#relevant because of the aurora borealis happening

[coolsomejet]

"Holy moly!"

READY JET GO! "Mindy Pet-sits"

[nagichi-boop]

My Thoughts Prior to Sonic x Shadow Generations (mostly Dark Beginnings)

This won’t have much rhyme of reason to it, but I want to go over my thoughts of the episodes and some related information released prior to the game’s release. So this is sort of a mix of a review for Dark Beginnings and predictions based on that and the promotional information for the game? I may reblog this after playing the game to expand my thoughts, or I may just make a new post and reference this one if it’s relevant. Well, assuming I make a post about my thoughts on the game, anyways.

Since this will likely be rambly, I will put my thoughts under a cut so as not to clog your feed. I’ll try to organise my thoughts as cohesively as possible. I’ll start with the Dark Beginning episodes as they give the most story information, then I’ll go over a few thoughts from the promotional material.

Warning - Spoilers! (But also…this is a really long post lol)

Episode 1: Shadow and Maria

The first thing that stands out is, of course, Shadow and Maria’s relationship. Shadow is certainly more the anxious type, perhaps in part to Gerald informing him on Maria’s condition. But they have such a cute sibling relationship! It was also nice getting a glimpse into Maria’s sickness and how Shadow handles it, and how Maria shows concern for his insecurities and such. They look out for each other. And you can see just how deeply he cares about Maria. The fact he went out of his way to view the aurora borealis in the present day shows just how deeply he cared about her love of nature and how he carries that with him.

We learn a little bit more about Maria’s backstory. Not only is it confirmed that she has in fact been earth prior to living on the ARK (some people thought maybe she was born on the ARK or smth?), but we also learn that the reason being in space helps is because the gravity keeps her condition in remission. As a side note, I love seeing characters with invisible disabilities in media. Maria has the capacity to run if she wants, but it comes with consequences. As someone with an invisible chronic illness, I appreciate the representation! And it’s nice to see Shadow being gentle yet firm with her when he reminds her not to exert herself. And when he holds her hand before running off, you can see him gently squeezing her hand. He is so careful and caring with her.

I haven’t played Battle, but it was also nice to see them referencing older games by including Emerl. I get that Generations is all about revising the past, but it’s nice to see them bringing stuff all together.

After the glass shatters (which I interpret as time/space shattering?), we see Shadow fall into the cell Gerald is in. I can only imagine how Shadow felt being there with him in this vision, especially because he saw the firing squad shoot him. He almost seems pained by it with how he grabs his head. And then he of course falls into some void space after reaching out for Gerald. Again, I see this as the timeline breaking, especially because we see Maria’s death portrayed in the cloud/mist. Then we get that brief glimpse of Black Doom reaching out and grabbing Shadow, which leads him to believe Black Doom is back.

It’s also clear just how often Shadow thinks about and has nightmares about what happens, to the point he more or less knows the timelines of events. We really get to see how much his trauma affects him. I’ll touch on this a bit more later, but this feels like a really good depiction of PTSD and trauma. In the past few games, he hasn’t really seemed as affected by the events on the ARK, as if he has moved on. But that’s just it - he can’t completely move on from his trauma. Sure, he appears to have a better understanding and is better at coping with it (again, I’ll expand more on this as I go), but him relapsing feels like an accurate depiction of how someone with PTSD, CPTSD, or really any mental illness will go through ups and downs with their disorder.

You could argue that this wasn’t a nightmare and was a vision of sorts because of the timeline distorting, but he speaks as though he does get frequent nightmares. He is able to differentiate this situation from a nightmare presumably because he gets nightmares so frequently. He also mentions it happening in view of the ARK. I interpret this to mean he didn't fall asleep (especially given he is standing when he snaps out of it), but more like a trance-like state. Maybe he looked at the ARK while admiring the aurora and it started the vision?

It’s also pretty interesting that he seemed scared at the idea of Black Doom being back. When he had amnesia in ShTH, I guess he didn't have much of a reason to be scared of Black Doom. But he knows how powerful he is, and with his memories back, he knows fully what Black Doom’s influence is on his past - sharing his DNA and making an agreement with Gerald that Shadow would later collect the Chaos Emeralds for him. We know from the next episode that Shadow isn’t the most fond of his Black Arms DNA, so it makes sense that he is worried he will have to confront that part of himself…I’ll come back to this thought later. Even without that, it would be pretty disconcerting to think about a foe you defeated coming back, especially after a vision like that.

Episode 2: Finding the Way

We get another wonderful glimpse into Shadow’s past. It’s a bit more speculation, but it’s somewhat reasonable to assume that Maria is the only one who has a friendly relationship with him. Abe calls him a freak, and though Gerald created him, Maria is the one who gave a deeper meaning to his name. Maria and Abe were also friends, so I imagine that she at least tried to get him to like Shadow, but it obviously didn't work. Maybe because Maria was the only one saying nice things about Shadow? Given what he went on to do with Shadow’s memory following Maria’s death, I can’t imagine even Gerald had the closest relationship with Shadow. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we don’t really have anything canon to show that he cares much for Shadow as an individual versus as his science project. It makes sense that Shadow is so weary of others and why Maria’s death hurt him so much - she was the only one among many who cared about him personally.

We see more of Shadow’s insecurity and his struggles with his identity. He seems genuinely afraid because of his alien DNA. This once again makes me think that Gerald was very clear to Shadow about what his origins were and his purpose, but perhaps not much more than that. After all, Shadow doesn’t believe he has a place on earth. If Gerald really cared, I figure he would have talked to Shadow about going home with himself and Maria about going home together, and he would have dispelled Shadow’s fears about being a monster because of his DNA. Besides, Shadow’s negative perception of the Black Arms had to come from somewhere, right? This is speculation, of course, but I can’t find much to suggest Gerald cared much for him. It’s heartbreaking to think that because Gerald messed with his memories, he could have used the ARK to destroy all life on earth - not too dissimilar to what Black Doom wanted. Can you imagine the guilt Shadow feels by almost becoming the thing he feared so much?

In the midst of Shadow’s worry, we get to see Maria being a sisterly figure to him. I love this scene so much - I genuinely teared up when I first watched it. Anyways, we see that Shadow clearly struggles with his origins, but Maria doesn’t view him the way he does - he’s not the heartless monster he thinks he is. She genuinely listens to his concerns, and when she sees him become depressed over his origins, she immediately comforts him She sees that he genuinely cares, even if he struggles to express it. Autistic Shadow, yay! To her, it’s what Shadow does, not what he is, that makes him a good person. She was perhaps the only person to view him as more than just a science project. And despite him being viewed poorly by others, Maria sees that he cares for others. This is supported by a scene later as well as one in the third episode, but I’ll get to that.

Fast forward to modern day and yay, Team Dark! It’s interesting that their introduction comes after Maria says that Shadow will find more people he can trust, aka Rouge and Omega. (I’d also argue Sonic is someone Shadow trusts and maybe Amy too, but we ain’t talking about them right now.) We get to see Shadow and Rouge’s friendly relationship with one another. They may not be partners per se, but she greets him like a close friend that she’s comfortable with. He, in turn, shows curiosity about why she’s there without a hint of malice. They both openly share why they’re there, which is a testament to their trust in one another. He was listening but also making sure to watch out for dangers and saves her, much like he does for Maria in the first episode when she collapses. It’s in his nature to look out for others.

We then get to see a glimpse of his leadership. Sure, I don’t know if you can really say they’re strictly a team. As much as I love Team Dark, they seem to mostly team up due to convenience and circumstance, but he directly but respectfully gives them an order and they follow without hesitation because they trust and respect him. When they’re together, they work as one unit. It’s also nice to see all three of them being more than competent fighters.

The way Rouge teases Shadow about him going to Sonic’s birthday party in return for her help adds to the idea that they’re familiar with one another. You wouldn’t really speak that way, nor call a platonic friend “handsome”, unless you had a degree of familiarity and closeness with one another. If they weren’t friends, Shadow would have gotten mad at her multiple times throughout this scene. Instead, he sighs in a way that is interpreted as a reluctant yes (again, he doesn’t deny this, so it is more or less confirmed that he was agreeing to go).

We also get more confirmation that Rouge is a free/double agent. She doesn’t work for GUN, but she still works with them occasionally. She will team up with whoever it’s convenient to team up with. Of course, I like to think that her teaming up with Shadow in this instance is more her being a friend doing another friend a favour. She doesn’t really have a reason to help Shadow, and her request doesn’t personally benefit her. She’s helping Shadow because she cares about him. You quite literally see her eyes light up when she notices Shadow is there. This went from a boring intel mission to something more interesting to her.

Episode 3: To the ARK

This episode hurt me so much and made me lowkey worried that I’m gonna cry when playing Sonic x Shadow Generations.

First thing I noticed - Shadow smiling? I love that for him. I do appreciate we are seeing more of that with Shadow. He isn’t constantly brooding and miserable - he has a more casual and fun-loving side too. We also see that he has a somewhat similar view of GUN as Rouge does. They have both worked on behalf of GUN in the past in varying capacities, but whether or not they are on GUN’s side fluctuates depending on their goal. It’s what separates them from Team Sonic - they act according to their best interests and what their mission is.

I don’t have much to say about the fight. It’s epic of course, but I’ll talk about production and such later. I will say it’s funny to see they’re continuing to show how destruction-hungry Omega is. I also mentioned earlier that this episode has a scene where Shadow shows compassion for others - I was referring to him saving the GUN agent. Strictly speaking, this guy was in Shadow’s way and was attacking him, so he could’ve left him. But he saved him, possibly because he recognised that he wasn’t attacking out of a vendetta, but that it was his job to protect GUN’s machinery and assets. That and we get to see that Shadow can teleport small distances as a natural ability, not because of a Chaos Emerald.

When Shadow is under threat of the spacecraft he’s in being shot down, you can see the panic in Rouge’s face. Thankfully Abe comes in and tells the GUN forces to stand down, but it’s nice seeing how much she cares about Shadow. We know she cares of course, but she definitely has a soft spot for Shadow. There’s the scene in Heroes where she worries about Shadow not being the real one, which also showcases Omega’s wisdom and own compassion. Then in 06 we get to see her assuring Shadow that she’ll be on his side, even if the world turns against him. And now in this episode and the previous one, you see that she gently pushes him out of his comfort zone, has a genuine comradery with Shadow and Omega. Not just that though, she clearly understands Shadow very deeply as evidenced by her conversation with Abe.

From Abe’s point of view, it’s nice to see him genuinely wanting to connect with Shadow. He is remorseful for the way he treated Shadow in the past and wants to be trusted by him. And he clearly has implicit trust in him - he did let Shadow fly off in the spacecraft without even knowing what he was doing.

I will say one minor nitpick I have with this scene is what Rouge said. When Abe scolds Rouge for not talking Shadow down, she says that only one person who do that - Maria. You could argue that Sonic and Amy can both talk Shadow down, though. Amy was the one who convinced Shadow to help everyone steer the ARK away from earth. And in the IDW, Sonic talked Shadow out of hurting Mr Tinker (Eggman), even though his worries came true later on. I assume what Rouge meant though was the Maria is the only one he will trust wholeheartedly and follow unwaveringly. With Amy, he backed down because she reminded him of Maria’s true promise. With Sonic, his past was leveraged against him, and seeing how hard Shadow is on himself regarding his past mistakes, you could argue he backed off out of guilt rather than agreeing with Sonic.

And then…that scene plays. Shadow daydreams about what could have been if Maria was alive, and the vocal track clearly highlights that he blames himself for her death. This causes him to get anxious until he snaps himself out of his daydream. The way he says “stop that” so softly breaks my heart. This is one of the first times we have seen Shadow be so emotional, and it makes sense. He had a vision that made him relive his most traumatic memory, and he was going back to the very place it all happened. Not only that, but there was the possibility of Black Doom being back - what would he do if he was there? Of course he was thinking about Maria!

I know some people don’t like that Shadow is going back to his old memories because they think he should be over it, but as I’ve already said in another post, PTSD doesn’t work like that. Even ignoring the situation at hand - the vision he had and having to return to the ARK with the possibility of facing Black Doom again - recovery isn’t linear. Of course he is going to fluctuate in how affected he is by his past. What happened to him was incredibly traumatic. We have now seen how Maria was perhaps the only person who cared about him and the only friend she had. His job was to cure and protect her and, by his definition, he failed to do the one thing he was created for - saving her. Not only that, but his memories then got screwed with, and his relationship with Maria was manipulated by the very person he was created by, causing him to do the very thing Maria didn't want him to do. He then had to struggle with his amnesia, deal with identity issues surrounding potentially being an android, and facing against Black Doom, who like Gerald tried to use his past to manipulate him. Those things aren’t just something you “get over”. Sure, he seems to be better at managing his symptoms, but he can’t ever really forget or get over what happened.

The song lyrics also reveals a lot about Shadow’s thought process in this scene. Him referring to his situation as a never-ending nightmare once again highlights his PTSD. It’s a memory that will likely haunt him for a long time. I would say for the rest of his life, but he’s immortal - I believe eventually he will come to focus more on the positive parts of his memories with Maria, but that will take time. Or maybe just Sonic x Shadow Generations? Who knows. He also talks about pretending to see Maria again and imagining a world where he saved Maria, which we see him doing in the episode. But we clearly see he blamed himself - he says he “failed” to save Maria and how he “can’t forgive the wrongs” he’s done to Maria. And the final line about him remaining alone? Obviously he has people he trusts and cares about now, but being lonely and feeling alone are two different things. He has people like Rouge, Omega, Sonic - but ultimately he feels alone because he struggles to get close to them emotionally. Think about it - this is perhaps the only time we have seen Shadow so emotional, but he does this when he’s alone. He struggles to be vulnerable with others, I assume in large part because those close to him have used and manipulated him in the past. Plus he holds on dearly to the title of Ultimate Lifeform - perhaps he views that it’s a weakness to be vulnerable. Or given how much self-blame he has, maybe he feels he isn’t allowed to receive help. Either way, it’s really sad that he feels so alone. I hope someday he opens up to someone.

Okay, so before I move on to my general thoughts and predictions for the new game, I just want to quickly talk about…

✨ The Production ✨

…because man, these episodes slap!! The animation is absolutely gorgeous. It’s 3D but it almost looks 2D? The lighting is amazing, especially when showing energy sources like Shadow’s chaos energy or the glowing tubes in the first episode. It’s so incredibly striking. And the choreography? Amazing!! The music is also so incredibly emotional. The ones that stand out is the one that plays when Maria grabs Shadow’s hand in the first episode, and of course the vocal track Without You in the third episode. I honestly don’t have the words to properly describe everything, it’s just so incredible.

SxS Gens — Promotional Material (Trailers/Interviews)

I won’t go super in depth, but I’ll briefly mention some of my thoughts about what we have seen so far. I’ll probably miss stuff out, but the game is two weeks away, so all will be revealed properly soon enough.

A lot of Shadow’s character so far has been him moving on from his past, but this game seems to be him confronting it. The two biggest hints for this is the Doom Powers and the return of Maria and Gerald. With the Doom Powers, Shadow is having to fully embrace his Black Arms DNA. We see how insecure he is about his origins in Dark Beginnings, but now he is going to have to confront that part of himself, face it head on and make it his own. With regards to Maria and Gerald, perhaps he will talk to Gerald and ask more questions? Not sure exactly what they’d talk about, but I hope they talk in some capacity.

I assume the biggest thing will be Shadow deciding between keeping Maria around or restoring the timeline. I’ve seen some people want a Life is Strange type decision where you get to choose which you want, but I highly doubt it. I would also argue that’s a regression in Shadow’s character. Not only would he be disregarding Maria’s wishes, but it would also be him backtracking on his growth in finding himself outside of his history with Maria. Also, I know he cares about Maria, but to think he’d sacrifice everything just to stay with her? It goes against his resolve to sacrifice himself for humanity and his desire to fulfil Maria’s wish to protect humanity. And it would also mean he screws over all his new friends. Sure, I reckon he’ll struggle with the choice, but ultimately it makes more sense for him to sacrifice her again, both in terms of honouring Maria’s wishes and to develop him as a character to show he is genuinely moving on. There’s also the chance they bring Maria back somehow while restoring the timeline, but I personally don’t think it’ll happen and don’t want it to happen. I love Maria, but it’ll be more impactful to have Shadow decide to restore the timeline instead of sacrificing it to save Maria.

A few points from the Developer Interview I’d like to talk about quickly. It’s mentioned that Shadow’s story will be “dramatic” and that we will be “emotionally moved by it.” Given the response from the just 10-15 minutes of animation in the Dark Beginnings, I can definitely see this game being emotional, and it seems that’s what they're trying to accomplish. They mention portraying him being in pain, which we have definitely seen the physical sides of in the trailers. But I assume he’s also going to suffer emotionally, both because of Black Doom and seeing Maria again.

They bring up Sonic’s birthday party and that Shadow isn’t there. Obviously we know that he was invited by Rouge, but my assumption is that he doesn’t show because he is already wrapped up with the Time Eater and/or Black Doom and so can’t make the party. Perhaps he is even taken to White Space before the Time Eater crashes Sonic’s birthday party?

From a gameplay perspective, it seems the Doom Powers are intended to let you traverse the levels in different ways. To quote the video: “We needed to make sure when we’re designing the levels that the player could find a different path if you use Chaos Control, or if you’re using the Doom Powers in a certain way or in certain locations and that those powers could create new ways of getting through the game.” This links up with the Famitsu interview where they state that “you can complete the game without using Doom Power.” It seems these powers are there to make revisiting the levels more viable by creating shortcuts and helping you reach different locations. It’ll be interesting to see just how much exploration the levels have!

It’s clear as well that they want this game to be a love letter to old fans and an introduction to new ones. That makes sense - being a new fan is likely intimidating given all the spinoff games and such. I haven’t played all of them and I’ve been a fan of Sonic since I was a kid! And bear in mind, as much as it feels aging to hear, Shadow was introduced in 2001 - over 20 years ago. Although my friends aren’t as intensely interested in Sonic as I perhaps am, they are aware of Shadow’s existence. But they definitely don’t know his backstory. It’s completely valid to not know the full extent of Shadow’s backstory - whether or not you’re a new - especially given it’s scattered across 20+ years worth of spinoff games spanning a variety of consoles. If you’re one of those people, you’re completely valid. It doesn’t make you more or less of a fan because you don’t know every little detail of the Sonic lore.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest, when I initially saw the game advertised, I wasn’t really hyped for it. I think I was nervous because if you ignore The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Prime, Shadow’s writing has been a bit mixed. (My thoughts on Shadow’s writing in TMOSTH can be found here if you’re curious!) There’s the infamous Boom characterisation, which I think is universally disliked. And even in the IDW, Shadow’s writing can be a bit iffy. I had lost faith in Shadow’s modern characterisation until TMOSTH and Prime came out, so I was desperately hoping they took the positive feedback from that and continued it. I was worried though, given that one was a short April Fool’s game and the other was a TV series.

Thankfully, it seems they are continuing to do Shadow justice!

Dark Beginnings has done most of the heavy lifting when it comes to my excitement for the game. Not only is it beautifully animated with gorgeous music, but the writing is incredibly emotional. It really feels like the writers poured a lot of love into it, and I’m so incredibly happy to see Shadow being more than just “Sonic’s edgy antagonistic rival”

Sonic x Shadow Generations seems like a good format to introduce new fans to Shadow’s lore. They’re clearly taking it all into account given how much they referenced in Dark Beginnings. Generations is about celebrating and exploring the past again, which feels like a brilliant opportunity to explain Shadow’s lore and how it affects to his future.

I’m sure I’m missing some thoughts and maybe I’ll sneakily edit this post as new thoughts and revisions come to me, but I feel like I’ve already said a lot. To anyone who read this far, thank you! I hope my thoughts were…interesting to read? Who knows! This was mostly just my way of infodumping in the absence of friends to talk to.

I can’t wait for October 25th!

[samisnotlegend]

Because you've mentioned you're always open to people sending you asks about your fics, tell me about a fun moment you had when writing a scene from any of your published fics and/or about a scene in a fic that you have secret author knowledge about that didn't end up making it into the fic

Okay I have been wracking my brain over this! Because all of you lovely people have given me the space to gush about random things that never made it into the actual fics, such as Deku's misadventure with a time quirk in Dead Vigilante Walking, or the fact that it was Kaminari on the other boat in Joy of Being Forgotten. So I was thinking hard, and then I realized this is the perfect opportunity to talk about my favorite OC: Misora.

So, this is not in Broke Boys. And while I originally hoped to include it in the epilogue it probably won't make it in, because it's simply not relevant to Deku and Katsuki's story. For that reason, I'll say that this doesn't count as spoilers to the end of BB.

Misora was the first OC I ever made for BB. Which might be surprising if you know the story well, because she's a pretty minor character. In the story, she is Deku's "quirkless" friend, and she helps him process some of the harship around that. She is a trans woman who grew up in the countryside and moved to Tokyo in order to pursue her dream of becoming a chef and opening a restaurant. She works with Deku at his delivery job, and eventually starts working at the soup kitchen with Katsuki. Her most notable physical feature is her hair, which is black on top, and green, purple, and blue on the bottom.

Here is the cool thing that will probably not make it into BB: Misora has an Aurora quirk. She, and her mother and grandmother before her, naturally amplify the earth's auroras, but only within a few dozen kilometers of themselves. The auroras are always there, above her, (just like they're always everywhere) but humans can't see auroras at lower latitudes, and so she and her family never found out. Basically, Misora has this gorgeous, light-shifting, color rainbow above her head at all times. She automatically makes every place she goes a million times more beautiful... it's just not visible to the human eye.

A decade or two after the end of BB, she will take a skiing trip with her husband and family to northern Japan. While there, she and everyone else will experience the most beautiful Aurora Borealis seen in centuries. Misora will have a suspicion as to what is happening, but won't know for sure. Either way, it will be the most magical, happy weekend trip ever. And she'll be reminded of it every time she looks in the mirror and sees her hair, for the rest of her life.

--

Thank you for asking!!!! I love Misora so much. I'm sure she'll appear in my other stories at some point.

[scalproie]

Can't wait for the lore behind the HTTYLK tag to drop ;)

oh hkdhskfhs it stands for "How To Train Your Lin Kuei" its my tag for my mk OC(s)

Basically in mkx they were like "mmmh despite making him the coolest character ever, we didn't make Sub Zero the most relevant one in the story... what should we do for his ending?"

And some genius said... Oh I Fucking Know

Ice Dragons

Long story short the Lin Kuei was on little field trip in Outworld and Kuai Liang and the gang found an Ice Dragon with eggs and Kuai Liang was like "sweet" and took the eggs to hatch them himself.

So yeah this ending is non-canon because I guess ice dragons would make the Lin Kuei too op BUT. this is the coolest concept ever and it's a shame to waste it. So to include them in a potential canon, youd have to nerf how powerful an hypothetical ice dragon would be, and make their inclusion earlier in the timeline. And boom. Lin Kuei Ice Dragon Riders.

And that's where my boy Mitra comes in, they're a Lin Kuei warrior, and they're like. Not a bad fighter but Not incredible either, like they're definitely stronger than your average guy on account of being Lin Kuei but they'd get their shit wrecked by an actual canon main character yknow? They're those guys' level. It's fiiine

What they DO have however is Horse Girl Powers and that's how they were chosen to form a bond with one of Sub Zero's scaly frozen kids

So Mitra is partnered with Boreas (Initially I went with the roman Aquilon but I realize the greek name of the Cold North Wind God, Bringer Of Winter, worked better because Boreas -> aurora borealis (they ARE in arktica after all) -> that cool green dragon aurora. remember that? anyway) who is a good boy.

So their arc would go something like:

Ice Dragon Rider basic training/learning to make your dragon do cryomancy for you

mk11's time disturbtion happen and the revival and raid of the Cyber Lin Kuei of the Lin Kuei temple follows

Mitra and the other dragon riders flee with their mounts, they have to kill the already captured dragons on their way out to avoid the Cyber Lin Kuei from making Cyber Dragons (yes) with freezing breath. Only Boreas and one of his sister make it out alive in the end, as well as Mitra and two other riders. ("But Dam, why doesnt the CLK just take the dragons' corpses to cyberize?" Ive decided Ice Dragons explode into ice upon death idk theyre elemental beasts. It's convenient bear with me)

an handful of Lin Kuei warriors (like. less than a dozen, including Mitra) manage to avoid getting kidnapped by Sektor and Frost, who betrayed them. The rest, so almost all of them, are processed.

So the survivors scatter to make it more difficult for the CLK to find them. Mitra & Boreas just kinda. live in the wilderness (fun antics happen there I'll think of some) until everyone gets the call from Papa Subz Grandmaster Sub Zero to come back home

While Papa Subz Grandmaster Sub Zero does his thing with his good pal from the Shirai Ryu to shut down the CLK, the Lin Kuei temple is still occupied by some CLK there and it's up to Mitra and the few survivors to take it back. It's goon on goon violence so there's more stakes. At least they have Ice Dragons.

So yeah that would basically be it! They also have a buddy over at the Shirai Ryu but I havent put a lot of thoughts into them yet. Other than they met when the Shirai Ryu whooped their ass during the newly established Lin Kuei/Shirai Ryu friendship tournament

[sweet-midnight-stories-blog]

Dreams #20 & #21 - 11th October 2018

CONNECTED DREAMS! CONNECTED DREAMS! CONNECTED DREAMS!

these two are lumped together because I woke up halfway, wrote down my dream, then it continued when i fell back asleep.

Me and two other people are hiding in this old, abandoned asylum, and we’re being chased by a clown monster. They’re chasing us becuase we found their “sun”, a small trinket. 

Surprise! Although it wasn’t a game, the dream physics acted like it was. From now on, I’m going to use the words “dream physics” to describe how my dream worked. When I was younger (like, 5) I theorised about how my dreams work. My subconscious (probably) picked this up and BAM my theories were properly implemented into my dreams. Some of them have waned, but a few are still there! So my dreams have these underlying rules. From this, I experienced dreams as pre-planned things almost. It doesn’t feel like I have any free will. When I do, I lucid dream. When my dream doesn’t let me lucid dream, I almost “break the fabric of my dream”. Things don’t add up. 

The dream physics of when I was younger had some very concrete rules based on the pre-planned dream theory. 1) you cannot wake up from a nightmare until you have finished it, or turned it into a normal dream. 2) there are some areas in your dream that are “out of bounds”, almost like an area in a video game where the creators hadn’t made anything because you weren’t meant to go there. 3) closing your eyes in a normal dream would wake you up (still relevant today). 4) closing your eyes in a nightmare would not wake you up- you would see through your eyelids or hands, but the scenery would shift slightly to indicate that you had closed your eyes. From this, somehow, 5) closing your eyes in a nightmare would teleport you 10 metres or so away. 6) lucid dreaming 7/10 times wakes you up. I dunno. Anyway- tangent “over”. back to the dream.

Dream physics = game. You die, game resets and you have to start over. We have to get across the asylum alive and retrieve another object. This was really difficult and I kept dying. I had dream memories of other games, one set at a roadside camp, with aurora borealis in the air above us. 

Here I wake up, then fall back asleep again.

I am a news reporter who has snuck into a home with neglected children. They act strangely but friendly enough. They tell me that the dad is the cause of their neglect and abuse. I eventually manage to break them out of the house, but for some reason I am “one of the bad guys”, even though I’m still thinking good thoughts and helping these kids. Apparently I had done some seriously bad things before. Since I wasn’t “the bad guy” back then, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions.

Dream transition to a beautiful ornate temple in the middle of my city. It has a fountain/sculpture with a big black smooth orb in the middle of a small greek style shrine. The entire place was made of white marble and sandstone and had beautiful flowers and vines. It’s a Baha’i feast happening, and we sing an Arabic prayer that we know. However we’re singing it way too fast and out of time, and there’s no harmony. The words are slurred and I can’t figure out where we are.

One of my friends from here, Sagittarius, and two friends from Christchurch who are sisters, Cedar and Jasmine are at the temple as well. The black orb is somehow tipped off its pedestal and into the rest of the fountain, spilling water everywhere, marking the New Year. After the ceremony, I try to break into a brick building at night, only to find the people from the asylum (hehe connections). They threaten to kill me and I get scared, but they give me the weapon and laugh, knowing that even if I kill them, they can reset the game too and kill me again.

[mrs-goldie-mcduck]

It’s kind of funny how different my attitude is in this fandom compared to my main one.

In my main fandom on this site I’m so docile and meek.  I avoid conflict like the plague and keep my unpopular opinions to myself, partly because the feeling that I’ve upset someone is a major anxiety trigger for me, and partly because I see the drama/wank/chaos that happens to other people who rock the boat and it scares me into keeping my head down.

Here, though, on a sideblog for my oldest fandom?  I’m bolder.  I’m assertive.  I speak out.  I dare to contradict others much more often.  I try to be respectful but I’m also not afraid to chime in with my own opinions.  That’s not to say I’ve never toned down a first draft before posting, but I’m not as timid here.  It’s almost like I’m channeling Goldie herself.  LOL

Maybe part of it is how confident I am with my knowledge of canon.  It’s not like I know every single duck story out there, but especially with regards to the OTP, I’ve memorized all the relevant Barks/Rosa stories.  My knowledge of other fandoms’ lore is solid, but not on the level that my duck lore is.

I know I keep mentioning how darn old I am long I’ve shipped $/G, and I don’t mean to brag or imply that the longevity of my interest makes me a truer fan than a more recent adopter of the ship.  It’s just that I feel these characters on such a deep level after all these years of having them tucked away in my head and heart.  It’s personal.  Scrooge and Goldie, both individually and as a couple, are there in the background of basically my entire life.  They mean a lot to me.

I realize to a lot of fans it’s just another ship, and that’s fine.  I have lots of ships in other fandoms, and a couple others in the duckverse.  What I feel for those is more like, “Aww, cool, I like them.  So, what’s for supper?”

What I feel for $/G is like...magic.  Sweeping orchestral music as the camera pans over pristine mountains and the aurora borealis dances in the sky.  The snow glimmers like a field of tiny diamonds as the music swells and a chill runs down your spine.  It is epic.  Your heart bursts with emotion.  This is true love, a Shakespearean tragedy of missed chances and miscommunication, along with the tantalizing hope that someday, maybe, just maybe, they’ll get their happily ever after.

(A desktop wallpaper I made by recoloring line art from Rosa’s “Dream of a Lifetime” and putting it over an aurora photo.)

So anyway, don’t mind me.  I don’t mean any harm with my bold opinions.  I’m just way too attached to these stubborn, star-crossed ducks.  ;)

[kathleenseiber]

When science inspires awe, people get curious

Feeling awe leads to greater awareness of the things we don’t know, which in turn makes us more likely to seek out a framework to fill those gaps, according to a new study.

“The joy of science lies in pondering the magnificent and seeking answers to the unknown,” writes Jonathon McPhetres, a PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Rochester, and the author of a study in the journal Cognition & Emotion.

McPhetres’s research has important implications for educators. “It might be as simple as showing students really awesome videos of the things they are about to learn in physics and calculus.”

That ‘wow’ feeling

In layperson’s terms, awe can be understood as an emotion similar to surprise or curiosity, usually associated with the grandiose or the magnificent. For McPhetres—borrowing from previous research in the field—awe is comprised of two central characteristics: the perception of vastness and the need for accommodation.

That is to say, when we encounter information that does not fit into our existing framework of expectations, we must change our existing schemas in order to accommodate this new information.

To test the hypothesis that awe serves as an antecedent to interest in science, McPhetres conducted four studies that manipulated the experience of a person’s sense of awe through online and virtual reality videos.

He discovered that once people were aware of a particular gap in their knowledge, that awareness led them to a greater interest in science. How did he measure that? First, McPhetres subjected study participants to an awe-inducing video. Then he offered them free tickets to either a science or an art museum. Participants were much more likely to choose the science museum (68 percent) than the art museum (32 percent).

“Clearly awe makes us realize what we don’t know about the natural world. We come to know how much we do not know, which is a privilege because most people don’t know what they don’t know,” says McPhetres, referring to what psychologists call the Dunning-Kruger effect. This kind of experience makes people ask questions about nature and, his research suggests, seek answers to those questions in a methodological and systematic way.

“To me this says that humans are curious, wondrous, growth-oriented creatures who are interested in learning about our place in the universe,” says McPhetres. “We love to see new things, to experience the unknown, and to learn about our world. We all have this experience in common.”

What do I know?

McPhetres is not the first to discover that awe, like other positive emotions, can broaden one’s thoughts, actions, and awareness, and lead a person to explore new skills and resources. But he was the first to test the relationship between awe and knowledge empirically.

McPhetres conducted four studies, which he labeled 1a, 1b, 1c, and 2. Studies 1a, b, and c all followed the same procedure. While 1a and 1c were online, 1b happened in the lab. The first study (1a) included 366 participants, recruited through the crowdsourcing marketplace Amazon Mechanical Turk. The second study (1b) had 90 participants, all of them undergraduates with an average age of 20, who were compensated either with museum tickets or extra course credit. The third study (1c) recruited 850 participants through the online survey platform Prolific with an average age of 34.

In all three experiments, researchers randomly assigned participants to either the “awe condition group” or the control group. In the awe group, participants watched a video from BBC’s Planet Earth designed to elicit awe in the test subjects. Meanwhile, the control group watched a humorous video from BBC’s Walk on the Wild Side.

Afterwards participants responded to nine items measuring general mood, with one measure for awe mingled in. Then participants answered a seven-item self-assessment about awareness of gaps in their knowledge, in which they responded to prompts such as: “I ask myself if I really understand how the natural world works,” or “This activity makes me realize how much I don’t know about nature.” Study participants also reported levels of religiosity and spirituality.

Additionally, in study 1b the undergraduate students indicated afterwards if they preferred to receive a ticket to a local science museum or a local art museum (both of which are equidistant from the university campus and cost approximately the same.)

The mediation model shows the indirect effects across all four studies. In all studies, exposure to feeling awe lead to an increase in a person’s awareness of knowledge gaps, which in turn was associated with an increased level of science interest (and in study 1b led to an increased likelihood of choosing tickets to a local science museum versus a local art museum).

Knowledge gaps

McPhetres discovered that the feeling of awe was greater in the group that had watched the awe-inducing video than in the control group. That same group also consistently reported greater interest in science and greater awareness of gaps in their knowledge.

The last study (study 2) sought to replicate the awe effect with a different procedure—one that tested whether providing additional information could “sate” a person’s awareness of knowledge gaps and resulting interest in science.

To that end, researchers randomly assigned 209 undergraduate students to four groups: “awe,” ��control group,” “awe plus relevant information,” and “awe plus irrelevant information about the awe-inducing stimuli.”

This time McPhetres employed virtual reality videos because past research has shown that these videos are strong and reliable inducers of awe. McPhetres wanted to test whether providing information that was relevant to the awe-inducing video would reduce a person’s science interest to the level of the (non-awe-inducing video) control group.

For the awe condition, participants watched a 3D, 360-degree virtual reality video of the aurora borealis on a virtual reality headset with headphones. Meanwhile, the control group watched the same video as in study 1 (BBC’s Walk on the Wild Side) using the virtual reality headset, except that the video was displayed in 2D format. The two awe groups who received additional information either watched another video explaining the aurora borealis (for the awe plus relevant information group), or a video on how to tie different knots (for the awe plus irrelevant information group).

McPhetres found that feelings of awe and pride were significantly higher in the awe-experiencing group. Overall, those in the awe plus irrelevant information group experienced fewer positive emotions compared to the other three groups.

“These studies provide the first evidence that the experience of awe consistently and uniquely leads to greater awareness of gaps in one’s knowledge about the natural world,” he says.

Inspiration and learning

Inspiring interest in science is critical to learning about our world and improving our lives. “Without science we wouldn’t have light bulbs, air planes, vaccines, anesthesia. Without science we would die at age 20 from tooth infections and we’d still believe in bloodletting,” says McPhetres.

His research has important implications for educators. Simply put, if we frame science in inspiring and interesting ways, then science will be inspiring and interesting.

“It might be as simple as showing students really awesome videos of the things they are about to learn in physics and calculus. It might be as complicated as giving students an experience which really challenges their level of knowledge about chemistry before you dive into counting electrons.”

One thing is clear, says McPhetres: “Show people nature in all of its beauty and magnificence and they will see it as magnificent and mysterious. Show students some real and applicable uses for the theoretical minutiae they are about to cram into their brains and they’ll see value in learning it. And if this results in more interest in science then that’s a win in my book.”

Source: University of Rochester

The post When science inspires awe, people get curious appeared first on Futurity.

When science inspires awe, people get curious published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[kathleenseiber]

When science inspires awe, people get curious

Feeling awe leads to greater awareness of the things we don’t know, which in turn makes us more likely to seek out a framework to fill those gaps, according to a new study.

“The joy of science lies in pondering the magnificent and seeking answers to the unknown,” writes Jonathon McPhetres, a PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Rochester, and the author of a study in the journal Cognition & Emotion.

McPhetres’s research has important implications for educators. “It might be as simple as showing students really awesome videos of the things they are about to learn in physics and calculus.”

That ‘wow’ feeling

In layperson’s terms, awe can be understood as an emotion similar to surprise or curiosity, usually associated with the grandiose or the magnificent. For McPhetres—borrowing from previous research in the field—awe is comprised of two central characteristics: the perception of vastness and the need for accommodation.

That is to say, when we encounter information that does not fit into our existing framework of expectations, we must change our existing schemas in order to accommodate this new information.

To test the hypothesis that awe serves as an antecedent to interest in science, McPhetres conducted four studies that manipulated the experience of a person’s sense of awe through online and virtual reality videos.

He discovered that once people were aware of a particular gap in their knowledge, that awareness led them to a greater interest in science. How did he measure that? First, McPhetres subjected study participants to an awe-inducing video. Then he offered them free tickets to either a science or an art museum. Participants were much more likely to choose the science museum (68 percent) than the art museum (32 percent).

“Clearly awe makes us realize what we don’t know about the natural world. We come to know how much we do not know, which is a privilege because most people don’t know what they don’t know,” says McPhetres, referring to what psychologists call the Dunning-Kruger effect. This kind of experience makes people ask questions about nature and, his research suggests, seek answers to those questions in a methodological and systematic way.

“To me this says that humans are curious, wondrous, growth-oriented creatures who are interested in learning about our place in the universe,” says McPhetres. “We love to see new things, to experience the unknown, and to learn about our world. We all have this experience in common.”

What do I know?

McPhetres is not the first to discover that awe, like other positive emotions, can broaden one’s thoughts, actions, and awareness, and lead a person to explore new skills and resources. But he was the first to test the relationship between awe and knowledge empirically.

McPhetres conducted four studies, which he labeled 1a, 1b, 1c, and 2. Studies 1a, b, and c all followed the same procedure. While 1a and 1c were online, 1b happened in the lab. The first study (1a) included 366 participants, recruited through the crowdsourcing marketplace Amazon Mechanical Turk. The second study (1b) had 90 participants, all of them undergraduates with an average age of 20, who were compensated either with museum tickets or extra course credit. The third study (1c) recruited 850 participants through the online survey platform Prolific with an average age of 34.

In all three experiments, researchers randomly assigned participants to either the “awe condition group” or the control group. In the awe group, participants watched a video from BBC’s Planet Earth designed to elicit awe in the test subjects. Meanwhile, the control group watched a humorous video from BBC’s Walk on the Wild Side.

Afterwards participants responded to nine items measuring general mood, with one measure for awe mingled in. Then participants answered a seven-item self-assessment about awareness of gaps in their knowledge, in which they responded to prompts such as: “I ask myself if I really understand how the natural world works,” or “This activity makes me realize how much I don’t know about nature.” Study participants also reported levels of religiosity and spirituality.

Additionally, in study 1b the undergraduate students indicated afterwards if they preferred to receive a ticket to a local science museum or a local art museum (both of which are equidistant from the university campus and cost approximately the same.)

The mediation model shows the indirect effects across all four studies. In all studies, exposure to feeling awe lead to an increase in a person’s awareness of knowledge gaps, which in turn was associated with an increased level of science interest (and in study 1b led to an increased likelihood of choosing tickets to a local science museum versus a local art museum).

Knowledge gaps

McPhetres discovered that the feeling of awe was greater in the group that had watched the awe-inducing video than in the control group. That same group also consistently reported greater interest in science and greater awareness of gaps in their knowledge.

The last study (study 2) sought to replicate the awe effect with a different procedure—one that tested whether providing additional information could “sate” a person’s awareness of knowledge gaps and resulting interest in science.

To that end, researchers randomly assigned 209 undergraduate students to four groups: “awe,” “control group,” “awe plus relevant information,” and “awe plus irrelevant information about the awe-inducing stimuli.”

This time McPhetres employed virtual reality videos because past research has shown that these videos are strong and reliable inducers of awe. McPhetres wanted to test whether providing information that was relevant to the awe-inducing video would reduce a person’s science interest to the level of the (non-awe-inducing video) control group.

For the awe condition, participants watched a 3D, 360-degree virtual reality video of the aurora borealis on a virtual reality headset with headphones. Meanwhile, the control group watched the same video as in study 1 (BBC’s Walk on the Wild Side) using the virtual reality headset, except that the video was displayed in 2D format. The two awe groups who received additional information either watched another video explaining the aurora borealis (for the awe plus relevant information group), or a video on how to tie different knots (for the awe plus irrelevant information group).

McPhetres found that feelings of awe and pride were significantly higher in the awe-experiencing group. Overall, those in the awe plus irrelevant information group experienced fewer positive emotions compared to the other three groups.

“These studies provide the first evidence that the experience of awe consistently and uniquely leads to greater awareness of gaps in one’s knowledge about the natural world,” he says.

Inspiration and learning

Inspiring interest in science is critical to learning about our world and improving our lives. “Without science we wouldn’t have light bulbs, air planes, vaccines, anesthesia. Without science we would die at age 20 from tooth infections and we’d still believe in bloodletting,” says McPhetres.

His research has important implications for educators. Simply put, if we frame science in inspiring and interesting ways, then science will be inspiring and interesting.

“It might be as simple as showing students really awesome videos of the things they are about to learn in physics and calculus. It might be as complicated as giving students an experience which really challenges their level of knowledge about chemistry before you dive into counting electrons.”

One thing is clear, says McPhetres: “Show people nature in all of its beauty and magnificence and they will see it as magnificent and mysterious. Show students some real and applicable uses for the theoretical minutiae they are about to cram into their brains and they’ll see value in learning it. And if this results in more interest in science then that’s a win in my book.”

Source: University of Rochester

The post When science inspires awe, people get curious appeared first on Futurity.

When science inspires awe, people get curious published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/