#really loved the giant robot you get to pilot

[jojolimons]

lmao finished pepper grinder before downloading the qol update

[keferon]

TexAid continues to rot my brain I hope you don't mind I had an idea for Shockwave. Warning for mentioned super unethical experimentation.

====

Vortex didn’t remember the first day his dad had brought him to work. He’d been too young, young enough to have stars in his eyes about giant robots and a desire to be tested by the cool machines his dad worked on, according to what he’d been told. The standard idiot child. 

Of course that had been where him being standard had ended. 

But that meant he had grown up at the facility, that he knew it better than almost anyone else and knew everyone in it. Which was why he was currently keeping his cockpit shut tight even as First Aid kept hammering the button to open it. 

Shockwave, the only pilot to ever make it to retirement was on the other side of his one way red glass visor staring like he could see through it. Maybe he could. Once upon a time he had been kind. Once upon a time he had actual eyes instead of the bionic yellow glow that shrunk and grew as he focused it. 

His mech had had a fatal accident, one that should have killed him too. But Shockwave hadn’t been lucky enough to die, instead he had been a test subject, to see if machine and human could get just a little closer to being one. 

Vortex had never liked any of his pilots enough to care but looking at Shockwave made him mentally promise First Aid that he would never let him live if he got heavily wounded in a fight. If Vortex was dying he’d take the other man with him as a mercy. Better that than this, having everything he was scooped out. 

One metal hand came up to tap on his glass, like he was knocking on the door of a house. “Vortex let me meet him, I want to see why this one is special.” 

First Aid stopped trying to open the visor and slunk back behind the pilot seat and if Vortex could relax he would have at having him less exposed. Vortex wondered if he should chew First Aid up a little? Make him less special? But it was too late. 

The only consolation was that his reputation as a pilot killer protected First Aid, made him too valuable to let him be dragged down into Shockwave’s lab for tests that weren’t a guaranteed success. 

Shockwave continued, “Wouldn’t you like to have a body again? The first mech to human full-translation. You're an ideal candidate for obvious reasons.” But of course that wasn’t what he really wanted. No Shockwave’s real project was human to mech translation, more than what had been done to him, on a grander scale than replacing most of a human with a machine. Shockwave was large, but he was still person sized. 

Vortex had been smart enough to keep his existence at rumors and Shockwave couldn’t prove he was in here. He was trying to use First Aid to lure him out. 

He felt First Aid’s hands tighten on the back of the seat, as if he was ready to fight being pulled away from it. But Vortex kept his cockpit closed and after a long time Shockwave sighed and turned away. “Well perhaps once you get bored of him, just leave him in usable pieces.” 

Vortex watched him jump off the gangway and heard the sound of metal hitting the ground below him before easy footsteps. For a moment he was jealous of what Shockwave had, but not at that price. Even after he was gone it took a long moment before Vortex let his cockpit open. It took longer for First Aid to leave it. 

OH DAMN…

YOU KNOW WHAT. As much as I love Senator Shockwave. The Idea of him being that creepy fucking scientist really fits here oh my god

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[obsessivevoidkitten]

Heroes To Villains

DILF Yandere Superheroes x Gender Neutral Superhero Reader CW: Noncon, imprisonment, minor violence, gratuitous amount of firearms, super powers, super soldiers, spitroasting, general yandere behavior, bratty reader Word Count: 3.8k (I am sorry this took a bit for me to get to, only took a few hours to write though. I hope you guys love it. Feel free to tip if you do~)

The city you were stationed in was under attack by some fairly destructive super villains. They were either traitors born of the same government program that had produced you and the other super soldiers you worked with or they were sent by another country to attack the retired super agents of your country. Though it was also possible they were a rogue foreigner with a vendetta. All the people making up your squad had been in the military and had made significant enemies.

Their goals did not really matter so much at the moment. It was more important that they were defeated before they caused any casualties.

There were two of them. One of them with an ability to lash out with streams of fire and smoke and another that could jump up really fast and high before slamming down and causing a large explosion on impact.

They were no match for you and your comrades. Red and Ace had handled much worse threats than these two with ease. Ace had been a top pilot before undergoing medical experimentation that left him with angel-like wings and the ability to shoot energy blasts from his hands. The man was like a living B-52. And Red was basically a human tank. Very little could so much as scratch his skin and he had tremendous physical strength.

Both of them had soared through the ranks and had distinguished themselves as competent generals in the last great war. Now they were retired and used their abilities as super soldiers to become heroes and protect the capital from the strange threats that had been unleashed during war time. Mostly the occasional villain. Sometimes a mutant animal.

You had just been a simple medic. Nothing too fancy, but you had hesitantly taken the opportunity to go through experiments that would allow you to heal others much more effectively and without the need for invasive surgery. Most of the super soldiers gained a unique ability and also became more resilient to damage and agile.

And you had gotten those perks too, but not to the degree as everyone else. Though you had gotten an extra ability that most people lacked. Hyper accurate aim with long distance weapons. But you also suffered a drawback when compared to your peers. You got exhausted easily, having very little stamina.

Who could forget the time you had saved the city by firing the railroad gun at the giant robot that used mutated biological components in its construction? Firing a 19,000 pound shell and obliterating an entire giant robot with one perfectly executed shot had been amazing.

You longed for that kind of usefulness again. But currently you were a bit bored, as a long range support unit you frequently hung back a bit. Red and Ace normally cleared everything up themselves without having need of your abilities.

Ace had plucked the hopper from the sky and injected him with a serum that would knock him out cold until he could be taken into custody where his abilities would be removed completely, if they could be. Red had similarly taken out the fire user who had discovered that his searing flames did little more than make Red sweat a bit.

They regrouped together before they started walking back to you, each carrying the limp weight of an unconscious enemy on their shoulders. It would be a few minutes before they got to the rendezvous.

You heard the gruff voice of Red on your comm line.

“We got em’ On our way back now.”

“Affirma-”

You were cut off by a sudden shift underground followed by a woman jumping up from the earth below you and punching you hard enough to launch you several feet.

There had been a third and they had split up to take you on individually.

As you fell through the air you took out your side arm and fired every round in rapid succession. Each one aimed for her heart. Each one hit their mark. But when you hit the ground you had smacked your head pretty hard and the world faded to black.

You woke up in a medical bed in the basement of your headquarters. You were quite dizzy and you felt like you were certainly going to vomit.

You held your hands to your head and your palms flashed.

Much better. If you hadn’t been knocked out you would have simply been able to heal whatever injuries you had sustained in a flash. Oh well you were better now.

Ace walked in to check on you right as you had been getting up. He burst into a smile at seeing you awake. His blue eyes full of joy.

“Hey runt! Glad to see that you’re getting up and about!”

“Who’s a runt!?”

He flexed his biceps to drive the point in.

“Red, get in here, The runt is up!”

You heard his loud steps reverberate upstairs as he bounded towards the basement door and came rushing down.

“It’s been five days, we were beginning to really worry about you, squirt.”

He was smiling but you could tell his red eyes held a lot of concern in them. It seemed like there was something he wanted to say but didn’t know how.

“Well, no need to worry. I am not as fragile as a regular person. And I am fully healed now.”

“Yeah… but you weren’t hit by a normal person. And you aren’t as durable as most of us…”

That was Ace.

“Yeah, yeah, I will be more careful, okay? I know my limits. I don’t need a lecture. I took the enemy down and I am okay now so we don’t need to linger on it.”

Ace put his hand to his face and his wings quivered in annoyance as they often do when he tries to lecture you and you just won’t have it.

You rolled your eyes and finally Red spoke up.

“This isn’t the first time you have gotten hurt on the field. Even with precautions like staying back you still end up injured!”

“What’s your point? It's a battle, injuries happen. At least I can heal.”

Ugh, an Ace lecture you were used to. You didn’t need both of them nagging at you.

You rolled your eyes as Red continued.

“Have you ever considered… going into another career? You volunteer at the hospital… maybe you could do that full time?”

That did it.

“Excuse me? I wasn’t in any command position, but I was a trained soldier all the same! I think I can handle myself!”

You stormed away from them and went up the stairs, slamming the door behind you. Assholes. Who were they to tell you what you should consider doing? It was your life and if you wanted to use it fighting genetically enhanced monsters and super-criminals then that was your right to do so.

It would become evident in the future that this incident was where everything started to go wrong. Going forward in battle they always had at least one of them at your side whenever it was physically possible for them to do so.

When you were eventually still injured even with that precaution, even though it was minor, they pressured you again to quit being a hero. They thought maybe you just were too attached to them to leave so they even suggested that you could still be their medic but you would stay on at the base. You could even still operate the railroad rifle that could fire shells from miles away whenever a large foe approached the city.

But you wouldn’t have it. Fuck them. You told them that if you had to form a new squad in a new city then you would do so.

They frantically apologized immediately so they let it go.

It was unfathomable that they would ever allow you to do such a thing. Go off where they couldn’t protect you even a little? Where some inexperienced whelp of a leader would surely get you killed? Not a chance!

But neither could they allow you to remain a front line combatant. Not after the injuries and not with how easily you became fatigued when exerting yourself.

The solution was ugly, but it was what it was. You left them no other option for your own safety.

Though it would make them criminals themselves they had to do it for your own good. They had to keep you here with them where you would be safe and secure. They could turn the base’s AI defenses to keep you here and make sure that you were safe. They could also have it alert them through their comms if you there was any trouble while they were on a mission.

You were laying on your bed with your hands behind your head. You stared at your ceiling and contemplated all that you had been through. The war, seeing comrades on the battlefield ripped apart with no way to save them as they bled out in agony. You had to protect people from that in every way that you could, and if you did die on the battlefield then that was fine by you.

The intrusion of Red and Ace barging into your room out of nowhere pulled you from your thoughts and you regarded them both with a scowl.

“What NOW!? Can’t you guys at least knock? I mean seriousl-”

Ace cut you off with a hand gesture for silence before Red spoke up.

“Listen squirt… we decided something. We can’t allow you to join us on the field anymore…”

“Didn’t you just apologize for saying that after I threatened to leave? Whatever, I am out of here!”

You hopped up to gather your belongings and set out at once, the mere sight of the two heroes making you want to go on a rampage, but Red pushed you back onto the bed, then Ace picked up where Red had left off.

“Well that’s not all, runt. We also decided… you can’t leave here either…”

You started laughing. It had to be some kind of joke. But the tension that filled the room told you otherwise. You looked from Red to Ace and the empty expression from Ace and the guilty one from Red told you that they were deadly serious.

You grabbed your sidearm and launched yourself at Ace, you weaved past Red and twirled yo get behind Ace and held your arm around his neck with your gun aimed at his head. You didn’t speak a word, your intention clear.

There was no way you would be kept here.

You couldn’t go for Red as small arms fire would bounce off of him, but at point blank range Ace was toast. You backed out of the room, pulling Ace along with you. He cooperated fully. Even a pair of overprotective psychos didn’t want their brains blown out.

Out of nowhere a robotic arm emerged from one of the sockets in the walls. It seized your gun and then Ace flipped your positions with him behind you.

They had reprogrammed the defenses of the base to not allow you to have a weapon. These two were not former generals for nothing. They knew how their adversary, you, would react.

You slammed your foot down on Ace’s and smacked your head behind him to hit his nose. Such weak attacks did nothing to dislodge you from his ironclad grasp.

“Stop this childish behavior and just accept things. This is for your own good. If anything this little outburst has proven that you need to be protected because you certainly cannot control your emotions!”

Red was in front of you, still looking at you with that guilty expression.

“I’ll go get your weapons from your room.”

Ace and you watched in the doorway as Red got a sack and rummaged through every single inch of your private space to look for what was now contraband.

“Come on! If you are going to keep me here at least don’t go invading my privacy like this!”

Much to your embarrassment you actually cried a bit as the large man went through all your things.

He started by removing your pistols from your weapon’s display case. Your Beretta M9, your SIG Sauer P320, you… dear god no… not your baby, not your Magnum Research BFR!

You thrashed more as you saw him take that one.

Then he moved on to your bookshelf. He took out your religious text from the shelf.

“Hey, keep your grubby mitts off of that! It’s sacred!”

“Yeah, Red, don’t you think you should focus o-”

He opened it revealing that it had been cut out and housed one of your many sidearms.

“Of course,” Ace said flatly.

When Red finished with all your pistols he moved on to the ones mounted on your wall. Your Mauser M 98, your Browning BLR, and your little Marlin 70PSS.

The rest of the search was much the same. All but one had been found. Red had to get a second bag for them all. The ones in your desk, under your bed, and the one in your mattress.

Well at least they hadn’t found your most precious gun-child…

“Okay I think I got them all. Nowhere else to search. Be truthful, did I miss any?”

You wiped the tears out of your eyes and lied convincingly. You tried to look as defeated as you could.

“No”

Ace moved the two of you out of the way so Red could take your weaponry to the armory. As he started to leave the room he noticed his footsteps sounded odd in one place.

He pressed his large foot down in the spot a few times, narrowing his eyes.

Fuck.

He bent down and realized he could remove the floor board under the rug in that spot.

He found it, the bag unzipped and your M1 Garand joined the rest of your firearms.

“NOOOO!!! That one is my favorite! It PINGS when you use it!”

Now you were truly defeated, they had gotten every single one of them…

“Holy fuck, how many did you need??”

Ace joined in.

“Yeah that’s all a bit… much…”

“If your only offensive power came from guns then you would make sure to have one near you at all times in case of infiltration or emergencies…”

Ace sighed and let you return to your bed in peace. Or what peace could be had in your glorified prison.

Later in the evening they knocked on your door.

“Hey, we made your favorite food for dinner! And made your favorite dessert too…”

That was Red, you could hear the nervousness in his voice. He knew you would hate him now. You ignored them.

“Come on, don't be like this, you have to eat!”

And that was Ace, insisting that not complying with his psychopathic behavior was childish.

You opened the door and took the food tray. Both of them smiled.

“There, see? We can all still get along. We worked very hard on that meal for you!”

You were sure that they had, they were both skilled cooks. You stared at them expressionless and slammed the tray into their faces before slamming the door.

Ace looked furious but Red held him back.

“Come on Ace… they just need to adjust…”

But you refused to adjust. You ate only when they were out of the house. As the days went by you didn’t speak a single solitary word to either of them, you may as well have been a ghost.

Well… it would have been. Had you not been doing your best to make them the two most miserable men on the planet. You destroyed all the toilet paper, clogging every toilet in the base with it, you destroyed the fridge twice, you broke the TV, tore the couch, the robotic arms stopped you, of course, but you could manage to do a bit of damage each time before it stopped you.

Even Red was getting annoyed with your behavior.

They had both tried everything to get you to behave. Punishments ranging from not eating anything but flavorless oatmeal for days to being forced to sleep in a bed with one of them so they could make sure you didn’t cause any destruction while they slept.

Finally they had had enough, things could not continue on like this and it seemed like you may never open your eyes and see that they were just trying to keep you safe. Without them you’d have ran right into the jaws of danger.

They discussed it among themselves and had one more idea. You needed to feel loved in every possible way. They loved you so much after all, that’s what all this had been about, to protect you because they cared for you. But clearly they needed to step things up a notch or ten.

When they came home that day they barged into your room and grabbed you, taking you kicking and screaming into one of the many spare rooms the base had.

They had outfitted it with a huge bed, the walls painted your favorite color, fresh roses filled a heart shaped vase on the nightstand.

“Let go of me! What did you drag me here just to give me a newer bigger room? A prison is still a prison…”

“It’s going to be…” Red started.

“Our love… nest…” Ace finished, blush evident on his face.

“No thanks. Fucking weirdos.”

“Come on, sex is known to alleviate one’s mood!”

“Yeah, just give it a chance”

Ace smashed his lips into yours and kissed you deeply, you looked at him stunned.

They were serious… You wanted to wretch… Fervently you struggled, trying to get out of Red’s grip but he handed you off to Ace who wrapped his wing around you and led you to the bed.

They took your clothing off before moving on to your own. All of you had scars due to combat and training, and you had seen them nude in the showers before, but this was different. For the first time you felt vulnerable and scared under their combined gaze.

You covered your genitals but they each removed and held one arm so they could appreciate the view. “Come on, don’t be like that. Nothing we haven’t seen before,” Ace whispered as he spread your legs apart.

“Red, did you bring the lube?”

“Yeah, right here.”

Red opened a bottle and lathered both of their growing cocks so that they were drenched with the stuff and then pressed some to your hole and massaged it in. They had no intention of letting this be a painful experience for you. They wanted to show how much they cared about you.

You tried to clench. To close yourself off from them. But the probing fingers would not be denied. You squirmed uncomfortably at the sensation of cold lube being worked into you.

“Try to relax, it will be much better if you embrace us.”

“FUCK YO-”

Red cut you off with a kiss. You tried to bite his tongue but his tongue was no more vulnerable than the rest of his body.

Two sets of hand roamed and pet, and groped your body. Gently caressing you as Red made out with you. When they felt as if they had explored every part of your body they flipped you on to your belly, with Red on his knees in front of you. His crotch level with your face.

Ace was behind you on his knees between your legs, holding them still as he wedged himself closer to your entrance, until the tip of his cock was kissing it.

You couldn’t kick because he had control of your legs. You couldn’t punch because Red had your arms pinned. Now they just had to plug your bratty mouth and you wouldn’t have any means of protest. Verbal or otherwise.

They knew you’d try to bite so Red took your mouth, claiming it with his cock. You tried to move and turn away but once Ace sank his cock into your sensitive depths you gasped in surprise so Red took the chance to put his cock in your soft mouth. He did not go in balls deep, neither of them had yet. They wanted you to enjoy it. To relax. Not worry about being hurt or gagged.

Red humped into your mouth carefully and slowly while Ace did the same behind you.

“Damn, for someone so opposed to it you fit me so well.”

Then Ace added, “Your mouth feels amazing babe. He used his thumb to draw lazy circles into your arms where he held them down. He sighed in pleasure when he felt the pleasured moans Ace was coaxing out of you. Much to your dismay.

But you couldn’t deny that it felt nice. Your body relaxed, just a bit, as the men slowly bred a bit of the stress you had been under out of it.

Now that it seemed that you were enjoying yourself, even though reluctantly, Ace decided he could speed up just a bit, rolling his hips as his cock dug further into you.

Red was going a bit faster too now that you had acclimated and stopped trying to resist so hard. He let your arms go, sure that you had finally realized how silly fighting was. The large man stroked your cheek as he continued thrusting into those sweet lips.

Ace was the first to cum, his wings outstretching fully and deep voice gasping as his large nuts filled you with wave after wave of his seed. His large cock twitched inside of you, pushing you over the edge and into your own orgasm.

Feeling all your muffled cries of pleasure right in his prick caused Red to start cumming. He pulled out, not wanting to choke you on his copious amount of semen that he knew all super soldiers produced in spades, instead cumming all over your face.

Ace pulled out of you and was the first to speak.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

You didn’t respond, you were still panting from the workout you had just received. You didn’t protest when Ace pulled you into his lap and held you with your head nestled into his chest. Your head laying right on his hawk tattoo. You didn’t protest when red scooted beside him and kissed you tenderly on the forehead. You even let them clean you up and feed you your favorite meal that they diligently cooked for you while you waited politely on the couch. They figured your resistance to them before was just because you had needs that weren’t getting met.

And from that day forward they knew that anytime you got too snarky or rebellious all they had to do was make time to fuck the brattiness out of you.

[gatorbites-imagines]

Kinktober day 31

Bravern (and Lewis Smith) + unconventional

I had NO idea what to call this honestly, cuz I had already used size difference earlier and Braverns like 9 meters tall. I love this big bot, and I just wanted to finish kinktober even if I finished it late, so here we go.

Yall should watch Bang Brave Bravern so we can talk about it, it’s really good. Giant gay robot 👍

Some Bravern spoilers, so if you wanna watch it first, go do that. Its only 12 episodes. No outright smut in this one cuz I couldn’t figure out how to do it?

Kinktober 2024 masterlist

Having a giant robot for a boyfriend was… different than your past relationships. Well, dating Lewis had been normal and all, but then he became a giant robot that reminded you of something out of Hollywood. You could already hear him whining that it wasn’t Hollywood but more so the mecha genre of Japanese superhero shows.

It was a bit of a mind fuck, or maybe a very big mind fuck. It felt kinda like having two boyfriends, but not really since they were the same guy, not again, not really. Lewis was still around, as himself, but he was also there, as Bravern. It also felt a bit like cheating, since no one but you had figured out who Bravern truly was.

But how could you not clock it immediately, when Lewis had spent hours telling you how his mecha would look, if he was in one of his shows or manga, back when you were both still in military training. You had never really gotten the gist of it, but it made Lewis happy. This also meant you easily went along with Halloween costumes he wanted to do, especially since seeing you in some sentai hero suit always got him so hot and bothered.

But, back to Bravern. It was almost impossible to meet up secretly with a robot, mecha, this big. He barely fit into the warehouse set up for him. Hed started stuttering over his words when you showed up saying you wanted to talk, and really, how could you not recognize your own boyfriend when he did that.

In the end, you coldly and seriously told him you knew his secret, making Bravern gulp, could mecha even gulp? But, before you knew it, Bravern had shifted into a ship? Car? Thing? And told you to get in so you could talk privately.

After getting the whole situation from him, part of you couldn’t help but be hurt that you weren’t his pilot. Why was Isami so great, when you were right there? Bravern, Lewis? Seemed to recognize your hurt feelings immediately, and scooped you up as carefully as one with a jellyfish in his giant metallic hands.

He immediately started apologizing in ways you knew so well, from the times hed accidentally ripped your shirts pulling them on thanks to his impressive pecs, or that time he scratched your car showing off one of the new nerd swords hed bought. You weren’t sure if mecha even could cry, but somehow Bravern looked near tears about it.

Even without pupils you could tell Bravern was looking at you the same way Lewis always did, when he felt like he had messed up and wanted to be forgiven. He always reminded you of a floppy eared golden retriever, and somehow, even as a giant 9-meter tall mecha, he still did.

A long-drawn-out sigh left your lungs as you pinched at the bridge of your nose, the noise making Bravern curl in on himself in such a familiar way. “Lift me closer to your face” you finally muster out, running a hand down your face as Bravern was quick to do so, seemingly not wanting to hurt your feelings even more.

Kissing a giant robot was even weirder, part of you wondering if he could even feel your tiny lips against his massive pair. This was probably how those chicks felt in the transformers fanfiction you sometimes read. What? There is very little male reader stuff, so you take what you can get.

Bravern jolted enough for the ground under you to shake a little, his lips parting for a moment before he pursed them. It was almost comical, to be standing on the palm of his giant hand as he pursed his lips, like some weird princess and the frog mockery, but the princess was a red, white and gold mecha, and the frog was you, in your dirty military uniform.

Placing a hand on his metallic chin kind of reminded you of doing checkups on your titanostrider, except Bravern was, more alive under your touch? It was difficult to explain, and you’d probably give yourself a migraine just thinking about it. You still hadn’t really registered how he was both here as Lewis, and here as Bravern at the same time.

When you kissed Lewis, you would always grab his chin between your pointer and thumb and squeeze it, just enough for him to part his lips so you could slide your tongue inside. Your hands seemed to have the same reaction with Bravern, whose large lips parted slightly. On Lewis it would barely have been noticeable, but as Bravern it was right there.

“Stick your tongue out a little” you mumble, somewhat unsure if he could even hear you, with you standing below his nose and his ears being… wherever they are on a mecha. But Bravern, always being so good no matter what form he was in, stuck the tip of his tongue out between his lips.

Normally, you liked to really coil your tongue around his, knowing it drove Lewis crazy to have all that spit and slobber all over his face and running down his neck. That obviously wasn’t possible, so instead you sank your teeth into the tip of Braverns tongue before sucking it into your mouth.

You hadn’t really had a tongue this big in your mouth before, so you resorted to the same tongue and suckling movements you’d do when you had your mouth around Lewis’s large pecs. There wasn’t a nipple to tease or bite at, so instead you just cranked up the way you rubbed and moved your tongue.

Hearing Bravern moan was so loud, and it surrounded you in a way you hadn’t experienced before. Even the times where you had Lewis sobbing with pleasure in your ear wasn’t like this, but Bravern sounded just as needy. His fingers trembled under you, like he wanted nothing more than to touch you, his lips parting further as his tongue slid more towards you, almost knocking you over.

For a split moment, the mental image of Bravern pulling your clothes off and just licking you flashed before your mind. It made you way too hard to be normal, and you had never had fantasies like that before, so you weren’t gonna acknowledge them more than blaming it on the fact that it was your boyfriend.

Bravern looked ready to eat you, he had that same look in his eyes that Lewis always got when you two were apart for longer periods of time, when he wanted to push you down on the bed and ride you till you felt like one of those scrunched up juice boxes with not even air left inside.

Of course, at that moment, as Braverns tongue neared your torso, did the phone in your pocket ring. Something inside Bravern must have notified him too, of whatever you were being contacted about, as he whined and pouted. “I-im sorry baby, w-we can… continue later” he stumbled, giving you a faint impression that he was looking around like crazy even without pupils.

“Sure. Its probably… important enough” you cough, trying to collect yourself again and pull your uniform back on to fit the standard. Bravern kissed your chest carefully, clearly fearing he might crush you if he pressed any harder.

The flight back to base was a quiet affair, the air thick with a familiar heated feeling. But duty calls, so its not like you could even rub one out in his cockpit and dirty talk him until he came in his pants, codpiece? Could mechas even do that? You didn’t know, but you knew damn well you could make it happen.

Instead, you had to step out of Bravern in his ship form and join the others, brushing off questions about what you had been doing with Bravern. The mecha was so much worse than you when it came to lying, stuttering something about wanting to show you how fast he could go, as Isami climbed inside.

You could feel Lewis staring at you, intensely enough that you had to look back at him. He was biting his lip in that oh so familiar way, his brows furrowed as he stared at your lips. You couldn’t help but reach up and touch them, only then realising they were probably flushed and kissed, making dread pool in your stomach.

But Lewis didn’t seem angry at the aspect that his boyfriend may have been off, making out with a giant robot. Instead, Lewis seemed quite hot about it, if the flush rising in his cheeks and the clear way he was swallowing his spit had anything to say. That… you noted down for later. But first, duty, and then… find a way to make your boyfriend, boyfriends? Kiss, since you knew it would drive them both crazy.

[ilikekidsshows]

I wish the plot of the first season was Marinette coming to love being Ladybug. Mostly because I’m sick of it still being presented as a chore when she could easily pass the responsibility on to someone else. Instead, Ladybug is still presented as mainly a burden that Marinette is forced to nobly bear. My best guess is that she’s meant to be a tragic hero, but she's mainly just annoying.

Both times she gave up the earing she only took them back because there was no other choice. The writers could have dedicated an arc to Marinette learning what it means to be a hero (If nothing else, this needs to happen! Marinette is one of the least heroic heroes I have ever seen in media) and then being given the option to give up the earrings, but refusing because she wants to be Ladybug. One reason I think Adrien would make a better protagonist is that he clearly loves being Chat Noir.

Or if that’s too serialized for the show’s formula, then make being a miraculous holder an inherited position to justify why Marinette is still doing this. Maybe only descendants of the original holders can wield their respective miraculous. Maybe since the kwamis are basically gods, their holders are their avatars. They reincarnate every hundred years or so, and the kwagatama allows them to speak to their past lives. As a bonus,both these options provide an organic way to explore the lore of the miraculous and Marinette’s chinese heritage, both of which are extremely lacking in canon.

---

Yeah, like, that's the most annoying thing about Marinette Ladybugging: she sucks at it, she hates it, she merely does the bare minimum and yet she has all the power to quit at any second. As soon as an audience member realizes she holds all the power in this situation, the question of “why” becomes essential. Why is Marinette still Ladybug? She only views her duties as a burden and she kinda sucks at superheroics with her fix everything spell and far more dedicated partners carrying her and pulling her ass out of the fire whenever she's dealing with anything more stressful than a run-of-the-mill Akuma. If she was up against supervillains where you couldn't just magic the problem away like a real superhero, she’d be throwing crying fits every week.

Like, back when Neon Genesis Evangelion came out, people didn't really understand what parental abuse does to a kid and they were constantly annoyed at Shinji not just telling his dad to go screw himself if he didn't want to pilot the super cool giant robot. There's some lack of sympathy in general going on here, but people who didn't get it were asking those questions. And that was when said abusive dad was also telling him he’d send in a grievously injured girl in Shinji’s place if he didn't do it. Yet no one questions why Marinette, who's her own boss and yet constantly complains about her job, doesn't just quit.

It's starting to feel like some attempt at false humility by the writers, where the reason it's okay she gets all the power and authority is because she doesn't "really want it", but it comes across as more like her not appreciating it. She's supposedly really stressed out, but she doesn't exactly feel concerned for the people following her lead, considering none of her concerns are about if she's being a good leader or not. Whenever she's concerned about her performance, it's mostly in terms of how she's viewed, not how she's impacting others.

Her arrogance goes even higher than Barman's in terms of thinking she's the only one who can do the job, but Batman actually gets called out for this attitude.

[tremendousdefendortragedy]

Uhhhhgggg @keferon your AUs plague meee, now I have Thundercracker and Marissa Faireborn in the mecha AU on my brain

Like, it makes sense? Kind of? Classic romcom opening: She's a hard-boiled, hard ass military operative doing her part in trying to defend her home from an alien threat. He's a transforming robot/fighter jet who deserted his post because he's grown disillusioned with the war.

He runs into/seeks out the organization who do the mech stuff (I don't know if they have a name or not), begs for them to hide him. they say "sure, i guess, but we get to research you". he says sure and becomes a government secret under the careful watch of Marissa and her team. Hijinks ensue.

So, Marissa's not too trustworthy of this giant fucking thing in the base. Obviously. She knows about about the Cybertronian alliance thing the military has with these guys, and that's fine. It's not her place to ask questions. BUT this guy is very obviously a part of the purple faction, which the guys from the red faction are fighting against. She doesn't care but this kinda seems like a breach in trust for their alliance for letting Thundercracker in the base. And what if he's a spy or some shit? So she's keeping an eye on him.

Meanwhile, Thundercracker's watching garbage reality tv while letting researcher poke around in his circuitry (like when your getting your teeth done for more than an hour at the dentist) and he loves it. He starts writing garbage screen plays. Someone brings their dog to work--best creature he's ever seen. He loves being a government secret! He has so much free time now!

He and Marissa talk sometimes too, and they start bonding (Romantic or Platonic, doesn't matter it's still very meaningful). She tells him about her time as a pilot before she got promoted to chain on command, he tells her tiny bits about his life that he's comfortable with. Marissa comes to uncomfortable realization that they're actually becoming friends, and what that means considering what the organization probably wants from Thundercracker.

So, when the research team and the higher ups start wanting to dig a little deeper and get some more useful intel on Thundercracker for making their own mechs a bit more formidable, Marissa suggests something else: integrating him into the pilot program. They were already doing something similar with Jazz and Prowl, why not do it again? (I might be mixing up information but just go with it)

Thundercracker is of course, not too thrilled with the prospect of going back into active duty when he 1. actively hiding from the Decepticons and 2. getting used to not being in combat anymore, but Marissa explains that this is probably the best case scenarios since the organization's research on him would get pretty non-consensual pretty quickly. So he's like "fine then, who's my pilot going to be?" and Marissa's all like "me, of course. I don't trust any of these people to be inside you" and he's like "Huh, okay, second question; how is this pilot program going to work?"

Bunch of fidangling later, they figure it out (i don't know how but whatever, figure it out in post (maybe i'll actually write something about them who knows)). It's really weird for both parties involved (Marissa: never piloted something that was alive before, Thundercracker: never had something organic inside him), but they deal with it--fighting Quintissons and aliens and maybe the odd decepticon. Classic mecha stuff.

They've got it all! Comedy! Drama! Military Corruption! Philosophical Conundrums! Dogs! Bad TV! Friendship! Love??? Who knows!! I've got more about them in my brain that's just soup rn but they make me go

[dykekarkat]

dawg there's no way ur acc thinking of a pacrim andreil au too bc me and my friend were just on vc talking about making a pacrim au for aftg . There is no way we r that in sync like hello. How similar r our neurons bc this is wild

i got 3 comments on my post plus this anon within like a minute. the aftg fandom Yearns for the pac rim au. which is fair i love pac rim aus so fucking much like. giant robots who fight giant kaiju and you have to Brain Meld to do it. what's not to like.

but seriously the appeal makes a lot of sense to me especially with the context of andreil because they're both extremely guarded / secretive people who don't know how to trust or let others in. like andrew would def have extremely low drift compatibility and he doesn't really care but it just like reinforces his belief that he's alone. torn between andrew being unable to drift with aaron (driving a rift between them) or the like pure angst of andrew refusing to drift with aaron. and then finding out he's drift compatible with a squirrelly liar asshole of a man. and choosing him. and trusting him with all of his pain. and aaron watching that from the side. do you understand.

and then you have run away neil who's secrets need to be kept to keep himself alive and his sordid past with kevin and his fear of andrew making him leave because they have a Deal and neil is nothing. and then sharing just how fake he is with andrew just how much neil josten doesnt exist. and then andrew doesnt even blink. neil finally being able to to lean on and trust andrew with everything he has. pyschic mind bond insanity. like truly an amazing way to showcase the emotional bedrock of their relationship in canon which is trust and boundaries aka the thing the drift is made of. NOT EVEN TO MENTION. THE INSANITY THAT WOULD BE KEVIN RIKO JEAN AND EVERMORE. kevin piloting a jaeger by himself losing his hand in the process. becoming an eccentric engineer obsessed with kaeju to the point he does that freaky mindmeld from the movie. god. god. pac rim au one day. one day. you will get at LEAST a oneshot outta me.

[mitraoki]

Hi hi! I'd like to rq a Ken Sato x Gundam pilot (pilot of a giant war robot, similar to a transformer) reader, fem or gen if possible!

She's slightly older and used to work with the KDF but quit due to realising the problems KDF has caused.

OR! She could have worked for the Japanese army but due to a horrible accident during a mission she could've been injured badly and was forced to retire early.

Possibly low-key sassy and stoic personality that she acquired after years of working for the army, that undermine her politeness and sweet personality.

And if possible, can she wear an eye patch?

If you don't like this feel free to ignore :( But I really like this concept and your writing style so it'd be really nice to see it written out :)

Don't tire yourself out!

😧🪒😦 - Anon

hot and cold. (ken sato x gn! reader)

note; HELLO anon!! thank you soo much for requesting. this is a REALLY good background you've given me, i just hope i've done it enough justice for you🥹🥹please let me know of your thoughts about this! i always welcome feedback <33

as usual, requests are open!! refer to my rules for a better view on what i write (✿◕‿◕✿)

masterlist.

i would say that after ken's experiences with emi and bonding with his dad, he becomes more open to various possibilities. yes he's happy he's slowly recovering what he'd lost long ago, but there's definitely something in particular that's missing in his life.

he hasn't thought about love in a long, long time. back in america it was always crushes, or simple dates but nothing ever lasted longer than he wanted it to. ken sato hates cliffhangers.

you, on the other hand, weren't hoping for much. all your life you've worked - very obviously - as a tool for the KDF, but what good did it bring you except to push yourself away from people?? so you did, not wanting to be around people quite often, so much as to even isolating yourself.

after learning of your boss' potential demise, what good is there staying in an organization that left you completely shallow? gone was the need to remain in KDF, signing the very last paper regarding your resignation.

"i should get an eye patch," you muttered, staring into the mirror with a dull look. it was no news for the frontliners to experience heavy injuries, but you definitely did not expect one of your eyes to become completely dysfunctional.

it had only been a few days since your departure from the shackles when you just had to bump into the well-known, ecstatic baseball player, ken sato in a convenience store. purely out of coincidence, of course. squinting your eyes, you sent a nod his way.

"heard of you," you uttered, stretching your lips into a thin line as you headed towards the counter, paying for the stuff you'd picked out for dinner later.

....leaving the man himself completely speechless.

who were you? why didn't you say anything else about his plays? have you attended any of them? were you pissed that he wasn't playing to his full potential? and what was with the eye patch?

he needed to know more of you.

i'd like to think he'd ask more about you from mina, gaining as much information as he could about you. if you had any specific history, some kind of secret that he was yet to uncover. lo and behold, he dug far enough to find out you once worked with his enemy. emphasis on worked.

a shiver ran down his spine when he read those words. he didn't need to see it, but he could tell there was more to than what meets the eye.

"something the matter, ken?" mina questioned, her holographic screen dissipating.

"oh- how difficult do you think this is gonna be?"

"....i cannot give you a definitive answer, ken. i would depend on the way you'd choose to approach her."

and approached you he did. not exactly, but again. it was purely out of coincidence when he saw you sitting by the window of a quaint cafe, sipping on your favorite beverage.

"baseball boy?" you called out behind him while he was "trying his best to order his favorite drink." his words, not yours.

"fancy seeing you 'round here."

"yeah! well. you know me - super down to earth," he chuckled nervously, clearing his throat after.

but you can see just how bad he was suppressing himself from throwing the biggest questions he had for you. out of respect, you had hoped. nodding, you walked back to your seat after grabbing your long-awaited dessert.

that was - until - the same baseball boy practically begged to sit at the same table as you. there it was. one would expect the fan to do most of the questioning towards their idol, but in this case it was different.

you were no fan, and ken surely wasn't one himself. the KDF doesn't really have a good image going on, after all. it was the slight glimmer of hope in your heart that this man had a pure heart, just wanting to explore what he hasn't in this big, cruel world.

heaving a huge sigh, you gave in. this can go on. what's the worst that could happen?

and it did. for hours. hours turning into days. days turning into weeks. months. suddenly a year had passed, and you were now in his arms, being the little spoon you had desired for so long.

he hears story after story of yours. all the secret missions you'd gone through before resigning. the eye that you'd lost a long time ago.

ken sato was careful with your heart, soul and you. he cares for you like the world's most fragile glass, holds you in his arms like he might lose you the moment he lets go. he kisses every single scar of yours like he was silently acknowledging the sacrifices you'd made through the years.

and for the first time, you felt like there was some meaning. you needed to see this through. you wanted ken sato more than ever now. the way he smiles, the way his eyes glimmer when you tell him something new. the way he cups your face and reminds you of your worth.

it's mind boggling to know someone slightly younger than you has such a vast and mature mind, ready to accept you when no one else has. life had always been stagnant. you wake up, you face the days ahead. some conversations with or without you. unwanted noises that bothered you to the core.

it was just something about ken, his voice perhaps. or it could be the way he wants to listen. he chooses to listen even when he doesn't understand, because this man would do anything in the world to be in yours.

"i don't know what the others have told you, y/n. but in my eyes, i can keep them on you forever and i'd never grow tired."

and those were the words that left you speechless, the fresh warm streak of tears flowing down your cheeks. it was such a rare sight to see someone so stoic, so persistent break down. but even then, ken sato was there to hold you tight, whisper soothing words into your ear and pepper you with endless kisses.

you'd grown absolutely smitten for this man, and i would say you'd never regret a single moment with him.

all created content belongs to mitraoki. reposts/remakes are not allowed.

[faksyan]

Huey Emmerich, mgs v cast & hypocrisy, a character analysis

Prefacing this with the fact that this is the morally gray franchise with the morally gray characters and I love how it portrays Huey Emmerich precisely for him being Like That. I think he is one of the most nuanced and well-written mgs characters and I'm pretty sure like half of it wasn't on purpose. He is the guy everyone hates for killing his wife (understandabe reason), trying to make one of his kid pilot a giant robot and almost drowning another in a pool (also understandable reason), and, most of all, for being a traitor. And with such a list, feels a bit weird that the accent often falls on that last part, doesn't it. Which is exactly how the narrative wants you to feel about his betrayal, on a surface level.

Every character essential to the Phantom Pain plot gets their "please feel bad for them, sympathize with them" moment, no matter how horrible a person they are. We get multiple monologs from Kaz, we get the 'I was the same way once' interrogation room and the ending of the Truth with Ocelot, we get Paz tapes and 'you're all diamonds' with Venom, we get Code Talker, Quiet, Eli (if they actually finished mission 51), even Skull Face, somewhat (don't even make me start on that guy. how is he less hated than Huey). The point is, the game is trying to make you feel bad for people who murder, torture, and whatever else, and parts of it are working, because it's fiction, and humans and morality are complicated and layered things! But what does Huey get? Torture sessions and tantrums that are framed as pathetic and ridiculous, even when what he is saying makes sense. Because yeah, there's some of that there. It's just that everyone else in the room deliberately doesn't acknowledge it.

When Venom just finds him, the first thing Huey says is that what happened to MSF was Snake's fault. The same during his exile - that there wouldn't have been an inspection, if there weren't a nuke to begin with. and it's like. he's not wrong. Having their own nukes as an independent military organization was a risk Snake and Kaz didn't just take blindly, they knew what could have happened. It was a gamble, and it didn't work out. If it did, it would've been their achievement. It didn't, so it's all Huey's fault, even though literally anyone could've been in his place. XOF weren't even the first to attempt to attack them, Zero was, Paz just didn't succeed. And if Skull Face hadn't either, someone else would have, the attention of the entire world was on them. It wasn't about betrayal, it was Snake and Kaz being drunk on success and biting off more than they could chew. Yes, Huey is a bastard and a traitor, but are we really going to blame all of this on him?

The answer is yes. And the reason is that they need someone to blame that's not them. The whole big theme of Phantom Pain is that Ocelot, Venom and Kaz have to do their best to keep up appearances, for the sake of Big Boss and his reputation. He is a legend, he is above everyone else, and he can do no wrong. Except after the fall of MSF everyone thinks that he can, Ocelot says as much in the briefing tapes. And they can't have that. So they blame it all on Huey. (<- all of this is a dictatorship allegory and critique of governments and military systems btw. 1984 or whatever I haven't read it. yay symbolism.) And blaming Huey is easy.

Huey is not a fighter. His father was a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was born on the same day as the Hiroshima bombing, his disability was (presumably) caused by his father's exposure to radiation. It's not that there was no choice involved in what he was going to do in life, but it was kind of inevitable that he would get involved with building nuclear weapons. And even when he says he is thinking about quitting upon being found by Snake in Peace Walker, it's Snake who convinces him not to, offering him to join MSF instead. In the PW tapes he also expresses that if it weren't for his disability, he would've been anywhere else, doing something different and living a "normal life".

He talks about the concept of nuclear terrorism there too, about nukes falling into hands of people without state who would be able to use them however they want, and I wonder if that was part of the reason for his betrayal. He didn't make the decision to bring nukes to base, he doesn't actually know these people. If maybe he thought it prevented a hypothetical nuclear catastrophe. Huey does say that he trusts Snake not to use them, that he values how honest Snake is, and is honest with him in return, even telling him things he's never told anyone before, like about his plagiarism of Granin's work. So what changed between then and the inspection, what was his motivation for betraying MSF, why was he approached about it of all people? Did he lie in the tapes, did he change his mind, did Skull Face offer him something that seemed more compelling, just threaten him? We never get to find out anything about it aside from every other character screaming that he's just a coward. No villain monolog, nothing.

Maybe it was about feeling important, like he is in charge, something that the hostility he has faced throughout his life didn't allow him. Huey is a sheep among wolves (wolf in sheep's clothing more like, but still). He does not fit in with the buff cool masculine soldiers, and even while working with Strangelove at NASA, he was regarded as obnoxious and spineless. It's not surprising he agreed to work for Coldman, since he, apparently, was the first person to actually recognize his skills. And even that later turns out to be a lie told to use him. Huey rarely if at all has been treated seriously, he is an outcast, even among people who share his ideas.

All he has is his brain and his knowledge, but it's never framed as much of an achievement (despite people exploiting it left and right), nor is him essentially being the nerd in a military setting ever really viewed as something dorky or endearing by the narrative like with Otacon, because the characters around him don't see him as such (as a result, so don't the players). On top of that, every other person uses his mobility aids to further degrade/harm/threaten him, even though he is already harmless when it comes to physical confrontation. In short, people he is surrounded with just enjoy the powerplay.

Right up until the point he actually does something that hurts them. And this is where my favorite part kicks in.

All three Diamond Dogs' higher-ups blame Huey for slightly different reasons, some maybe even believing that they are in the right and entitled to it (looking at you Kazuhira), but I am more than sure they know what it is that they're doing. And it's not like Kaz lacks self-awareness either, I don't think. Maybe it's denial that some of his actions led to the death of his friends, maybe blind belief in his own martyrdom and self-righteousness (sounds an awful lot like another character we know, huh), it still doesn't change much. How they all frame the story is the same. Huey's powerless and pathetic, but has ruined everything at the same time. And it doesn't really make sense, but everyone on the base agrees. It's the moment where individuals turn into a crowd that demands blood, but at least it's not their commanders it's directed at!

The Questioning Huey (6) tape is a good example of that. I especially like the bit where he starts talking about how DD is not actually a dog, because on a smaller scale, it shows how people on Mother Base just roll with things that are objectively false and turn on anyone who says otherwise. No, DD is our beloved mascot, and we are called dogs, he is just like us. And it's not like DD is just a wolf either, so neither of them are right here. But each of them thinks that they are.

That's why the amount of genuine Huey hate is a bit amusing to see, I guess. Because it's precisely the thing the game is trying to commentate on. None of these people are good. None of them have it figured out. The point is that it's just narrative bias that makes you belive that some are, if not good, at least better than others. In reality, it's never about morals or being correct, just perspective.

Huey himself, on the other hand, falls into another extreme - in his eyes, he's done nothing wrong. Because he can do no wrong, he's powerless, like everyone's alway told him, remember? He sees himself as the victim, because in a lot of cases, he is.

You can say that he is a lying traitor and that the truth serum didn't work on him because of some failsafe Skull Face thought of, but really, would he bother? He didn't even view Huey as anything but a traitor he despised. you know, the guy who was in charge of organizing the betraying part. the guy who put bombs in people and wanted to commit mass-murder on a scale no one has seen before. So the obvious and the most simple answer here is that Huey whole-heartedly, truly believes he hasn't done anything wrong. He thinks he doesn't possess the power to, that he isn't important enough. And it's drilled so deep into him he never acknowledges it's not really true. Even when he kills Strangelove, he still doesn't accept that it is his fault and his actions matter.

That's my favorite part about him, I think. How deep in denial he is about having an impact on the people around him, while also having a sort of god complex when it comes to his machines. How everyone around despises him for it, while being the ones who caused it and doing the exact same thing, refusing to get off the high horse. Metal gear is a messy franchise about messy people, but it's good exactly because it shows what has messed these people up so much. And more often than not, it's the system they're surrounded by, or that they created themselves in an attempt to escape the previous one. It's easy to point at Huey as just a bad person and only that, but I find the context of his whole life and the ways he's coping with it really compelling. There is a lot of complexity to it, and in the end of the day, they are all hypocrites.

[year2000electronics]

Hi Mothra, random question:

Can you infodump a bit on anything Skylanders? My partner loves it (Especially Stealth Elf) and I wanna understand the pure brainrot he's got going on with it.

Hatefully yours (/silly),

Jayson Gayson

OKAY SURE. so i will tell you a bit about skylanders. the protag of the skylanders games aren't actually the skylanders. since you can swap to any skylander at any time, you can't really give them this unique role. actually, YOU, the player, are the main character. you are a Portal Master who uses the Portal of Power to bring skylanders back to their home dimension of skylands (putting the toy on the portal) after they were banished to earth and turned into statues (toys.) by the villain. so frequently people in the story will refer to The Portal Master. it doesn't actually play a role in the story that much but ive always found it neat that the sort of meta-element in toys to life is there. there's no Infinityster in Disney Infinity, no Amiibo Lord in amiibo, no Dimension Keeper in Lego Dimensions... but for skylanders, the actual act of putting the toy on the portal is incorporated into the story of the game. i think that's such a cool way to do it.

ANYWAYS. skylands is your typical Fantasy Land brimming with magic. there are other Portal Masters in skylands but theyre mostly gone. as of right now the only ones are you the player, this old guy named Master Eon, and a Dark Portal Master who is the villain of the games named Kaos. basically if invader zim was human. i do mean that literally. the big macguffin centerpiece of the magic in skylands is called the Core of Light so the first game starts with kaos destroying that. and it's up to us the portal master to send skylanders back to skylands temporarily in order to stop this looming threat.

throughout the series you also need people to bounce off and follow in cutscenes, so you do get a trio of deuteragonists as well! flynn, an egotistical pilot, hugo, a nervous scholar, and cali, who's spunky and helps train skylanders. they're pretty cute i grew to love them as time went on

(there they are. Trio)

anyways yeah thats basically the story. the Good Guys try to stop the Bad Guy from whatever New Macguffin pops up, which is typically tied into a brand spanking new line of Collectible Toys. capitalism rejoice.

skylanders giants (game 2)- kaos tries to revive this lost ancient civilization full of EVIL ROBOTS (COOL AS HELL) named the arkeyans. some really big skylanders called the giants got banished by the arkeyans a long time ago. i really like the arkeyans, i think the concept of skylands having this fantasy-robot ancient civilization instead of a future civilization is just. chefs kiss. the arkeyans dont exactly go away in the series either, cos even though they never get a major role again, you still see them in setpieces and stuff. my favourite level in the next game is an ARKEYAN GRAVEYARD. LIKE HELLO!! THATS SO COOL

this is the old arkeyan king, with his Iron Fist of Arkus, but FUN FACT, THERE ARE A FEW ARKEYANS WHO ARE SKYLANDERS!!

that first guy, krypt king, is all the way from game 4. so yeah the arkeyans are always subtly there. love it love it.

skylanders swap force (game 3)- the dev studio switches from toys for bob to vicarious visions, and to reflect that, there ends up being an entirely new Locale and Supporting Cast. flynn takes a vacation to the Cloudbreak Islands and meets some new other furries. these islands have these four Elementals who can do a magic eruption thing at a volcano. very powerful-old-magic of them. the swap force are skylanders who can swap tops and bottoms (the NFC tech on these were actually quite impressive) and kaos' plan ties into the gimmick because this magic volcano blast that banished the swap force way back when is happening again and he wants to use it to Turn Everything Evil with evil crystals. lovely

this dude is straight up a chocobo

skylanders trap team (game 4)- NEW GAME NEW GIMMICK. basically back in the day there were these Really Big Bad Villains called the Doom Raiders who get locked in prison with this nigh-unbreakable material called Traptanium. but kaos is an idiot who breaks them out because he knows no peace. the skylanders this time are called Trap Masters because they all have traptanium weapons (crystal weapons that kinda rocks) and another gimmick is that they sold these little plastic traps in stores and had a new slot in the portal where you could capture villains and play with them and theyd commentate on how you did. toys for bob is also back so they went back to the original supporting cast but they did add some new faces

there the doom raiders are ^ thats kaos in the middle btw. neglected to show you him but there he is. i think their designs are pretty cool. i like them :] this is the game that got me into skylanders but my little brother had been collecting them since spyro's adventure

skylanders superchargers (game 5)- so uh. this game's gimmick is Cars?

yeah. but also for some unexplainable reason, the plot this time is about THE END OF THE WORLD. the literal embodiment of darkness (...creatively just called The Darkness yeah i know.) has Reawakened and is basically using kaos as a pawn to destroy skylands to harvest its Surplus of Magic so he can use it as fuel to CONQUER other worlds. greater-good-of-bad type of thing. but kaos is REALLY hung up on that fact. because he really wants to RULE the world, not destroy it. for some reason. almost like he was an unloved child who finds solace in evil and was always seeking that twisted sort of validation and belonging. who knows. who knows. not me. maybe im looking too deep into this. he fires the only person whos ever stuck by him but when the world is Almost destroyed he realizes his mistakes and turns on the darkness and helps defeat it basically. and that means all his dark powers are gone but he says he'll work as the skylanders' Evil Consultant. basically antihero-redeemed. i kinda love that. and i realize how similar this sounds to a plot of a certain movie to Those Who Know. which may explain why i love this game.

^these divas

i realize how biased this summary is around my favourite character and im sorry. the good guys are off trying to stop the end of the world its very fun.

skylanders imaginators (game 6)- WHY IS THIS SERIES STILL GOING THAT WAS A PERFECT ENDING. anyways the skylanders brand has for a while now been selling us junk that Arent skylanders figures. in trap team there were the traps in superchargers there were cars. and now. These

now YOU can create your OWN SKYLANDER! WOWWWWWW!! idk im over it. imaginators you are nothing to me. they did also have a line of regular figures to pick up called Senseis. those were cool. kaos finally got a proper figure. that was cool. but the plot has kaos going back to his Old Ways and using the magic you use to create your own skylanders to create his own evil doomlanders. and by the end he goes super saiyan. and he becomes tiny and they lock him in a jar. and that's how the series ends now. thanks imaginators.

they also have a core lineup of original skylanders (like the aforementioned stealth elf! and spyro and eruptor and shit) who would tag along with you on levels to get Synergy with the brand-new netflix series Skylanders Academy. yeah sure who even cares anymore. (IM SORRY I DONT LIKE IMAGINATORS. I AM NOT IMMUNE TO MY OWN PROPAGANDA)

look at this though. these are all the elements skylanders can be.

thus ends my rant

[aster-saturn]

Heyyyyy who's up for some long overdue Aster Lore!!!

Took some time to really put together a story but here we're gonna have some kind of organized setup but it's also gonna be just me bouncing around ideas, with alot of art references I find all over the place (with credit of course I'm not an animal) because if the picrews and gacha activity wasn't obvious... Yeah I'm not confident in my art. :)

But to kick things off, here's the Pilot of Blue Crane

The scent of fresh paint and cardboard clung to the walls of the new house like it had no plans of leaving. Aster Avidan stood at the window, arms crossed, watching as a squirrel fought a plastic bag. “America,” he muttered, unimpressed.

“Aster! Kom hier!” (Aster! Come here!) his godmother’s voice rang through the hallway.

Dragging his feet, he found them in the kitchen—his godparents smiling like they’d just won the lottery. His godfather held a wrapped package, edges crisp and ancient-looking, sealed with wax.

“This came for you—from your grandparents,” his godmother said, her eyes twinkling with that knowing look older people love to throw around when they’re being cryptic. “Also, you're starting school tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?" he groaned, snatching the package. “I literally just got here.”

Back in his half-unpacked room, the boxes stacked like mini skyscrapers, Aster cleared a spot on the floor and sat cross-legged. He examined the package—feather symbols etched into the wax. Strange. He cracked it open.

BOOM-

Feathers exploded in a burst of blue and white. Wind howled from nowhere. His eyes rolled back, body collapsing like a marionette with snipped strings.

Waking up, or atleast it felt like he did, he landed softly, in the middle of a surreal landscape. Giant baobab trees loomed in the mist, while he was up above in the hollow of the tallest one, stars glimmering overhead like they were watching. Infront of him, etched into one of the branches a proverb stood out:

“The wings are not given, they are carved into bone.”

Aster didn’t understand. He didn't want to. A soft glimmer appeared in the air—then solidified into a delicate feather pin brooch. It shimmered with power. The Blue Crane.

He woke up gasping, sprawled on the floor, feathers still scattered. The codex open beside him, looking innocent.

He grabbed it and shoved it under his bed. “Nope. Absolutely not. I didn’t sign up for this National Geographic fever dream.”

And the pin? He ripped it off and tossed it where he threw the codex. Out of sight out of mind.

...

The next morning hit like a truck. Aster groaned, rubbing his eyes as the smell of toast and boerewors (sausage) wafted through the air. His room looked no less chaotic than yesterday—boxes half-opened, clothes in piles, the Codex shoved halfway under his bed like it’d bite him.

He avoided looking at it.

A knock at the door. “Aster, my liefie (darling), you getting ready?” his godmother called.

“Ja, ja, I’m up.”

In the kitchen, they greeted him with bright smiles and a lunch bag. “Today’s the big day, né?” his godfather said, clapping him on the back. “It’ll be fun. With how white you are you'll fit right in,” he added with a wink.

Aster forced a laugh, but it sat heavy in his chest. He’d heard that before—too pale to be “really” Coloured, too foreign to be American. Neither here nor there. He stayed quiet, biting into toast.

"You'll get used to it," His godfather reassured him, "It's just a year away from home. For experience. Your parents are proud you came."

Aster refused to acknowledge that statement.

They glanced at each other, then back at him. “Listen, Norrisville’s a weird place. You’ll see some... strange things,” his godmother said. “Robots, for one. McFist practically runs the town.”

“And the Ninja,” his godfather chimed in. “If there’s a robot attack or some monster goes crazy, don’t try to still take videos. Just run. Let the Ninja handle it.”

Aster blinked. “You’re kidding.”

They both shook their heads. “You’ll see.”

As they left to start up the car, Aster turned to grab his bag—and froze.

The feather pin brooch sat on the counter. He swore he hadn’t taken it out. Hadn’t even looked at it.

For a moment, he just stared.

He didn’t believe in signs. But guilt crept in anyway. Something in his gut tugged at him. Not trust. Not acceptance. Just... curiosity.

Grumbling under his breath, he grabbed the brooch and shoved it into his bag.

AYYY That's part one wrapped up! It's gonna be a while before Aster meets Randy and stuff but I'm just setting the scene for yall... >:)

[jennymay97]

Longer Turn a Gundam review/thoughts here. Again, already posted a TL;DR — this will be me rambling for god knows how long. Some major spoilers below, if you wanna check this series out and haven’t, I’d recommend just doing that. Come on back later on. If undaunted or you’ve watched it, well come on in!

Turn A Gundam floored me. I’ve been watching a bunch of Gundam series over the last year-ish. Largely bouncing around from various UC shows. Now going from 0079 to 0080 to 08th MS Team is probably not the best method of watching Gundam. But hey it’s worked for me. Now, I was originally gonna save Turn A for later. I figured I’d save it for after Zeta or ZZ, but…my local library (shoutout to the Gunpla nerd in charge of procurement, you’re like the MVP) had a copy of Turn A and I went…“well why not?” And I am so glad I did.

I will say, I do think enjoyment of this series will be enhanced if (when) I revisit it after watching some of the other Gundam series that predate Turn A. Yes I did the whole “Leo pointing at his TV” when the Borjarnon/Zaku showed up. But I need to see where (ZZ) the Kapool/Capsule hailed from. One day. Now, I’ll talk more about the original designs for this series below, but I wanna talk about the characters first.

Because the characters, the characters make this series. I’d say there’s four main characters, two hailing from the moon (Loran and Dianna) and two of the earth (the Heim sisters, Kihel and Sochie) Let’s start with our Gundam pilot — Loran Cehack. I love Loran, he’s such a fascinating contrast to say, Amuro Ray. Loran is, like a lot of other giant robot pilots throughout history, reluctant! He doesn’t want to pilot this machine. But, while he eventually takes this awesome responsibility, he remains as pacifistic as he humanly can. It’s just delightful to have a Gundam pilot who understands the burden, and tries to minimize the damage this war machine can unleash. Now let’s consider Sochie Heim. Because she’s a wonderful contrast to Loran. She’s brash, headstrong, and clearly wants to fight against the Moonrace. She has perfectly justifiable reasons to fight as well! Her father was killed in the initial invasion of Vicinity, and she has a bit of an inferiority complex. First to her elder sister Kihel (and we’ll get to her!) and then, to Loran. Especially as Loran gets to wield the White Doll. She wants that power! Even if…the audience knows, that she could not handle the responsibility. This really makes her feel like a prototypical Gundam pilot. Like, at the beginning of the war she’s brash and full of herself, but after episode 27 with the death of Gavane Goonny, she becomes far more humbled by the horrors of war. While she becomes a badass Kapool pilot over the course of the war, she is still mostly driven to triumph over her sister and Loran. Such a fascinating and tragic character. (I’ll be thinking about her ending for some time).

Now…the two main girls I’ve saved for last Queen Dianna Soreil of the Moon and Kihel Heim. Holy heck these two. Kihel who desires, so much more than her provincial life can offer her. Dianna, who is burdened by hundreds of years of rule (cyrosleep baby!), and desires a quiet end on Earth. Also these two look suspiciously alike. Is that ever explained? Nope! Who cares! It’s time for shenanigans! The first time these two trade places…we are already see the groundwork for these two merging from two into one. Dianna-Kihel and Kihel-Dianna. And as the show progresses that fusion becomes more and complete. They understand each other, and they both get what they want. Kind of. Kihel as Dianna is beloved and rises to greater heights (quite literally). Dianna as Kihel finds herself at peace, despite it all. Again, every time these two interacted after episode 27 my brain literally felt like TV static. I don’t know what their relationship is, but whatever it is I need more.

Now look this thing is already plenty damn long, but to hell with it. Let’s talk about some of the side characters. Harry Ord, Royal guard to Dianna, love interest to Kihel. Also quite possibly the best Char clone on gods green earth. God I love him so much, he dresses like a dweeb, but he’s got a heart of gold. Guin Rhineford, an industrialist and politician who tries to force femme Loran into Laura Rolla. All because he’s got the hots for him and this man is like hella repressed. (I did not stutter, this fucking guy really does spend like half of Turn A trying to force femme Loran), um anyway - peak. Then there’s so many, many others. Miashei Kune, an Earther airplane pilot. She’s spunky and like Sochie eventually becomes a major Kapool pilot for the militia. Or Lily Borjarno, a Luzianna (go with it) Royal — just a fantastic character. Snarky, lady like, and a conniving politico. She plays a great femme fatale. How about Fran Doll and Keith Laijie two Moonrace civilians who came to Earth with Loran. Fran has that newshound spunk. Keith, my man just wants to bake bread and avoid the war. And then there’s girlfailure Poe Aijee a recurring Wodom pilot from the Dianna Counter. Again, peak girlfailure. I really could keep going, but I’ll stop here. For the characters at least.

I’ve gotta heap some praise upon the greatest of all time, Yoko Kanno. Kanno has done some damn good compositions before, and Turn A is no exception for her. I’m no expert in musical composition, but again, this stuff is phenomenal. A lot genres mixed together. Some classical, waltz, folk, and even some oddball (if you haven’t see the show) inclusions! Like tribal chants, JRPG sounding choral chants, electronica. The soundtrack is available on YouTube and your various music streaming services, if you’re like, reading this review/ramble, and haven’t see the series…um. Why are you here, again? But anyway — if you are here — go listen to this ost, it slaps.

Lastly, let’s conclude this ramble with talking about — mobile suits! Deeply dangerous series, for my wallet. Because, wow, wow, wow. There’s some fantastic designs in this show. One thing you’ll see mentioned in most Turn A reviews will mention that Syd Mead, a westerner and industrial designer. He did work on Blade Runner, Tron and the likes. His designs in Turn A are stellar. He did the titular Turn A, as well its sibling Turn X. Wicked good Gundams. He also designed the SUMO and FLAT. Two excellent mobile suits. But then there’s the War of the Worlds looking Wodom. Or the Mahiroo or Bandit. So, many, good mobile suits. Again, my wallet is hiding in fear. This show is like, going to get me into gunpla. For better for worse, I suppose it was inevitable…god I should have picked a less obscure series to get obsessed with the mobile suit designs.

So, okay. That was, a lot! I might edit this down later on or so. But I just, have so much in my system to say about Turn A Gundam. It’s a truly special show. Incredible characters, absolutely blissed out vibes with the animation and ost. Wonderful mobile suit designs, some great action. Highly recommend. If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this ramble, thanks for reading!

[asushin-mermaid-au-ask-blog]

So I said I had a crazy Evangelion fic idea, so here it is. This is a mock up of a 12 episode first season of a NGE is a Saturday morning cartoon in the style of Sailor Moon or Power Rangers au. Each ‘episode’ would be a short chapter in the overall fic and hopefully I’ll be inspired to write 12 more ‘episodes’ some later. What do you guys thinks? Too weird and tacky? I’d honestly love some feedback.

Under read more because it’s very long.

Episode One: Is it Destiny?: Shinji Becomes A Pilot - Shinji Ikari an apathetic teenager aces NERV’s aptitude test after being pressured to take it by his guardian Misato Katsuragi. Alongside classmate Rei Ayanami he becomes a pilot for the experimental giant robot known as an Evangelion. Shinji is sure that this is a huge mistake, but when an angel attacks and Rei is injured he’ll have to fight whether he thinks he’s ready or not.

Episode Two: A Duel Of Love: Asuka Arrives In Japan - Asuka Langley Soryu, Shinji’s childhood friend who he hasn’t seen for nine years has also aced the aptitude test. She arrives in Japan with a score to settle and the only way to do it is face off against Shinji in a simulated angel attack. If only Shinji could figure out why she’s mad at him.

Episode Three: To Be A Role Model: Hikari’s New Club - Class president Hikari Horaki is horrified at the fact that Shinji, Asuka and Rei aren’t acting like proper role models now that they’re pilots, so she ropes them into to joining her club: The Tokyo 3 Middle School Good Works Club. Now they need to figure out how to get out of it.

Episode Four: A Man’s Fight: Shinji And The Upperclassman - When an upperclassmen insults Shinji for not being manly enough he doesn’t really care even if Kensuke and Toji do, but when that same upperclassman becomes trapped outside during an angel attack Shinji is able to win his respect anyway.

Episode Five: A Bookworm’s Love: Rei’s Struggle - Tokyo 3’s library has been destroyed by an angel, now bookworm Rei Ayanami needs to find something to do while it’s being rebuilt and she doesn’t have any books. Shinji and Asuka both try to lend a hand with limited success.

Episode Six: The Girl Who Could Do Anything: Asuka vs The Ace - Asuka boasts that she can play every single sport better than almost anyone else during gym class. However, she’s going to have to prove it when an injured volleyball player asks her to stand in for them. Shinji will do whatever he can to help.

Episode Seven: The Sporty Senpai: Noriko Comes To Town (Part One) - When Shinji, Asuka and Rei all get hurt in an angel attack Commander Fuyutsuki is talked into letting the JSSDF’s own ace pilot Noriko Takaya try to whip them into better physical shape. However for indoors types like Shinji and Rei this is it’s own kind of hell.

Episode Eight: The Sporty Senpai: Noriko Comes To Town (Part Two) - Shinji and Noriko are forced to team up for a complicated attack plan. Asuka’s jealousy is the least of his problems though since Noriko is just a hell of a lot more skilled in her mech than Shinji is in Unit 1. Shinji manages to use his own skill set to assist Noriko and win a little respect from himself.

Episode Nine: Make Your Move: Asuka and Shinji’s First Date - Asuka is still jealous of Shinji and the now departed Noriko, so after some prodding from Misato they spend the day hanging out around town. Of course an argument ensues and there’s only way way for them to solve it: another duel this time at the arcade.

Episode Ten: Mother’s Day From Hell: Shinji’s Dream - It’s Mother’s Day, Shinji and Asuka’s least favorite day of the year. After falling asleep inside Unit 1 Shinji has a dream that his mother is Commander of NERV and he’s a popular kid. However in this world Misato hates him and Asuka has no interest in being his rival. Shinji wakes up and decides the real world is better than the dream one.

Episode Eleven: Is She Shinji’s Clone?: Enter Mayumi Yamagishi (Part One): Everyone is amazed when a girl transfers into class who not only looks like Shinji but acts like him too. After some prodding from Kensuke and Toji Shinji manages to befriend the new girl and they hit it off quickly. However Rei keeps her distance and offers Shinji a warning about getting too close to Mayumi.

Episode Twelve: Is She Shinji’s Clone?: Enter Mayumi Yamagishi (Part Two) Asuka’s jealously is again the least of Shinji’s worries when it turns out that Mayumi has an angel inside her heart. The angel takes control of her and manages to pilot Rei’s Eva in a fight against Shinji. Shinji is going to have figure out how to defeat the Eva without hurting Mayumi is doing that even possible? It is when Asuka helps him do it.

[cryssyboo]

I love Tokusatsu (And it's time to make it your problem.)

Ok, This is something I finished writing like a month ago. It's basically a whole essay on what Toku is and some of it's elements. It's a long read, but if anyone ends up reading this I hope you enjoy it!

I am really, REALLY interested in Tokusatsu. (I’m not very subtle about it.) What is Toku? Toku is a genre of media that essentially translates to “special effects”. There are 5 major shows/franchises that fall into this category: Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Power Rangers. Now, personally, I’m not really a fan of Godzilla or Ultraman, but I am VERY into the other 3. There are also some other series that I’ll talk about. Now, someone reading this might be asking themselves: “Crystal, what the hell is a Kamen Rider or a Super Sentai? It all just looks like Power Rangers to me.”. That’s what I’m gonna answer here.

Kamen Rider began airing its very first show over 50 years ago, in 1971. The basic premise of any rider series is 1 or multiple people transforming into heroes know as ‘Kamen Riders’ using either a belt, a gun, a wrist mounted changer or a sword, along with various gimmick items (such as the Lockseeds from 2013’s Kamen Rider Gaim, or the Progrise Keys from 2019’s Kamen Rider Zero One) to fight an overarching villain. A typical Rider show lasts around 50 episodes, and ends in around August to September, with a new one almost immediately following it. The 2022-2023 series, ‘Kamen Rider Geats’, came to a close on August 27th, 2023, with the 2023-2024 series, ‘Kamen Rider Gotchard’, beginning on September 3rd, 2023. The 2024-2025 series, ‘Kamen Rider Gavv’, has been trademarked as of writing this. A rider typically has power ups that they get throughout the season, things like Kamen Rider Zero One’s Metal Cluster Hopper, Ex-Aid’s Hyper Muteki Gamer, Geats’ Boost Mark IX, or Gotchard’s Rainbow Gotchard form. Secondary Riders also get upgrade forms, like Tycoon’s Bujin Sword Raise Buckle, or Buffa’s Plosion Rage Raise Buckle. They also get a movie each summer, which typically has a cameo with the upcoming Rider show in it. There’s also sometimes side series’ and specials throughout the year, like Kamen Rider Outsiders, Tycoon meet Shinobi, and the Kamen Rider Legend special.

        Super Sentai is a yearly team hero series about 3-5 people transforming into heroes to save the world, sometimes with gimmicks (like Zenkaiger’s Sentai Gears, Donbrother’s Avataro Gears, or most notably, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger’s Ranger Keys), sometimes without (like KingOhger’s OhgerCalibur or Kiramager’s KirameiChanger). The team also can gain more heroes throughout the show. For base teams of 5, the number of extra heroes typically ranges from 1-2, although we rarely get 7th rangers anymore. For base teams of 3, the number of extra heroes is typically capped at 1-2, upping the team to 5 members. The only exceptions I can think of are Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, and Engine Sentai Go-Onger. Now, what makes this different from Rider? Well, for one, the suit designs are all standardized, and fit in with each other. But the bigger thing is, well, the giant ass robots each team pilot. The mecha, which I will be calling a Megazord from here on out (because it’s more recognizable), gets other auxiliary mecha (Zords from here on out) throughout the season the main team can use to increase the Megazord’s power. The 6th ranger (or any other extra ranger) typically gets their own separate Zord when they’re introduced. This Zord can also transform into a standalone Megazord, and can later on combine with the core team’s Megazord to create a more powerful Megazord. Towards the end of the season, the 2 or more Megazords combine with the auxiliary Zords to create one final combination, which I’ll be calling an Ultrazord for simplicity. Sometimes the Ultrazords are simpler, other times they’re what the community likes to call Clusterfucks. Some examples of this would be Samurai Ha-Oh, or God KingOhger. An example of the simpler ones would be something like ToraDora Onitaijin Kiwami. The main Red/White ranger (the color can vary, or sometimes even the whole team can use the power up.), and sometimes the 6th ranger also gets a power up midway/toward the end of the season (and even sometimes long after the show has ended, in the case of Gokai Red’s Gokai Galleon Armor). Some examples of this are Gokai Silver’s Gold Mode, The ToQger’s Hyper Resha, Super Zenkaiser and Super Twokaiser, or the Donbrother’s Omikoshi Phoenix. The previous sentai that was on air was OhSama Sentai Kingohger, and currently airing sentai is Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger. In recent years, sentai has deviated a bit from the norm, with Avataro Sentai Donbrothers being pretty much nothing but filler, with not much story tied into it, and 2023’s OhSama Sentai KingOhger not having many filler episodes, and being almost entirely story focused. However, Boonboomger seems to be a bit of a return to form for sentai.

Now, moving onto Power Rangers. This is the one most people reading this should know about. Power Rangers is a yearly team hero series about 3-5 people transforming into heroes to save the world, sometimes with gimmicks,  sometimes without. The team also can gain more heroes throughout the show. Sound familiar? That’s because, with some notable exceptions, Power Rangers pulls all of its suits and most of its action and Zord footage from Super Sentai! The show pulls suits and stock footage from a Sentai season of the team’s choice, and adapts it for an American audience. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) aired its first episode on August 28th, 1993. However, the idea existed long before that. Power Rangers was an idea dreamt up by a man named Haim Saban during a trip to Japan in the 80s. He wanted to bring Super Sentai to the states, and put his own spin on it. The first series he tried to bring over was the 1984 series Choudenshi Bioman. It wouldn’t have been called Power Rangers, though. Saban was just going to call the show Bioman. He put together a pilot for the show (which sadly is still lost to this day), but no children’s network programs would pick up the show. He kept trying to pitch Bioman for a while, before eventually he went back to the drawing board. He tried again a few more times, with another series, 1991’s Choujin Sentai Jetman, before settling on 1992’s Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. He also made a pilot for this show (which was officially called MMPR by this point), and to his surprise, Fox Kids picked the show up. The show began airing in 1993 and blew up almost instantly. Nearly every kid who grew up in the 90s watched at least some form of Power Rangers. MMPR Ran for 3 seasons, all pulling different Zord and monster footage from either Zyuranger, Gosei Sentai Dairanger, or even some brand new Zyuranger footage Saban commissioned Toei to film for him. MMPR was followed by a miniseries called Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, which was adapted from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. In 1996, a new season of Power Rangers started: Power Rangers Zeo. The show dropped the Mighty Morphin, switched suits and power sets yearly, and up through In Space it kept a consistent cast, with the occasional switch out. After In Space, however, it swapped cast every year, with new characters each year. That’s how it's been ever since. However, the PR franchise itself has switched hands a number of times. Saban had the franchise from 1993 to 2001, when Disney acquired it as part of a larger buyout. Disney made, frankly, some of the best seasons of the franchise, despite the fact that they hated the brand and did not want it. Seasons like Dino Thunder, RPM, Jungle Fury. Disney continued to make new seasons up until Power Rangers RPM in 2009. In 2011, Saban bought the franchise back, and in 2011 Power Rangers Samurai went on air as the first show in what the fans call the Neo-Saban era (fun fact about samurai, the writers had to scramble to get a new season out after the buy back, so samurai is pretty much just a bad remake of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger). This era housed some of the worst shows in the franchise’s 30 year history. Shows like Super Megaforce and Ninja Steel. In 2018, Hasbro ended up buying the franchise from Saban, with Power Ranger Beast Morphers going on air in 2019 as the 26th season of Power Rangers. In 2021, Power Rangers Dino Fury began, and its cast will be the first since MMPR to stick around 3 whole seasons, as they returned as the main cast of the 30th season, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, on September 29th, 2023. Cosmic Fury is also the first since MMPR to use just Zord footage from a sentai show (the show will be adapting Megazords from Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger), as the show uses completely original suits. Unfortunately, rumors suggest that Cosmic Fury is the last traditional season of the show, as it seems Hasbro has plans for a reboot of the franchise sometime soon. (post cosmic fury amendment: the franchise is dead. very dead.)

Power Rangers wasn’t the only show Saban made, though. He made a number of other shows using the PR formula. Those shows were Big Bad Beetleborgs (Alongside Beetleborgs Metallix), VR Troopers, and Masked Rider. Beetleborgs and VR Troopers were made using a mix of footage from different shows in the now dormant Metal Heroes franchise, with a mix of American footage, same as PR. Masked Rider followed that same formula, but instead was an adaptation of 1987’s Kamen Rider Black RX. While Masked Rider was a failure, Beetleborgs and VR Troopers actually did really well. The only reason they ended when they did was because the straight up ran out of footage to use. Older fans of Power Rangers probably remember at least Beetleborgs and VR Troopers.

When it comes to other shows in the genre, I’m not the most knowledgeable on them. There’s Godzilla (which most people probably know, it has a big presence outside of Japan, unlike most things talked about here), Ultraman, the aforementioned Metal Heroes, and Spiderman. No, that wasn’t a typo. Spiderman is genuinely a part of this rabbit hole. In the late 70s, a partnership was made between Marvel and Toei that allowed the 2 to use each other's properties. Spiderman (スパイダマン) was a result of this. Aside from some powers and his outfit, the show didn’t resemble our Spiderman at all. His suit was stored in a brace on his wrist, he shot literal fucking guns, and the biggest difference of all was that he had a giant robot. It’s name was Leopardon, and it’s the entire reason that Super Sentai has mecha in the first place. The first 2 shows, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger (not Goranger oh my lord) and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai didn’t have mecha. It was the success of Leopardon that gave Toei the idea to bring one to the 3rd Sentai, Battle Fever J (fun fact, Battle Fever was also a part of the Marvel x Toei deal! It evolved from a japanese version of Captain America), and they’ve been a major part of the franchise ever since.

There are also some sudo-toku shows out there. Toku itself is limited to live action, but that hasn’t stopped various anime and cartoons from imitating the genre. Some of the ones I can name off the top of my head are Yo-Kai Watch Jam: Y School Heros, which is a clear toku parody, and Fuuto PI, which is an animated sequel to 2009’s ‘Kamen Rider Double’.

But we’re not done yet. It’s time to move into one of the biggest parts of this genre.. The Toylines! Yeah, if you haven’t figured out, these shows, while super cool, double as big toy commercials. Nearly every gadget they use gets a toy in the real world. From the base transformation device, to the gimmick, to the Megazords, it almost always gets a toy. The toy version of the changers and weapons are almost always smaller than the on-screen prop, but they get the job done. Megazords can vary in quality. Up until Donbrothers, Megazords have always been bricks, pretty much, Barely any articulation, and can barely move in the first place. However, starting with Donbrothers, Sentai Megazords have had decent articulation. (Boonboom amendment: Boonboomger Robo took away the articulation. Damn you Bandai.) The gimmick lines are typically released in multiple ways: Candy Toy, Deluxe, and Gashapon. The candy toy release is self explanatory. It comes with a little piece of candy. The deluxe format is the best version of the toy (although sometimes all formats are basically identical), and the Gashapon format can vary. Sometimes it’s really good, other times it’s the gashapon release of Gokaiger’s Ranger Keys. Speaking of Ranger Keys: Ranger Keys! This is probably the best part of any toyline these franchises have made over the decades. It began in 2011 with the release of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, and, as the name suggests, were tiny little figures of the previous 34 sentai teams that could turn into keys to be used in the Gokaiger’s changer. These little toys were wildly successful, more than Toei or Bandai could have ever predicted. Now, over 10 years later, minus a few breaks here and there, the line is still going strong. We’re still getting Ranger Key sets through Premium Bandai pretty much every year now. Now, what exactly is Premium Bandai? It’s the bane of every Toku fan’s existence, that’s what it is. Many things go up there, like certain Kamen Rider Drivers, certain Sentai Changers, extra gimmick sets, action figures, unnecessary rereleases (cough PREMIUM DELUXE I AM LOOKING AT YOU.). Sometimes things are reasonably priced, but often the stuff that goes on to Premium Bandai is pretty expensive. Recent drivers like the Vision and Zillion Driver’s, some Villain Changers from Sentai like the Ninjark Sword or OhgerCalibur ZERO have been pretty expensive (for toys that is). Even some main series gimmick items like the Fantasy and Bujin Sword Raise Buckles have been PB items (Personally I think they should’ve just been retail items). There’s also the Memorial line, which is bigger and more show accurate versions of Sentai Changers. They’re expensive, but most of the time I think they’re worth it. If you’re a hardcore collector, it’s not worth buying the Deluxe Changers anymore, since they’re pretty much guaranteed to get a Memorial Edition when the show ends. Also, replica clothes sometimes go up there. Most of the Gokaigers outfits got replicas, so did Zenkaiser’s main jacket, along with the DGP jacket from Geats. 

Now, this next part is still toyline related, but I wanted to separate it from the Japanese toylines, because the Power Rangers toyline is a fucking mess. The toys are almost always lower quality. There was a time where Bandai America, the original holder of the toy license, would import the original toy’s from Japan or just use the same molds, but those times are long gone. The toys were pretty decent up until the late Disney and Neo-Saban eras. Over time, Bandai’s Power Rangers toys got worse in both quality and detail. The toys were tiny, they were missing detail, and sometimes they were just pure dogshit, like with the Ninja Stars from Power Rangers Ninja Steel. While Bandai did get some good toy lines under their belt in the Neo Saban era, like the Dino Charge toyline and bits of the Samurai and Megaforce toy lines, Ninja Steel was the last toyline they made before Hasbro bought up the toy license, and then bought the entire brand from Saban. Hasbro had a decently strong start with Beast Morphers, the show still had a lot of the stupid Neo Saban regulations, but it’s not that bad. That's about all I can say for the toyline too, it wasn’t that bad. They came up with an original gimmick, which was cool, but they also made Beans Morphers Gold’s morpher a NERF Gun and never even released some things. For Dino Fury, the show was actually really good in my opinion, and the toy line was a lot better than Beast Morphers’ if you ask me. And Cosmic Fury? As a show, it wasn’t too bad. Not as good as its last 2 seasons, but it also had a crunched episode limit so it gets a pass. However, the toy line does not. We got 3 toys released in this line. A repainted roleplay set, the Cosmic Fury Morpher, and the Cosmic Fury Megazord. That’s it. But toywise, where Hasbro really shined was the Power Ranger’s Lightning Collection. It was a standardized 6 inch figure line that began in 2019, and lasted until 2023. Well, technically it’s on pause until… well, we don’t know. But still. Figures came with Head Sculpts, well chosen (for the most part) accessories, good paint, and absolutely NO QC ISSUES!! ….oh yeah, did i mention it had heavy QC issues during the later years of the line? Yeah, they were awful. It ranged from paint mishaps to literal missing accessories or wrong head sculpts. Sometimes the figures were just built bad, like Time Force Blue, and the packaging shift didn’t help with this at all. In fact, the removal of the plastic window made the QC issues more prevalent because no one could actively see the figure to get around them. Eventually it toned back down, but even then there were still heavy issues, with mold changes and all that. The drop down hips were almost always loose and the pinless figures were always fragile. As of now, the lightning collection is on pause. Why, you may ask? Well, because the entire franchise is on pause. There's no new content outside of the comics releasing. The reboot has moved from Netflix to looking for a new home, Hasbro signed a toy deal with Playmates, there’s the occasional merch drop or acknowledgement of the brand by Hasbro, and that’s really about it. They bought it because the CEO at the time really did care for the brand, but now that he’s no longer the CEO, Hasbro doesn’t really know what to do with Power Rangers. They’re trying to do things, and they have people on the team that care, but the higher ups don’t really care about the brand. And until either the reboot comes to fruition, or the production rights are sold off to someone who actually cares and wants the best for the brand, I think that’s how Power Rangers is gonna stay. It’s in a constant state of limbo, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. So, yeah. A bit of a sad conclusion to such a long running franchise, but it is what it is. In its current state, Power Rangers is essentially dead until someone who cares gets their hands on it. I hope you at least semi-enjoyed reading this stupid essay of mine, and maybe you learned a thing or two from it!

[specterthief]

i see a lot of people in the notes on that poll who don't know anything about anime and are just voting because they want to see destiel lose and i already said this on my tags but: please check out the witch from mercury (and possibly further gundam if it interests you)! it's genuinely a really good series and suletta and miorine are excellent characters and i would love if all the voters coming out in force against destiel could also turn into even more love for sulemio

gwitch is a queer futuristic sci-fi retelling of the tempest that also draws heavy inspiration from the salem witch trials and it rules, and imo it's very accessible to people who don't really Do Anime (there really isn't much in the way of otaku cultural knowledge you need to have to follow it, if you know of anything like pacific rim or VLD or can otherwise just get your head around the basic "people piloting giant robots" concept you're golden)

[hermannsprecursors]

How my pacrim birthday went!

So the Pacrim community on here helped me plan my 17th birthday party, and I wanted to tell you abt some of the results!

I didn't take as many photos as I would've liked, but it's alright! I was too busy having fun with my friends tbh, and that's the more important part.

So, without further ado-- a complete list of what I did at my Pacific Rim birthday party!

Starting off strong with my cringe-ass, hand-made invite

BIRTHDAY GIRL DRESSED UP AS NEWT!!! With shorts because it's Michigan summer, but still!

Started by watching Pacific Rim. I, my sister, and my friend Kai were the only ones who had any kind of pre-requisite on what Pacific Rim was, so naturally I started them off with the movie.

Newt and Hermann were well loved, and I gave my QPP a new hyperfixation because he, a transformers nerd, liked the giant robots

Played a game called "[Hermann] or Charlie Day, in which my friends were forced to guess whether it was me or Charlie Day that said the quote. Surprisingly, they won.

Presents were opened! I got 3 handmade drawings, a patch, a pillbug stuffed animal, and several fun toys and collectibles, including a Leatherback toy >:3 he came w a little building made of 4 pieces so you could stack it up and have him knock it over. Now I gotta get a Striker Eureka to fight him.

We had drift compatibility tests! I paired everyone with someone I thought they would coordinate well with and had them play kahoots. They all made their own Jaegar names too!

One of the only pictures I got 😔 you can vaguely see me all the way on the right in my lil tie.

Once drift compatibility tests were complete, our Jaegar pilots were sent out onto the field to take down a Kaiju (me)! I was thusly covered in silly string as my friends teamed up to fucking destroy me, and had to change my shirt. No more Newt :(

Cake.

We played gartic phone! I've included some of my favorites

I made everyone watch the Newmann supercut of Uprising as I explained in detail how they MASSACRED Newt's character but it's ok bc at least the yaoi is now toxic and I love that shit.

Had a campfire. Talked more about Pacific Rim until everyone went home

In conclusion, everything went really really well! Thanks so much for your help in planning! Can't wait to do it again next year when I turn 18!