#shadow rant

[sonicattos]

i hope you guys don’t take me seriously when i say i think shadow’s dumb or when i make fun of him… i want nothing but the best for him in terms of writing.

my personal stance on shadow and how he should be is more aligned with his early 2000s characterization (ignoring most shad 05’s campaign) because that’s what he was intended to be, and it’s the best way he’s been written. but so much has happened since then to now and he’s different which SUCKS. i want him to be course corrected just like they did with the main group, i really hope that’s the case. im tired of him JUST being treated like a joke. i want him to be a character again. his own character. not just “oh sonics rival he’s mean and edgy” the plot was leading shadow to being a genuinely nice and caring person there was no reason to why this changed. it just did.

“but you don’t depict him like that in your art and text posts” yeah, because 1) they’re mostly jokes, im not a sonic writer i don’t have to worry about that and 2) with the ones that aren’t jokes and genuine analysis, i cant just ignore how he’s been depicted for the sake of it, there needs to be change first. there’s potential into course correcting his character, they just need to have the balls to do it.

any yeah i know he’s incredibly smart and a master manipulator girl boss or whatever🙄 when i say he’s dumb i’m referring to his immature behavior in modern games

[princeyralsei]

no one:

classic sonic in sonic x shadow generations:

[theribbajack]

"Now, the vow will be honoured, and my Lord brother's soul will return."

Radahn stans keep winning, but I personally am in Miyazaki's walls rn

[tagidearte]

Who?

(Can't do digital art again yet. Traditional has been fun, though. Click for not blurry quality)

[undertalebabbleblog]

Was there every any hope for Dream and Nightmare?

Could they have stayed in their universe, stayed together, stayed happy?

Maybe. But somehow, I can't see it, at least not after the village comes into the picture. They might have been able to stay in their own little bubble forever, but as soon as that outside force exists, the clock starts ticking.

It was Nightmare who couldn't take it anymore. But it could have easily been Dream. Either way, it was only a matter of time. I don't think there was any avoiding it, not really. Not in their situation, not with who they are.

Nightmare. The scapegoat, the dark one, the moon, the night. Tied to his brother by his very name, because even though he wasn't a nightmare, he's Dream's opposite, and that is all he was ever seen as by others. The dark to Dream's light, the negativity to Dream's positivity. Always defined by his brother, even before he was hurt for merely existing. Did he ever really get to be his own person?

And Dream, the golden one, the perfect one, the kind one, the sun. Always so helpful and positive. Always in demand, because who doesn't want to be happy? Their happiness is his responsibility. So he smiles, he helps, he conceals all the stress and sadness and anger and grief. He can't be seen with negative emotions, he can't effect others with his own feelings, he can't let his own feelings or needs or self matter when there's always other people who need him. So he keeps up that sunshine mask, keeps all the clouds and rain and storms locked in the dark where nobody can see them.

You can't maintain masks like that under enough built-up pressure. Eventually, something breaks.

Maybe they still had a chance. Broken things can heal, after all. Maybe they could have helped each other, grown, figured out a way to make things better.

Or maybe they were doomed from the start.

All I know is that if one didn't break, the other would have eventually.

[gaykarstaagforever]

I think Todd in the Shadows is also a good example of how long it can take to put out videos, if you're researching / writing / producing them yourselves:

One a month? One every three months? It takes time to do all this.

If someone is dropping a weekly hour-long commentary video that isn't just them podcast-ranting about too many gays, they either work with a team, or are stealing.

And if they work with a team, they should credit them, so we know whose art or words are a part of this.

Sarah Z does it like this.

Jenny Nicholson does two huge videos a year, because I'm pretty sure she does them all herself. This content takes MONTHS to put together.

If you like a non-corporate channel and they're dropping slick videos daily or weekly, that's a red flag. You should probably narrow your eyes at where this content is coming from.

...Or they just don't sleep and use hard stimulants. But that also makes the content suspect, in its own ways.

You're not an unsupervised 11 year old. Be more mindful about what you're consuming. Stop generating revenue for dipshits who don't want real jobs.

"HEY I DON'T CARE IT IS JUST CONTENT I'M TIRED AND -- "

You can either stand against the dystopia, or get eaten by it. Grow the fuck up.

[maddnessmadds]

what is this man yapping about

#no1 yapper over here

stinky fear man

i love him

[richardsfatalflaw]

can we please free my boy wylan van eck of these 'uwu cinnamon roll gay baby 🥺' allegations? my boy is a MENACE. like he bet kaz that his dad would kill him w/ 0 hesitation! and he's not even that shy, remember when he first met jesper and was like "moose is probably your first language lmao"?? in conclusion, we stan wylan

[phonoix]

I'm so tired, I'm so so tired.

Watching TV shows has become the most tiring thing in this dystopian, late-stage capitalistic hellscape.

It doesn't matter how much we love those shows, how much we talk about them, how much we promote it online. Big streaming services will just cancel them on a Friday night and then let them slowly fall into oblivion. If by SOME MIRACLE the show doesn't get cancelled after the first season, it'll just decline over the years, some crazy writer will cook up a poorly written plot, or they'll just lose interest in the project and then leave the fans in the trenches.

Big corporate streaming services just think that views are gonna materialize out of thin air??? They barely promote their new shows and they DEMAND high views just to let them keep going? It's THEIR JOB to promote shows, but obviously they couldn't care less, they only care about money, and they leave the promoting job to the fans which is batshit insane if you ask me.

Streaming services were supposed to be the solution, the chosen one if you will, but they turned out to be the villains.

Owning a movie or a show is now absolutely impossible because God forbid they release DVDs anymore. Streaming services will just randomly DELETE their cancelled shows and movies from their platforms. Fans are now supposed to be PR teams for Netflix, HBO, Prime and whatever other stupid streaming apps out there because they couldn't be bothered to,,, idk,,, do their job and promote their own shows!? They're literally acting like villains.

It feels dystopic really.

I know I probably sound like a person yelling at a cloud but it's starting to become exhausting.

And I know that there are far worse things out there, that there are more important matters to focus on, but I'm so tired.

They're killing art. There are so many people out there that put all their love and all their passion and skills into creating amazing shows that SO MANY other people love and they feel represented by, but they don't care.

This is literally my last straw.

They're killing art with their greed.

[kallypsowrites]

I feel like I've seen so many TV cancellation announcements for stuff that I might've watched but now might not. And it really just emphasizes how much the current system is eating itself.

Binge culture means that people are expected to consume a show right as it drops. Because so many shows are binged now, even weekly shows are held to the same standard. If they don't perform well during the initial release, they are written off because binge numbers are the numbers that matter.

So you get more and more people who are afraid to get invested in shows because it might get canceled on a cliffhanger. Because of that, they don't tune in to watch something until they're sure its going to continue. So the next bingeable show gets less viewers. It gets canceled. More people join the 'I'm not going to watch yet because I'm afraid to get invested' crowd. Less people watch TV.

And it sucks because people like this are often the most ardent fans of a work--the ones who will write fanfiction and make fanart and write long analytical posts convincing people to watch a show. The people who will make a new show their whole personality because that's how hyperfixation works. I am amongst that crowd. I can't let myself get invested in something anymore unless I know that I'm going to get emotional payoff.

TV execs have been continuously breaking trust with fandom spaces for the past several years. They don't give shows a chance to find their legs, to grow an audience, to gain a cult following. They kill something in it's cradle in service to the numbers.

And it's not just the fans who suffer because of this. It's writer's rooms. I'm going to school right now for screenwriting and its BAD out there. So many writers who pour their heart and soul into a concept only to never get to bring it to fruition. There's no room for slow burns. For thoughtful storytelling. For trusting the audience. There's no room for real creativity. So the shows that do get renewed are often competent but uninspired or sequel/franchise content. Cause that's what gets views.

I cannot imagine how disheartening it is as a writer to start so many projects and never get to finish them. Think about your own writing. If you were working on a fanfiction but knew at any moment someone could stop you updating because you aren't getting enough hits/kudos, would you find joy in that anymore? I sure wouldn't.

I believe that a lot of the best storytelling is going to come out of indie spaces in the next few years--writers and artists moving outside of Hollywood and making their own low budget stories. Because it's almost impossible to thrive within the current system.

It's not the writer's fault. It's not the fan's fault. It's the way TV has become. And its going to crash and burn and I'm sure execs will find a way to blame anything but the system they created.

[haunted-xander]

I guess old feelings don't disappear that easily

[edwinspaynes]

You know, I've been mulling over how the streaming business model - specifically the @netflix business model - actively discourages the creation of diverse shows.

Netflix's idea that everything has to be a Big Hit caters to the concept that everything that's worth making should be mass-streamlined for the largest possible audience. That audience is, of course, going to fall into majority demographics - straight, cisgender, neurotypical, probably white (though I don't really feel comfortable speaking about that so much as a white person myself. If a PoC wants to add onto this post, I'll reblog it.)

Anything with queer representation is going to be heavily watered down or tailored to a cishet audience if we are to follow the Netflix business model to its natural conclusion. Shows like Dead Boy Detectives, Ratched, First Kill, Shadow and Bone, and Warrior Nun include nuanced stories about queer characters and their journeys, and the sad fact is that many cishet people simply don't even care to try to relate to these stories. They're overlooked in favour of straight-made, straight-majority shows like Bridgerton, Never Have I Ever, or Stranger Things. All three of these shows include a queer side character, but that character is either never fleshed out or made queer in the most perfunctory and performative way possible. Straight audiences still care to watch them for the straight characters. This leads to the cancelation of authentic queer shows because they don't "have the numbers" to be hits.

(Btw, I can say with confidence that Dead Boy Detectives at least did have the numbers needed to be a hit, and they're ever-growing. But walk with me and take Netflix's stupid ass claim at face value for a second.)

No shit queer shows are going to get canceled if you're basing everything on "hit" numbers.

According to the Williams Institute, 5.5% of US adults identify as LGBT. That's a pretty huge minority, which is surprising for most of us queer people who tend to hang out in groups like little queer magnets. But it's true. Even if half of the cishet population is happy enough to watch queer shows, that's still only 55.5% of people who are maybe going to watch. And we can't expect everyone to watch every Netflix show. That's unreasonable.

So, to summarize, you're going to only make hit shows? That means you're only catering to majority-audiences. That means that we are going to have NO diverse media that doesn't get the ax.

It also really sucks that Netflix seems to use Heartstopper (a great show!) as its "bbbut we're not homophobic" billboard. Like, okay! You have one cute little coming out show. And we love it! Doesn't make you an A++ Ally, though.

But what about other queer stories? Ones that aren't about queerness? Why can't we see ourselves as supernatural detectives or vampire debutantes or morally gray psychiatric nurses?

In the immortal words of one of the best, most complex queer characters ever to exist, "it's so fucking stupid it's unbelievable."

[looney-mooney-studio]

New sonic game trailer gave me brainworms

(Congrats Shadow on the Puberty)

[crispybreadkid]

Here's Sonic's reaction to the whole doom morph which is Shadow's new power I think

Also I just saw Sonic the hedgehog 3 trailer, I just can't wait for it to come out like it just looks so cool.

[jazzkrebber]

"who can hear a whisper hear?"

no one. not even Kaz, but you know what he can hear? Inej. no, he doesn't hear her movements. he doesn't hear her footsteps, or even the way her body moves through the air. he hears her silence. he feels her presence, yet hears the way she hasn't yet chosen to speak to him. he wants her to speak to him. he cherishes every word out of her mouth, every interaction he gets to have with her. he loves her, and he's always looking out for the next time he gets to see her again

[emthimofnight]

Does Polarity have any cosmic powers like how void can summon black holes? Asking for science!

Well, technically, Void doesn't have the ability to summon TRUE black holes. He (and the other kids) all have a version of dark chaos energy, a byproduct of trying to reach the Perfected Ultimate Lifeform through Project Stellar. The main concept was trying to build upon Gerald Robotnik's research, attempting to create a living soldier that could harness latent chaos energy on a whim in order to artificially go super.

Void, essentially, is capable of creating dark chaos energy with such incredible mass that it effectively acts like a black hole. He basically figured out how to use the power of chaos control (the thing that allows Shadow and all of his lab kids to teleport) in reverse, compounding upon matter instead of transferring it from place to place. It effectively allows him to rip stuff apart instead of just moving it around.

Anyway, Polarity DOES have his own chaos abilities, but they are far weaker than his siblings. He usually uses them for run and gun tactics, utilizing his super speed to get in, and then his chaos spears to do damage. He tends not to rely on the teleportation abilities that Void and Andromeda do, seeing as he's fast enough to not really need them. That, and he has a far smaller chaos energy reserve, and if he isn't careful he can burn himself out by using too much of it.

Despite his weakness, I would say Polarity is probably the most technically skilled out of his siblings. He has always known he was at a power disadvantage, so he trains far harder than anyone else. His skill in combat is undeniable, even if he is seen as a failure by both the researchers that created him and his older brother.

As an additional add-on, I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but Void doesn't have super speed at all. He entirely relies on his massive power and incredible physical strength. He also has the most Black Arms DNA, which is why he is larger than both Sonic and Shadow, along with his trio of siblings.