#rather the idea of the stories themselves / how the main antagonists are The main characters

[electricabsolution]

ok. i’ve thought about this for maybe 3 seconds and my thoughts are as follows:

lord english is similar to moby dick: they’re both inextricable to the plot and story itself. they’re vast creatures! and so vindictive! if moby dick didn’t exist, neither would Melville’s universe. same with LE being the ruler of homestuck as a work of fiction.

if i may pull a quote from the book:

If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond.

for all intents and purposes, there isn’t anything beyond. Ahab is right. the whale is already here.

the closer the characters get to MD/LE’s ‘domain’, the narrative reacts accordingly. once Ishmael is on the open sea and learns about MD, he writes as if hes writing a script for a play. other chapters are straight up cetology manuals. hussie utilized this too, when doc scratch and caliborn ‘took over’ the narrative and changed it all around to fit their styles (being the Lord of the English language, he can do whatever he wants to the narrative, really). as the cornerstones/gods of their stories, MD and LE need to be examined from as many angles as possible.

the whole… THING about spacetime in homestuck is that the farther out you go the less the rules apply. it becomes fluid. ungrounded. it’s very sea-like in this way, occupied only by the horrorterrors which are basically giant squid monsters, and the dream bubbles which… yeah. are bubbles. LE just travels around fucking everyone’s shit up. same way moby dick has his own lordship over the ocean. so to speak.

i guess from that perspective vriska is like the ahab of HS, she gets pretty single minded about being the one to kill LE (and technically it was him who tore off her arm and took out her eye… like how MD took ahab’s leg…). but eridan’s rifle is literally called ahab’s crosshairs. the parallels are there, just jumbled. i think if LE = MD, anyone can be ahab in HS, even hussie.

it’s also: gay. <3

guy who has read homestuck and is now reading moby dick: huh, homestuck is JUST like moby dick!

[willtheweaver]

Some villains to include in your story

The Dark Lord- Most commonly found in High Fantasy, this is the big bad that is threatening to take over the world. They are the embodiment of evil and have zero redeeming features. As such, they are more a force of nature, lurking in the background and orchestrating events rather than directly engaging against the good guys for most of the story. Only during the finale does the villain enter the fray before they are killed/ sealed away/ cleansed by the hero.

The Traitor- Why would someone turn turncoat? Money, power, jealousy towards the hero, or a threat against themselves or their loved ones. Everyone has a price, and the forces of evil will find it.

The Fallen- Not all villains are born. Some started out as nobodies, or even would-be heroes. But as they grew up, they were rejected/ abandoned/ witnesses to the injustices of the world . Their lofty ideals are ground down, as they become increasingly bitter and disillusioned. Sooner or later, they will snap, and when they do, no one will be safe.

The Agent of Chaos- Some see morals and social constructs as a bad joke. To them, there is no meaning to life, and no such thing as right or wrong. There is no line they will not cross, no boundary they will not break.

The Warlord- An iron-fisted ruler who revels in fighting. They see their nation only as the means to fuel the war machine, their subjects as cogs or soldiers to send to the meat grinder. They can be barbaric, they can be cunning, but they must constantly war against the free folk of the world.

The Career Villain- Their family has been in the business for generations. Now it’s their turn to take up the mantle. They make jump in whole heartily, they may come in with the idea of reforming, but the call of the family legacy cannot be ignored.

The Dark Reflection- Ever notice how some people are like a reflection? The villain mirrors the main character in such a way that it conceivable that the two could swap places easily. Just one roll of the dice, and the hero could have been the villain, and vice versa.

The AU Version- Guess what? The big bad is an alternate version of the hero! Through science or magic, they find themselves transported to the ‘main’ universe where they face off against their ‘good’ self.

The One Born With A Silver Spoon- Money and power are all that they know. They were born privileged, and they can’t imagine a world where they have nothing. As such, they will do anything to maintain and acquire as much money and power as they can.

The One Who Takes It Too Far- Some people have noble ambitions. They make many good points about how bad the current state of the world is, and they are determined to change things. However, the means they use are reprehensible.

The Matter of Perspective- Who gets to decide who’s a villain or not? Are they really that bad, or is the government trying to hide their own crimes by blaming those who stand against them? One man’s antagonist is another’s hero.

[vlazed]

The Knight is Mayor Holiday

AKA “You might be overthinking the ‘Who is the Knight’ question”

One of the biggest discussions I’ve seen in regard to Deltarune relate to the identity of the Knight, the presumed main antagonist of the story and the one behind opening Dark Fountains in Hometown. Many candidates have been discussed, each with varying reasoning and evidence for them.

But all of the discussion feels a bit… reachy, at times. I think some people are expecting some crazy reveal that needs 4D chess analysis to figure out, when it makes more sense to simply analyze it from the angle of Deltarune’s overarching story and character arcs. In a good story, these kind of things don’t come out of nowhere, and Toby’s narratives are no slouch in being well structured and detailed.

Which have lead me to a pretty simple conclusion: the Knight is Mayor Holiday, Noelle’s mother.

But let’s back up a bit.

Before anything else– who Mayor Holiday is.

She’s Noelle’s Mom, Rudy’s wife, and the Mayor of Hometown. She’s responsible for organizing the Festival coming up later in the week that has been mentioned by multiple characters.

She has been mentioned to be a bit of a stern figure, hard on Noelle and making her home life difficult due to Rudy being on the hospital and unable to mediate things at home.

Her name likely starts with a C, as the letter on Asgore’s wall regarding his rent is signed with that as the initial. Her stern wording with Asgore here also makes sense for reasons I’ll discuss later.

That’s most of what we know so far. Plenty of stuff can be inferred from those details and other aspects of the story, but those are the main bits for now. Now, moving onto the Knight itself.

So far, in Deltarune, multiple times Darkner characters have referred to “the Knight”, specifically being implied to be the one creating dark fountains across Hometown.

So far, a few things have been made clear about the Knight:

1.) The Knight is a defined character within Deltarune and not just an abstract concept

One take I’ve heard being bounced around a bunch is that there isn’t one particular Knight in Deltarune, and that, in fact, there are multiple.

While I don’t think this is completely untrue, Queen’s dialogue positing that she could make Noelle into a new Knight shows that. However, this also shows that the Knight wasn’t a predefined role– the current, main Knight opened the fountains and became known as the Knight due to how they presumably presented themselves. Seam describes them as having locked away three of the four kings of Card Castle, meaning they have had direct interaction with the Dark Worlds themselves. This is how their title of “Knight” was known in the first place by King and Seam.

To me, this shows that, while the role of Knight is interpreted as a particular person. Queen wasn’t positing that anyone who opens a fountain is labeled as a Knight, but rather that she would make Noelle into a replacement, a new knight in the previous’s place.

One particular piece of evidence I want to point to is this quote from the UNDERTALE 6th Anniversary Stream, where Toby described an idea he had for an opening animation for Deltarune:

This is what makes me most strongly believe that the Knight is meant to be a defined character. If the Knight was a misdirection, and is rather a title used to refer to anyone who opens a Dark Fountain, Toby referring to a silhouette of the Knight looking down at the other characters wouldn’t make sense, because multiple people would be the knight and need to be there. His vision depicted one figure being seen as the Knight, opposing the characters atop the staircase and next to the door.

While other characters can and do open Dark Fountains (Kris at the end of Chapter 2 being a prime example) and this could make them knights in their own right, they are not THE Roaring Knight, the specific Knight that Seam, King, Jevil, the Swatchlings, and Queen refer to.

2.) The Knight is responsible for opening fountains throughout Hometown

This is a much simpler point to make clear. The two fountains we have thus seen in Hometown have likely both been opened by the aforementioned Knight.

In Chapter 1, it’s stated that the Card Castle fountain is recent, unlike the Castle Town one, described as being created recently by the Knight that put King in power.

In Chapter 2, the Swatchlings and Queen again refer to the Knight, saying that it was the one who created their world. Given Queen’s relation to King, it is likely they speak of the same figure, which is reinforced by the inexplicable appearance of the library fountain, similar to the storage room one. This creates a pattern indicating the same character is likely behind both.

“But how are you so sure it’s Mayor Holiday?”

Simple, she has all of the traits and narrative ingredients to fit the role in a satisfying manner that is coherent with the current story.

1.) NARRATIVE COHERENCE

Deltarune thusfar has had the relationship between the Dreemurr and Holiday families as a focal point of it, having grown apart ever since the disappearance of December Holiday. It is the reason for many of the occurrences in the story, like Kris and Noelle drifting apart, Asgore losing his job, and more. This conflict underlies much of Deltarune’s narrative and character arcs, and thus it makes sense for the Knight to relate to that conflict given its focus in the story.

2.) MOTIVATION

Mayor Holiday also has pretty clear motivation for WHY she would be the Knight. Her daughter, December, has been missing for what is presumably years after an event that clearly took a toll on her. It was shown in the Police Station that Asgore was removed from his role there:

The only person that would presumably have the power to do this would be the mayor, as the Chief would be the highest rank within the force itself.

Asgore failing to find December after her disappearance would absolutely be reason enough for Mayor Holiday to fire Asgore. She lost her daughter, and would see Asgore’s failure as unforgivable given his position.

Because of this, Mayor Holiday clearly has a vested interest in finding December. Finding December is still seen by those who know her as a possibility, specifically with the track “FINDHER” being released during the Spamton Sweepstakes. Opening the Dark Worlds makes perfect sense as a way for Mayor Holiday to try and find December.

Given what we know of the bunker incident, chances are her disappearance wasn’t conventional, and Mayor Holiday would realize finding her wouldn’t be conventional either. This would lead to her opening fountains, attempting to find December in the darkness. Her not finding December in the first few Dark Worlds could lead to her trying to go deeper, darker, potentially trying to bring about the Roaring via the Town’s festival she’s responsible for organizing. It makes perfect sense for why she’d be opening them up given what we know.

3.) PROPER BUILDUP

What’s important in a narrative is to build up ideas and characters as the story progresses. It’s why characters develop in arcs, change happens gradually, and thus it makes sense to gradually introduce concepts that will become important later.

The festival is clearly something that is being built up as what is likely the capstone for Deltarune, potentially the stage for the final Dark World or the Roaring itself, as it seems like it will take place at the end of the week, right before Asriel comes back home.

This is being done through small character dialogues, starting somewhat small with the characters at the Mayor’s office referring to it coming up and Mayor Holiday working on organizing it, to more direct foreshadowing with Susie talking about it with Kris in the ending of Chapter 2.

The slow buildup of the Festival directly parallels the slow buildup of Mayor Holiday herself, being mentioned in Chapter 1 to being given more references in Chapter 2, with Noelle’s arc of gathering the courage to stand up to Queen, who is clearly a stand-in for a mother figure for Noelle. Given how hard Mayor Holiday is on Noelle, it makes sense gathering this courage is something she would need in her personal life as well.

Noelle is going to likely stay a major character, too. She’s the centerpoint of the Weird Route thusfar, saying to herself in the hospital that she needs to find out what’s happening with Kris, implying she’ll have a major role in that story. Alongside this, the screenshot given of her in Chapter 4 also implies she’ll remain a major player moving forward.

If Noelle’s arc continues as it has, it only makes sense that she’ll eventually gather the courage to stand up to her mother in the light world as well, which would also flow well if Mayor Holiday ended up being the Main Antagonist, giving Noelle’s development a direct relationship to the main conflict.

Probably the biggest reason I think it’s Mayor Holiday: she actually has a connection to Kris and Noelle.

Like I said, the relationship between the Dreemurrs and Holidays is a focal point of Deltarune’s narrative. Given this conflict, it would give Kris and Noelle, two of the main characters, a direct relationship with the main antagonist. It sows seeds for how they develop, how they relate to the overarching conflict, and how it might be resolved. If the Knight was, say, Papyrus or Alvin, their identity as the Knight would have far less narrative weight.

I could talk more about why I don’t think it’s those two, but that’s probably the most concise way I can put it– it wouldn’t make for as interesting of a story. Papyrus hasn’t been given a meaningful connection to Kris, to Noelle, to that town, not that we know of. Him being the Knight wouldn’t make for an interesting reveal because we only know him in the context of Undertale. He has been given no stake in Deltarune thusfar, which wouldn’t make as much sense because Toby wants Deltarune to be seen as separate from Undertale. Mayor Holiday directly connects with the main themes and conflicts of Deltarune, and thus would make the most sense for being the main antagonist.

———

So, uh, yeah. It’s Mayor Holiday. Evil mom truthers can hop on board with me and be totally awesome and correct. Sorry if this was a bit long winded, figured I’d rather be concise than understate my ideas. Feel free to correct me on any front, or if you think there’s reasoning for another knight or how they would be more compelling.

[bikwin5]

"ELLY'S ADVENTURE" notes and retrospective

It's been almost a month since I released "ELLY'S ADVENTURE," my first finished game in quite a while. I kind of dropped it without any context so I want to talk about it a bit. This is going to be a long post.

If you haven't played it then GO DO THAT CLICK ON THIS NOW!!!!! Just now I uploaded a recent 1.2 version that fixes a couple more bugs. I highly recommend you read this after at least beating the main game.

THE ORIGINAL

The first thing I want to reveal about Elly's is that the characters and setting did not begin with this project. How scandalous!!! They were actually conceived for a different project that I started thinking of as early as the end of 2015. This was also a game maker project, but it was much larger in scope than what Elly's Adventure became. It was going to be a "METROID MANIA" type game that many indie devs love to make.

The characters themselves didn't change that much in terms of roles. Elly was still the protagonist with Natalie as a supporting role, and I even had the idea of a hard mode where you play as Natalie back then. The plot was that there was like a magical item that got stolen and Elly and Natalie accidentally end up in a situation where they get recruited by the military and sent to take it back from a factory being used as a front for a base of very evil operations. The tone was still kind of funny but a little more serious than Elly's Adventure.

These are the earliest digital drawings of Elly and Natalie from 2015 and they look like FUCKING DOGSHIT!!!!!! SOmehow worse than I remember. I'm glad I learned to draw a bit better if nothing else.

Chandra was also a part of this project but she was not the main villain, rather she would have been the main henchman you fight multiple times throughout the course of the game, getting new attacks each time. She was to work under a character who I called MINERVA, THE CYBER-QUEEN who was to be the main antagonist. Chandra was more of a funny character who displayed moments of incompetence while the Cyber-Queen was more serious. I never really settled on a finalized design for the queen and I didn't even really like her that much in retrospect so Chandra ended up being the main antagonist of Elly's Adventure due to its more lighthearted nature. The enemies were also always meant to be weird round robots with green eyes, and I reused some designs for Elly's Adventure.

Old sprite sheets of Elly and the enemies. Was never really satisfied with Elly's animations.

Yulie was also part of the original project but she was to not make any physical appearances. Rather she was to give hints and bits of lore from pieces of her writing you would find around the factory, from a time when she worked there and slowly discovered that something sinister was going on. Surprisingly Yulie was never actually intended to be Elly's mom from the start until I started thinking of her being a support character in Elly's Adventure and I was like wait why should she be helping these kids... well her and elly both have blonde hair so she's her mom now LOL

This project never had a proper name, I think I also considered calling it Elly's Adventure but I didn't want to exclude Natalie from it so I was thinking of names like "Sky Diamonds" but it doesn't take place in the sky so that's stupid. I got as far as laying out the whole game and getting basic controls and some of the opening area down but that was about it. Truthfully I was never really satisfied with how it controlled or the art direction I was going with and making a metroid type game that lasted several hours felt so daunting I didn't really want to work on it anymore after a point.

Here are some old gifs of what it looked like. The main gameplay idea was that Elly was going to have a propulsion as a double jump that could be upgraded, sort of like the booster 2.0 from Cave Story. That idea ended up working its way into Adventure as a powerup. There was to be other mechanics like shot upgrades and secondary items that would do fun things but I never got around to that.

THE INSPIRATIONS

Now that I've spent long enough talking about Elly origins I can get to the actual game that, if you are reading this, most likely played. While it uses the same characters and setting as the last project, Elly's Adventure has a much smaller scope and style of gameplay. I am not a huge fan of the word "inspiration" something about it pisses me off. But with everything there was stuff that Elly's was inspired by.

First off only the most keen of observers may have realized that Elly's Adventure very much emulates the look and feel of titles played on a certain handheld system. It is the GAME BOY and it's one of the greatest things ever made. It has TI-84 ass graphics and sold a hundred million. I think the Game Boy might be the most rudimentary electronic game device to ever be so popular and I love it for that.

What's really ironic is that I actually did not have a Game Boy growing up YES that's right my first system was the Game Boy Advance. I know it's backwards compatible but I didn't know that as a kid and the only way I knew about games was either seeing them directly in the store or the sears catalog. And I loved Yoshi so much that I wanted a GBA specifically for the Super Mario Advance games with Yoshi in them. I enjoyed my Yoshi's Island port very much. So any original Game Boy title I've played I was either a teen or older since that was when I discovered the magic of emulation.

Anyway this is getting too anecdotal so I should start talking about the specific games that actually did inspire Elly's: Mole Mania and Link's Awakening.

MOLE MANIA is a puzzle game released by Nintendo in 1996. No one bought it because the Game Boy was dying and Pokemon had yet to breathe life into it again. People like to call it "Miyamoto's forgotten masterpiece" and then not say anything else about it. But it is legitimately a very good puzzle game that manages to do so much with so little and it's surprisingly difficult too. Each level is a series of one screen puzzles where the mole has to get the big ball into the goal, like this:

I got this from a youtude video so it has the cool Super Game Boy border. Anyway Muddy Mole can go underground to get to places and push and pull the ball around and all sorts of stuff. It's all designed in a very competent and concise way and I love everything about it except for the bonus stages and final boss. It feels unique among Nintendo games because it feels like they almost never do pure puzzle games that aren't some sort of falling block variant.

Of course Elly's is not a puzzle game so you might be wondering why I'm even bringing this one up. I felt compelled enough by the concise puzzle design that I wanted to make a Game Boy styled thing myself, something that I was considering for a while. I thought the idea of moving from screen to screen and clearing everything out would be fun. So I ended up digging up the handful of characters I had hardly thought about in years and set out to make a game with them.

Funny enough, even back in the day I was considering making a Game Boy styled game with Elly as a sidescroller. The idea was that it would have been a primer before jumping into a big game. It would have been something really short, like only 20 minutes, and the only characters would have been Elly and the Queen. But I didn't really get into it, not even writing down any ideas. So I suppose I was itching to do something with the GB style all along.

LINK'S AWAKENING is a much less obscure Game Boy game, and is probably the most well cherished GB title ever that isn't Pokemon. I went and played it shortly after Mole Mania because I wanted ideas for Elly, which was to be a small funny game of action. It wasn't purely for research, I just realized it was one of the few Zelda titles I hadn't played yet and I figured now would be a good time.

Of course it's a very good game. It uses the Game Boy's capabilities to its fullest and the color version enhances it even more. The overworld is made to feel bigger than it really is and the dungeons are honestly a lot more elegant that what Link to the Past had to offer. But mainly the thing I took away from this was level design stuff that could translate to Elly's well. I think STAGE 10 with the waterfalls was a good example of stuff I took away from this. A lot of the background graphics were also inspired by Zelda, such as the cliffs and castle walls.

did you know between DX and the remake its impossible to find any good screenshots of the original GB link's awakening... anyway just imagine this screenshot in monochrome and that's pretty much everything the desert stages were referenced from.

The Kirby series ended up being another source of inspiration, despite not taking many gameplay influences but rather style influences. Kirby is a funny little guy with awesome power and Elly could be considered similar, maybe even a ripoff if you think about it. I took a lot of ideas from the GB games in particular but moreso the spinoffs than anything. I think Kirby's Block Ball is a neat little title that's probably the best you can get with Game Boy breakout. Stuff like the structure of the game and the concept of an Extra Game were also taken from Kirby.

There are a couple of other minor GB titles that served as inspiration. Painter Momopie is a Japan-exclusive game about a little witch that has to paint floors. It's not an amazing game but it's cute and small. Elly's sprite, which was the first thing I drew for the game, was in fact based off of Momopie, and that's how I set the graphical style in motion.

There's also a game called Out of Gas which has these full screen cutscenes with fucked up looking people in it, which I tweeted about once.

I don't remember how I found out about it. This pic stands out to me a lot because there is not a single other game on the Game Boy that looks like this. This was dated May 10th and the notepad file where I started writing ideas for Elly's Adventure was also May 10th. So it's very much possible that this somehow ended up pushing me to make the entire game LOL

Moving on to Elly's Adventure

As implied by the last section Elly's Adventure started development around May of last year. This was probably my fastest turnaround from concept to development ever for a game idea. Somehow I still have the first things I wrote in the notepad file here unchanged:

There is a LOT more to the file than this but also I want to show that my process of making big projects is stupid as shit. Just take a big notepad file and start putting things in it until it gets so big I have to make a separate one. It's not the best but it works for a one person team.

You might also notice I intended the game to be about 30 minutes long, which did not happen as now it's more than twice that length. This is something called "scope creep" and it happens with every video game ever made by an ambitious indie dev. Honestly not sure how I intended "20-25 stages" to only take 30 minutes. Regardless scoping as small as I did I expected this project to take maybe a year and it ended up only taking a year and five months!!!!! I probably could have done it sooner if other projects and real life things like moving didn't get in the way.

Regardless it was relatively smooth to get Elly's Adventure off the ground. Since earlier last year I was already playing around with making a prototype of a different top down game that was puzzle based (don't count on me picking it up again) it wasn't too hard to do something similar on a smaller screen size, with already existing characters. I had some ideas that I scrapped early on like a score counter and a timer and decided to make Elly's a simple action game where you are simply focused on destroying everything you see.

This video is the earliest footage of Elly's after only a couple of weeks. The music was added by me, it wasn't in the game yet.

There's only one other bit of gameplay that's different than usual and that's the bonus stages, those were added fairly late in devlopment. I had the idea because I realized that a handful of Yulie locations was a pretty slow way of gaining 1ups by itself. I kind of forget they're in the game until I play it myself.

Truthfully I made Elly's as small as I did because I really did want to have a whole game out there that felt complete and polished. My Kirby games of the past might be funny but they're derivative works and VERY unpolished. With Elly's I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to refine a smaller game and I think based on reception it turned out alright.

THE DEVELOPMENT

Elly's Adventure was made in Game Maker Studio 2, a platform that I used because I had prior experience. Is it the best platform for making games? Honestly not sure. It's ok but it's obviously built off of an old codebase, much to its detriment. But I think Game Maker is very good at making 2D games that you can compartmentalize into a series of rooms, and Elly's was perfect for that. So I ended up doing that instead of learning GB studio or something because I didn't want to deal with actual GB limitations.

The development timeline of Elly's Adventure I ended up splitting into three phases. The first phase was to send the game to a couple of friends in secret and see what they think, purely as a proof of concept. The only feedback I was looking for was confirmation it was a good idea for a game. This was about three months in development and it had stages 1-10 without the stage 10 boss or the bonus stages, something I hadn't even conceived of yet. I got enough feedback that I knew I wanted to continue with the project.

The second phase was the longest, spanning like nine more months. This was the bulk of creating the game's content, as well as stuff like me moving that got in the way. I was more open about the game at the end of this phase and I sent it to a number of friends who are listed as "Generous Playtesters" in the credits. Special thanks to them, again, for doing this. I had more people than I expected willing to give me feedback for free. It took them a while, I think because I ended up sending it out the same time that fucking Zelda came out.

The "demo" I sent out was in fact the full game in a less polished state. All 20 stages, the intro and ending, and even a less refined options menu was all in. I did this because I really wanted the whole game to be polished as much as possible, especially since the last big game I put out (PEKSCTG2) was a hellscape tested only by me. Most reception was actually pretty positive and I think the thing I ended up changing the most apart from bug fixes were the bosses. I think all of them had a bit of rework to adjust their difficulty. This build actually did not include the Extra Game you get from finishing the main story, so all those stages actually are an untested hellscape. Have fun!

The third phase went from May to now, taking longer than I expected. Pikmin 4 coming out in that time didn't help either. When making the extra game it turns out making 20 harder versions of the existing stages takes a while!!! It was that + refining pretty much everything else and getting it ready for release. Speaking of level design here is a little snippet of the MS Paint type stuff I did for that:

Later I would put the actual sprites in instead of these shitty placeholders. Note that some rooms are not the same as they are in the finished game, I made some changes on the fly. That's kind of a fun thing of working by yourself, you don't have to like tell a separate design person to do something if you want changes.

Sometimes I see sentiment that making a project is easiest at the start and really hard in the middle but for me it's the opposite, at least with game dev. Getting something off the ground beyond just an idea is hard but making the content is honestly pretty smooth sailing. Then you have the end where the last bit of the game is most of the work. It's a bit painful having to comb through such a big project multiple times to make sure everything is there and running. Despite this project taking way longer than expected I'm still glad to finally get something done and out there.

THE GWAPHICS

If there is something between 2015 and now I have done a lot it's drawing. I'm not exactly an accomplished artist but I think a lot of my stuff has improved in past years. Or at least that's what they say. Taste is subjective after all.

However I didn't do very much pixel art for a while. Especially not anything with a palette as limited as the Game Boy. So making all the graphics for Elly's was something of an exercise in trying to figure out how this pixle art shit works all over again.

Almost everything in Elly's is drawn by me. A few images are actual things shrunken and convered to 4 colors but otherwise it's all me. And as it turns out drawing all the assets for you own game takes a long freakin time even when they're this simple!!!! While no one sprite took very long apart from bigger ones like bosses it all adds up to a lot of hours.

Not all of those hours are on Elly's but still. I think doing the tilesets took up a lot of time, in particular the playroom area because I was insistent on including a bunch of funny easter eggs and references. I can't explain all of them here because it would take much too long, but let it be known that this thing before the third boss is called "The Fumpship" and has like 3 layers of inside joke to it.

As for the character designs they were simple enough that transcribing them into Game Boy sprite form was actually pretty simple. Elly and Natalie in particular I had to remove the symbols on their clothes since it wouldn't translate in sprites.

You already saw this at the start of the post. These are character sketches I did around the start of development. Note that Natalie's outfit color is different, later I made it lighter to make her more distinguishable from Elly in-game. There are very few "concept art" things for Elly's, most of it I started with doing the sprites.

As for the enemy sprites since the ones I already had (see sprite sheet 10 pages above) already worked pretty well in this setting so I used that as a base for other enemies. The "Big Boy" enemies in particular took a while to figure out their sprites but I do like how they turned out. My favourite enemies are the exploding dolls, so much that I even used them as the game's icon.

THE COADS

This section is very technical and vague so you can skip it if you want. I'm something of a programmer... I think. I don't talk about it that much. A lot of what I know is not exactly suited for game dev BUT I did have a lot of residual Game Maker Language knowledge from my past projects. And there was a lot to learn too, since this was my first time using GMS2 in particular.

Truthfully since Elly's is kind of simple there wasn't THAT much that was that difficult programming-wise... I think the hardest shit for me is doing collisions and stuff. Collisions for Elly weren't too bad but for certain enemies like the grinders it was a pain in the ASS!!!!! That's why getting any game off the ground is hard for me, trying to make the groundwork for everything is daunting because I'll worry if it's good enough to accomodate the rest of development.

I think a lot of the challenge was not from getting things to work but rather having everything neat and organized. When you're making a game there is a lot of stuff to keep track of and even sometimes with the way I organized things I get lost in the game maker asset browser. I also made sure to comment things a lot... If you ever decompile the game i'm sorry if my comments are weird and embarassing.

The reason why I'm even bringing this aspect up is because in my past projects, particularly Pik's Epic Kirby Sprite Comics 2 I didn't know SHIT about programming nicely or efficiently and a lot of it was brute force via if statements. I did not want that!!! So with Elly's I made it so that adding new things like powerups and enemies was as easy as possible and I think that ended up making the project bearable.

This was also my first time making certain things like an options menu which was kind of strange and daunting as Game Maker does not have anything build in for menus. You just kind of have to do it from scratch. I was really insistent on having remappable controls in particular because I feel like that's essential for PC games these days. Also I enjoyed making the map system a lot, which was something I only added late in development. It uses a very hacky method of finding hard-coded arrays for each stage and drawing boxes for them but it works.

THE BOSSES

I think bosses in video games are a very novel thing on how inefficient they are for such a capital-driven industry. You have these things that take up a lot of effort and development time and are usually a small part of gameplay but they get made anyway because they look cool and also maybe you can use them as marketing or something. Maybe "boss fights" can be viewed as a disruption of power making its way into the hands of the workers? Ok I'm just talking out of my ass here.

There are not a lot of bosses in Elly's and they don't last very long but I wanted to discuss them anyway because there are some fun things to say about them. The first thing is that I wasn't even sure if Elly's was going to have more than one boss at first. Then I came up with the idea for the first boss (Death Orb) and started getting ideas from there. Fun fact, the Death Orb is named and modeled after the enemy (obstacle?) from Warframe:

I honestly thought it was really obvious but no one, not even my Warframe-playing friends seemed to notice. Anyway I just wanted a very simple boss that doesn't move with one attack. For a long time it didn't have the beeping sounds that telegraph its moves and therefore was very difficult to avoid the second phase without getting hit at least once! It was a bit bulb shit once I realized so I did that.

The second boss is a fish and funny enough, the only surviving boss idea from the original project. The major bosses were planned to be massive weapons named "______ Guardian" and the fish is loosely based off of an underwater boss idea I had back then. Of course the current day Water Guardian fight is not anything like that, and instead likes to flop around. Fun fact, the boss was a lighter grey color for most of development until I decided to make it dark so the weak point was more visible. I also changed the second phase movement late in development so it would flop less, making the grenade powerup feel more useful against it. The way it acts in Extra Game is a lot closer to how it originally was.

The third boss is a hat and is largely based off of "WIZ" from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. Wiz is just a clone of Paint Roller from Kirby's Adventure but I thought the design was neat enough I even based the intro animation off of it. I also really wanted to tie into the toy theme and the doll enemies so I figured why not a funny magician doll? This boss used to always spawn in the middle after a cycle but then people would spawncamp it so I made it appear in multiple spots instead.

^^^WIZ

The Pillar Knight boss is honestly not that hard for how late it is in the game but I made it to just be a surprise at the end of a boss rush. I don't have that much to say about it really, I based the name and greatshield off of the Tower Knight from Demon's Souls. The big stomp it does in the second phase used to summon a single bouncy and nothing else but that was kind of pathetic so I changed it to falling rubble instead.

The "Antlion" final boss was actually a boss idea I had early on, possibly for the second or third worlds. It's kind of similar to the "head and hands" type bosses you see in so many Nintendo games. It was moreso going to be based off of the "Giant Enemy Spider" from Jerma's car game video. Then I figured that having the biggest boss for last would be a good idea. Funny enough this was the boss I received the least feedback on, most people seemed to like it. It was also a bit of a pain to test because I had to ensure that all 5 powerups would be viable, but I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. The second phase where Chandra shows up in a pod is very much based off of Eggman fights from Sonic, I'm sure you can tell. Something about seeing a little round flying thing is very satisfying.

THE SOUNDS

The sounds and music in Elly's are not mine. It's why I released it for free on itch instead of bothing to publish it on Steam or anything. Why am I even writing about this? I think that there is some fun to be had from digging through existing sound or music libraries and picking the best ones.

The style of Elly's is very upbeat happy scrimblo type game as you can tell, so I went out of my way to pick songs that fit that. The first levels having Mole Mania's first world music is pretty emblematic of what I wanted. I wanted to pick songs that were not necessarily obscure but not too well known so I made an effort specifically to avoid Mario, Zelda, Pokemon. Then I broke the rule because I liked the Link's Awakening nightmare battle enough and that's not exactly a super recognizable iconic song. I think the style of the music is not always consistent, as you can tell with the Belmont's Revenge music in later levels, but I tried to keep to songs that I felt fit the game well enough.

The sounds were taken from various Kirby games mostly because those are the easiest to rip, as those games have individual sound tests. With everything being kind of Kirby inspired I also thought it was the best decision. I think if maybe I were to ever do a Steam release I would hire some bastard to do a GB soundtrack and play around with making sounds myself but I DIDNT FEEL LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE LAST PART

There is so much more I could say about the old project and the finer details of development but I think this post is already long enough.

Elly's is not something that I think is ever going to go viral. It did get more attention than I expected for the first few days but it's petered out by now. Elly's is not meant to be anything groundbreaking or revolutionary. It's not going to turn heads all over the world. It's not going to make me the new Tony Box and that's OK. I wanted Elly's to evoke the sort of feeling of finding a weird cartridge in a Gamestop bargain bin of the past or maybe a thrift store of the present. The feeling of digging through an archive of every Game Boy ROM ever and finding something refreshingly decent after playing 10 crunchy janky sidescrollers in a row.

QUICK LAST MINUTE EDIT: Apparently Elly's Adventure was featured on a Hungarian news site??? Not what I expected but I'm still honored to be mentioned by a publication.

I don't really know what's next for game dev from me. I am not interested in breaking into the industry, I just do this for fun. I've considered doing more things with Elly, which may or may not be in the same style. I've also considered ideas with other characters, and even using things that aren't Game Maker. Maybe in another 8 years there will be something. Keep an eye out!

Overall I am satisfied with Elly's Adventure. I mostly enjoyed making it. I don't know if I would call it my magnum opus. It doesn't have the same sort of unfiltered eccentricity of my Kirby things and it's hardly character or story driven enough to leave much of a lasting discussion. To be honest I liked making a game with no dialogue because in the cases where I do have a more character driven game idea I think about the funny dialogue more than I do the actual game. Regardless I think we can all agree that Elly's Adventure is, and always will be, a small funny game of action.

if you bothered to scroll to the end of this post here is a FUN GAME TIP: on stage 1 from the starting position go one screen right and investigate the rightmost flower on that screen. this can be helpful for those wishing to see the 1CC screen.

[einsatzzz]

Hi!! I see your characters as a pack, so I was wondering if you could answer these two questions for them if it's not too much (👀)

What plot points would change due to the inclusion of your character in canon?

What headcanons/theories do you believe fandom would invent about your character? (If not as a group, one per character is fine, I don't want to overwhelm you)

Thank you for sending this ask over June! 🥰🥰💖✨ Sorry it took a while for me to post an answer for this sdjfbjsdbjdbf I'm in the process of clearing the asks that I have in my drafts now, I just keep forgetting to queue them up.

Oh! Also! Sending an ask covering a group itself is very interesting, I should do that too some time 👀✨ (thank you for the idea!)

What plot points would change due to the inclusion of your character(s) in canon?

I'll list the major ones I can remember right now here:

For the story in general, instead of one MC (Tsuna), there would be three of them (Tsuna+KanaRumi). At the start of the story though (from what I have written so far in my drafts), the more prominent MCs would be Tsuna and Kurumi.

Oniyanagi would be considered an additional main family holding a ring set from the Qua-ni-sette (instead of just Tri-ni-sette). This might be one of the biggest changes that we made from the canon material, but this is why we have a good amount of lore for Oniyanagi's 1st Generation Bosses plus the other characters in that time period as well. Sou and I would like to call this as a flex tape for certain plot holes.

There would be an additional sub-arc in the Future Arc. Some arcs further into the story highly likely will just straight-up change A LOT. Important keypoints will be retained, but I also believe in the butterfly effect 😌🦋 The further into the story we go, the more canon divergence there is. So there's probably not much change in Daily Life Arc besides the added OCs - on the surface-level that is? Who knows~! 👀✨

New weapon type - specifically the ones used by Oniyanagi 10th Gen. It's the somewhat sentient weapons, which I haven't really gave much focus on in my posts/artworks thus far.

Considering the above, the question I often have for myself is, how do I even efficiently get to those juicy plot-heavy parts with my very limited time/energy when I also want to take my time with their Daily Life stories too? (I love Daily Life Arc!) The healthier part of my brain just tells me "Just keep balling! We'll cross the bridge when we get there!". I have options I'm considering, but I'll mention how it'll be structured when I've decided in a project update log (which I haven't done in a while! -- I'm just having too much fun with OCtober right now lmao)

What headcanons/theories do you believe fandom would invent about your character? (If not as a group, one per character is fine, I don't want to overwhelm you)

Considering Kana's personality, I can see people theorizing that she will eventually become a major villain/antagonist in a future arc.

There will also probably be theories or headcanons that Ninomiya-papa and Ninomiya-mama were bad parents to the twins, especially Kana. Fair enough on the Kana part I guess, because how do you end up with a kid that looks like that from childhood anyway sfsgcfgscd "Did she really just spawn into the world like that???"

People would get confused and fight over their own interpretation of Kana & Kurumi's genders/pronouns.

Doomed siblings trope enjoyers would probably have theories about how one of the twins will die in some serious arc in the future.

I can see people having a headcanon that Rei and Kana are characters with no empathy at all.

There will also be headcanons that Shiki is academically smart, because of his general vibes and also because he wears glasses.

For Hiyori, I think there may be people that would headcanon him as someone who genuinely hates the twins and the other guardians.

For this one, rather than theories for the OCs themselves, I have this hypothetical theory that Sou and I will eventually get cancelled by the fandom because we have this pair of characters that would initially be introduced as childhood bestfriends. Naturally and understandably, there would be childhood friends to lovers trope enjoyers that might just ship them, but later, they are revealed to be half-siblings hahahahasjfhdssdhvfsfv Sorry hypothetical fandom from my imagination! 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ You know what I'll just mention it here to give any person reading this a heads up - It's Shiki and Rei.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (11/06/23)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (6/10)

This book has very little space for the kind of story it tries to tell, and it does its best. For an almost space opera-like plot, with intergalactic academies, alien conflict, and ancient tech, less than 80 pages is ridiculously small. As such, a lot of this book feels really rushed. A lot of worldbuilding stuff, such as the history between the Meduse and humans, what Binti’s edan is, and how otjize is so special, is just never explained. I definitely found this book interesting; there’s a major tone shift a third of the way through, and I loved the message of understanding differences and peaceful conflict resolution. However, everything is wrapped up too neatly, especially concerning Binti’s emotional state. Trying not to spoil too much, Binti goes through an incredibly traumatic event and has a very important aspect of her changed without her knowledge or consent, but she seems just fine at the end. I appreciate the attempt to wrap up such an ambitious story for a novella, but I would’ve much preferred a more open ending concerning that.

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (6/10)

This book started out very strong. The writing style really has that drifting, surreal style that fits a book trying to emulate gothic horror, and I really liked where the plot is going. I love books where the main character can't figure out if they can trust themselves or not, and the whole idea of discovering the secrets behind a truly impactful novel was so interesting. It was a little slow, but I was fine with that. Unfortunately, the ending is all kinds of rushed. The main antagonist is defeated very easily with virtually no explanation as to how, and although there's a character that the entire story practically revolves around, she only shows up at the end once everything is said and done to fill in the holes. Then there are multiple issues, plot and character wise, that are just never resolved. Unfortunately, the ending kind of ruined it for me, otherwise this could've been a 4 star read.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (9/10)

After over a year, I'm continuing the Wayward Children series, and I'm loving it so far. This book functions as a prequel, telling the story of Jack and Jill in The Moors. I loved the very obvious classic literature influences, namely Frankenstein and Dracula, and Jack and Jill are both amazingly complex characters with an incredibly interesting relationship. I will always have a soft spot for Jack, and her unexpected romance was one of my favorite parts of the book. I'd say the only thing I didn't like was that Jill is so unlikable to me. I really wanted her to face some consequences after what she did, and while I can see how she became this way, it doesn't mean she should get away with it, especially considering the context of the first book. However, the series is unfinished and has multiple books I haven't read yet, so perhaps we'll see them yet again!

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (CR, 43%)

I'm really enjoying this one so far! After so much intense fantasy and sci-fi, it's like a little palate cleanser. I love how this book takes tropes usually used in contemporary romcoms and repurposes them for the historical setting. There's also a fair amount of worldbuilding, since this is a very different history from what we know. I'm glad it's established to be that way, because there is some pretty blatant messing with the timeline, but I appreciate it since it brings more diversity than historical romances typically have.

Lodestar by Shannon Messenger (CR, 43%)

There are things happening in this book, and I don't like it! I've grown fairly attached to these characters, and I'm constantly stressed about them. I feel like stakes are rising rather quickly in this installment, like more is happening than in the others. One thing I noticed during this segment of reading was that I quite like the addition of Tam. Linh is still sort of a half-formed character to me, but I really like how blunt Tam is and how he still has the perspective of an outsider on Sophie's group and their dynamics. He seems to say things none of them think of, and I like how he shakes things up.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (CR, 42%)

I know, I know, I've been working on this one for a while, but it's a very dense book! I've put it aside for now in exchange for Gwen & Art, since I have to review that one, but I'm hoping to finish this before the November halfway mark.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (CR, 16%)

I’m finishing up my reread of The Infernal Devices, and this one is not that great so far. While I love the smaller interactions between Jem, Tessa, and Will, virtually everything so far has been interpersonal conflict despite the fact that a madman with a clockwork army is just out there somewhere. Like, did they forget they have like actual jobs to do? It’s mentioned that a good amount of time has passed since the last book…and you’ve done nothing? I know you’re all in the most complicated romantic relationships teenagers can be in, but please, think of the world.

[epicspheal]

You know with Pokemon leaning more into Parents as Antagonist/Villains, I'd love for them to explore different types of Bad Parents. Because the bad parents that have gotten the focus (Giovanni, Ghetsis, Lusamine, Sada/Turo) pretty much fall under the criminal neglect/manipulative/controlling/abusive category. And while these are fantastic topics to cover...they've kind of been done a lot for the series. And there's definitely a lot more types of bad parents than just those and they have really good narrative potential in a Pokemon game. I'd love for them for example to really expand on the overprotective parent. We've seen this a bit with Wally's Family (due to his respiratory condition) and Bianca with her father but it ends up being resolved rather quickly within the main story. I feel like the Overprotective Parent can work well as the basis of an entire villainous team of well-meaning but very over-bearing helicopter parents who are trying to prevent kids from going on journeys because it's either "Too Dangerous" (Since we know from both Legends and SV that people can die from being attacked by Pokemon) or "To Protect Kids from Failure from having their dream crushed" (there is a common theme among rivals about having their dreams take a shift after constantly losing to the player...and there are many parents who just don't take kindly to the idea of their kids failing and being hurt by said failures). Basically a reverse-Team Plasma. What's great is that this team can follow the trend of recent villainous teams not being straight up evil...but more misguided. You can definitely work the plot of it the founders of the team maybe having been crushed by their own failures and in the misguided parenting are trying to protect their kids from that. If we want to get dark maybe they know someone (their sibling or another child of theirs) was seriously hurt/killed by Pokemon and they really don't want a repeat. The Overprotective Parent also works as just a standalone. This is one of the areas where I'm really hoping BW gets ORAS style remakes because I want them to explore Bianca and her father's storyline in a deeper manner.

I'd also love to see a parent that tries to live through the rival vicariously. They see their child has some potential in battling (or another thing if they bring back sidequests like Contests, Pokestar Studios or Pokeathlons) and because they (for whatever reason) couldn't be what they wanted, they decide to push their kid into becoming that to the point the kids starts to lose interest (or perhaps want a different career path entire). Personally I'd love to see the plot be the kid wants to be whatever it is they're good at, but their parent's ambitions and demands for perfectionism sucks the joy from them and they have to regain their passion independent of their parents. There's a lot of potential for growth in the parent with this one as maybe by the post game the parent stops badgering their kid and they themselves attempt to restart their hobby as a trainer/coordinator/etc. It's important for parents to know that they can still pursue their dreams even with children it just takes balance and not living vicariously through others. One that would be really interesting to see is the parent who thinks dealing with Pokemon (let alone training them) is a pointless and doesn't think their child should want to do the same, despite the kid clearly wanting to go on a journey themselves. We've seen a bit in Legends people not wanting to deal with Pokemon (granted this was a bit more out of fear rather than complete disinterest) and we've seen in the anime kids who weren't interested in Pokemon (Chloe/Koharu early on most notably but also some COTDs in early seasons). I think it's something the games could really use for a character. Like it's refreshing to see characters not necessarily be gungho about Pokemon themselves (let alone battling) and it'd be interesting to see how in a modern timeline that could cause conflict in how the kid deals with not having their parent's support in a "I don't give a f*** about your interest type of way and you shouldn't either". This would be really good for an older rival NPC whose parents feel like their ambition to be a trainer is worthless, partly because they personally don't see any value in Pokemon, but also because they see the notion of going on a journey to be something naive kids do, and as a older teenager/young adult they should be focused on trying to find a proper profession. This is one path that could involve the parent learning to like Pokemon in the end. Honestly though, I'd be okay if the end result is that they still personally don't care about Pokemon or training, but they become more supportive of the character because they realize that their child is their own person and are allowed to have different opinions and aspirations. I just really hope they branch out from the neglect/abuse path because while very important topics there's others ways parents can be not great and those deserve spotlight

[milesonthenet]

So Goosebumps is actually good, huh?

Good evening, you ghouls and girls! I know that I am about a week late for Halloween references. I have been going through a creative block in coming up with reviews.

For example? I was supposed to do something with Earthspark a few posts back. That still might happen, but I would rather focus on other stuff. In fact? There are some good topics that I have been thinking up for you guys.

Something wicked this way comes... and what is its name? Goosebumps! It's the children's horror that everyone seems familiar with to some capacity. From the books to the movies, to the old TV series that helped perfectly adapt those books to the small screen.

This year? Saw the release of Goosebumps' latest media installment. A Disney+ exclusive released in October that helped light up our imagination. I remember seeing the trailer, and you know what I thought?

First Thoughts:

"They are about to pull a Riverdale",

Honestly, seeing the trailer made me think that it was going to be bad. I mean, the hip rap music and some of the acting just bothered me. Everything looked so needlessly gritty, in a way that felt the opposite of the movie's first trailer.

When the series finally landed, I decided to watch it. The episodes themselves were pretty well-structured. They did a good job of translating the antagonists of the prior books into the stories. The way some of them were even recontextualized felt new.

The character work was a little shoddy at times, but I felt like it was okay. It shined when it needed to most, and that was what helped it. The series has just wrapped up its first season.

So without further ado? Let's take a closer example, and look into some of the things Goosebumps has done. We will review both the good and the bad.

The 'Good'

Slappy (He's not a dummy, he's just plain scary)

Now, anyone who is at least vaguely aware of the series knows Slappy. He's the 'breakout star' of the Goosebumps franchise. Also? He was played by Jack Black, and that's just plain funny.

Our second-mos iconic doll (That title goes to Chuck!) is the overarching villain. He poisons Biddle's mind and turns him against his friends. Also, he teaches him a spell that basically makes everyone turn into dummies. Which, weirdly enough, starts with them gaining more wooden cheeks.

As much as Slappy is not able to move, he is just as threatening as ever. That accent that they give him is actually awesome. It helps underline his more sinister, bargaining nature.

My only 'problem' with Slappy is his lack of movement, overall. I feel like it takes away from the fantasy. However, I suppose Slappy's power to worm his way into other people's hearts is perfect compensation.

An attempt to reframe the stories

The series takes Goosebumps' iconic books and puts them through a blender. Because of this, we end up with vague strokes and loose ideas derived from the books. However, there are some strong points to take from this.

The way they adapted Say Cheese and Die! for example, was pretty useful. It felt natural for the episode and offered a good opener for the season. I also enjoy how they chose to adapt Go Eat Worms, in spite of how absolutely disgusting that episode is.

Our monsters are better:

The monsters you see in Goosebumps are actually very well-designed in my opinion. Harold's flaming 'ghost' form, for example, is pretty freaky. The series understands its roots, and it is not afraid to embrace them.

The design of Slappy is faithful enough to how he would normally look. There are a few notable differences, but it still draws a good enough example of what he looks like.

The actual design of the 'worm' monster got me. It sufficiently creeped me out seeing how it moved. The way that the creature is animated is nothing short of impressive.

The 'Bad'

The group's 'connection'

Yeah, this is where things get more critical of the series' nature. The main protagonists are good, but I feel like they function better when paired off. It is easy to see how they function more as pairs than as an actual group. If the series gets a second season, then I hope they improve the group dynamic.

Goosebumps was given ten episodes for its first season. There was a lot to cram into the series. Between Hary Biddle, the various monsters, and the character's own struggles? You had a lot to deal with right off the bat.

Harold Biddle (And he's just not interesting enough)

Harold Biddle just does not interest me. I get it however, he is more or less the thing that 'ties' everything together. However, he just does not interest me in any way.

I'm sorry, but he is one of the weaker parts of the Goosebumps series. He's your typical normal 'outsider' kid whose life is unexpectedly ruined. When he gains Slappy, he becomes a monster, and a tragic incident (that was also the fault of the main cast's parents - GREAT work by the way!) results in him burning alive.

Now that he's back, he's swearing vengeance on the children of those who wronged him. However, I just feel like he's an unnecessary element in the series. His role could be given to someone else, and it would be better.

More monsters could have been appreciated,

The monster selection for the series is not bad, but it is limited. In just a few episodes were introduced to some interesting antagonist elements. The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, the Haunted Mask, Slappy, and the Worms, for example, were all used in the series.

However, I feel like there are other monsters that we could have seen employed. The Garden Gnomes, for example, feel like they are a natural fit for this series. You could also have employed an episode with the Mummy, or The Creeps.

Honestly, the ones I am surprised did not somehow make it in are the Abominable Snowman and the Monster Blood Can. I think that they would have been easy plots to implement into the series.

Overall? I hope for more antagonists in a potential second season!

Overall, what makes Goosebumps worth while?

Goosebumps is an attempt to try and adapt a beloved children's horror series. That attempt is well-rewarded with its modernized blends of old Goosebumps stories. The story of Port Lawrence is only just beginning, and it can only go further from here.

I do genuinely hope that the series gets a second season because it deserves that option. There are so many stories and elements that could be adapted for the series. You have so many more layers to pull from with the books.

For people who have yet to check out the series? I would wholeheartedly recommend it if you are looking for a scary good time. I just think you should go in with the mentality that it is not the Goosebumps that you grew up with. It's the start of someone else's Goosebumps, for a newer, edgier series.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Next time? We're gonna tackle something spectacular. See ya and viewers beware? You're in for a good scare.

[marine-indie-gal]

So considering that I've introduced my Friend, @djinarocks to this Character from "Space Goofs" (whose actually one of the Central Antagonists according to its Video Game adaptation, "Stupid Invaders"), Lucien Bolok (or just only by his last name, "Bolok" cause he's only famous in "Stupid Invaders" that much unlike on how he was first introduced in the Show).

For those who might've forgotten about this Character, he first appeared in the Episode, "The Pro" where he was sent by some Mailman to hunt down some Garden Gnomes (which had been mistaken for of a Dog) and that the Space Goofs figure out a plan on how to get rid of Him from destroying their own Garden. Oh, and his Mentor is his Pet Fish (which is Silly, but hey, it's a Cartoon, so what do you expect?).

His Role in the Game however got expanded more when he was hired by Another Character in the Show from Another Episode (Dr. Saccharin from the Episode, "Zero Stuff") to capture the Aliens and bring them to the Doctor in order to have some more Money but unfortunately, being betrayed by Saccharin, he ends up ending the World through a Nuclear Bomb Rocket Ship in which the Space Goofs finally drive their way home.

In my Personal Headcanon, I see Season 1 and the Game being the Only Chronological order of the Franchise (even despite that the Game's Adult Humor is different compare to the Show's more "Family-Friendly" humor) while that Season 2 is an Alternate Universe of its Own where if Stereo was never part of the Main Gang. Even if I may grew up watching Season 2 in Childhood like I've mentioned before, I still now prefer Season 1 (even if 2 may have had some of its Good Episodes I still have doubts at looking back at my First Exposure to the Series. Granted, I don't HATE Season 2, but it's really not that bad to begin with considering that it was in the Same Era as Other Xilam Products like "Ratz" and "Tupu").

That being said, among the very First Visitors of Season 1, what really caught my attention towards both the Show and the Game was this Guy, considering on what he does on the Opposite of the Most Unwanted Guests (especially along with most of the Human Characters) feels so...Unhinged to Me. Like, OK, he may be from Another Obscure Foreign Cartoon but what really draws so much attachment to Him is how that Bolok (IMO) is seriously The Most Indifferent House Guest out of all of the Other Ex-Neighbors that the Goofs try to get rid of from their Entire Countryside of Earth. Like, he is so Mysterious (despite his Funny Moments) as he is literally a Bounty Hunter that won't stand anyone who tries to Manipulate Him in his own Way (which, honestly probably wouldn't be a Big Surprise from most Anti-Villains, but I think you get the point).

After seeing @gingaswag (Aka @gingacd)'s Space Goofs fanart on this Site, I had to took the perfect time before my Graduation started that Day as I drew a Slight Personal Interpretation of what Lucien would look like if he was an Extraterrestrial like the Main Alien Cast instead of drawing his Canonical Appearance if he wasn't born a Human. Because I've been on a major thinking of these whole "Role Swap" ideas between Two Certain Characters where if the Story was completely different in a way (which I happened to be a Massive Fan of "What Ifs"), is that What If the Space Goofs and the Humans reversed both their own Roles and Species like say where if the Goofs were the Humans lost on an Alien Planet and that they have to get themselves out of an Alien Planet but still use the SMTV to disguise themselves to blend within the Space Society just like in the Show?

I know that keeping the Original Concept would kinda be a bit 100% Boring and Cliche but I was thinking more of an "Aliens Conquer the Earth" type where if the Earth-Born Space Goofs were the Ones to stop Evil Aliens from taking over their World.

Anyway, for the drawing itself (since I used it on Paper rather than on MS Paint), I decided to make Bolok more "Death-like" as if he were to be the Galactic Personification of Death itself (since he is a Professional Bounty Hunter) with the Pink Skull Mask (that's supposed to be part of his Alien Skin) beneath his Mouth as I did added in some more Rough Scales as well as Horns and Fish Ears (as a callback to his Ex-Mentor) as I made him somewhat of a Skeleton/Fishman Alien.

The Main Inspiration behind this design probably drew a lot of the Fishman from "The Shape of Water" or a Wendigo but mostly Pedri Nanezgani from "Ava's Demon" (example of the Main Inspiration that I drew from; https://avas-demon.fandom.com/wiki/Pedri_Nanezgani) (since obviously, with an idea of Bolok as an Alien, I just can't unsee him in an AU where if he was Pedri and Nevy's Son).

It may have felt tricky to do considering that this is the Very First Time drawing a Character in an Extraterrestrial Species (even if I may be a huge sucker for the Whole "Swap" things kind of trope), but yeah.

I sorta do feel proud of this a bit, but I would like to know your own personal thoughts in the Comments or Reblogs to see if I did capture Bolok's Nature within his Alien form or not.

Lucien Bolok (c) Xilam

Alien Interpretation of Bolok (c) Me

[goddamnwebcomics]

Ranked from Best to Worst: Webcomics of Goddamn Webcomics (2023 Edition)

I made this ranking three years ago originally, but now that I've come back, before I start the next set of riffs, I should probably update my rankings. Thanks to @tjimmy1999 for giving me the idea.

0. Gene Catlow

Gene Catlow is completely uncomparable to any other webcomic I've riffed. It's probably the most unique piece of media I've ever seen. It has so many aspects in it that are fucking awful and horrible and terrible, but it also has just as many redeeming aspects. I am glad I came back to riff it to the end because what I riffed before the previous ranking was just the tip of the iceberg. Until another comic like it drops into my view, it will be uncomparable to anything else, completely outside the ranking as this fascinating piece of work that everybody needs to read for themselves.

Alien Dice

Alien Dice is my number one pick for the best comic I've riffed, but it's not really the best because of its content but because it does the bare minimum to be decent. It has likable protagonists, decent world building and it has an engaging story that can pace between dark and lighthearted moments. Unfortunately, it also has a ton of problems, with bullshit plot twists, Riley, unnecessary moments of sexual tension between animals, Riley, wildly inconsistent artstyle that never seems to stick to one style, Riley, very bland antagonists with no motivation, Riley and certain aspects of the main gimmick of the comic aren't explained well, and also Riley. I wouldn't recommend Alien Dice to anyone like I would recommend Gene Catlow, as I feel it needs to work out its issues.

2. Daisy Falls Apart

Daisy Falls Apart is a parody comic that doesn't exactly break new ground. It's harmless but I wouldn't read it a second time. It's held down by its horribly unlikable protagonist and how the whole conflict of the comic is very quickly resolved, and also too many sexual jokes in something that is based on a children's game. Out of all the comics I've riffed, this one is the most mediocre, and number 2 meaning mediocre should worry you.

3. Carnivores

This comic was originally a painful experience, but so many painful experiences came after it, it feels like one of the less worse ones despite having the worst art. Also i can tell Austin did this comic for fun, and not to convey a deep message. Also it’s probably the only fetish webcomic in history where fetish itself starts taking a backseat halfway through. Yeah, some of the entries will be the exact same as in the previous ranking, if I haven't given them any major revisits. Also the only reason it's under Daisy Falls Apart is because it has a much worse artstyle.

4. Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary satisfies your specific hunger for Johnny Test characters commiting several crimes in rapid succession. Reading the comic both entertains me immensely but it also makes me feel dirty. The crossover stuff is there to please the author and not really provide any point. It is unique in that the comic doesn't feature a full cast ensemble but it's rather just focusing on Mary ruining people's lives and interacting some random character from a North American animated thing. The only reason it's below Carnivores is the suspicious amount of unintentional racism???

5. Warmage

Warmage is enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. None of Dumok’s other comics have gone to the same level of bizarreness Warmage offers with each page. However it is also the host to the worst character to ever appear in this blog, Tsuki. Other than that, Warmage seemed to have semi-intriguing lore and also ended on a rather decent arc, so i think i could’ve been interested to see it continue, just because i wanna see how much worse it can get. But then again, spanking scene.

6. Kit n Kay Boodle

It's amazing that year by year, Kit and Kay Boodle gets more and more tame. More than anything it helped to expose me to Albert's usual writing bullshit, but somehow it manages to be tame compared to craziness of Gene Catlow. When you know that EVERYONE is fictional in the real life bits, it just loses the nightmare quality it once had. That being said I am bitter half of the riff is locked behind Tumblr's stupid filter system.

7. Dominic Deegan

Ah, Deegan, Deegan, Deegan... during my riff of Gene Catlow I apologised to you so many times I almost wanted to bump up your rating, but I feel like you're in a comfortable place. In a lot of ways Dominic Deegan is the quiessential mid-2000's webcomic, what started off as a gag-a-day comic soon became an edgy fantasy full of author screaming his political views and projecting his desires into the main characters. I think even Mookie is not too proud of the decisions he made, and Legacy of Dominic Deegan feels like an apology to correct the problems of the series. But there will always be the original Dominic Deegan, with its orcs and their fucked up culture, screaming manchild protagonists, exaggerated gay characters, magic that is random and nonsensical but also has schools based on teaching it, aggressive sports players and Siggy burial. However, who knows how it ranks after I finally finish it.

8. Roommates and 9. Chugworth Academy

The reason I made Gene Catlow 0 was also because I didn't want to rank it lower than these two, because I have no heart to say "Roommates/Chugworth Academy is better than Gene Catlow". If your comic ranks lower than these two, it's done and there is no coming back. I can safely say that I will NEVER EVER revisit these two comics, even if there are worse comics in this ranking.

10. Spinnerette

I said last time that Spinnerette was the worst comic I've riffed, and quite frankly I can't put it into words why that isn't the case anymore. After revisiting Spinny so many times since my last ranking, it has...improved. Remember that my last exposure to the comic was the Fat Spinny Arc and the first half of Hostess arc, and it seemed like Spinny was just embracing being a parade of Kraw's fetishes. However now that I've seen more of it, it's trying. But the comic is still like a fish flopping on dry ground in the middle of the desert. It doesn't want to pick a narrative, it just does random one-off stories forever. As much as I hated Colonel Glass I wish he came back just so this comic would have some semblance of seriousness again. Of course the comic has recently started fucking up the last decent characters, and I wouldn't be surprised if this comic bumped down again after few more revisits, BUT, it's still not the worst thing Kraw has made.

11. Las Lindas

Las Lindas is even more hopeless than Spinnerette, because this comic will introduce the decent thing, and before you know it decent thing is ruined. At least Spinnerette has decent variety of different stories. Las Lindas will never leave that fucking farm, if we don't count the spinoff comics half of which are non-canon and are about the same level of quality as main comic anyway. My brief revisit showed me the post-Alejandra era wasn't as hideous as I thought but it's pretty damn close, and with the ever-worsening artstyle and an apparent INTRODUCTION OF SUPERHEROES, Las Lindas's level of quality could best be described with that panel where Tootsie drives into a river.

12. Console Girl

Console Girl is the first comic in this ranking I just completely despise. It makes Ctrl-Alt-Delete look like Penny Arcade, it's a comic about an ecchi console that comes to life but midway through we get a plot twist and it turns out to be a cyberpunk comic that tries to treat humanoid consoles fighting seriously...or not really, as the comic has a problem taking itself seriously, outside of some questionable moments where the author seems to project their hidden anger towards video games into the comic??? We also have in-comic non-canon filler arcs, console girls eventually becoming random fetishes instead of things actually relevant to their real counterparts and TOO MANY LITTLE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH ADULT MEN. I'm glad this comic was never finished.

13. Monster Girl Academy

Monster Girl Academy is just...the worst. It was solely created to make Kraw even more rich, but I would forgive that if the comic didn't just...fail as a webcomic, fail as a porn comic and fail as a narrative period. This comic was designed for lowest common denominator with fetishes that are too weird to be vanilla and too vanilla to be weird. Its existence pisses me off. While other comics I've riffed had potential, this never had any semblance of it. The main protagonist is a piece of shit and all his girls are also pieces of shit, the only likable character is a little girl who cries and prays in Spanish, because every character reading this comic can relate to her. Fuck this comic, and I mean it with every letter of that sentence.

[sylvarantii]

Alright, finally getting around to the 6th movie, The Phantom of Baker Street.

So, first off, wasn't expecting that twist of it taking place in virtual reality. That was kind of neat, but I feel like this sort of premise would've worked a tad better if it had been more like one where they jump through the different worlds offered rather than just focus on one.

I get it, it's Detective Conan, so the obvious choice is to go for the Sherlock Holmes themed one, but still, I don't know. Had a good idea, but I'm a little unsure about how much I liked the execution.

That said, I thought the characters were handled well in this movie. And even the snobby brats ended up having their merit. I do admittedly like those sorts of plots where children from a prestigious background go through something life changing and come out of it better. I much more prefer a moral story of, "You don't always have to end up like your parents and can become a better person despite your upbringing." It's nice.

The entirety of the Sherlock Holmes world within the VR game was pretty cool too. It made me giggle that since Shinichi's dad and Professor Agasa were the ones that developed the game, they made themselves Sherlock and Watson. It was cute!

And how sweet for Yusaku to make his wife Irene Adler. I don't know, it was just goofy in a, "I really love them being self indulgent" sort of way.

Also holy shit, we finally get some screentime for Yusaku??? No offense to Yukiko cause I love her dearly and enjoy both of Shinichi's parents, but I swear to god, we RARELY get anything with his dad. At least his mom has shown up a few times in the anime, but man, what a rarity.

And just like I hoped, the "sacrifice" scenes from each kid getting a game over were just as emotional as I wanted them to be. It's the feeling of Shinichi/Conan losing everyone around him (but not really). Ran's part was so heart wrenching, thank you to the team. It was every bit of a tear jerker as I wanted it to be. Giving me that good angst and I love it.

As usual, I unfortunately have to bitch about the fact that these movies have SUCH a slow crawl to the main part. Like I get it, this happens with a lot of movies because you have to fill up so much time, but sometimes it is just painful. At least the very beginning is very eye catching and gets you sucked into it.

Good news is I can say this movie felt more like a cinematic experience rather than just something that could've been put into episodes of the anime, so yeah, I appreciate that.

The, uh, twist at the end was a bit funny (to me anyway) I guess. Like, I don't know, sometimes the reasoning for the antagonists are just strange and this one kinda falls into that category as far as motives go. But you know, whatever. I don't hate it, don't love it. I'm just kinda shrugging my shoulders like, "Okay, sure."

So, let's see...Where to put this movie this time?

1.) The Fourteenth Target (2nd Movie)

2.) The Time Bombed Skyscraper (1st Movie)

3.) Captured in Her Eyes (4th Movie)

4.) The Phantom of Baker Street (6th Movie)

5.) Countdown to Heaven (5th Movie)

6.) The Wizard of the Last Century (3rd Movie)

4th place seems good. I still don't think I liked it as much as Captured in Her Eyes, but eh, feels more memorable than Countdown to Heaven. I've kinda forgotten already a lot of what happened in that movie.

My apologies once again to Wizard of the Last Century for still remaining dead last.

On a side note, almost up to episode 700. I'm more than halfway through the series now! Whoo hoo!

[strawberryjamsara]

may we know which interpretation of a character from ur shows u do not agree with and find to be in slightly poor taste u reblogged that post 5 times about 👀

I reblogged that post way more than five times I thought….

And well it applies to a lot of characters… but for what I’m thinking about now it’s the entire cast of yttd

This game is literally about a death cult that’s been training people for a murder game against their knowledge their whole lives. You’d think the fandom would be able to shoulder more moral complexity than 7 year olds.

Qtaro is beloved nowadays for his stellar character arc, but before 3-1b and even now, his tag is uninhabitable. No matter how much he changed from his pretty indefensible actions in the first chapter, even a line in the second chapter main game that was pretty much just turning towards the camera and telling you he had changed, people were VICIOUS at the idea that he could show any moral complexity and growth. People were outraged over a man called Qtaro Burberberg who was a parody of Jojo characters, and making headcanons about him being homophobic (which is a whole other can of worms but I don’t have time for that today)

Then we have the opposite spectrum. Characters who are loved.

Kai Satou, literal ex assassin who drank poison as a child? Apparently he doesn’t know what swears are.

Nao Egokoro, who in one route of the game kills everyone? Like that happens. She kills everyone. Well she’s just a cutesy artist lesbian.

(Also Kai threatened Nao at knifepoint to attack an innocent person in canon but that never gets unpacked anywhere in the fandom)

Hell the uwufication has gotten so bad that Shin Tsukimi SHIN FUCKING TSUKIMI, the antagonist of the game for a good chunk of the run time is reduced down to being just a little guuuuuuy! Baby booooooy! The fact he spent so long tormenting a literal child is treated as a funny little quirk! And look, I’ll be the first person to advocate for Shin and Sara being a well written relationship and their eventual bond meaning a lot to me, but Shin has gotten so many passes for being a fan favorite and (dare I say it) being a twink.

And like. There’s also the weird limbo with Keiji. Oooooh Keiji. See, you can make a post pointing out Shins mistakes and everyone goes “He’s so funny <3” but if you make a very similar post about Keiji the literal day after those people will say “Ugh, thank you this is why I hate Keiji.”

So look. I love Keiji. I make fanart of Keiji. I obsessively write meta of Keiji. I blorbo tag Keiji. I am like the only person in the world who thinks that with the way Nankidai has written the story, killing off Keiji would be a bad move…

But here’s the thing.

Keiji is a flawed character. Like extremely flawed. He’s meant to be a direct foil to Shin, but rather than antagonizing our main character, he’s sitting in the chair next to her as her main assistant. He cares about her deeply, but in the beginning of the game, his only interest with her is using her as a figurehead for his own survival, and no matter how much he wants to protect her now, that initial approach is not without consequences. He has hurt people, and he uses that fact to hurt people more as his own self inflicted punishment. He has changed and grown over the narrative but he’s not someone you can put in an easy box of good or bad.

So people tend to go to one extreme or the other with him. Either he’s the best dad who does no wrong, or he is the worst character ever and the game would be so much better without him. It really sucks that Keiji and Sara, one of the most complex and interesting relationships in the game, and one that is out front and center so comically often, to the point that 3-1b revolves around it, is ignored to such a degree that the contract, the main point of that scene, the fact you were meant to be put in Sara’s shoes and feel her making that decision was missed by the fandom so they could whine about not getting to make the decision themselves! Reading comprehension zero! Literally where is the meta and fanfic?! Greenblings has tons of it! Do I have to do everything mys-

Also like, there’s also characters explicitly meant to be not sympathetic who do get sympathy. Like, idk how hard Nankidai has to look into the camera and tell you Midori is just like that for you to stop giving him backstories. People probably do that so it’s easier to ship him with Shin tbh. Stop that.

Okay one last thing, and I’ll stop. This fandom is weirdly focused on shipping. Like I love shipping don’t get me wrong, but yttd is like not about shipping. At all. There’s twenty different extremely fucked up and interesting found family dynamics in the game and people are worried about whose Alice gonna take to the jailhouse prom. Okay. Gothi out.

[laurel-dreams]

Gotouge's Oneshots

I'm reading Gotouge's (KNY Author) previous oneshots since I finally bougth the compilation, and? It's been pretty fun! Here are some of my thoughts on them if you're interested Kagarigari is a clear predecesor to Kimetsu no Yaiba and even if we don't get much info on the main slayer character Nagare, but I'd say he is more of a Yoriichi or Giyu character rather than Tanjiro.. Tamayo and Yushiro don't seem to change much from canon, they're like more basic versions of themselves I'd say, and Mr.Tokikawa despite being a clear inspiration for Muzan, doesn't act much as Kibutsuji does except for his arrogance. I don't get where the "The other demon is pilot Douma" Thing came from tho, the author states they wanted to make a "dracula- like character" and his powers kinda resemble weakened Muzan in the final battle more like Douma.The only thing I'd say is more Douma like is how he mentiones that girls taste better than men tbh. It's like Gotouge mixed those two characters to make the actual Demon King in Kimetsu Monju Shirou Kyoudai was way more entertaining than I expected, Umaune and Masatada are pretty good foils for eachother, and without spoiling to much, their abilities are very interesting, at least for me. Their backstory is a bit reminiscent of the Shinazugawa brothers, specially in the father department, tho I'd say theres a bit of Shinjuro there as well in the "training" department. The designs are reminiscent of Obanai for Matsada, and Genya for Umanue, tho their personalities remind me more of Nakime and Gyutaro respectiveley, personally. It's a very fun read if you don't have Entomophobia, but if you're scared of bugs this might not be the best choice for you. Rokkotsu-san, I'll be honest, almost made me cry a bit. Abara's overall personality and attitude reminded me of Gyomei, not just because he is also blind, but because he has this benevolent aura round him, he wishes to protect to save others on top of everything and to me, it was very well expressed. His ability is something some of my own characters have and it was interesting to see how it could be depicted in a manga, definitiveley helpful. To me it was very emotional and, Unless Zigzag makes me change my mind, it's probably my favourite one. IDK I just *Felt* this one, you know? It's also fun to note that a character from Monju Shirou Kyoudai also appears in this manga, making both universes conected, and as someone who aims to make a "Multiverse" of sorts with their own stories eventually, this was a cool detail Haeniwa no Zigzag Was pretty interesting as well, I love flowers and plants, so the ideas behind Zigzag's powers were super cool to me. I like the concept behind him a lot as well, his curse and all that. Zigzag clearly resembles Uzui, both phisically and personality wise and It was fun to see such a extravagant character in a more modern era. The antagonist of the story also looks a bit like Uzui's brother we get to see in the anime (at least he looks like him to me). It was probably the one that felt more fleshed out, since it was the last one made before Kimetsu, and I did like it a lot as well, but Rokkotsu-san remains my favourite.

Have any of you read Gotouge's oneshots as well? What did you think of them?

[repo-net]

hey look it's repo posting about his ocs again haha

God, how many years has it been since I last posted about an OC on this blog? Almost 2, huh. Don't worry Aoyama, you're still one of my golden boys and I'll always love my street kid. But for now, I want to show you all a little something I've been working on.

So, I know there's like a 99% chance none of you care about wrestling the same way as I, but I know you've at least heard of WWE and what it's about. And one of my biggest dreams is to write a full-fledged story with my own characters and story. One of these stories is a story about a young and dreaming child that's a nobody from a faraway island watching TV one day and stumbling upon professional wrestling, and being inspired to become one as well and become the champion of the world of wrestling and be recognized by everyone. I should mention that in this universe, wrestling isn't 'scripted' the way it is in real life. What differentiates the protagonist's plot though from your usual rise to the top storylines that most of these 'underdog' stories have is that his story doesn't end after becoming champion, but rather; it's just getting started.

After becoming the champion and still not getting the recognition and respect he feels he deserves, he starts to break down into a flame of insecurities and he crumbles into a shattered man that will do anything to stay at the top. Basically; he goes from the hero you wanna root for to having a whole ass villain arc. It's sick as hell, dude. He undergoes a whole character development to character derailment story and I think breaking down the protagonist in such a way is a unique take to have when writing this story. Wrestling is such a cheesy and emotional genre that has some really grounded and touching moments when it's given a chance too, and with the absolute variety of characters that come out of it from the badasses to the horrorshows to the comedy acts, they all have their role and this massive number of tropes and acts I can take inspiration from makes for an absolute perfect long story to write with tons of different characters with their own arcs clashing together. It's gonna be amazing one day, I promise you.

While I do have a doc that has a few of the ideas and stories with only a handful of the absolute pile of characters and timeline I've already built for it in my head, I want to shine the light on who I consider one of the best pieces of writing I'll ever come up with. She's my pride and joy and I fucking love her. This is the first half of the story's main antagonist and the undefeated champion for our protagonist to overcome; Reyna.

(used Koikatsu to make this model)

Name: Reyna

From / Age: Calamba, Philippines / 30

Finishers: Lucena Spear (A twist on the spear, where instead of shooting her body towards her opponent directly, she does it from the back and plants them onto their front on the mat. Like a shot in the back/a backstab, which is a very common theme in her story from her rise to being the champion and her reign as one. Named the Lucena Spear as José Rizal died in Lucena by getting shot in the back.) (pin) and the Santiago Lock (a rear naked choke. Named the Santiago Lock as the aforementioned Rizal was locked and imprisoned in Fort Santiago during his time.) (submission)

Story: A group of three friends find each other while working in a small wrestling promotion in Southeast Asia as they develop and hone themselves. Whiro, a deceitful and talkative man with a brain beyond others who knew how to get in his opponent’s heads by bringing up their history and knowing how to personally attack and break people. Ares, a bloodthirsty, violent, and thrill seeking fighter who loved nothing more than a match that put her and her opponent’s body on the line in extreme stipulations such as street fights, cage matches, etc. who had a rather tame demeanor outside of battles. And finally, Reyna; a generally silent and calm but powerful woman able to down even the toughest of fighters in the world. Usually repressive in her emotions, she tended to do most of the heavy-lifting in the group, and was incredibly protective of her two friends, willing to destroy and go to war for each of them, protecting them from intruders that could influence the three of them.

In spite of her usual restrained emotions, Reyna does have a darker side to her that can get as sadistic as Ares and as manipulative as Whiro that occasionally seeps through her facade when her emotions crack or she feels she or her friends have been wronged, but as far-gone as all three of them were, they kept each other in check and truly did love each other like family. They were like soldiers-in-arms, and all of them had a consistent win record over each other in 1-on-1 matches - Whiro usually had Reyna’s number because of his ability to wear her down emotionally and force her to make bad decisions in the ring, Ares regularly beat Whiro as he couldn’t intimidate her and her love for a messy fight overpowered any psychological warfare he tried to inflict, and Reyna consistently overwhelmed Ares by simply being too strong and physically better than Ares no matter the match type the lunatic would choose. They’d eventually all get scouted into FightFrenzy, the world’s largest wrestling company to showcase their talents. 

Reyna racked up win after win against impressive, credible opponents with strong records and fan favorites, which turned a few fans against her because of her ‘boring’ personality and how every single match consistently went her way convincingly. Whiro had been a bit of an enigma and a heel among the audience despite his worse record, as his sly way of winning matches had turned some people off from him. He didn’t really mind playing such a villain though; he was having fun. Ares had quickly become a favorite among the crowd as she had quickly gained respect from the viewers and backstage for never backing down from any challenge against her, no matter how dangerous it got. Each of them continued to develop their profile.

Whiro’s record continued to rollercoaster into a rather uninspiring 3-3, getting into the most matches as he tended to start trouble with people the most, giving more people reason to fight him in the ring. Ares had gone 3-1, as she still needed time to recover in between the absolute bloodfest her matches tended to have and was pretty feared backstage by most people due to her nature. Reyna would eventually continue to be undefeated and sit at a comfortable 5-0, even having beat the booker’s son twice in one night (though it only counted as one win on her record). This pissed him off to the point where he’d make a decision that would change the course of the company - and that was getting involved with some backstage politics to break the three apart. Despite how cunning Whiro was, his insecurity of having to stand next to two people who was either universally respected or an undefeated and powerful fighter had been slowly getting to him, knowing full well he could never be the number 1 guy in the company so long as he was involved with them.

And so, after Whiro suffered an embarrassing loss one night and getting involved with the booker’s son backstage, who promised him a path towards the top so long as he were to leave and stab the other two in the back. His insecurities getting the better of him, he accepted, and the next night, as Reyna was preparing for her next match, she got beat down from behind by Whiro, putting her out of action for a week. Ares, who had just walked into the scene, was too shocked by the initial sight of Reyna on the floor as Whiro stood with a steel chair in hand, ended up getting taken off-guard and was beaten to hell by him too. The group imploded, and the three of them would go their separate ways. And without being around one another to keep each of them stable, everyone in the trio went off the rails and lost themselves more and more, becoming more distant from people and refusing to trust others easily.

With the help of the booker’s son and the structure slowly favoring him to open up a path towards the champion, Whiro climbed the rankings before eventually winning the big one, and was now the new champion in the promotion. Satisfied with himself, his ego grew and he personally offered his first title defense against Ares in a Loser Leaves match as his obsession with getting into people’s heads and making things personal made him thirsty to get one up on Ares. But she had seen absolute hell ever since then, still being the barbarous wrestler that she was. Happily accepting, Ares takes down and ends Whiro’s reign as quickly as it started in a feel-good moment in an intense match, as Whiro could only watch on with a broken spirit as his contract was terminated and he was exiled from the company. After becoming the champion, Ares grew some newfound friendships in the back as plenty more had respect for her for being at the top, and her reputation as a fighting champion made her a likable figure. These relationships and her win over him helped her overcome her trauma from Whiro's actions and she had grown more mature as a person.

Reyna on the other hand continued to fall apart. She still hadn’t gotten over Whiro’s betrayal, but she targeted anyone but the people in her former friend group, going after the booker’s son, the executives, Whiro’s peers and people he’s fought or talked to. She blamed them for influencing him and convinced herself that he had been broken by them, and bottled up the rage and hate she had for how the entire situation went down as she became the most dominant force the company’s seen in a long time, all fueled by Whiro’s betrayal. Sitting at 9-0 and being granted a shot at the title by the booker against the champion Ares, the stage was set for the final chapter of a very personal and bloody fight inside a steel cage in an “I Quit” match, where the only way to win was to destroy your opponent so badly that they had to mutter the words “I Quit”.

Despite all of Ares’ attempts as she left Reyna wounded and hurt, she just couldn’t find a way to put Reyna away for good as she always got back up. Without Ares and Whiro to keep her calm, Reyna had finally come unhinged and had left Ares into a bloody, immobile mess as she did everything to try and make Ares declare her surrender. But Ares refused. The fight went on, before a spot where Reyna landed a vicious Lucena Spear against Ares quite literally broke a segment of the steel cage off, enough to leave Ares unable to move her body. But she was still awake, still breathing, and that much was the motivation she needed to not say she quits. With Reyna dragging the two of them to the ring, she took the part of the steel cage in her hand and held it over Ares, asking her to say she quits. And again, Ares didn’t give in. After telling Reyna to ‘go fuck yourself’, the challenger flipped the champion on her back, and was about to stab through Ares’ back with the spiky part of the steel cage.

Until… from the crowd, Whiro came crashing through the part that had broken in the cage, having fought off security to get to the ring and pushed Ares away and dragged her into a corner, sitting her up, stopping Reyna from landing a blow that could’ve ended her life. He looked gone. Messy hair, looking like he hadn’t slept in months, and his body had taken a toll for the worse. As the moment set in for Reyna, she looked Whiro in the eyes and broke down into an emotional mess at the sight of him. As Ares was a confused and injured mishmash, Whiro tries to bridge the gap between the three of them as he tried to talk to Ares to explain and mediate the situation, but just as he was talking to her, Reyna had taken him from behind after ripping the wires off of the steel cage part she had and locked him into a Santiago Lock, choking him close to death as she had it wrapped and locked around his neck.

Begging for Reyna to stop, Ares finally gave in and yelled “I Quit” with tears in her eyes, as Reyna threw Whiro’s unconscious body in the corner across from the now dethroned champion. She stared Ares down, and all of the emotions that she had held back for years; ever since being the silent one in the group that did most of the work to the eventual incident that broke their group, she beat the hell out of Ares until she was knocked out. With her former friends laying on opposite sides of the ring, Reyna took the championship belt in her hand, raising it and stood tall in the center to a sea of boos erupting from the crowd, as the new queen’s reign of terror had just begun. Ares and Whiro were never seen in the company ever since then, having been hospitalized and their careers having likely ended. And that was how Reyna had turned into the sociopathic, undefeated champion that she is today.

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

"Take this title? Off of ME? I've done everything you can do in this business. If you run into a wall and hurt yourself, don't blame the wall. You want to be recognized so badly? I'll leave your name in the history books in the long list of people that I've conquered when I retire as the greatest of all time."

"This entire industry runs off of me! You say this is your ring? This is MY sport, and you live in MY universe!"

Her personality will speak for itself once you've read her story, anyways. This is only her backstory too of how she became the champion that she is today; her story and what she does in the main storyline is still under work, but even that is coming out fantastically. Reyna (and this entire thing, really.) is a character that I just look at and feel so much fulfillment every time I see her. Everything about her just works in the way I want it to.

Anyways, that's all for now. I know this post is lengthy and I'm a little doubtful anyone even read it, but I just really wanted to share this because the whole project means a lot to me and I hope that one day, I can look back on this post and say; "Goddamn, look where I came from."

[spookmania]

SAW FRANCHISE REVIEW?

My journey with Saw began when I decided to watch Saw 4 (2007). I did not understand the plotline (duh) and, thoroughly intrigued, I started watching more movies from the series. This made me more confused about the plot than I was initially. It was a very underwhelming experience, to say the least. The more you think about it, the weirder the series gets. 

I can’t talk about all 9 movies (the 10th one is coming out this year apparently) but the main plot of all movies is the same so it really doesn’t matter. In the first one, we are introduced to Adam (played by Leigh Wannell) and Lawrence (played by Cary Elwes) chained up in a bathroom from which they have to escape or else they die. Jigsaw (the antagonist) has kept Lawrence’s family hostage, and he is faced with the dilemma of either killing Adam or having his family die.

 It was a pretty decent movie because its main focus was to provide a good story along with some gory scenes. However, as the franchise progresses, we start to see that the main focus has shifted towards gore completely rather than developing an actual plotline. If you just want to see people mutilating themselves, I would definitely recommend these movies.

Before anything else, I want to point out the flawed and twisted morals of the movies that the producers were trying to portray. The main focus of the franchise is to make people appreciate life. How is putting people in life-threatening traps going to achieve that? It would rather do the opposite and give people lifelong trauma. Jigsaw is supposed to be the antagonist, and yet the movies tried to paint him as this person who has a reason and is doing good for the world by…. Killing people? I am well aware he doesn’t kill people himself, but setting up elaborate traps that are almost impossible to escape unscathed is essentially killing them. 

I cannot go on without talking about the acting in these movies. Tobin Bell was an adequately good actor (and Chester Bennington of course ). But who even thought about casting Betsy Russell for the role of Jill Tuck? It seemed like a thoughtless casting decision. Her expressions remain the same in all the Saw movies she appeared in, no matter what the situation is.

Another extremely annoying trope followed throughout the franchise is the plot twist at the very end of each movie, the twist being a random character working under Jigsaw (how shocking). It gets old very quickly, even if we ignore the fact that the story is not very consistent. The timeline of the events is very confusing and they are interconnected in a very substandard way. A lot of the things rely on plot convenience, like how did John Kramer know he was going to die in Saw 3 and swallow tape recordings, and when did he have the time to instruct his successor to carry out his work? Well, at least the story is consistently bad throughout all 9 movies. 

In conclusion, it would have been better if no other movie except the first installment of Saw was made. The idea was decent, but the execution was very subpar and it is a very long drawn-out series.

[doriians]

No idea what any of this means, but, may I ask if there's a set plot? Or is it more of like a concept that just exists

THANK YOU FOR DARING TO ASK DESPITE KNOWING NOTHING HAHAH i gen appreciate it :]

there’s a plot!!!! and concepts!!!! and a first draft of a first book!!!!! coded started off as a trilogy that has ,, spiralled into a huge universe of standalone books, side-stories, short collections of stories, and prequels/sequels. the main trilogy is what i wanna finish this year though ! (long post ahead)

it started as a retelling of the dream smp l’manburg war actually 😭 but spiralled into a fantasy world because everything i write does that lol — it’s set in a world where the whole universe is made up of code (think like a binary code!) that a certain group of people can delete, alter, or create to change the world in some way. brei (the antagonist) and their sister ilse (the protagonist of trilogy) are the two surviving members of their family, who were essentially the “leaders” of people capable of manipulating the world code !! they protect, guard, and serve as the royal family’s “shadows” — essentially there to give them power that the royal family themselves don’t have.

HOWEVER, there is a growing resentment about how closely guarded the secrets of coding are. a rebel group of coders and non-coders breaks off from the kingdom, declares they’re sharing this knowledge with anyone who joins them. obviously this seems great, but this kind of power is absolutely, and absolute power in the wrong hands corrupts absolutely.

ilse joins the rebels, eager to prove herself and defy her sibling. brei — just called “the shadow” in most of the trilogy — convinces the royal family to fight against the rebels, creating a full scale independence war.

brei has a complicated relationship with coding, and with ryn, who is the head of the rebel camp wonderfall. they know ryn’s intentions are good but also know that she’s delving into “hacking” rather than “coding” — essentially, she’s touching parts of the code that should never be accessed. brei has done the same thing themselves in their youth, and it ended badly. they’re determined to stop ryn spreading the knowledge of hacking to anyone else, but to do that, they have to play the part of the antagonist against their sister and her new rebel friends.

it’s messy, for brei. they love ilse but have such a complicated relationship with her, especially because she hates them for being a typical terrible older sibling. it’s c!diskduo at their most volatile, essentially — but because i’m a huge sucker for character reconciliation, they eventually part ways civilly.

SORRY FOR RAMBLING !! i know most of this is probably incoherent and messy but ill clarify more later. i’m so proud of this series and love it more than i can explain and its evolved so much since i originally began writing. tysm for asking about it you’re my new favourite person ever now