrical ones have the same amount of distortion at any given latitude, but they have only one latitude (positive and negative) where shapes aren't distorted (the standard parallel). Everything near the poles is both squashed vertically and stretched horizontally to make the map fit a rectangle while keeping area the same, and if the standard parallel isn't zero anything closer to the equator than the standard parallel is stretched vertically. The Gall-Peters Projection puts its standard parallel at 45 degrees, and has been promoted for reasons of avoiding Eurocentrism, but ironically while it may avoid making Europe look bigger but ironically Southern Europe and the northern US / Southern Canada have their shapes preserved most accurately while equatorial countries get vertically stretched.

The Mollweide Projection avoids the vertical squishing/stretching problem by making the map an ellipse that gets narrower in proportion to the shrinking circumference of a latitude circle as you get closer to the poles. The downside is this makes the choice of the central longitude line much more important: areas near the central meridian are close to their true shape even near the poles but ones far from it get heavily distorted: with the Greenwich Meriddian in the center, Greenland and Iceland look fine but Alaska and New Zealand look horrible.

Some equal area projections try to make the shape distortion less bad by compromising between some vertical compression at the poles and some horizontal compression compared to an equirectangular projection. This includes the Eckert IV and Equal Earth Projections. There's also other ones with wonky shapes.

Perspective Projections (including Orthographic) are basically just "draw a picture of a globe." They inherently can only show half the world (for Orthographic) or less (for any other perspective projection) and some of that is heavily distorted, so you need multiple maps for a whole world map.

Polar Azimuthal Projections: the favorite projections of the UN and the Flat Earth Society. Centered on the one pole, shows the region near that pole well, regions near the equator with heavy distortion, and regions past the equator with REALLY heavy distortion unless you stop the map at the equator and include another one for the other hemisphere.

Compromise Projections: not to be confused with the equal area compromise ones: these don't preserve area OR shape but try to compromise between them so it looks okay to everyone. You've probably seen these a lot. Popular ones include the Robinson Projection, Kavrayskiy VII Projection, Winkel Tripel Projection, and Natural Earth Projection.

Projections With Splits: I'm lumping together polygonal projections like the Dymaxion and various ones named "Butterfly" with the Goode Homolosine because they have a similar philosophy of keeping the shapes of the continents as accurate as possible and going "fuck the oceans" and splitting the map apart in the middle of them to avoid stretching and deforming anything too much: if you imagine unwrapping a sheet of material covering the globe, the other projections only cut it in one place and otherwise stretch and squash it, whereas these tear or cut it until it lays approximately flat.

As for the "Northern Hemisphere on top vs Southern Hemisphere on top" debate: the Prime Meridian being in Europe is Eurocentrism, but North being on top is like... the Northern Hemisphere objectively has the majority of the land and the vast majority of the people, including most of the "Global South," and most of the rest is still pretty close to the equator. I think almost 90% of humanity lives north of the equator and by my back of the envelope math around 97-98% of people live north of the Tropic of Capricorn.

(and as always there's a relevant XKCD: 977)

maps being "misleading" about the size of countries and continents is not a global conspiracy to make you think western countries are more important (bc size = importance obvs), it's because you can't accurately depict a sphere in 2d. it's literally not that deep.

[spockandawe]

Can.... can I ask how... do learn bookbinding? .-. It’s like... a distant goal of mine but I am very 🤷🤷🤷🤷 on starting

The good news is that it’s extremely attainable!! So, the easiest entry level tier for bookbinding is stitching together individual signatures (the folded pieces of paper nested together to make sections of a book), and the easiest material is doing that with is just regular printer paper. That was what keyed me into this, my dad was printing little short documents for work and sewing them together so he could have a non-screen version of what he needed to reference. I usually try to work in the range of signatures that use 5-10 sheets of paper (which gives you 20-40 pages as a booklet), though it’s possible to go smaller, especially if you’re working with thicker paper. I haven’t tested the upper end, but that’s where I’m comfortable.

NOW. Before I get into printing, let me take a detour (printing is where things get, like, technologically complex, because it depends on what software and printer you have access to, but that doesn’t have to be connected to the mechanics of Making A Book

SeaLemon’s youtube channel was where I started out! A lot of her videos are about various ways to make smaller notebooks, though her videos on casebinding, kettle stitch, and making bookcloth are most relevant to what I’m doing now. but she also has a LOT of smaller-scale tutorials that are great for pulling together a little notebook of your own, or a sketchpad, things like that. 

And the videos are really easy to follow. I don’t reference her anymore for the casebinding work, but I do someday want to go back in there and experiment with more of the stitches for pulling together cute little notebooks. My exposed-spine books and the ones that were covered with a single piece of fabric were done from her tutorials. I want to say that SeaLemon was my primary reference for making my text blocks, while this next channel is a really extensive look into the casebinding part of things.

I appreciate Das Bookbinding a lot, even though it was SUPER overwhelming when I was just starting out, and I wouldn’t have been able to follow anything. But even before I was able to follow along, these videos show a lot of like... the mechanics of making something so polished and complex, even if I’m not able to imitate all the steps myself. I used these videos as a reference for the set of books with the fabric spine + paper cover + fabric corners, for example. I haven’t done a deep dive into this channel, so there may be more accessible videos in there than the ones I dug up, but regardless, it’s an EXCELLENT resource.

And now... printing. This is where it’s hardest to give concrete advice, and I hate telling people they should go give money to huge corporations for their software, or pay huge amounts of money for fancy hardware, but I am also a coward who buckled and paid for word really early, and was fortunate enough to receive a color laser duplex printer as a gift a few years back, so I don’t personally have a good grasp on the most effective free/cheap options out there. So I can only speak to the expensive crap, but I know there are less expensive ways to do this too.

So! The two programs I have used are adobe acrobat and microsoft word. I originally was working out of google docs, where I printed to pdf, opened in acrobat, and printed as booklets. Adobe acrobat has a booklet option in the printing menu, where you can’t select your own signature size, but if you say ‘print as booklet’, and then print twenty pages at a time, you can generate your own ten-sheet signatures. The downside of doing this is that I was not making good use of the space, because the aspect ratios were off, and I had big margins I couldn’t control.

Once I realized that, and also realized that a lot of the files I wanted to print were larger than google docs wanted to handle, I bought a word license. Word also has a way to do booklets, where you can go to page layout, select booklet mode, and then select the number of pages you want in each signature (divide by four to get the number of sheets it will use). I print from word to pdf, which shuffles all my junk around for me to get it in order it needs to print, if that makes sense. It’s difficult to describe, but really not too difficult to do, especially if you have a short story or something to mess around with yourself, so you can print it off, fold the pages, and assemble it in order. Also, page numbers are your friend, even if they’re a pain to wrangle. I’ve had to match up dropped sheets without page numbers before, and I was FULL of regrets.

Now, I know that some people use inkjets, and some people do two-sided printing with one-sided printers, but i also know that other people have made use of other printers they have access to, or have taken books to places like staples or kinkos to use the printers there. I don’t know anything about how difficult or expensive that is, but it’s an option!

Now, one downside of this hobby is that it takes a NUMBER of small items to make it work, but they are typically small, and none of them have been that expensive. First, to assemble, I print off my sheets and fold them in half. And then I use a bone folder to really get those creases sharp. I mark off places to put holes and use an awl to punch them. I sew things up using either embroidery floss for short books (two strands, run over a block of beeswax) or waxed linen thread for long ones, using a curved needle. There are bookmaking ribbons you can use to give spines extra hold, but I haven’t used those. When it’s done, I glue my spine using a glue brush and sandwich my book somehow (I followed a sealemon tutorial to make a book press with two cutting boards, or I bury books under a stack of textbooks). 

I have a stash of heavier paper and fabric that are suitable for covers and endpaper, and to convert cloth into bookcloth (another sealemon tutorial), I have iron-on adhesive sheets and tissue paper. Once my book spine is set, I may glue a piece of mull/muslin to it, and/or a piece of ribbon for a bookmark. I cut my covers and spine out of chipboard, using a craft knife, guide ruler, and cutting board, then everything is ready to assemble.

That sounds like a lot, and there are other optional items I didn’t include, but none of these things are that big, or that expensive. I think my cutting board was the most expensive item I purchased. And if you just want to start with booklets, you can absolutely get started with a regular straight needle and thread, and still accomplish plenty. It’s been interesting as a hobby, because I haven’t done many things where the tiers of increasing complexity were so clearly visible, if that makes sense? I took my time trying new techniques, and I’m consistently becoming happier and happier with my efforts, but even back at the beginning when I was aware I barely knew what I was doing, the first time I glued a text block into a case I had made was a WILD feeling, and I still feel like a hell of an amateur (and don’t know enough to gauge how accurate that feeling is asdgsfda), but the earliest steps of learning to bind a book are highly, highly attainable, and I absolutely recommend it.

[itsclydebitches]

I just realized, if V9 does cut to how things are going in Vacuo over the course of the volume, the bloated cast problem is never going to get solved. If they only focus on RWBYJN? Definitely. If they try to balance both stories (which, considering my lack of faith, is the decision I expect them to make) it’ll be a mess. Adding with the return of Sun, Neptune, CFVY and the staff of Vacuo’s academy from the book, how can they expect to juggle show much?

This is why I'm personally hoping that Volume 9 takes place entirely on the island (with a final/post-credit scene of something appropriately dramatic happening in Vacuo as our season cliffhanger). I don't necessarily expect it, but it would be my personal preference at this point. Because yeah, there are downsides no matter what RT might choose. An island only Volume stalls the primary plot (Salem) and makes fans wait another year to see half of the cast again (on top of an abnormally long hiatus now). Switching between places maintains that bloated cast and severely limits the time that I think will be necessary to appropriately deal with everything associated with the island and everything coming off of Volume 8 (Penny's death, Relics lost, the group "dying," etc.) Not involving Sun, Neptune, CFVY, and Theodore would be ridiculous since we already know they're all in Vacuo and, again, are fan favorites for some. Including them means we have seven more characters to balance on top of the already full protagonist group. Engaging only with them would feel silly from a world-building standpoint; they've entered a whole new Kingdom and they only interact with the people they already know? (Which ties into a generalized feeling in RWBY that these areas are underdeveloped.) But, again, introducing new characters, like we got with the Ace Ops, means RWBY's limited time is continually fractured and, inevitably, those new characters remain undeveloped alongside our main characters getting left behind. Fans are frustrated that Blake and Weiss, the two people most connected to Atlas, had incredibly little to do during that arc while someone like Clover got a lot more individualized screen time. And they're frustrated that characters like Vine were killed off without ever becoming a proper character, or Harriet suddenly wanting to blow up a city due to a crush we never saw, or Elm having an epiphany about friendship off screen. These side-characters need development, but developing them means not developing our actual protagonists (or villains).

I get how for the people who are happy with current RWBY this reads as a critical fan deliberately being pissed no matter what RT might do: "It's not the writing's fault you're not happy with any options." The problem though is that RT has created a show where the only possible options are flawed. The problem lies not in any individual fan's tendency to see the worst in a story (though there can be elements of that too for more jaded viewers), but rather in RWBY's flawed structure coming back to bite it in the ass eight years later. Looking back at the shows I think are written well, cast size is pretty split between two main options. Option One is to have a large core cast that meets new side characters every episode before leaving them behind, with the occasional, recurring guest star getting more development. Think of something like Leverage or most incarnations of Star Trek: we expect 99% of the development to go into the bridge crew, each episode has fun background characters who we know we're leaving behind in 45 minutes, and there are characters like Q who frequently pop up as a treat and then disappear again. Meanwhile, Option Two is to have a small protagonist pool of 1-2 characters and then a very large supporting cast that they move among. Think of something like Supernatural or Fullmetal Alchemist: 99% of the development is going into just two characters, but because they're only a duo there's actually a lot more time to spend on exploring the world and the side-characters. We expect to see this rich environment and we expect to see the supporting cast grow because there's only so much you can say about two guys, even if they've got a lot going on. In contrast, we don't expect more than a cursory environment/conflict/supporting cast in the shows with something like a bridge crew because damn, we have Picard and Riker and Geordi and Worf and Crusher and the other Crusher and Troi and Data AND sometimes O'Brien... keep everything else simple so there's room for all of them to flourish episode to episode.

RWBY essentially has a bridge crew transplanted into that large, sprawling world overflowing with side-characters who are introduced like they're going to be developed beyond a 45 minute chunk. RWBY has 8+ characters the show has established as necessitating consistent development, yet instead of using the world primarily to bolster that (Data visits a random planet with a random problem and the point is less what's happening there and more what it means for Data), the story is building a world like it's only got 1-2 protagonists to tackle before it can start the work of developing everything around them... but obviously that's not the case. So that development only sort of happens. And the protagonist development only sort of happens. RWBY is pulled between two options and the result is that neither option wins. It's a combination I'm not sure I've ever seen before and, frankly, it just doesn't work well. Audiences expect both types of development to happen because RWBY is drawing from other stories to set up those expectations, but there just isn't time, especially not for a 20 minute webseries with a short episode count per season. You can't develop eight protagonists, and three not-technically-but-basically protagonists (Ozpin, Qrow, Maria), and six villains, and introduce endless side-characters, and a whole fantasy world, and change that setting into something completely culturally different every few volumes, and maintain a sprawling plot rather than neat episodic conflicts AND do it all in less than five hours per year ... and expect everything to turn out satisfactorily. This is why Oscar needs to suddenly solve this problem with a cane nuke no one heard of. Or Blake needs to forget about her fight against racism while in a racist city. Or Weiss' victory needs to be conducted by Willow off screen. Or Vine needs to remain a cardboard cutout until he's killed off. Or Hazel and Emerald need to undergo redemption in literally half an episode. So much important storytelling is pushed off screen, or we're told it happened sometime after the impact is already done, or characters speed-run through 'development' because there's just no way to maintain this number of story threads with this amount of time without dropping a huge chunk of them. Which, in turn, is one of the reasons why so many fics function better than the canon. Writers have endless time and space to give the tale everything the readers expect and everything it deserves. You actually need five chapters to develop Oscar's changing perspective on the merge? You've got it. RWBY has to do that off-screen over a hiatus and then squeeze the summary of that revelation between Jaune grieving Pyrrha and Ruby telling Qrow they don't need adults. It's far, far too much.

All of which is why I'm rooting for an island only Volume. It would still cause problems (most notably the story essentially grinding to a halt in regards to the primary conflict), but it's the best of a bad lot imo. If RT isn't willing to cut their cast down into something manageable for the Kingdom hopping/sprawling side-characters they've got going on, the least we can do is develop the title team in a vacuum before tossing them back into all that.

[just-fucking-peachy]

Just ruminations on Devil Judge since it's the finale week and I have... thoughts. Warning, because this got LONG:

a. The way it's going, Gaon has nobody left (and I'm not counting Min Jung Ho) and neither has Yohan, except Elijah. So in the end, who's going to be with Elijah? I'm guessing the most predictable end would be Yohan dead and Gaon as Elijah's caretaker but, though I do think he would be a better caretaker than Yohan, it would be sad. Much as I think Yohan isn't the most... ethical judge, he's definitely suffered in his life. It would be nice to have an ending where he didn't have to.

b. Re: Gaon, I don't see an ending where he's left to take care of Elijah as a happy ending. He's lost so many people in the course of his story, his parents, Soohyun etc. His relationship with the Kang family had its upsides and downsides: he found a new family but at the same time, his morals are constantly at loggerheads with Yohan's. If at the end of it, if he loses the Kang family, it would be sad.

c. I do think we've reached a moral crisis jn the story, at least in terms of Gaon and Yohan. Which I expected but not this late (and also not this many times, lol). Gaon isn't going to be corrupted any further, that's clear (so this is not a Will Graham from Hannibal situation, or at least there is no longer the episodes left for it to be a Will Graham situation). So it's one of two things: either Yohan begins to see his POV or they will end the series on opposite sides. (Which again, is not what I want. I would like if they reconcile, because if not each other there is NOBODY left.)

d. If they DO end on opposite sides, it would be convenient for Sunah but also... it kinda shelves her as a primary antagonist doesn't it? In which case, she should have been dealt with already,.if the primary crisis was going to be a faceoff btw Yohan and Gaon. And I don't see Yohan joining Sunah, not after the little stunt she pulled with K and Elijah. My take (and hope!) is the 15th episode is the complete split of Yohan and Gaon, leading up to Sunah's statement ("You're completely alone now.") and the last episode is that one of them, hopefully Gaon, finds a way to reach the other in their darkest moment and face off against Sunah together. Fingers crossed and nobody dies in the end?

e. I wish Gaon knew about K dying and Yohan bring shot. :/

f. I would like to believe that all the family bonding moments were leading up to something - either the humanisation of Yohan or the corruption of Gaon. The corruption of Gaon only happened partway; understandably because Yohan crossed the line in the last episode. But I don't want the humanisation of Yohan to be futile, or a sort of redemption equals death kind of way. Let the man have a nice meal with his family at the end :/

g. After K's last words to Gaon, I've taken a relook at his relationship with Yohan. Undoubtedly K was loyal to Yohan, till the end and as predicted by him, he did come to a lonely end. K understands, probably better than Yohan, the real loneliness and danger of the path they are on. And he recognises the real danger of being swallowed up by Yohan's rage and complete desire for revenge. Which put his words towards Yohan about Gaon in perspective: was it really necessary to involve Gaon? Is it not another person they're damning? There might have been a hint of competition btw him and Gaon but K knew the consequences and the lengths Yohan could go to. I do think that, with this death, snapped the last link holding back Yohan's unhinged-ness.

h. Speaking of Yohan's unhinged-ness, I really believe that Gaon choosing to speak out is as much about saving Yohan from himself as is about his own horrified conscience. This is clear enough from their conversation at the mansion where Gaon says that with this, Yohan goes down a path there is no coming back from. I will actually make a note which I've long thought about: despite the long history of conflict they've had, Gaon has never actually contradicted Yohan IN COURT. Even when Jin Joo was pushing back against this decision, Gaon said nothing - not until they're back home and he asks Yohan if he really means to go through with this.

Of course people have brought up the stabbing incident in the preview. My thoughts are: either Sunah says something to Gaon (truthful or otherwise) or Gaon finds something out. Either way, Gaon stabbing Yohan is a big deal - and it's a clear break from the thing Yohan told him before ("never attack me. Never.") And ties in with what Yohan tells him in the preview ("You'll regret this forever.") So the incident that sets him off has to be something huge, something that he feels is a massive betrayal of his trust. He may think Yohan is going down a horrible road but he doesn't think Yohan has, as of yet, done anything truly criminal. This is evident in how he defends Yohan to his professor. But what if he finds out, or is led to believe, that Yohan did do something like that? Either connected to the church fire or to Soohyun? If it's a manipulation by Sunah, there is space to reconcile (and I hope so!) If not and there is in fact something that Yohan has done, I guess there will be no space to reconcile and in which case Yohan will properly be a villain (but again, weird since girlboss Sunah is right there?) I hope the latter is not true, because frankly both the boys have suffered enough goddamit.

Whew, that was a lot more than I thought it would be. I have a LOT of feelings about this show, lol. What do you guys think? Would love to hear your thoughts.

[oltammefru]

I'm currently up to n14, and the character (out of my somewhat smallish op pool fwiw) that has performed beyond my expectations the most is Kal'tsit (with her module). Like I knew ahead of time that she was definitely going to be pretty great but I did not expect her to be as nearly as good as she is.

Things she has going for her in IS3 beyond what just makes her generally strong (most of this advice is geared towards higher difficulties, but the majority of it applies at lower difficulties too):

Mon3tr's stun. It does a surprising amount of damage, and can hit hovering enemies, knocking them down. It's a bit harder to control than "directly tied to skill" stun effects like Texalter or Mayer or W, but you can get surprisingly consistent with it with practice.

She now has a pretty great summon synergy collectible, the one which gives summons +30 ATK%/HP%/ASPD. (There's also a collectible that makes summons not count towards deployment limit but with only Kal'tsit + Mon3tr it's just worse than a +2 deployment limit collectible.)

Mon3tr is simultaneously capable of acting as a traditional laneholder while having 25 second redeployment time. One big issue many traditional laneholders suffer at high difficulties is that their defense gets shredded to 0 by corrosion damage (traditional laneholders do have the benefit of being healable by elemental medics, but at high difficulties this upside matters far less because you just cannot outheal the elemental damage you receive), but meanwhile you can often just reset Mon3tr's def by retreating and redeploying her. Compared to AoE guards, Mon3tr does sometimes have more issue dealing with Retching Broodmother spawns if you're on S3, but S2 is pretty great against them (and I think is better than S3 on a surprisingly high number of maps.)

Compared to other fast redeploys, Mon3tr has a much much larger hp pool to work with, and sometimes you really just need that hp, especially with how hard the atk of enemies scales at higher difficulties. (as a side note, I've also found gravel to be much better in IS3 than IS2, for similar reasons).

Much of her strength is tied to her summon, so Kal'tsit is one of the characters less affected by rejections. Auto-skill activation doesn't matter as much when you have really great skill uptime and really short cycle time on both S2 and S3 (in particular S2M3 has 71% uptime!). -50 to stats/DP/redeploy does make Kal'tsit's heals a lot worse, but it also lets you get her out earlier. Getting frozen on deploy doesn't matter that much since her strength is tied to Mon3tr. Losing HP when below max HP can be a pretty big threat, because it means that she'll basically only heal herself and not heal mon3tr at all, however, it can be worked around on most stages by taking good advantage of her longer medic range.

She's still like the only good offensive option on medic tickets. Reed alter will show up at some point, but as a mostly DPS focused arts damage dealer that I believe has no Res ignore or shred, gets fucked over really hard by +20 Res to all enemies.

Her extra bulk compared to other medics matters quite a bit. For ranged units, one of the scarier common enemies you'll face are the Hermit Crabby guys, which can do pretty scary damage to many ranged units, but the fact that Kal'tsit's defense + HP is quite a bit better than other medics means that you have far more room for error if you misplay against them.

The biggest downside I've encountered using her is that it's 20 + 10 DP for her and Mon3tr, and sometimes you're just not capable of getting them down early enough if you're relying on them as a primary laneholder, especially since enemies tend to show up earlier in IS3 maps.

What six stars have you found notably useful for this iteration of Rogue like? Also. Personally it feels like this one tries to alleviate the sniper-only strategies of IS2 (where with collectibles you are basically cheesing everything with snipers or sometimes casters of steroids) since there are more enemies that have invisibility (or so it feels) and some enemies that really want you to block them- the most viable class actually feels to be specialists of various sorts tbh. (all that while keeping snipers as a more or less a neccessity, I find myself selecting both versions of Kroos every single time whenever I am given a chance). What are your thoughts on which strats it favors?

It’s less that IS3 has alleviated Sniper-only as much as it has alleviated the need for Marksman Snipers specifically, which dominated in IS3 due to the overwhelming presence of very good tiles for them as well as high HP low DEF enemies and tricky air units you want dead away from your team. Class and subclass variety is more necessary in IS3 if you want to play more than Waves 1, which I appreciate.

A real standout for me in IS3 compared to IS2? W. She’s been performing so well that she’s a priority pick for me. Huge range and the ability to cause Stun with all Skills is very valuable in IS3, to ground floaters (including Highmore), control NI-inducing enemies, cancelling Predator autododge, and just in general punching through the high bulk characteristic of non-basic Seaborn enemies. As an aside, Crowd Control in general is eating well in IS3! Highmore and especially Don Quijote are susceptible to pretty much everything except Silence, and the game expects you to use this. And Silence itself? HUGELY powerful tool throught IS3, Lappland and Jaye S1 are seeing unprecedented levels of use in endgame content now.

I’m not going to mention all the usual 6*s since they also worked very well in IS2, but W has been putting out those Lebron numbers.

Oh, I should mention her since technically she’s not used in IS2 due to being a new Operator, but Texas the Omertosa is godlike in IS3 between her ability to delete enemies with S2 and to delete and Stun enemies with S3, including airborne ones, even if she’s stunned herself.

[sineala]

A Few Thoughts About Hurt/Comfort

I have been asked this month to make a post about hurt/comfort in Avengers comics. And I love h/c -- I actually have a massive number of WIPs right now that are h/c -- so I am very happy to talk about it! Anyway, this is not really all that planned out and this mostly turned into an excursus on Tony Stark's pain. I'm sure you're all surprised.

Like pretty much everyone else, I'm sure, I have found that everything lately has been... pretty tough. And the coping mechanism that really got me through last year and this year was reading and writing a lot of h/c, on the theory that, however lousy a day I'm having, I can absolutely make sure that Tony Stark has a worse one. And then I can make sure he gets hugs. Wish fulfillment? Why, yes. (Once at Hallmark I was trying to find a "get well soon" card, forgot what it was called, and described it to my wife as "a hurt/comfort card.") I think Marvel Comics -- the Avengers side, in particular -- is an interesting canon for h/c for a lot of reasons. Though, honestly, if you asked me to recommend you, a hurt/comfort fan, a new fandom, I would probably just hand you some Starsky & Hutch DVDs. Go watch "The Fix" and get back to me later. If you like that, there's way more where that came from. But there's still lots to love in Marvel! Superhero comics are really a goldmine as far as the hurt side of h/c. Because superheroes, and you probably have noticed this, get hurt a lot. They get hurt repeatedly, in fantastical ways that are probably impossible in real life both physically and emotionally (at least, I don't think anyone's invented mind control yet), and even the heroes without superhuman healing powers tend to get physically hurt a whole lot worse than actual people can take. Currently in Iron Man comics, Tony has a broken back and is dealing with this by locking himself into the armor as a backboard and injecting himself with massive doses of painkillers. He's busy! He's got stuff to do! He doesn't have time to lie around and heal! So, basically, if you name a kind of pain that you would like to see happen to a character, it's probably happened to superheroes. Multiple times. The downside, though, is that comics do not really deliver that well when it comes to the comfort part of h/c. They could. It's not inherent to the medium that they don't. But because of the serial nature of comics and also the fact the primary audience is dudes who want to read about people in spandex punching each other, a lot of the time they don't really feel the need to provide closure and write about people dealing with any of the hurt. (Raise your hand if you're still annoyed with the end of Hickman's Avengers run.) But at the same time, I think that's a quality that makes Avengers ripe for h/c fanfic. Because, generally speaking, fandom likes to provide the things that canon doesn't, and fandom is more than happy to provide the comfort. If you enjoy canonical h/c in comics, I think you really can't go wrong with Iron Man. One of the big innovations of modern Marvel Comics was the concept that heroes would also suffer from relatable human problems, and in practice what this means is that a lot of heroes start with a fully-loaded angst-ridden backstory and origin story, ripe for h/c. So Tony starts out by incurring a heart injury that he fully expects is going to kill him, which he responds to by vowing he won't get close to anyone so they won't be sad when he dies, and throughout the early Silver Age is constantly on the brink of death as his heart nearly gives out on him practically every issue. And then even after his heart gets (mostly) better, there are various plots involving his armor being detrimental to his health and him choosing to fight on anyway. It's hard for me to think of another superhero hitting that particular variety of h/c in exactly the same way. Sure, superheroes risk their lives constantly, because this is how superhero comics work, but Tony is the only one I can think of who is this constantly this badly off, physically. Like, think of all the other heroes who have had a continual solo presence as fan favorites across Marvel history -- Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine, maybe even Deadpool. You know what those guys all have? Healing factors! For the most part, they are not running around continually on the verge of death, and while there are certainly memorable arcs involving several of them being severely injured and/or dead, you really have to work at it. It's not their constant state of affairs, whereas Tony is the kind of superhero who shows up to a fight already bleeding out under his armor. Yeah, I know Extremis gave him a healing factor. But he didn't have it very long, and also he did some extremely dangerous things while he did have it; I'm pretty sure I've never seen Wolverine saying that he'll just solve a problem by cutting off his own foot. So, anyway, yeah, there are a bunch of good arcs involving h/c for Tony. If you're looking for physical injury, he has a whole bunch of heart problems over the years, gets several new hearts, then ruins his brain, et cetera. That level of hurt is basically the background pain of Tony's life; every so often, his heart will get damaged or he'll have to live in the armor or the armor will be killing him, et cetera. If you're looking for more unusual trauma, I am, as always, going to rec Manhunt, a relatively obscure arc in late v3 (IM v3 #65-69) in which Tony has an extremely bad week. His tech is stolen and used to bomb a building. Then he gets shot in the chest. Then while he's at the hospital a nurse tries and fails to poison him, and she then tries to beat him to death. Then he checks himself out of the hospital and a helicopter shoots missiles at him. Then he becomes a fugitive from justice. And then, oh, yeah, he has to fight the Mandarin. It is... a lot. (Volume 3 of Iron Man is pretty good as far as h/c possibilities. You've got a lot of physical pain, Carol's drinking arc, the Sentient Armor, both DreamVision arcs, and Manhunt. Manhunt is finally supposed to be out in trade this month, by the way.) There are of course the drinking arcs, which probably count as their own type of hurt. But if you haven't read the second drinking arc (IM #160-200), please do. Marvel likes to up the stakes on events (Fear Itself, Secret Empire) by making Tony drink, and it does work, I think. I feel like I've spoken at length about Tony's drinking elsewhere so I don't really want to rehash it all here. And then there's the emotional pain. Angst and drama is something that happens to a whole bunch of characters, yes, especially in comics, but somehow Tony seems to end up with possibly more than his fair share of it. Fandom likes to make a lot of Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, so much so that you might think, if you didn't know canon, that this was just fandom running with a throwaway mention of Tony's terrible childhood and making it worse. But, no, canon really does go there with a reasonable amount of frequency. Howard's actual first appearance is in a flashback where he's ordering teenage Tony to break up with his girlfriend because she's the daughter of one of Howard's business rivals. And then we get into the verbal abuse, and the physical abuse, and the time Howard made Tony take his first drink, and the part where Howard was a demon in hell who Tony fought while he insulted him. And more! Currently, in canon, Howard is alive again and is in league with Mephisto for the express purpose of ruining Tony's life. Also when Tony was a baby, Howard tried to trade him to Dracula. I think you can make an argument that fandom is actually showing restraint when compared to canon. Tony also has a whole lot of Terrible Exes whose presence and/or former presence in Tony's life can be used for a lot of hurt. If you've read any amount of fanfic, you probably know that the exes who get the most play in fandom are Sunset Bain and Tiberius Stone -- not that Tony and Ty were ever canonically a couple, of course, but fandom is definitely enamored of this idea. Ty and Sunset both have relatively similar interactions with Tony in canon, in that they are both liars and emotional abusers, heavy on the gaslighting, with the purpose of becoming more successful than Tony. They both also attempt to murder Tony, although this is after he figures out they're evil, at least. (Yes, I know, this is not how either of them usually appear in AUs.) Tony also has a bunch of exes who also have just straight-up tried to murder or otherwise hurt him, sometimes while they are dating, and sometimes before Tony dates them: Whitney Frost, Indries Moomji, Kathy Dare, and Maya Hansen come to mind. There are probably more I'm not thinking of! But, yes, if you want to write about a guy in a series of terrible relationships, please consider Iron Man comics. If mind control is one of your favorite flavors of hurt, Tony's pretty good for that too. We all know about The Crossing. I suppose when I say "mind control" I mostly mean "armor control" because there are an awful lot of plots where someone else makes Tony's armor do whatever they want it to do and Tony is along for the ride -- Demon in a Bottle, Sentient Armor, and Execute Program are the first things that come to mind. There is also a fairly obscure What If that is What If Iron Man Lost The Armor Wars in which Justin Hammer apparently really wants Tony in a mind control collar to take off all his clothes and lounge around in his underwear. No, really. I think a lot of pain for Tony often revolves around his issues with control, generally -- his alcoholism comes into play here again. The entire aftermath of Civil War is also notable for its propensity to hurt Tony over and over and over. Is he stoically soldiering on through his grief after Steve dies? Hell, no! He cries, like, six separate times. He 100% blames himself for Steve's death. It's great. Everybody loves The Confession and the funeral in Fallen Son, but one of my personal favorites is Avengers/Invaders, in which Tony is confronted with a time-traveling Steve from WWII and in order not to screw up the timeline, he can't tell Steve he knows him. He is clearly not coping well. He shuts himself in a room with a giant wall of pictures of Steve! Also there's a part where he has to try to convince Steve he can trust him and he ends up having to tie Steve to a chair to talk to him, and Steve looks at him and asks, "Who did you kill to get where you are?" and I feel like that is probably one of the worst moments in Tony's life. No wonder he gave himself amnesia. So now we might want to ask, okay, but why is hurting Tony in fanfiction so much fun? I mean, I can tell you why I think it's fun. I can't speak for anyone else. One reason is that he is very emotional and very affected by everything he does. Sometimes you will see people complaining that the heroes of m/m fanfic cry too much and this is not realistic. This is not a problem if you're writing Tony! He can cry as much as you want and it's perfectly in character. I don't think it would be as fun to hurt him if he didn't express so much of his pain. But he does. He also feels guilty, and for me that's a very satisfying character element. If he were well-adjusted and didn't blame himself for so many things, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as watching him blame himself for everyone whose death he thinks he is responsible for, whether or not he is. And then he just keeps going, and it's, y'know, nice to watch him be resilient, too. So, I guess, I think hurting him is interesting because it's easy to hurt him, his weak points are pretty obvious, and he reacts a lot. Steve doesn't hurt quite as much as Tony does, in canon. It's certainly possible to hurt him -- I mean, they did actually kill him after Civil War, after all -- but I don't think the canonical patterns of hurting him are as numerous. Obviously deseruming Steve is a fairly popular go-to in terms of physical hurt; he's been deserumed at least three times that I know of. I think's easy to see the appeal there of taking a character who is fairly physically resilient and making him... much less so. Certainly Marvel seems to see the appeal. But other than that I don't think he has any other really common way to get physically injured. Unlike Tony, whose origin story is basically "oh no, I've acquired a disability," Steve's origin story is "I drank a serum that cured all my disabilities." Which, I mean, great wish fulfillment but there's not really as much there to poke at. Pretty much all of Steve's pain is emotional, but, unlike Tony, his pain isn't often specifically in response to someone directly, purposefully hurting him. Hickman's Avengers run is a big exception, yes. His pain seems to come up most often as a kind of situational angst. He feels like a man out of time. He feels out of touch with the modern era, with people his own age. He feels guilt because he feels responsible for Bucky's death. He feels like he can't trust the government and therefore he can't be Captain America. He worries that he doesn't know how to have a normal life. And, yes, these are deep and important worries but it's different than, like, Indries Moomji dumping Tony with the intent to make him sad enough to start drinking. Very few of Steve's villains want to personally ruin Steve's entire life the way Tony's villains do; mostly they just want to do things like bring back the Nazis. In terms of Steve's potential for h/c, I think Steve is harder to hurt than Tony is. Physically, he is definitely harder to hurt. You can deserum him, sure, but unless you want everything you write to be a deseruming fic you're probably not going to want to do that more than a couple of times. And if you want to hurt him physically while he has the serum, you have to hurt him hard. Usually past the point where a regular human would ever survive it. He's also harder to break, emotionally, than Tony is -- which means it's very satisfying when you can get him to break, but this is a guy who's only cried twice (that I remember) in canon. So if you want to get him to cry, you really, really have to wreck him, and he doesn't have as many obvious weak spots. He also doesn't generally sit around blaming himself for things that aren't his fault, and the whole "stewing in guilt" genre of plots for him basically came down to "he was sad that he thought Bucky's death was his fault," and that's really the biggest regret he seems to have, and also Bucky's not dead anymore. The Steve/Tony relationship itself, I would think, is also appealing to h/c fans because canon provides a lot of ways for them to hurt each other. Some people only ship pairings who would never, y'know, take turns beating each other half to death in major event comics. (And for a lot of Marvel Comics history, that was also Steve & Tony, so if you want them to be BFFs who have never fought, you can just set your fic earlier.) They have definitely hurt each other both physically and emotionally, so if you're looking for something easy and satisfying as a h/c fan, you can just read or write something where they... make up. What about Marvel characters other than Steve and Tony? Surely some of them are angsty, yes? Well, yes, but also it depends on the particular flavor of angst that you like. If you like the way Tony hurts, you may very well enjoy Doctor Strange comics, because they have a very similar attitude towards life -- they are both former alcoholics whose origin stories involve physical disabilities, who routinely make tactical decisions that negatively affect their continued existence and/or happiness a whole lot. It's very much an "I must suffer alone in the dark and no one will ever know what I am doing to save the world but it's the right thing to do" sort of vibe. Like, you can read comics where Strange is lying in hell with two broken legs, hallucinating that Clea has finally come to save him. Strange's biggest fear, akin to Tony's control issues, is basically that one day he's going to be an asshole again, so he's out there trying as hard as he can to do good. Also, if you like tentacles, he has all of them. I mean that. Carol also occasionally hits similar angst spots, and her drinking arc is great. A lot of people like Natasha, too; I have read zero Black Widow comics but I get the impression many people enjoy her brand of angst. The mutant metaphor is a little different in terms of overall vibe, but some people really like it as a source of angst -- the whole "protecting a world who hates and fears them" thing. It may not work for you, but if you like your hurt to include things like systemic oppression, go pick up some X-Men comics. Start with something like God Loves Man Kills. I feel like I liked this sort of thing a lot more as a teenager but that I kind of aged out of liking the mutants quite so much. It's also worth mentioning that not everything that hits the spot in one universe will be the same in the others, and I'm mentioning this because I feel like I have to say something about MCU Bucky. MCU fandom seems to get a lot of mileage out of Bucky's guilt about being the Winter Soldier, everything he was forced to do, et cetera. I have definitely read my share of those fics, and FATWS sure went right for that angst too. But as far as I can tell, he doesn't hit the same way at all in 616. And I like him a lot in 616; I'm always pleased when he shows up on a team. (He was so good in Strikeforce. Everyone was so good in Strikeforce.) But the thing is, 616 Bucky is, basically, phenomenally well-adjusted, given everything he's gone through, and I'm including the time he wrestled a bear in a gulag. He gets over having been the Winter Soldier, and now he's just, y'know, a guy with a cool arm who likes to bring guns to every fight to horrify his teammates, and he snarks at Clint. If you're looking for that angst, that is really not him these days. He's all better. So pretty much all that is canon. So what do we do in fandom for h/c? Well, as far as I can tell, a decent amount of it is canon-based or very canon-close -- there are a whole lot of stories exploring the angst of Civil War or Hickman's Avengers run. Tony's drinking comes up a fair amount, and if one of Tony's Evil Exes comes back to haunt him, it's pretty much only Tiberius Stone. I don't think I've read a lot of fic with Steve getting deserumed; it doesn't seem as popular in fandom as in canon. When Steve gets hurt, he tends to just get physically whumped pretty hard, and there's a fair amount of that for Tony too, but of course Steve can take more. There's also a thriving, uh, subgenre of pain involving Hydra Steve doing terrible things to Tony, presumably the terrible things he would have wanted to do to Tony in canon if Tony had had a flesh body. There's the usual kinds of h/c setups that appear in basically every fandom as well -- sickfic, whump, dub-con/non-con. You get the idea. But since fandom in general likes to take specific inspiration from canon, there's a lot of fic where the hurt tends to resemble things that happen more in canon. Like, I feel like comics fic probably has more tentacle fic and more mind control than canons that don't come pre-stocked with those. Probably everybody has a whole lot of "tied up by bad guys," though. And then, of course, fandom brings the comfort that canon does not. This is true in pretty much every fandom -- I mean, you aren't going to find a lot of actual canons where Character A saves Character B from mortal peril and then there's gay sex -- but, like I was saying, comics don't provide a lot of closure before it's onto the next thing. Usually with a different creative team, who has no interest in wrapping up anything from the last team. Steve and Tony talked about the incursions exactly once after Secret Wars and nobody mentioned the part where Steve spent several months trying to hunt Tony down and kill him. Tony is never going to remember the events of Civil War. Hydra Steve died ignominiously in a fire and no one has ever talked about him again. Honestly, if you're looking for a way to get some comfort in your fanfic, picking an event, any event, and just having the characters talk about it will be way more than any of them get in canon. I feel like honestly that can often be a pretty satisfying to read. And even though comics canon physically hurts characters pretty often and pretty badly, they also often skip right past the recovery. Maybe you'll get one page of a character in a hospital bed at the end of the story arc. Maybe you won't. Demon in a Bottle has one splash page of Tony going through alcohol withdrawal and then he's all better. I think Manhunt skips to Tony getting out of the hospital at the end. That's just not a story that they want to tell very often. The second drinking arc is notable in that it devotes almost as many issues to Tony's recovery as it does to getting him to rock-bottom. Similarly, Steve is done with his Nomad angst way way faster than you probably think he is (though The Captain does go in for a fair number of issues). So one of the things we often want to do in fandom is focus on all the bits that canon skips over, both in the "why did no one ever mention this story arc ever again" way and the "wow, so how long are they in the hospital after that" way. That's really all I can think of about h/c! I'm off to write some more of it!

[artmunstudios]

What's 2 similarities & 2 differences U have noticed between Ozpin & Oscar?

Aaahh I was wondering if you were going to ask me! I’ve been seeing you around asking this question and the answers have all been interesting! So I’ll take on a response that people aren’t taking on then, yes? This will be a long post, so if anyone is interested in reading past the first analysis just click the ‘read more’!

Their Origins

Ozpin is at the core based off of two characters. One of those characters, Oscar is also connected to. There are obviously more characters and whatnot they reference, but for the sake of simplicity, I will only be addressing their clear initial inspiration. Ozpin is based off of The Wizard of Oz, also known as Professor Oz primarily in the Oz Book Series; but his full name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, which he abbreviated to Ozpin Head. (Thank you @immortal-green-snom for this tidbit!!!) In the book series, after he had left in the air balloon in an attempt to help Dorothy get home, Professor Oz was revealed to have done a lot of slimy and heinous things to keep the throne of the Emerald City, and by extension, the Land of Oz itself. While he does get better in the latter books he reappears in, he was portrayed as being manipulative, a bit pathetic, but extremely intelligent and a master of illusions. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers of RWBY were trying to get that across in Ozpin's traits, but to be quite honest, they kinda failed at making him even a morally grey character, as a lot (not all, he isn't guitless, but again, a lot) of the arguments used in-show, and the FNDM itself, are all about things that were either not in his control, or something that was painted as being his fault/harmful, but was actually the opposite of the situation. The biggest example of this is Raven trying to trick Yang and Weiss into believing Ozpin had forced her and Qrow to become birds/have the ability to do so. In a lot of ways, Ozpin and Professor Oz are actually opposites of one another in terms of personalities, which may have in actuality been the overall intention CRWBY had, but we can only speculate. Professor Oz is extremely selfish, while Ozpin is selfless, even to a point where it actually becomes harmful to others. Professor Oz would have done anything to be in power, while Ozpin has done everything to relinquish himself of a position of power, which I find very interesting. This may be due to him even trying to somehow relinquish the burden the God of Light has placed on Oz as a whole, but is ultimately unable to give up that specific task. Even though, truthfully, he needed to relinquish that particular stronghold all along. Professor Oz is clearly a leader, and despite his negative traits, is actually a very good one. Ozpin...as much as I love him as a character, is not the greatest leader. He is, however, an excellent advisor/second-in-command. Professor Oz is only a mere mortal man pretending to be something more, while Ozpin is something bigger than a mortal man, but is pretending to be nothing but a man. Expanding upon this, they also are desperate to be the opposite of what they are. Professor Oz wants to be what he portrayed himself as, and for Ozpin, it's very much the same situation. There is a lot more I could say, but let's move on to Oscar!

Oscar Pine, like Ozpin, is based off of two characters at the core. Again, it is likely that he represents more than two, but for the sake of simplicity, let's discuss only the two. From the moment I saw Oscar, I knew right away that he was based off of my favorite character from the Oz Book Series...Tip. Tip, short for Tippetarius, was too a farmboy who longed for much more, who knew that there was more out there, despite being notably content in their lifestyle. The only difference was that Tip was a slave to an evil witch, but he escapes her in the second chapter with a companion. He is described as being just like any boy; rugged, mischievous, playful, and a lover of all things fun while still being quite shrewd. Unlike Ozpin and Professor Oz, Tip and Oscar are, in fact, extremely alike. Even down to their colors and appearance. Despite how Tip is colored, he actually has light brown skin (though considering the time period, we all know why this fact was dismissed), and black hair. And his treasured beanie cap was green and orange. His clothes also had a primary color scheme of brown, and were dirty due to the work he had done on the farm. Oscar and Tip have the exact same personalities, which was what affirmed to me that Oscar was meant to be his primary parallel. What got me the most was their sarcasm. Tip is still the most sarcastic and genuinely street-smart protagonists in the Oz Books. Not to say there were no other protags like that, but there was something to be said about how Tip was one of the few protagonists to actually act as a leader in the traveling group. Just like Oscar, Tip is also quite emotional, and they both have a sharp temper that they express not in loud outbursts, but by quips that you know could be quite hurtful if they wanted them to be. However, between the two, Tip is the loudest, should you put them in the same room. However, I suspect that as time goes on, Oscar might start becoming quite vocal when he doesn't like something, as I've noticed that the more he develops, the more he acts like Tip. Their behaviors are similar as well; when something personal is going on between two parties who clearly knew each other before him, both Oscar and Tip have a tendency to hang back and simply let the moment play out. They both start out as being sort of bystanders, just going with the flow while occassionally giving very good advice/strategies, but they start to become more of a leader as time goes on. In fact, leadership seems to be in their blood. There is actually a reason for this.

Ozma of Oz

There is a single thread that connects both Oscar and Ozpin, and that is the second primary character they represent. That character is the infamous Princess/Queen Ozma of Oz. Ozma, in many ways, is a lot like both Ozpin and Oscar; and may be the kind of person they become once the merging is complete. She is shrewd, but gentle. Sarcastic and blunt, but very elegant and fun-loving. They have a particular grace in how they handle their politics, but she admittedly gets into more trouble than rulers of kingdoms should. She is, ultimately, the perfect archetype of a ruler. And had completely reformed The Emerald City to be an environment that is very much like Vale's open-mindedness, with the advanced technology and efficiency of Atlas. Ozma, in the books, was actually revealed to be Tip; or rather, Tip was Ozma. After being transformed into a boy as a baby by a witch under Professor Oz's command, they were whisked away by said witch, and had been working under that witch until they had escaped as a young boy. Many speculate that Ozma was meant to represent the transgender community, and I know many transgenders see Ozma as an icon. Frank Baum was the type of guy that wrote things that were ahead of his time, and seen as very controversial by the few who could actually read the metaphors planned out. It was even implied in the later books that Ozma and Dorothy get married, and there were many illustrations made from the original novel illustrators of Ozma and Dorothy looking like a couple. What's even greater is that despite the change of gender from Tip to Ozma, she still very much contains her boyish traits despite the frills and queenly garb. As stated in one of the last lines in the second Oz Book;

"I hope none of you will care for me less than you did before. I am still the same Tip you know..."

When I realized Oscar was Tip, I knew Ozma was going to be put into the equation. I just,,,, wasn't expecting..... t h a t.

Oscar and Ozpin

Time to actually answer the question I was asked JSDJFDKDFKFK--

Oscar and Ozpin are different in one particular way: Trust. Ozpin trusts nobody. Truthfully, he doesn't even trust himself, I don't think, and that is likely why he didn't have much of a plan these days. He doesn't trust himself to be competent enough to complete the task assigned to him, he doesn't trust humanity to pass, hell, I don't think he even trusts the Gods to be capable of taking care of humanity considering the shit job they did in the past, and how poorly they have handled Ozma and Salem. In simple terms, Ozpin trusts too little. Oscar, on the other hand, trusts...a little too much. There, I said it. And I'm willing to say it again. Oscar trusts too much. Whether or not that will change after the end of V7 and what happened in V8 is left for debate. Oscar seems almost incapable of seeing the downside in some situations, like, for example, confronting a General who has completely gone off the deep end, unarmed and alone. And he trusted a man who needlessly beat the shit out of him for something that nobody, not even Salem, were truly at fault for. And while that trust paid off, unlike how it did in the past, it is a bit of an alarming trait that I genuinely think will simmer down either after all that happened in V8, or it will eventually when that trust truly bites him in the ass.

Another polarization between Oscar and Ozpin: faith. This ties in a little bit with the trust theme, but there is enough to talk about on its own. While Ozpin does believe that humanity is overall good, I think he has lost faith in their capability to work together long enough for there to be any sort of permanent peace. And, admittedly, he isn't wrong to think that. I think you would have to be very foolish if you genuinely think there will ever be a point where humanity will stop fighting amongst themselves; in other words, Ozpin is fully aware that the God of Light's task is genuinely impossible. And honestly? I think the GoL knows it is, too. Oscar has faith as well, but he views the dire circumstance in a different way that may be the key to solve the seemingly unending puzzle of Salem and their task. He gets faith in humanity not through the overall picture, but in the smallest things. Oscar likely believes that it doesn't matter if all of humanity is united, because he too knows that will never happen. But, he is certain that there is a lot more power in the smallest of unions and actions; a racist woman reforming and helping to comfort a faunaus child. A woman who helped a group of people tear down a kingdom realize the fault of their actions, and try to save another kingdom's people. A man who, while being genuinely wise, was so blinded by rage that he could not see past his own nose, change in order to save what little good has sprouted from something so terrible that he helped sow. The little things matter so much more, and unlike Ozpin, he doesn't think that they need to grow any further than that.

So, what makes them similar? Two distinct things. They both are very personal. Even if it is in different forms of expressing, Oscar and Ozpin are quite personal, especially when it comes to their advice. But they also really feel for the person they are talking to. And while Ozpin felt Hazel was too far gone, he felt for him and understood and even agreed with his anger. Their empathy is truly something else; and it is also their weakest point. Not to say that having empathy is bad, but their empathy leads into another trait that they have in common... They let people walk all over them. All. The. Time. To a point where it is actually very frustrating, and it even hinders their development as characters. Ozpin let Ironwood walk all over him, and never spoke in defense for himself. Ozpin let the council walk all over him, and never defended himself. Ozpin allowed for so much of the blame to be placed on his own shoulders, that it is extremely unhealthy, and something I wish the show would address, but have come to accept that it won't. Especially when this trait is reflected in Oscar as well. He blamed himself for failing to convince Ironwood, he allowed for Jaune to verbally and physically attack him, and outright refused to let Jaune apologize. They both brush off their wellbeing so often, that watching Oscar do the same only confirms to me the suspicions I had as to why everyone was genuinely so blind to figure out what was going on in their heads and when they were struggling. Because both Oscar and Ozpin refuse to acknowledge their own struggles and shortcomings.

But, to be frank, that is more of a writing issue than a character reflection, in my personal opinion. And I'll continue to see it that way until the show actively acknowledges that unhealthy behavior.

There ya go! My very very long analysis of Oscar and Ozpin; I hope I brought something unique among the batch of this question!

[popculturebuffet]

Quick Thoughts: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Reveal Trailer and Initial Roster

Whelp I didn’t expect to be doing another one of these so soon but welcome to quick thoughts where I give well quick thoughts on stuff instead of the longer form reviews I usually do. 

So as longtime or even short time readers of this blog might know I love NIck. I don’t review shows from it as often as Disney or Cartoon Network, but it was still a beloved part of my childhood and still makes great shows today such as the Loud House, Harvey Beaks and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s horribly mismanaged, which is why two of those shows are no longer with us and the last of them is weirdly missing from this game, and have a long and storied history of screwing things over.. and i’m not exagerating when Mr. Enter, no matter your opinon of him now, did a whole marathon of every nicktoon almost every entry included the fact the show had been screwed over in some way. 

But as anyone who knows my history with Disney will tell you just because I don’t sugarcoat a brand I like’s fuckups dosen’t mean they aren’t near and dear to me at the same time. I”m a grown up: I can have complex emotions towards a chlidren’s tv network. So I love it’s varied shows some of whom (Avatar, Harvey beaks again, Danny Phantom, Hey Arnold) are among my all time faviorites. 

Now something readers of my blog probably WOUDLN’T know is I love Nintendo, they have their own fuckups like weird release strageies and never doing a remotely decent discount like the competition, but their still a company I love and since I only play handhelds most of the time are my primary source of good shit. So naturally Smash Bros is my faviorite franchise of theres. I love the idea of fighting games but often struggle with the combo heavy nature. So Smash Bros, having a roster of some of my faviorite characters ever, a plaformer style control scheme, and a deceptivley simple style that’s easy to learn and fun to master with the right character, is my shit. Sure I won’t rush out to buy every dlc character, but you better belivie I played the hell out of Ultimate, will likely go back to it again some day, and did buy Banjo and Kazooie because fuck yeah. 

So yeah I needed to talk about Nick making their own smash bros clone. When I heard the rumors I wasn’t sure, mostly because Rumors can be just that.. but nope this game is happening and i’m all on board for it. This isn’t Nick’s first crossover rodeo in recent memory either also making a pair of Kart Racing Games: one I KINDA wanted to play till I looked at the roster, had a good laugh and lost that i want, and the other I really want to play as it seems like the first game if it were you know an actual game with a decent track selection, a deep character roster and an actual love of it’s properties. 

So making their own Smash Bros was a logical step and one i’m here for. We haven’t had any of the big cartoon networks make one since well.. Cartoon Network, and Nick has just a deep a bench to pull from, one that will hopefully get CN to get their cast to throw hands once more. 

For now though the idea of the vast history of nick all throwing hands with each other is amazing. Look i’m honest with myself: this looks like a decent smash clone,functional but nothing specail, but with the expressive character animation and solid roster you need for a game like this. I know going in i’m not going ot get Smash Ultimate quality of brawler, but i’m probably going to have fun with it. 

The only downside I see so far is , like the Kart Racers, theyd idn’t seem to get ANY voice actors for this which smacks of laziness, especially since most of the voice actors for these characters are still active, and in some cases like Spongebob or Loud House are still working with you. So you have no real excuse for this, shame on you.

But yeah the game looks good.. despite the trailer being pretty bad. It’s just some generic music set to “LOOK WHO WE GOT”. And granted look who they got is really spiffy and i’ll be diving into that in a second, but it dosen’t give any of these characters a reall chance to show off how they play or how awesome they are. It’s just a bland montage of whose in the roster in the same 2 or 3 stages. And when you have 15 stages overall to show off that’s not excusable. Again i’m not expecting Smash level quality revelas, this game dosen’t have the marketing budget, but you have a really great concept and roster here, you coudl’ve revealed it better and this game better. The Kart Racers 2 Trailer was also mildly bland but it did show off the game better, showing off several tracks and how VASTLY improved the roster was, so you CAN make a good trailer you just didn’t. It felt like they thought the poitn of all the smash reveals trailers was here’s a character and missed all the style and substance to them. 

That being said while the trailer was weak.. it was boyed by the fact this roster is REALLY damn good. Let’s face it I woudln’t even be talking about this game if the roster wasn’t this minty but they clearly learned from Kart Racers not to half ass it and while they learned the long lessons from Smash in how to promote the fighters they have, they learned the right lessons in having a nice mix of crowd pleasing faviorites for kids and vetrans alike along with a few deep cuts for said longtime fans. And this is JUST the intitial reveal roster: Given the Box Art isn’t out yet, I feel there’s more to come, especially since despite being perfect for the game there’s no one from the Avatarverse yet, but I also feel that Nick is saving that for a second trailer to announce the release date. But I can and will go into who i’d LIKE on the roster in another one of these sometime soon. -

Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy (SpongeBob Squarepants): I’m getting these three out of the way as their essentially to this what Mario and Co were to smash: necessary and inevitible.  As for who was chosen.. it was as obvious as putting spongebob himself int he game. Sponebob is Nick’s mascot, Patrick is nearly as iconic and Sandy is well loved as well as the spongebob character most associated with buttkicking. Being an expert martial artist is both part of her character and a cerntral part of her character and relationship with Spongebob. So yeah not a lot ot say here: it was ineivible but I don’t mind at all having grown up with them and with my niece and nibling being huge fans. 

87 Leo and 87 Mikey (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles): This one i’m mixed on. Not on the turtles being here: i’m a MASSIVE TMNT fan and i’td be stupid to leave them out since Nick Owns them, made the last two series, and they fit this kind of game like a glove, even having had their OWN smash clone to themselves once. 

No my issue is obviously in the version choseN: The 87 turtles. Again I have no beef with the guys themselves, I haven’t seen much of 87 but I want to and they look really gorgeous and nicely cartoony. It’s just a REALLY weird choice. The 87 turtles have never been on a nick network due to rights issues, have never been associated with nick, and aren’t the ones most kids of EITHER DEMO would be familiar with: Grown up fans of nicktoons from the 90′s like myself would be more familiar with 2003, and kids and teens from more recent eras would be more familiar with 2012 and rise, which REALLY should’ve been the rep. I mean their weird shame of rise bothers me enough on a good day but not using EITHER show you actually made bothers me, it bothers me a lot. I’ll still probably play Mikey, i’m not made of stone and as I said I have no beef with the 87 turtles, I just wish nick had used the others or hell just gone all lin and used one turtle from each cartoon. I mean if your going to use stuff you’ve barely aired why not give me some 2003 nostalgia too huh? Though it could just be that since, unlike the rise and 2012 turrtles the 87 turtles have the same body type and colors it was easier to just do all 4 and just give each unique facial expressions. Who knows... I knows it was probably that. 

Lincoln and Lucy Loud (The Loud House, Duh): Another pretty obvious one as The Loud House is currrently nick’s co-flagship show with spongebob. Still waiting for my diffrent world spinoff with Bobby and Lori guys. So yeah Lincoln isn’t a suprise and Lucy is only minorly one as it was a matter of “which sister”... and Lucy is one of the most popular. Neither really fit a combat setting.. but given this is a fun crossover game, that really dosen’t matter and in fact is kind of the fun: taking just the most insane matcchups imaginable and mashing them together. I mean this is a game where Lincoln and Lucy can beat up Leo and Mikey, why wouldn’t I want that kind of crack on my nintendo switch? I am hoping for Luna to make her way to the stage next as she was absent from Kart Racer 2 and would be really fun to play. Plus having ANOTHER bi fighter in the mix if korra gets in there would be awesome, let alone letting the two beat up or punch each other’s face. But again I could and probably will mak ea whole article about other possible fighters i’d want. 

The Plesant Suprises: Nigel Thornberry , Oblina and Powdered Toast Man (Wild Thronberries, Ahhh! Real MOnsters1 and Ren and Stimpy) : Yeah while only one of these cartoons was a faviorite as a kid (Wild Thornberries)... I have nothing but respect for these choices. One of the funnest things about Smash is while you can see some roster members coming sometimes you get utter curveballs like Mr. Game and Watch, Pirana Plant and MInecraft Guy. They also go for more cult franchises like SNK or Earthbound (the latter of which is fucking awesome localize mother 3 already dammit) too among the big heavies, making it feel like a true tapestry of Nintendo’s history. 

Nigel is the only one of these three that’s really obvious. He’s a meme, he was the best part of his show.. but it’s still just uniquely batshit to put NIGEL THRONBERRY in a fighting game. You better belivie he’ll be one of my mains. 

Oblina is more a suprise because I thought they’d go with Icket, but instead went wtih the character who was more popular and had a really unqiue and cool design, so i’m pleased as punch to have her. Finally while I don’t have any real attachment to ren and stimply apart from Log, and really it’s hard to gain any now knowing i’ts creator was a pedophile piece of shit, the franchise is still a cornerstone of nick history, the rest oc the crew didn’t abuse power or not make deadlines or be a com plete piece of shit, and powerded toast man is genuinely great. I”d love to see Really Big Man too, clash of the weird superheroes, I love me a weird as hell superhero. This also speaks promisingly that w’ell get some real weird curveballs to come and i’m here for it. 

The Rest: Helga, Zim, Danny and Reptar. (Hey Arnold, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom and Rugrats! ): Note i’m not lumping these together because their bad: their all graet nostalgic picks from timeless shows and with the rugreboot currently running on Paramount+, it’d be weird not to represent them. 

And since I brought it up reptar is a fun chocie, another oddball but one more understandable as no one wants to beat the shit out of a toddler. Or rather no one playing the game would care you could because it’s a silly fighting game and a 12 and 8 year old are also beat upable, but someone would probably throw a fit somewhere. Plus again it’s a game where you can have danny phantom fight reptar. Shut up and take my money. 

The rest are all great choices if ones I’m not suprised by: Hey Arnold’s an all time classic and being tough is a lot of Helga’s character, and again I can have her throw hands with nigel thornberry, reptar and a ninja turtle in the same match. Zim is another fan faviorite and fits the game like a glove and Danny Phantom is the one out of Nick’s three suprehero classics it actually still cares about so my boy getting in there isn’t a shocker, though his attacks lookw eird. Hopefully they green them up before the final prduct. 

So yeah overall it looks really promsing and really fun and i’ll probably check this game out if I get enough money when it comes out or more likely put it on my christmas list. But I will get it somehow this i swear.. speaking of which put manny in the roster dammit. If you liked this.. thing consider joining my patreon for a buck a month fo exclsuvie reviews and ot help me review tuca and bertie, amphibia and more as part of my memebership drive. 

[e-luxion]

Can you please explain Johnny’s chart now that we know his rising? I never saw him as a Virgo rising but people say it makes sense and I’m like??? I’m not too into astrology to know

Yeah I agree with you, virgo was the last thing on my mind, even tho I think I first typed him as Leo Rising after thinking I was like 100% earth (more Taurus than anything) + 5th house placements so I wasn't wrong, but not right either 😂 I am actually excited to do this

𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙎𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣𝙣𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙑𝙞𝙧𝙜𝙤 𝙍𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜:

It is not the Virgo Rising itself, it's actually where his planets fall that makes perfect sense imo:

Sun and Mercury in the 5th house 

I say Johnny has 5th house energy a little too much but I never actually explain why

Sun in the 5th house people are m a g n e t i c. Whether they want to or not, they unconsciously end up being the centre of attention. More times than not people with this placement feel like they were born to do ‘more’ and to shine

5th house suns are warm, generous, creative and for the most part, can be very confident in who they are depending how well or bad aspected this placement is

Even if they are less confident deep inside, they try to be confident and to be that light for others

MERCURY IN THE 5TH -- holy shit, I share this placement and yes, some people find us a bit annoying but we don’t talk about that 

People with this placement tend to be very talkative, they don’t seem to run out of topics to talk about, you could put them in a room with anyone and they’ll find a common ground. 

Natives of this placement tend to also talk almost with hidden meanings, there is always a tone of innuendo, there is always a joke in there somehow

This placement is very much “primary school teacher energy”

Not great at concentration cos there is just so many things they want to do, they always want to do something new and fun. Mercury shows us how we communicate but also how we think, and in this house it becomes... a lot.

Moon in the 10th house

This placement is very interesting, imo the moon is the most important thing in our chart. It shows you not only what makes you feel comfortable and how you feel, but your relationship with your mother, how you were raised, it’s a one of the most decisive pillars of “you”

It’s cause and consequence, it shows you how you were raised and how that affected present day you

This is stereotypical but his career and status is truly very important to him, he needs it to feel safe and fulfilled. It makes sense how no matter how hard it got, how much they pushed his debut to later, he persevered and is such a hard worker.

A m b i t i o u s 

People with this placement are actually very sensitive and have a natural need to care for others, they are easily affected by the outside world which makes them want to almost protect others

It’s honestly such a dad placement

Things associated with this placement are definitely a parent sort of vibe, they are responsible and caring, they worry about others around them

Fun Fact, people with this specific placement tend to attract admiration from others, they inspire security and trust. Other musicians with this placement are John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, both people who inspired millions of people and to this day are remembered

Venus in the 4th house

This is another thing that just painfully makes sense 

You know how this man is always like blah kids, marriage, sentimental shit?? THIS is why! This right here, is a big reason why Johnny is the way he is half of the time I swear. The homey romantic vibes? Heavy 4th house venus shit

4th house Venus people are so nurturing, sensitive and calm? Venus most commonly tells you how you are in love, what kind of partners you want but it shows more than that, it tells you how you look after things, your possessions, your aesthetic... 

Johnny’s love for soft toys, oversized fluffy clothes, all of that is due to his 4th house Venus. He is also probably very sentimental with things from his childhood, or things that remind him of home 

When they fall in love, it is serious because their mentality is for the long term, they are very family oriented hence why they can be wary of who they date

People with this placement have the nicest houses and rooms cos they just know how to make a house a home, it’s always so cozy and dating them would probably feel like like an early morning, wrapped in multiple blanket with the fire place on, hot cocoa and the rain outside

On the downside, people with the placement can be TOO sentimental, to the point where is hard for them to let go of things 

Mars in the 12th

Actually this was the only one which was surprising to me, but tbh this is not a side we would often see of Johnny since we don’t know him like that. And 12th house “hides” whatever it falls on, it internalises it to an extent that the native might not actually be aware of this energy

His Mars in Leo makes him quick to anger, but mars in the 12th house makes him hide that anger, bottle it up until it comes out in a scary way because it was left undealt with for too long

Other things in his chart tell us that he has no problem going after things, like going after his career or pursuing hobbies and success. But this right here shows me that in some ways, he is scared to fully express himself due to an unconscious fear to be vulnerable

Sometimes they focus to helping people too much to hide this vulnerability and their own issues

Coming to terms with his own sensitivity and release toxic mentality is something he probably struggled with at some point 

On a positive note, people with this placement tend to be very welcoming and open-minded towards other, they show the kindness to others that they don't necessarily show themselves

a lot of bitches with 12th house placements in nct damn

Jupiter in the 3rd 

At its most basic, this literally tells you that his talent (Jupiter) is in communication (3rd). Very agile minds, who love learning and acquiring information about different topics, people, things, everything

People with this placement lead the conversation, very positive and enthusiastic in the way they talk with others. Sometimes can be a bit preachy but for the most part they’re open minded, curious, and say what’s on their mind, super expressive when sharing their ideas

@/astroismypassion mentioned that Jupiter in the 3rd native might have moved hometown more than once in their life which I find very interesting as this man moved across the globe to make his dreams come true

Philosophy, arts, cultures, stuff like that is very interesting to them and travelling is a form of mind expansion for them

Jupiter shows us where we have privilege and here it’s education, and a larger than life mentality that them well received by others; they are gifted at communication which means that people usually take them seriously as they can be very eloquent 

Saturn in the 6th

Another placement I share with Johnny which I think would be a flex if it wasn’t for the fact that Saturn in the 6th is actually a very difficult position to have. Saturn is not necessarily happy in this house

It shows an obsession with work, keeping a routine, organising but also struggling in all those areas. For example, you obsessively plan your life because you really struggle naturally to follow plans, timetables and stay organise

People with this placement have a tendency to overwork themselves until they’re ill, so health problems might be occur often due to this. You fear failure so it feels like you can never stop working hard, just in case you fall behind. Anxiety, self criticism is very common here

Honestly he has a couple of placements that just scream chronic workaholic 

Pisces Descendant:

I don't know if this is weird but I thought he had to have Pisces in a “favourable” house, because he seems to attract or get along with people who have Pisces placements specifically so this is not surprising at all.

I’m ngl this man probably daydreams about his s/o, if he is single he’ll just make up little scenarios in his head or has a very clear idea of the kind of interactions or person he wants

Very idealistic, gentle and compassionate in love but also wants partners that match this energy. Heart on his sleeve kind of vibe

He probably attracts slightly chaotic partners, the dreamy artists types 

This man clearly doesn’t want just any love story, he wants the sort of fairy tale romance he can tell his grandkids 

7th house is also like enemies and shit, but I’m not going to talk about 

Gemini Midheaven 

When you meet someone, there is 3 main things you see about them and that is Ascendant, Mercury and Midheaven. Especially when it comes to celebrities, we see their midheaven more than anything 

Gemini MC people always have something going on, they have like 5 careers at the same time, very multi-faceted people. They’re not quite happy at doing one thing but they’re also very adaptable 

In the work environment, he could adapt to others and very much go with the flow of things, jack of all trades. Whatever happens, he can do it and does it well

For now I am going to go on more explaining why everyone is like uhh it makes sense and later I'll actually make a post with more information, in my drafts I have this one post by xx saved from like a year ago of their personality analysis of Johnny, in which they asked if any astrology people could you know back this up. I had written a whole response to it but now that we know I will make a more detailed response and analysis of his birth chart 👁️👁️

𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊, 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖚 𝖝𝖔𝖝

[daughterofzagreus]

The Astrological Signs of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" characters

Part 1 - Team Avatar

♎ Aang - Libra

Libra is an air sign and Aang is an airbender. More than that, though, Libra (represented by the scales) is the sign of harmony and balance. As the Avatar, restoring and maintaining balance is Aang's primary duty. Aside from all that symbolism though, Aang's personality is a lot like a Libra.

Libra is the opposite compliment to Aries, a war sign. Libra don't really like discord (at least, they don't like to be IN the discord and chaos). They're lovers, not fighters, so they tend to be peacekeepers. This is Aang to a T. Aang is not only one of the youngest characters in the show (and therefore, the most likely to be uncomfortable with violence), but he is also a monk, raised by other peaceful monks.

He values peace and all life. Even his fighting styles are evasive and are more about using an opponent's strength against them, rather than attacking. It's something that is brought up in the Book 2 episode "Bitter Work", when Aang has trouble learning earthbending from Toph. Libras (depending on the rest of their chart, of course) often tend to respond to conflict in a similar manner, by being avoidant.

You see the pacifist in Aang anytime he needs to mediate a conflict. Examples include "The Great Divide" in Book 1, where Aang has to mediate between the two tribes (as well as Sokka and Katara). He does so by telling them that "Harsh words won't solve anything. Action will". Of course, when that doesn't work, he just lies and makes up the alternative story of WeiJin and JinWei. I don't think Aang is a big fan of lies, but it was for the sake of peace, a means to an end. Very Libra.

Another thing that makes Aang a Libra is the fact that 1) Libra is ruled by Venus and 2) Libra rules the 7th house, which is essentially relationships. Aang's relationships (platonic and romantic) mean EVERYTHING to him, and there's a reason why putting one of his loved ones in danger is initially the only way to activate the Avatar state. He's a very friendly, charming and loving kid (like most Libras) and he's the first one from team Avatar who believes they can make it through the secret tunnel, because of how strongly he believes in his love for Katara. The final point is Aang's reluctance (or sometimes downright refusal) to cause harm to others unless absolutely necessary. While others use violence, Aang is more likely to want to befriend his enemies, and that's actually a good thing. It's Libra's superpower.

♋ Katara - Cancer

Cancer is a water sign that is ruled by the moon, and Katara is a (very powerful) waterbender who draws her powers from the moon. In astrology, water signs are known for being on the emotional side. And with Cancer's ruling planet being the moon (the planet of emotions and also the celestial body that pushes and pulls the tides), Cancers are known to be so emotional, that they're often just archetyped by it. Katara is similarly emotional (see the Book 3 episode "Ember Island Players"). However, Katara being so in touch with her emotions also makes her extremely emotionally intelligent. Like Cancers and most other water signs, her heightened sensitivity allows her to almost psychically sense how others are feeling, and to know how exactly to respond to and comfort them. There's a reason why Katara has such great chemistry (when it comes to her one-on-one conversations) with so many people (Aang, Haru, Jet, Zuko, Toph). Her emotional intelligence also makes her very mature for her age and allow her to see things clearer than others, or to foresee things that others don't.

Cancers are often either family oriented, or they love and value their home (this can either be their childhood home, current home, or the city, country or culture that they came from). This applies with Katara. As a waterbender, being from the water tribes is a big part of who she is, and she has a deep love for her culture. We see how being the only waterbender in the South Pole and having no one to show her the ways of waterbending saddens her, and how happy she is to hear that Hama is willing to teach her (the only other waterbender from the Southern water tribes that Katara has ever met).

With regards to Katara being mature for her age, she's also very motherly. The Book 3 episode "The Runaway" (as well as most of her interactions with Toph) demonstrates this. The moon (which rules Cancer) is The Mother in astrology, and so most Cancers have a significant relationship with motherhood. Katara was very close to her late mother and her death still affects her.

Following the death of her mother, Katara has basically had to become everyone else's mother and hold things together. You see this as well (in a more positive light) in the Book 2 episode "The Desert". In this episode, Appa is missing, Aang is too upset to think or act clearly, Toph can't see properly because of the sand and Sokka is high off cactus juice. Katara is the one that is keeping everything together in this episode.

On the downside, Katara's mothering can turn to nagging sometimes, but I don't blame her. She's a child that's had to grow up way too fast. She has a lot of pressure on her. With water, that pressure can build up, until it bursts like a dam wall (which it's likely to do). It's the combination of this, as well as Katara's strong and fearless sense of right and wrong that lead to those cataclysmic outbursts that both Katara and water signs are sometimes known for.

♋♐Sokka - Cancer sun, but with a lot of Sagittarius aspects in the birth chart

Okay, let's start with the Sagittarius side of things. There are a lot of elements of the Sag personality in Sokka. For one thing, luck. Not only does he manage to survive (and thrive) in the entire series WITHOUT any bending powers, but that boomerang ALWAYS comes back! That's some Jupiter-luck energy if I've ever seen it.

Sokka was originally going to be a more serious character, but the voice actor decided to improvise and add some of his own humor to the role, which created the Sokka that we know and love now. I mention this because the voice actor (Jack De Sena) is a Sagittarius. Sokka has the kind of personality that provides humor in difficult times and can lighten up the sometimes very heavy atmosphere in the group. He doesn't just make people laugh, he likes to laugh as well (at his own jokes and even at his enemy's jokes). In the book 3 episode "The Ember Island Players", heeven goes to the effort of getting Suki to sneak him backstage, so he could give the actor playing himself some tips and extra jokes (and low and behold, the crowd actually laughs at them). In his words, he's "just a guy who loves comedy". In fact, I think he's one of the only ones there who just decides to kick his feet up and enjoy the show (by basically turning the situation into a date night for him and Suki). Sagittarians love to laugh and make people laugh. They're optimists who like to have a good time, and are likely to be the make-lemonade-out-of-lemons type.

He's also one of the smartest and most competent characters on the show. He has excellent problem solving skills, and isn't afraid to look at things through a different angle and try new things to expand his worldview and knowledge. This is relevant, as Sag rules the 9th house which includes, amoung other things, higher learning, truth and knowledge. He can be a bit tactless and insensitive...a little slick at the mouth, but it's largely ignored by others, as he is likeable and funny enough for others to let it go. That's quite a Sag trait.

The Cancerian part of Sokka's personality is less pronounced, but it's there. He's VERY protective of his loved ones, even before the situation with Princess Yue. He is family oriented in that he admires his dad and the traditions and customs of the water tribes. He loves and is just as proud of his culture and home life as Katara is, but just in a different way. He also always looks out for the other members of team Avatar. He can tell when a member of the team needs support and immediately jumps to action (for example, the way he immediately grabs Toph's hand to guide her in "The Serpent's Pass", in "The Desert" and on the air ships during the final battle in the series finale). He's also very loving and protective of his sister, despite how often they fight. Also, quiet as it's kept, Cancers are one of the funniest signs in the zodiac.

♉♈Toph - Taurus sun, but with a lot of Aries aspects in the birth chart

Let's start with the Taurus aspects. Taurus is not just an earth sign, it's FIXED earth. It embodies the firm stance and hardheadness of not just Toph, but earthbenders in general. Tauruses are very stubborn and like to do things their own way at their own pace. Combine that with the independence and confrontational nature of an Aries, and you've got Toph.

Aries value their independence, sometimes to the point of being selfish, which is what we get with Toph in the Book 2 episode "The Chase". In this episode, it's Toph's first time riding with the group, but it's also her first taste of freedom. Like an Aries, she hates the idea of seeming weak or helpless, and has to learn that freedom doesn't mean that she has to do everything alone.

As Toph shows us, there is, however, power and strength in valuing independence, so long as you're not insecure about independence or projecting. Toph is a wealthy, sheltered child who is blind, which, in most cases, would make her vulnerable. But it's not the case. Toph ran away once before when she was little, and that's where she learned earthbending from the giant blind moles. She learned earthbending not just as a martial art, but as an extension of herself and her senses, and as a way to see. She would have never been able to master doing that (nor would shehave gone on to do even greater things like train the avatar and discover metal bending), if she didn't have the will, bravery and self assurance to run away in the first place. That little pilgrimage (her life changing adventure, if you will...but still not with Zuko, I'm afraid😔) showed the value of independence. Of going out on your own journey of self-discovery. Much like how Zuko needed to be be alone for a while during Book 2 for his own journey of self-discovery.

Oh, speaking of "Zuko Alone"...

♈Zuko - Aries

Zuko's arc in the show shows us the transition from a dark-sided, low vibrational Aries, to a high-vibrational Aries at it's best: passionate, brave, protective, strong, innovative, a good leader, driven, energetic and independent. Zuko embodies many Aries (and general fire sign) traits, both good and bad. He can be impulsive, and doesn't always think things all the way through. Aries is cardinal fire, so it's about getting up and going, just DOING something. Zuko is known for never giving up. These are things that that Iroh, Sokka and Ursa have mentioned. Zuko is an impatient person and is very fiery, hot headed and reactionary even for a firebender.

His reactionary nature makes him prone to a bit of melodrama (and I imagine that's why it's so fun for Azula or even Iroh to get a rise out of him). This is definitely the case with Aries. They're not the only sign with a temper, but they are the most likey to cause a scene and storm off in a huff about it. Or challenge you to a fight. Zuko can't refuse a fight for the life of him. At least not until he evolves and figures out his ✨true destiny✨.

One the other hand, he also keeps that same fiery energy when it comes to defending those who can't defend themselves and fighting for what he believes is right. In these cases, he refuses to back down. Even if his chances of winning are low, he'll still keep pushing forward. That's the will, energy and drive of cardinal fire. Zuko just needs to chanel all that power into something useful and constructive, like creating change for the greater good, and not distraction. Like with fire in general, Aries (and Zuko) is useful and powerful, but requires direction, guidance and purpose, so as to not risk letting the fire run wild to cause destruction and devastation.

[reversemoon255]

Mashin Sentai Kiramager

I’ve always had the opinion that the best formula for a successful Sentai is to either lean heavily into the comedy or the drama. If your cast of characters is typically serious, when they encounter a humorous situation it’s all the funnier, and when you have a comedic cast and they encounter a dramatic situation it feels all the more dire. Now, this is certainly impacted by the acting, script, etc., but if you look back at some of the better seasons (Shinkenger, Go-Busters, ToQger), you’ll see that a lot of them have that type of lean. And Kiramager has the later feel, standing out as a good season with few low points; ultimately sitting in the upper half of the show’s history.

The Good: One of the big things I talked about when I went over Ryusoulger was the episodic nature of the writing. It felt like it was made to be inviting to first-time watchers for the majority of its run, regardless of their jumping-on point. Self-contained episodes, very few ongoing plot threads, and very trope heavy for the sake of introducing a new audience to the show’s basic concepts and themes. And while I like what Ryusoulger was trying to do, I feel that Kiramager takes those concepts and improves upon them.

While the majority of the episodes were still self-contained, the episodes in Ryusoulger were very focused on fighting enemies, the stresses and one-off characters, and very light development of the main characters with primary focus on Red and Gold. In Kiramager there is much more focus on the main cast, with almost every episode being used to develop a Ranger or their relationships between each other, with the lack there of being one of my biggest complaints with the last season. It also feels like there are more multi-parters and micro-plots throughout the show, which rewards me as a viewer for continuously watching the show, and we don’t get when things are more segmented.

Another of my big issues with Ryusoulger was how heavily it focused on their Red and Gold Rangers. They nixed that out the gate with this show, having a zeroth episode the focused on everyone except Red. And Jyuru was a good Red. Definitely a lot goofier than most, but had a strong personality, was willing to work with and defer to the rest of his team when he needed to, and developed a lot of confidence throughout the season. Tametomo was a lot of fun, too. He was the straight man to everyone else’s silly behavior, but could also pull off a strong gag by himself. He was also very intelligent and a great tactician. Sena was probably the weakest of the main cast, but that was only because her character was more one-note than the others. Upbeat and outgoing at all times, there were very few times where we saw a darker side to her, but those moments were handled well and displayed a depth to her character we could have used more of. And while she isn’t our first female Green, she is our first on a five-man team, and I enjoy seeing them swapping out the usual colors like that. Shiguru started the show as the most serious of the team, but quickly revealed himself to be a lovable goof. The juxtaposition between him trying to act cool and caving into his baser natures was very funny and made for an entertaining character. Sayo was skilled, determined, intelligent, but could also be air-headed. I would describe her as a Yellow Precure turned Pink Ranger, if that makes sense. She usually filled the role an episode demanded of her, but it never felt out of place for her. Takamichi was a decent character, but in a season of funny people, he was the least so. His habit of adding “Wonder” to everything was meh, but he certainly pulled through in the serious moments. I’m a little sad Mabushina’s development didn’t end with her also becoming a Ranger, but she was a good secondary. She could easily hold an episode on her own, and her voice and suit actresses both managed to do a great job of bringing a literal stone-faced character to life.

And then there’s the villains, who did a good job of being just as entertaining and in some cases be as deep as the main cast. Just about everyone was a pretty simple, but fun character that didn’t get too complex until near the end of the story when the core audience would be established. I have mixed feelings about this, as nothing felt too out of place, but it would have been nice to get some build up to this earlier in the story. Kurantula was the team monster maker, and was childish and over-the-top. Whenever he decided to go down and do the dirty work himself, they were usually his crazier schemes. Near the end of the show he expressed the desire to create because he enjoyed it, which put him at odds against his boss and aligned himself with the heroes for survival. Yadonna was a nice mid-addition, shaking up the established dynamic Kurantula and Garuza had. She was so over-the-top evil without being a monster that it was hilarious to watch. I’m a little sad at her ultimate fate, as I would have liked to have seen a turnaround after she was betrayed by Emperor Yodon; have her turn sides, maybe actually get some payoff for that crush Tametomo had. (Eh, there’s always the V-Cinema.) Garuza was the stick-in-the-mud that made everyone else get serious, but could still occasionally crack a joke. He was a great antagonist, and while I like that he turned around at the end, it really needed more buildup. Still, the fact that I wanted all the bad guys to turn face is a testament to how likable they were.

The Bad: I’ve already gone over a few of my problems, but let’s go over them in more detail. Characters have a tendency to be a little one note, like with Sena or Takamichi. Episodes where they explore the depth to those characters are good, but the standard episode has them basically the same character throughout.

And as I mentioned, the big developments for the villains were heavily regulated to the last few episodes. Kurantula didn’t have any signs of being in a slump until the last 5 or 6 episodes, and Garuza turning good isn’t brought up until the 3rd-to-last, and is a bit of a cop out. “Oh, I was brainwashed.” If that had been hinted at at all it wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t recall any signs of it before episode 43.

Now, these aren’t terrible things, they just could have been done better. It’s part of the downside to the writing style they’ve been pushing to improve ratings. It’s definitely a step forward from Ryusoulger, and they addressed a lot of the issues I had with that season, but they haven’t quite found a pace balance that works for that style and for both new and old fans. If they try this style again with Zenkaiger, hopefully we’ll see some improvements on the formula, but at the same time, since it’s an anniversary season, I’d like if they had a more dynamic and connected story.

Won’t lie, climax was also a little meh.

Overall, Kiramager is definitely a great first Sentai, and a fun one for older fans if you like the more humorous seasons. It has good characters, good (but evil) villains, and silly plots. I really had to think hard about what I didn’t like about the show, and I doubt you’ll notice any of it while you’re watching.

And, as always, if you didn’t pick up any of the toys this year, here are my recommendations if you want to start collecting post-show: Kiramajin (fun toy, fun gimmick), 1 OR 2 copies of Express King (giant T-Rex AND a robot mode), and Zabyuun (adds a lot of play to Express King as well as Kiramajin). I like the toys from this season a lot, but a lot of them are weapons, Gigant Driller is a little disappointing, and Grateful Phoenix is cool but passable. Only go for him if you like what you already have.

[veedraws]

Vee's Guide on How to Build an Arknights Husbando Team

This guide will most definitely change as I get more men but it is accurate up to Dec 12, 2020 global version.

I don't have Flamebringer, Ayerscarpe, Broca or Chiave, Hung, Aak, Sesa so I won't talk too much about them. I have all the 3 star boys maxed out so I will only be showing higher rarity men:

If you're curious about what a husbando team can do you can check out my playlist. I regularly post challenge and event map clears with men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjtnOeJBbAE&list=PLkFo4FBl-ATpDrJCdGT4TKBc_MR8NUuPM&ab_channel=Veedart NOTE: No male operator is bad so invest in everyone. But some make it easier than others and those are the operators you should heavily invest in for harder content. Arknights is a team building game and team composition is more important than any one member. General Husbando Team Building Tips: Don't build a husbando team until late game - Resources are very limited and heavy investing in men early game will make your arknights experience not as fun. I think you can start building a husbando team when you can clear CC risk 18 with your normal team. Master bullet time switching - Timing is a lot more important when playing with a limited number of operators. Mastering this skill will take you from a tier B dokutah to tier S. Healing is an issue so max level everyone - Ansel is the ONLY male medic so far. At higher levels HP pool is larger therefore healing is less of an issue. E2 Level 70,80,90 will make your life easier. Prioritize your DPS - If you have Silverash, Hellagur, or Broca. Invest, invest invest. Male defenders so far aren't very tanky so the best way to defend is to defeat. DP is limited, deploy carefully - Even with Chiave added to the gacha it's not sufficient on some maps since we have men like Hellagur (cost 26), Leonhardt (cost 33), Executor (cost 31), Phantom (Max cost 25). Taking down high def and high res is hard - Reason being high deployment cost for Leonhardt and a lack of better magic dmg dealers. To counteract this you can use Ethan, Broca, Silverash Schwing Schwing and replacing units as they die. Sometimes it really is that desperate lol. WHO SHOULD I INVEST HEAVILY IN? I don't like tier lists because they often ignore the context in which you use operators. I will write a little blurb about units who I think are great to invest in and why. I won't be speaking about low rarities in this guide. I'll assume you already have them max leveled and max potentialed. Silverash - Schwing Schwing is best wave clear in game. At M3 he hits up to 6 units at once deals 200% damage and a range of half a map. It would be a handicap to build a husbando team without Silverash. Phantom - with how limited good male units are Phantom is an extremely versatile unit. He can soak up damage, become a DPS, stall, and take down anyone anywhere on the map. Out of everyone on this list I think he's the most worthy of being M9-ed. Broca - He's the only AOE guard so far. Nuff said. He also does magic damage that comes in clutch. His downside is his defense which can be mitigated by having max level. Hellagur - HUGE HP pool, HIGHEST attack in men, S2 for soloing bosses, S3 becomes a mini true silver slash. I think he's really worth it although a bit hard to use. Courier - When his S2 is active he becomes as tanky as a defender. Which is super useful since he's also your primary DP Regen. He's useful on every map! Leonhardt - High rarity magic damage, skill is spamable. Downsides are his slow attack speed and that good placement is needed for his talent. Not as viable on some maps where you can't aggregate enemies. E2 50 is probably a good place to stop unless he's husbando, in which case max level. Ethan - Does magic damage and can stall enemies. A little too RNG based but with M3ing the RNG works most of the time. Prioritize the units above. Definitely worth investing but how much depends on how hard the content is. SHOULD I INVEST IN MEDICAL DEFENDERS IF HEALING IS AN ISSUE? Yes and no. For most content Ansel + high level ops are sufficient. But if you want to use a husbando team in CC you'll need one or two along with Ansel. Hung and Spot are the current medical defenders. I'd say invest in spot first and if you need more healing then invest in Hung. WHAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE? Everyone else is great! But more situational than the ones I mentioned above. Still, if they're husbando you can make it work. I don't regret my max level M3 Executor ;) FUTURE UNITS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE UP FOR Thorns - He's SA tier in terms of usefulness and he does magic damage. We can never have too many arts guards. Elysium - Solves the DP issue I mentioned under general tips! He also boosts snipers and slows enemies down. If you have the funds you should max pot him. He'll never not be useful. Jaye - Fast redeploy, can heal, and a dps. Plus if you're rolling for Thorns you can easily Max pot him. Downside is the DP drain but with Elysium on the map it should be fine. Please let me know if you have any questions!