#splatoon good i'm actually decent at it

[passionatememes]

played too much splatoon and now my arms so sucks again

[dr-spectre]

The autism representation in Splatoon needs to be studied and celebrated because oh my god it's actually really damn good and some of the best in media, especially compared to how its usually portrayed in popular media....

As someone who is on the spectrum and has been diagnosed, it's really comforting to know that one of my favorite game series has such positive depictions of autism and isn't just stereotypical depictions we commonly see in media.

Autism in most media is either portrayed as white nerdy dudes who are cold robots that have super intelligence, can understand alien languages and see the world like they are a fucking Lego master builder or some shit and see blueprints in the sky like in The Good Doctor or The Big Bang Theory with Sheldon. Or it's portrayed as people who are incredibly disabled, cannot communicate and have constant tantrums as seen with the dogshit movie Music (2021). Literally the depiction of autism in that movie is actually fucking dangerous as it shows a person pushing an autistic person who is having a meltdown onto the ground and RESTRICTING THEM! WHICH IS VERY VERY VERY BAD! DO NOT DO THIS!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! AUTISTIC PEOPLE HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF THIS!!!!!!!!

Now I'm not saying that these types of autistic people don't exist, remember, it's a spectrum so there's a ton of variety in people who have autism, some people have really high intelligence, some have low social skills and need help, some can talk for hours and hours to anyone, some need serious help to function day to day living and thats perfectly fine. however the type i listed of the super cold robotic genuis is just the really popular stereotype which impacts the perception of autistic people just trying to live and enjoy life like everyone else. Some autistic people are just in the middle and aren't on any of the extremes. There are tons of people who fall into the "low needs" and "high needs" sides of autism of course, however there isn't exactly a ton of representation for people in the middle and sometimes those popular representations of autism can damage the entire perception of the spectrum. And there still isn't a lot of fair representation of "high needs" autistic people in media and that needs to change as well.

Thankfully Splatoon doesn't go for any damaging stereotypes but instead goes for something a little more positive. I think the best examples of this are Marina, Marie and Harmony. While they haven't been canonically confirmed as being on the autism spectrum, they are heavily hinted that they are and show some evidence that supports it.

Harmony for instance is just.... a regular autistic girl, she isn't some incredibly smart girl, no, she's just a regular girl who speaks in a blunt and neutral way but that's about it. As someone who is autistic i can relate somewhat to how she speaks, in real life i tend to just say a few words when talking to someone and i don't really sound energetic or loud about it. i just go "Hey. Hi. Alright. Okay. Oh ok. Uh. I'm good." Some autistic people normally do not speak like they are the nerd emoji and sound hyper smart like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, and they are not able to speak entirely. That's not what ALL autistic people sound like. There's a decent chunk of them that just speak regularly or speak a little quietly and thats okay. Harmony captures the speech of what a fair portion of autistic people talk like, but not every single autistic person of course. There is a large chunk of autistic people who need support when it comes to communication, and that's perfectly okay. They are just valid as human beings as the ones who can speak.

She also has an interest in music as she is the singer of Chirpy Chips and is seen stimming and fidgeting with an Ultra Hand. Autistic people usually fidget and stim to calm themselves down and keep their emotions in check, maybe Harmony plays with the Ultra Hand because it helps her stay calm when running Hotlantis.

Now it's time to talk about the most popular example of autistic representation in Splatoon. Marina.

She is quite shy when you zoom in on her in Splatoon 2 when you play as an Inkling, but is known to ramble about machinery and excavators to Pearl and Acht for hours at a time. Technology and machinery seem to be a special interest for her as shown with her creating the Shifty Stations for Splatfests, having hacking abilities and building the Memverse. She gets so much energy and excitement from working on the Memverse as shown by her dialogue in the Dev Diaries. However she is not a flawless super genius like in most depictions of autistic characters, she is known to have uncontrollable emotional outbursts, when Pearl even suggests the idea of Off the Hook breaking up she becomes extremely devastated and thinks of the worst case scenario in her dialogue from the Chaos vs Order Splatfest. She sometimes can't control her anger and snaps at Pearl after losing multiple times in a row in Splatfests.

She also has issues with proper work life balance as she overworks herself with working on the Memverse alongside going on a world tour with Pearl, she vents abouts this in her 10th Dev Diary in Side Order. And speaking of order, she chose team order because she wanted to maintain the balance in her life that she has found. A lot of autistic people have strict routines and any changes to that routine will cause them to get really distressed. If someone comes into my space and says "hey we're going out in 10 minutes." I'm gonna get pissed off and be in a terrible mood as my routine has been disrupted and i wanna do something else. Routines give autistic people a lot of comfort and predictability.

Marina's deepest flaw she kept hidden was the desire of a perfect world of order where nothing can change because she's so scared of her new life being destroyed, but she learns to overcome this fear of change with the help of Pearl by the end of Side Order which may inspire autistic people to learn to be more okay with change, even if its very hard.

Marina is also seen wearing her headphones quite often and rarely takes them off which may indicate she might have sensory issues. Some autistic people may suffer with sensory issues and need to wear headphones or certain pieces of clothing to stay calm and keep their emotions from becoming too much. I tend to wear headphones often because i hate my ears being exposed and I'm very sensitive to certain noises.

She also may have another special interest which may be the Squid Sisters as she litters her laptop and keytar with Squid Sister stickers. Marina also talks in a very excited tone when you get Marie's and Callie's palettes in Side Order. She also acts very giddy and excited during live performances with them and starts stimming which is shown by her moving around in place and clamping her hands together.

Another character who you might not think is autistic right away but shows signs of it is Marie. And to be honest i find her to be very relatable.

Marie is known to be more quiet than her cousin and she acted like this since she was a child. Marie also seems to struggle with social situations and struggles to talk with Agent 4 and Neo Agent 3 and wishes they can just leave her alone when you keep talking to her. However she seems to be a lot more comfortable talking with people she trusts and loves like her cousin Callie. She also makes quite snarky and sometimes rude comments but that doesn't mean she's a rude person, she just likes being cheeky and truly cares about the people around her. She even self loathes and worries about her cousin to an unhealthy degree.

A lot of people tend to say that autistic people have low empathy when in reality some autistic people are far from the case. Some autistic people might be TOO empathetic but they cannot show it because it's just so much for them that they can't properly express it. Marie may appear as rude and non caring but she's genuinely a very caring and emotional person but she doesn't know how to show it due to not having developed communication skills compared to neurotypical people. A fair amount of autistic people are not shy people that don't care about you, they just have a different way of speech and communication. 2 autistic people can talk vastly different from each other. It is a spectrum after all. There are some who may have low empathy, but they are not psychopaths who don't care about human life. It's really, really weird to think that and kind of damaging to see autistic people in that kind of light.

Marie is also known to be a picky eater and despises vegetables, refuses to eat the ends of bread loafs, hates tomatoes and pineapple on pizza. (she's literally me holy shit...) some autistic people can have sensory issues when it comes to certain textures and smells and vegetables usually have a weird texture compared to meats and other food groups. They can be seen as "picky eaters" that don't wanna try anything but, some autistic people genuinely cannot eat certain foods and may get sick in the stomach if they see that food and would rather eat anything else. You cannot get me to eat carrots, like I'm sorry but that's not happening buddy. I don't care if they are baked or boiled, i refuse to put that shit in my mouth.

She was also on team order like Marina as she likes to keep things nice and tidy like with most autistic people. Not all but most.

A little tidbit i wanna add as well is that since Splatoon 2, Marie has been seen holding an parasol and for seemingly no reason. Some may say she holds it to seem more professional, however i think she has it around because she likes to hold it in her hands and use it to fidget with, much like Harmony with the Ultra Hand. You can see her spin it around when you stay around her for a little bit in Splatoon 3's story mode. Although I might be looking too deeply into this but i think it might be a cute little detail.

I find it really fantastic that Splatoon not only has good representations of autism, but it's also pretty diverse and shows different elements of the spectrum. Not every single aspect of the spectrum as there isn't an example of a high needs autistic character in Splatoon that I can think of unfortunately, but if you can think of a character who may be in the high needs category of the spectrum then let me know, however we got a pale skinny sea anemone who runs a general store and uses an Ultra Hand to fidget with, a tall black woman who's extremely passionate about machinery and technology, and a Japanese squid woman who would rather eat a Splattershot than a tomato. (Callie and Marie are based off of Japanese culture, look at their clothing and styles of music. If they were humans they would not be white women, sorry to break it to you bud.)

Before this ends i wanna say, if you disagree with me then that's fine. I get it. They aren't canonically confirmed to be on the autism spectrum and a lot of this is just speculation and observation. However don't be a fucking dick about it okay? Don't say that i don't know anything about autism and that I'm crazy and dumb. Don't do that shit. Seriously. I am allowed to look deeper into these characters and find relatability and comfort in them. Don't try to make me feel like a freak for this.

Anyways if i did get something wrong about autism let me know in a fair and polite way. I am human and I'm gonna make mistakes, but don't be a dickhead about it, k? Good. Have a goodnight or good day wherever you live.

[bigblueoctoling]

Thoughts on the antagonists of Splatoon

A twitter post (or more accurately, the responses to it) pissed me off and I have to give my thoughts.

I'm going to give my thoughts and spoiler alert Mr. Grizz is the only bad one so I'm going to talk about him last

Octavio

So, the thing that irks me about people's opinions on Octavio is, as is probably obvious if you read my last post, people who think that Octavio is redeemable, or god forgive, an "anti-hero" as I saw someone say.

On one hand, yes, Octavio inherently has some good reasons behind his actions; Octarians are a very disadvantaged people who are struggling through an energy crisis- frankly inkopolis seems to have an entirely unnecessary overabundance of energy that could easily be shared with Octarians, but isn't.

On the other hand, it generally becomes clear as we learn more about him and octarians as a whole that his motives aren't entirely just- similar to Cuttlefish. Cuttlefish is much more evidently presented as an old war vet who still holds a heavy prejudice against not just all Octarians but Octolings in general. Octavio is much the same way- while he's not morally in the wrong from stealing from the severely energy-abundant Inkopolis, it's quite clear from his actions that he's not a good leader. His actual amount of political power is vague, but either way, as the head of the Octarian Military at the very least, he surely would have some power over the heavily militarized Octarian people who are seemingly raised for the sole purpose of being soldiers. A part of the reason why the Octarian people are so disadvantaged is because the Octarian government is corrupt.

All in all, this makes Octavio a very in-depth villain, but it absolutely doesn't make him the anti-hero. He's a part of the problem, and he very clearly has an enormous bias for self-aggrandizing, propaganda, and revenge.

Commander Tartar

Tartar is a perfect representation of humanity; his entire execution is flawless. He's very directly involved in the story, directly manipulating Eight with cult-like language of escape into the promised land. He has a very direct impact on the entire story- he created the levels to filter out the most skilled test subjects for use in his cause. His cause, despite him being an AI, is decently reasoned with flawed human logic- he simply does not consider the sea life that developed into Earth's sapient species to be an adequate target to pass the torch of humanity's knowledge to, because, from his uninvolved, impersonal observation, they seem to repeat the same mistakes of mankind. He dehumanizes the people he's subjugating toward contributing towards his cause, committing genocide upon those he views as subhuman. He is the perfect encapsulation of humanity.

The idea of anyone seeing any flaw in his execution is baffling to me. Frankly I just do not think you're smart enough to have a say in the quality of a game's writing if you think that tartar is a poorly written villain.

Smollusk

So, I'm going to be frank- I feel like the people who think that Smollusk is a generic evil "take over the world!!" villain simply did not finish playing Side Order, or just didn't bother thinking about the story of Side Order enough to have a say on the matter. To be fair, I thought the same thing when I beat Smollusk the first time, but as you keep beating smollusk, they keep revealing more and more of the story.

It's one thing to just not prefer this method of storytelling, I can't say it's as perfect as, say, Tartar's execution, but even people who actually finished Side Order will say that "all the extra story is just dumped after the ending", as if for some reason that doesn't count. Like, honestly, the execution of Side Order isn't perfect, but acting like anything said after the credits just doesn't exist is simply silly.

And just for the sake of completing this analysis: Smollusk seems very much like a manifestation of a part of Marina's subconscious, and the subconscious of many Octarians who helped produce this project. Smollusk's depth comes from the way the things it says reflect the inner feelings of those who produced the game, especially Marina.

And frankly anyone who says it's "just a generic supervillain who wants to take over the world" just plain didn't read the text in the game. It was never about "taking over" the world, it was to bring everything to a state of complete stasis. I won't say Order was perfectly executed but this is objectively a very different goal from Taking Over The World Because I Am The Evil Super Genius!!!

Mr. Grizz

Mr. Grizz is objectively just a very lazy and rushed attempt to mimic Tartar. He has no relevance to the story until the very end, at which point he just exposits his ideology, which is just "fish are bad and mammals are good" surrounded by an obnoxious amount of Business Lingo which is meant to be funny. His only motive just has no meaningful depth behind it, on top of blatantly just being Tartar's goal again (humans good fish bad). He has zero relation to Alterna- the dude was shot into space, he's pretty much only in Alterna to nab their extra rocket. The levels in Alterna just arbitrarily resemble Octo Expansion's for zero reason; there's absolutely no attempt to explain why this human facility has tests for inkfish, nor is there really any reason why Mammalians are there to defend it.

For a campaign entitled "Rise of the Mammalians", Mammalians are given literally zero elaboration- not only are they very blatantly just an excuse to reuse Octarians for the fourth time, but there's no in-universe reason for them even being here. At no point is Mr. Grizz seemingly actively trying to stop you, nevermind that Alternia's entire layout doesn't really seem designed to stop you, nor does Mr. Grizz seem particularly interested in trying to stop you. The only bosses are Deep Cut, who are just kind of There on their own accord for Ambiguous Things That Have No Actual Explanation And Are Just There To Be The Thing That Lets You Get To The Final Boss.

Deep Cut are done so dirty by Splatoon 3, for the record. Unrelated to this post but expect a post on that at some point.

Ultimately, Mr. Grizz has absolutely zero meaningful impact on the entirety of Splatoon's lore. He... "dries out?" Cuttlefish for absolutely no logical reason, he just says ambiguous shit about Needing Him for his Plan but what exactly that means is left entirely vague. Nothing about his plan is really personal to Salmonids- like, Tartar specifically thinks that sea folk are undeserving of being considered on par with humans, but Mr. Grizz doesn't really elaborate on why he thinks Fish Bad, they just Are. It's not that he thinks Salmonid deserve to be subjugated, hunted, and treated like animals, he just needs golden fish eggs for power because yeah. And ultimately, killing Mr. Grizz does nothing to impact the story, it just arbitrarily completes it- we learn literally nothing of the Mammalians, Salmonids are still being subjugated to being hunted and having their young harvested, and nothing in particular becomes of Alterna. It's nothing but pure arbitration.

In conclusion, frankly, if you think Mr. Grizz is at all an interesting character, let alone better than any other antagonist, I'd LOVE to hear an explanation because the opinion genuinely makes no sense to me beyond headcanons.

[occasionalsango]

I've had this account for awhile but haven't done anything with it so I'm just gonna start. Anyways, some friends and I have been recreating Inkopolis in Minecraft. This is what's been done so far.

Inkopolis Plaza. This is the center of the city and also the part that I personally put the most time into. There's a nether portal in the train station for travel, oh yeah this is survival. The Calamari Inkantation easter egg is also there, activated by a skulk sensor. The doors to the lobby are also functional.

Inkopolis Square. We really tried to line up the plaza and square so that you can see the tower, but there just isn't a good spot on a 90 degree angle that wouldn't be blocked by the train line. You can JUST about see the tower, though. Despite being part of some Server Shenanigans, the square has been kinda neglected in terms of detail. I also had very little to do with the design process, just building it. Although, I am personally working on it to bring it closer to how it is in Splatoon 3.

Urchin Underpass. This is one of my favorite builds in the city. We really tried to recreate the are around Urchin as best we could. I also got to put an entire 3 minute rendition of Splattack! on noteblocks underneath.

Blackbelly Skatepark. It is not quite finished, there's some more detail I'd like to add, as well as filling in some scenery. It will not be particularly accurate due to space restrictions, but we're alright with that.

Flounder Heights. This is the Splatoon 1 version (The Splatoon 3 version released like a week after the map itself was complete). While none of us are very good at interiors, I plan to make it a functional complex, at some point. Also the "ghost" is represented by an armor stand with a skeleton skull.

Arowana Mall. The pallet for this thing was a big debate, there's not really a block that properly represents the walls or the roofing, but I think is came out decently. It also functions as our actual shopping area, since we have an economy.

Walleye Warehouse. This one was pretty fun to build. It serves as an actual warehouse for blocks. There are minecarts that move around to mimic the conveyor belts.

Hammerhead Bridge. While the stage itself is the Splatoon 1 version, it is covered like in Splatoon 3 (I have a moral opposition to the remake). This took so long.

The Reef. I had no part in this one, outside of some minor touch ups. It looks nice, and is pretty accurate. I am, however, working on making the overhead train rail.

Shellendorf Institute. This took forever and two beacons. I love how it turned out, but I’ll probably never have enough copper to build anything substantial again… We also turned it into a server museum, holding several artifacts and rare items including a blue axolotl and a tall fern item.

Manta Maria. I designed the hull of the ship for this one, not the stage itself, though. It's a little smaller than it should be, but is close enough to still be recognizable.

Wahoo World. Another one I didn't do much with. The roller coaster works (sadly doesn't go inverted) and several other rides and attractions are scattered around. If there is a good way to make something spin or extend diagonally I would love to know, it feels very soulless without the movement.

Bluefin Depot. It's the Splatoon 3 version. This is probably my favorite build in the city. It's also the only one where I designed the stage completely by myself. I did get help with the surrounding. It's probably the most accurate stage overall, since it's far enough away that space wasn't a concern.

Spawning Grounds. I mostly did redstone for this one (plus the heli) since it is a fully* functional recreation of Salmon Run, using zombie pigman and gold nuggets.

New stuff/ stuff that wasn't in my reddit post:

A better look at the alleys in both hub areas (Yes that is a spike instead of Spyke)

The Plane. This is based on the plane that flies over in Splatoon 1 (I used the Boundary Break video for better reference)

Moray Towers. This is unfinished, the surrounding buildings, highway, and some terraforming needs to be done.

Stuff that is in the works/planned:

1.Mako Mart

2.Piranha Pit

3.Port Mackerel

4.Sturgeon Shipyard

5.Anchovy Games

6.Kelp Dome

7.Goby Arena

8.Saltspray Rig

9.Tutorial Stages

10.Octo Valley (MAYBE)

11. Octo Canyon (IDK MIGHT HAPPEN)

12.NILS Statue

13.Skipper Pavilion (if there's space)

[cru5h-cascades]

Side Order: First Impressions! (Spoilers!!!)

It's finally that day, mates! Side Order's out at long last and I beat the first boss! Anyways, here are some of my thoughts on the DLC so far:

Having a singular dodge roll for dualies is annoying at first but I guess it's some decent practice for when the Douser Dualies are added in the next update.

AGENT 4 MENTIONED! GUESS I'M GONNA MAKE AN ACTUAL AGENT 4 OC AFTER ALL (I don't have a proper one just yet)!

WE GOT EVIL MARINA!!! At least for like, 2 minutes. But hey it's something! Also the music for the Marina fight is SUPER GOOD SOMEBODY PUT IT ON SOUNDCLOUD ALREADY I NEED THIS TRACK PRONTO.

New dedf1sh music yay!

Kinda wish Marina had more of a reaction to seeing Acht again. I mean hey I only finished the first part of the DLC so maybe there's something I don't get yet.

Nintendo of America didn't goof up on the twitter post they did on dedf1sh last September. THEY/THEM DEDF1SH CONFIRMED!!!

No more "you let the 8 ball fall test failed"!

Pearl canonically also hates 8 balls lmao

ACTUAL POISON INK! PERFECT FOR MY OC ORION!

Marina basically created the Splatoon equivalent to the Metaverse.

Palletes exist because an existing Splatoon character probably got sucked into the Order Sector(?). I wonder what that means for other characters...

[hollowtones]

top five weapons in the splatoon meta

I haven't played enough of the game to have anything meaningful to say about the meta. Also I feel like weapon ranking / usefulness / value depends on a lot of factors. What game mode? What role are you trying to fill? Are you playing with a coordinated team that you can actually communicate with? Something might be real good at stomping in Turf War on a weekend when a lot of new players are hopping on but that's not necessarily going to be able to hold the same kind of ground if you're, say, trying to play the back liner in Splat Zones or Clam Blitz or something.

I want to try out the ranked modes at some point but I want to at least have Some kind of decent gear setup first, which I do not, because I don't play very often. They were real fun in "Splatoon 2" so I'm looking forward to it eventually.

I know some folks get intimidated by ranked mode (what's it called in this one? Anarchy, or something?) on the basis of "oh god they are RANKING ME what if I do POORLY what if SUPER PLAYERS DEFEAT ME" and I get the worry as someone who used to be like that too, but... Part of the fun of a system built around skill-based matchmaking is that you're probably going to get matched up with people that are around your skill level, so you don't have to worry too much about unfair matchups as often. This is unrelated but I'm going to put some bullshit right at the end of my message to trick people that didn't read my whole post. Also I feel like it's not really a big deal if you lose when you're paired up with random people you can't communicate with. Strategic play is going to be inherently hampered by the nature of "you cannot actively communicate strategy". Just think of it as Turf War with different objectives! The game modes are fun!! People should try 'em out!!

tl;dr a team of 4 Bamboozlers can win literally every game mode suuuuper easily

[zikadraws]

I dunno if it's just me, but I'm kind of very intrigued by the Wahoo World mascot, Fresh Fish. Like the idea that Seafolk in Splatoon have their very own cartoon culture, it's interesting to me. What are their fairytales like ? Their pop culture ? And how much of it may have human pop culture ? Is the Pokemon/Transformers/Smash Bros Splatfest thing canon lore-wise ? Do they know what these are from archeology or something else ?

Whatever may be the answers to these questions, I thought I'd do some fanart about this little toon guy. Also some headcanons.

So the Mascot gear that we get in the game is very different aesthetically from Fresh Fish the original toon character, exactly like these animatronics/mascot costumes from Disneyland or whatever fast food place that look fundamentally uncanny compared to the advertised toon characters.

So the OG Fresh Fish is obviously nowhere as creepy that the dudes who wear his mascot gear, however the recent public commercialization of this gear to Turf Players -to try and advertise Wahoo World in sports- triggered the start of his creepypasta era, to the greatest regret of his owners, but also their greater profit. You know how creepypasta fans can be.

Fresh Fish currently has about a dozen creepypastas to his name, even though practically all of them are about Mascot Gear wearers being creepy. These stories are in the vein of "Treasure Island"/"Abandoned by Disney"-type of creepypastas.

Fresh Fish is pretty much the Splatoon equivalent of Mickey Mouse, complete with being more than 80 years old and being one of the most known cartoon mascots out there. (Except his company struggle to keep the flame alive, as most youth lose interest to get into sports and quest for freshness, and it's mostly popular with little kids and nostalgic adults. Also they don't own as much animation than corporate monster Disney, though they're on that brink and very wealthy, it's just not quite as bad.)

Fresh Fish is mostly successful in his 'classic rubberhose toon' series, as many fans enjoy slapstick, and much like Mickey before him, goes on adventures/mysteries during his episodes. His personality is similar to Mickey, in the sense that he's "that nice guy that helps everybody", except he's more fashionable and just a tiiiny bit clueless ; and relies mainly on cartoon luck and hopes that his foes will go easy on his dense ass. He also has pals/acolytes, but no romantic partner.

He can't use ink, but he's been known to have a shot at it (ha ha) more than once.

There are a bunch of sponsor episodes staring brand mascots that are either horribly cringe or very engaging, no in-betweens.

After the creepypasta uprising, his company started out spookier episodes and a new character trait to be unintentionally off-putting (pretty much making him unknowingly autistic), which have actually a decent success.

His eyes actually DO glow in the dark, but it's just a specie thing.

And boy I'd probably come up with more, but I think I'm gonna stop here.

Alright anyway, I hope you like it ! I totally agree that the dudes who use his mascot gear are one whole other level of Splatoon player, but you get my vibe. It's just funny to speculate.

Oh yeah btw I do indeed love "Classic Toons" characters. I might do more around him in the future. (Maybe in the style of that one fake Splatoon 3 artbook I did for school that I have yet to show someday.)

Thanks for your attention and have a good day :)

[dogtoling]

I got Engel! they're so cute, could you tell me more about them?

A few people have asked about Engel actually and I'm not going to reply to all of those (since it's like, the same answer) so i'll do this one!!

I'm pretty sure I posted his design thing from last year on here but here he is (yes, he is a dude despite how he dresses. he is incredibly used to people thinking he is a girl. and he doesn't really care at this point)

Interestingly he is actually not from Octaria OR Inkopolis but actually grew up in the Deepsea and he hated it, like, a lot. Which explains why when he got settled on the surface, he founded a band called Deep Sea Dead Zone. because the deep sea is a dead goddamn place.

Their first album came out in 2017 and the second one, well... it hasn't happened yet because their guitarist kinda fucked off. That guitarist being Dodo, while the other band members are Boy and Peppermint. They're still kinda in the process of recruiting a new one, and while Engel has PLENTY of songs written and probably almost ready to go, the band is still stuck in a bit of limbo because everyone is STILL kind of busy with you know, adult stuff, and other life stuff

(the unhinged cover photo. In spite of how cute Engel likes to dress, his songs are.... hm..... yeah)

The main thing going on for him is being the lead guy for the band, which has also resulted in him being micro-celebrity mostly on social media, but he's also looking to be a fashion designer. Kind of a lot in his life got messed up because of the band going on hiatus and other things happening that threw him out of the loop... he's not a very stable person and yes i took the twitter thread from some tumblr post i saw and edited him into it

(and peppermint. they're best friends and used to be roomies)

Engel is a really outgoing and energetic person usually, and he really doubles down on the cute aesthetics, so a lot of people who don't specifically know him from his band are really surprised to learn what kind of music he writes. In total contrast to how his personality seems to be, like a lot of lyrics are ridiculously moody, angry or straight up depressing...

so basically, he's got a lot going for him but also a lot going against him, mostly his own mental health and past trauma. But he HAS been doing much better recently (therapy, meds et cetera) AND he even has a slug now to help with a feeling of normalcy. Living alone is pretty difficult for him especially with how busy a lot of his friends have been pretty much since their turf team broke up a good few years ago... that was way before Splatoon 2 and before the band even existed

(his emotional support slug, Meat, is pictured in the tableturf drawing)

briefly about his turf team, during the era of Splatoon 1 turf wars in the early 2010's, Deep Sea Dead Zone were a blue ink battling team! (though that was not their name.) Peppermint was a Krak-On Splat Roller, Boy was a .52 Gal, Dodo was an E-Liter 3K and Engel was, of course, a Carbon Roller

He was also brand new to the surface, could barely speak the language, and had to pretty much sneak out to meet up and play with his friends. It's a whole thing. Playing with friends was always the main draw of ink battling as a sport for him, obviously, even though he was pretty decent on his own. When Peppermint had to retire from them due to health reasons, no one (except Dodo because he was never in it for the friends anyway) really felt the urge to keep playing anymore, so he's not touched ink battling since like, probably 2015

With that being said though.... Peppermint has returned to Turf Wars and looks like she misses him

[loserlesbianbehavior]

Tagged by @mika-moof

Last song i heard: I Thought I Was an Angel - UtsuP

One of my favorites! Painfully relatable. Good for a cry.

Fav color: It varies a lot! Light blue, dark blue, hot/dark pink, etc!

My eyes are hazel, my hair is faded from a blue dye job, need to fix that!

Last watched Series: WataOshi, I don't watch a ton of stuff these days, but this was a fantastic adaptation!

Spicy/Sweet/Savory: I love all, I definitely get in moods for sweets, but I pretty much always like savory and spicy.

Relationship Status: Committed relationship of nearly 14 years! I love my partner very much!

Last thing i googled: YouTube, to get to YouTube. For video to watch while eating.

Last thing i read: Last thing I actually finished was Yofukashi no Uta, which I liked a fair bit! Pretty decent, especially for het and shounen.

Current Obsession: Nurse Love series, and especially my beloved wife from it, Sayuri Sakai.

Something I'm looking forward to: I guess Splatoon 3 DLC? Not sure. Kinda in a brutally busy time in my life right now, so, the end of that also? Will probably be months though.

Mika took most of the people I'd probably tag for this, so

@stew-chan

@takanomura

@yuribeam

@lunchfoodz

No pressure!

[kieuecaprie]

now that big big run is over and i've tried out the new stringer and splatana, i now have no real motivation to continue playing splatoon 3.

was it fun at least? big big run? yeah, of course, the grizzco roller FUCKS. the game itself? well... not particularly.

on the pve side of things, the game is good, maybe even pretty damn great. salmon run is so much better than it has ever been, the story mode is ballin', and while side order is not my favorite, it's had its moments even though it lost its luster very quickly.

what i didn't like was that nintendo clearly didn't want you to level your catalog via salmon run only, its points per minute is WORSE than losing a turf war. why?

oh god, speaking of catalogue... it's the one of the worst implementations for a battle pass i've seen. sure, it's free, but the point grind is so painfully slow that i'm left wondering if nintendo really wanted to throw in the funny mtx but didn't. salmon run is fun but the points gained from there is slow. ranked mode has a good point per minute... if you win, good luck with that. turf war is consistent but also painful and doesn't feel very fun in the current meta.

which now brings me to pvp, somehow it's gotten worse, in my eyes. maps are not great, weapons tend towards special spam (splatoon 2 all over again...) or being a charger, which are much more oppressive in 3 due to the map design favoring them, despite nintendo's, uh, efforts.

i can't really think of many moments where i've actually had fun with splatoon 3's pvp besides feeling ambivalent most of the time and outright gamer raged the rest.

and what about the other additions?

lockers? pretty cool for the first few hours then kind of gets left to gather dust.

cards? pretty neat, not my thing, got no complaints about it.

new lobbies? cool glorified skins for the lobby area.

side order? it's... fine. not the best and kinda disappointing but still pretty decent, i think i've already talked about it before.

big run? fun especially after 6.0, you do not want to know what it was like before then.

but as a whole? splatoon 3 just feels like a mixed bag for me and it isn't giving me much hope for splatoon 4.

i'd love for them to prove me wrong though.

[dr-spectre]

Rating all of Callie's Outfits!!!

I'm bored so i decided to go through most of Callie's different looks, including most from concept art and promotional material, and rate them all on a scale of 1-10.

1 = trash

2 = very bad

3 = bad

4 = below average

5 = mixed

6 = decent

7 = good

8 = great

9 = amazing

10 = perfect

Now I'm not an expert on character design or fashion so i may not have the most insightful and """"objective"""" takes or whatever, but I'm just going off how i feel about the looks. This is very subjective and if you disagree then that's perfectly fine. I also won't be including EVERY SINGLE outfit in every piece of concept art, some of it are just variants of pre existing outfits (Haicalive Kyoto Mix golden outfit, concept art of her squid sisters outfit but with a different pattern) and some are just concepts for the Squid Sisters in general and not "Callie outfits." (Splatoon 1 has a lot of these and uh... they are quite interesting... recommend looking at it on Inkipedia. Very.... interesting indeed.)

Anyways, let's get into it. (Images from Inkipedia)

Splatoon 1 - Squid Sisters Outfit

Rating: 10/10

I think there's a clear reason as to why this outfit is so damn iconic. It's simple yet effective, it stands apart from Marie's outfit while still maintaining the theme of a "j-pop idol." It has a very strong silhouette, eye catching magentas that are complemented by the blue reflective parts on the outfit, and those pumpkin pants fit Callie's personality so insanely well. She looks absolutely adorable and stunning in that outfit.

Splatoon 1 - Young Callie

Rating: 10/10

Do i even need to say anything? LOOK AT HER! SHES SO CUTEEEEE!!!!!! UGHHHHHHHHAAAAAAA!!!!!! IM GONNA FUCKING EXPLODE FROM THE SHEER AMOUNT OF CUTENESS I'M SEEING!!! LOOK AT HER LITTLE KIMONO! AHHHHHH!!!!!

Splatoon 1 - Red Fox Splatfest

Rating 8/10

It's Callie wearing a Christmas hat and a nice red dress. What's not to love?

Splatoon 1 - Fancy Dress

Rating: 9/10

I literally cannot think of a single flaw or dislike about this dress. Maybe the dress is a bit simple? But that's me REALLY pushing it. It's still so fucking beautiful. SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL! I NEEEEDDD a 3D model of this ASAP!

Splatoon 1 - Concept Art 1

Rating: 7/10

I mean, it's pretty good but it's not outstanding you know? Love the heels, the fabric at the back of her waist on the first image, the batwing like skirt on the second one. It definitely has a unique vibe to it I'll give it that. There's a decent amount of good things here, however i don't know how to feel about THAT short of a skirt on Callie. She was 17 at the beginning of Splatoon 1 and some of the dance moves she does involve moving her legs a lot so.... it would have... you know.... issues.... yeahhhh.... I would love to see this outfit get adapted but with some tweaks like maybe a slightly longer skirt, maybe higher heels and leggings that go up more her legs? Maybe her arm wraps on the left image could get rid of the dots and keep the squid head pattern? It's a pretty good outfit and has a unique feel to it, but it needs some tweaks.

Splatoon 1 - Concept Art 2

Rating 6/10

The roller skates are actually such an amazing idea for Callie and work well for her, they need to appear on a 3d model, I WANNA SEE CALLIE SKATING AROUND! COME ON! Anyways, this outfit is kinda... okay. The black and pink variant looks the best out of the three in my opinion but idk man, it's kind of just a regular cheerleading outfit. The roller skates give this like 6 points alone lmao.

Splatoon 1 - Concept Art 3

Rating: 8/10

This outfit with a few minor tweaks could easily become a 10/10 to be honest. If they either went fully black and white, or changed the white lines on the dress and shoulders to magenta it would look outstanding! Love the flashy sneakers too, it gives the impression that Callie can be both elegant and energetic, which, she is. Also if she had a more fancy piece of headgear that matched the fancy looking dress it would help as well.

Splatoon 2 - Hypno / Octo Callie

Rating: 8/10

I'm gonna be honest with y'all, i used to not like this outfit for Callie. People saw this outfit and said it was fire and amazing, however when i saw it, i saw all the misconceptions, all the misinformation, ruining such an interesting arc, boiling it down to "Callie was kidnapped, overpowered and then brainwashed with evil brain warping shades, being used by the Octarians as some slave and being branded with a tattoo." This outfit made me feel icky and really uncomfortable. Seeing a character i love being boiled down to some abused helpless victim when it's far from what truly happened.

However, after giving another look at it, after taking in all the information and the amount of time i spent trying to piece together her arc and all the events that actually took place beforehand. I gotta say, this outfit is growing a place in my heart. The colors are so strong in this and i can't exactly put my finger as to why. Turning the 3 cut pattern on it's side and putting it on her chest makes her look more "mature" i would say as well. And of course, the shades, they are iconic for a reason. The way the outfit sort of flows from top to bottom is really well done. But I think it kinda needs a few tweaks to make it flow better though, maybe cover up her arms with that leathery material on her chest, make that sparkly material on her legs flow up onto her midriff instead of having an exposed tummy would be kinda sick in my opinion.

It's honestly a damn great interpretation of an "Evil Callie." In the artbook they said that they wanted to make Callie more mature looking and i think they did a good job at it, but it needs some things added to it to help it flow better in my opinion. Also... Don't know how to feel about her underwear just poking out of her hips.... Like damn girl PULL UP DEM SHORTS!

Splatoon 2 - Tentakeel Outpost / Agent 1 Outfit

Rating 7/10

This outfit is just really cute and comfy looking, which makes sense because it's meant to be Callie in a more causal getup and it looks really adorable and warm. It has had a variant in Splatoon 1 where she has pink leggings and a sleeveless design but it has the same rating from me to be honest. The little star on the beanie too is awesome too, it's just such a nice little thing they added and it complements her lovely golden eyes.... so cute.... uh... moving on...

Splatoon 2 - Concept Art 1

Rating: 6/10

This one is kinda tricky for me to rate because i see what they were going for but... I think it needs some tweaks and a few changes. I think it would be cool to see the glowing pinkish red leggings go all over her body like a skin tight suit up to her shoulders and it would look pretty damn sick i feel. I love the long gloves, the heels, the color scheme is very interesting as well. Overall, it's decent but i think it needs some improvements.

Splatoon 2 - Concept Art 2

Rating: 8/10

I can totally imagine Callie chilling out in the beach bases in Octo Canyon with this on. I like how the boots and the bikini match her hair too in color. The fuzzy pink coat is so damn sick too, i love it.

Splatoon 2 - Concept Art 3

Rating: 2/10

No... Just straight up, no. You're already giving some people weird and icky implications with the final Hypno Callie design, but this just.... no man.... HOWEVER! The swirly eyes? Good addition, a little generic for a character under hypnosis but i wish they kept the swirly eyes. It would have furthered pushed the idea that Callie is not herself and has descended into villainy and given into the darkness in her head. But at least we got mods! (Look at frequent.squidsisters on instagram to see what i'm talking about. You won't regret it.)

Splatoon 2 - Concept Art 4

Rating: 6/10 (sorry for the low quality image i couldn't find a good image of this outfit anywhere)

Just like concept art 1, it's alright, it doesn't help that there isn't a clear enough image of this outfit but, i do love the transparent fabric on her dress? skirt? idk. But it looks nice. Still though the outfit looks a little plain for someone like Callie however it's got a nice color palette.

Splatoon 2 - 1st Anniversary

Rating: 10/10

I don't care what you say, i am the number 1 defender of this outfit, the fucking goofy socks, the blues and reds on her leggings and... bra? Leotard? Is she wearing a leotard under that? (I don't know anything on women's clothing I'm so sorry please don't hurt me....) Her pink lipstick, the necklace, IT'S SO DAMN GOOD! I NEED MORE OF THIS OUTFIT! NOW! I WANT A 3D MODEL TOO! GIVE IT TO ME! NOW!

Also this is the first time Callie has had one of her tentacles in front of her face which comes back later in the next game....

Splatoon 2 - Smash Bros. Splatfest

Rating: 7/10

She do be rocking dem shoes tho i gotta admit. It's good. i don't have much to say. The Smash Bros. earrings fucking rule as well, that's worth 6 points alone.

Splatoon 2 - Squidmas 2019

Rating: 5/10

Eh. It's okay, not really the most "Squidmas" thing you can wear but. The artwork is cute at least. The gang just chilling out, taking a picture, very cute.

Splatoon 2 - Splatoween 2020

Rating: 10/10

The fact that we never got a 3D model of this outfit is a fucking crime in it of itself. The headwear, the web like design on her neck and head, the lipstick, the fingertips, the gothic dress.... those... red eyes.....

She looks so damn hot, I'm sorry but this look is doing things to me that my lawyers are advising me NOT to elaborate on....

Splatoon 2 - Final Fest

Rating 7/10

I decided to break my rule on not covering variants because i really wanted to talk about this look, the gold colors used on this outfit are so damn good and i really cannot describe exactly why, Pearl's crown is such a lovely addition too, i fucking adore it. I can't give this anything higher than a 7 because its just a recolour and a crown and thats it... I really do wish they gave Callie a more unique "chaotic" look to her iconic outfit to match the theme better, but oh well. There's always next time.... which we will get to...

Splatoon 3 - Alterna Outfit

Rating: 10/10

When i tell you that this is my favorite Callie look, ever, do NOT take that lightly.

This outfit, in my personal opinion, is perfection. It combines all the different aspects of Callie's previous major designs into one perfect package. It takes the general shape and silhouette of Splatoon 1 Callie and mixes it with Hypno Callie's leathery and mature appearance, giving us an outfit that shows Callie's class and excitable nature. It's a mature and refined outfit, much like how Callie is in Splatoon 3.

I mean it's hard to fuck up an outfit that's mainly in black and white and thankfully they didn't. The ONLY thing i can somewhat see criticism for is the color choice, but thankfully, we got mods to give her the magenta back and it looks beautiful. I LOVE the silver aspects of the outfit too like the soles of the boots, the silver bandolier across her shoulder and the silver choker. And i like an outfit that has a choker... It does things to me... UM! ANYWAYS! YEAH PERFECT OUTFIT! UH! TOTALLY HAVEN'T TAKEN 100s OF PHOTOS OF HER... YEP! MHM.......

Splatoon 1-3 Pokemon Red Outfit

Rating: 6/10

I decided to put this here because this outfit appears in both Splatoon 1 in Splatfest art as well as in one of the Sunken Scrolls in Splatoon 3. It's a pretty cute outfit, i don't have any strong feelings towards it, it looks nice.

Splatoon 3 - Splatoween

Rating: 9/10

I prefer the other Splatoween outfit that appears in Splatoon 2's artwork but, this is still fucking awesome. She looks like a cute little pumpkin! SHES SO CUTE! The fucking red eyes too oh my GODDDDD!!!! The stitching face paint too!?! Oh man. My ONLY criticism is that the headpiece is too plain. If it was a Jack-o'-lantern or skull or something, it would easily get a 10/10 for sure. But overall, Callie looks like a cute little pumpkin and i wanna eat her up!..............

....not... not in that way tho get your mind out of the gutter-

Splatoon 3 - FrostyFest

Rating: 8/10

A damn great outfit for Callie that makes her look all nice and snuggly. She reminds me a lot of coffee for some reason and just by looking at her I'm craving for a nice cup of coffee. Also the best part of this outfit is that HER NOSE IS RED BECAUSE SHE'S COLD AWWW!! SOMEONE GIVE HER A HOT CHOCOLATE! NOW!

Splatoon 3 - Springfest

Rating: 9/10

This is the most girlypop Callie has ever been. The striped leggings, the eggshell head piece is fucking cute. I don't have any real complaints with this to be honest, maybe its a bit TOO colorful because of the different colored reflections on her body but, that's me REALLY pushing it there. This is such a cute outfit for her. The little face paint too omg....

Splatoon 3 - Summer Nights

Rating: 10/10

You guys know that one image of the monkey staring at the mid section of a woman and it says "neuron activation"? That's literally me. They gave Callie a new outfit that not only looks fantastic with such a great set of colors, shoes, head piece and zippers. But it's also designed to where it makes an outline on the underside of her belly.... nintendo... WHY YOU GOTTA DO THIS TO ME!?!?! I try to be all family friendly and level headed and shit but OH MY GOD! You're activating the primal urges in my body, you're making me go fucking feral with this design. YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS TO ME! YOU'RE CHEATING! You can't just highlight her fucking fupa with that short dress!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! WHY NINTENDO WHYYY!!!! God I'm not ready for the dances moves where she starts spinning around and bending over- UH....

....Anyways, yeah good outfit, love it. The hair? Idk how to feel yet. That's like the one area that isn't turning me on- I MEAN! THE ONE AREA THAT I MAY OR MAY NOT LIKE! AHAHAHA!!!!!!.....

I'm moving on before my made up lawyers yell at me-

Splatoon 3 - News Anchor Outfit

Rating: 10/10

I mean guys. Come on. What do you want me to say about this outfit? It's Callie in a suit. DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN WHY IT'S SO GOOD?!?! WHY DO YOU THINK EVERY SINGLE SPLATOON ARTIST ON THE PLANET MADE ART OF THIS!??! The only thing that i wanna talk about is, what's below Callie's waist? Is it a pencil skirt or pants? This is important information for me. I'm on teams pants because it makes sense for Callie's energetic personality, all the dresses she's worn have either been real short or loose. I don't think she would wear a real tight skirt that restricts her legs but who knows. NINTENDO YOU BETTER ANSWER THIS OR I SWEAR TO GOD-

Splatoon 3 - Concept Art 1

Rating: 7/10

We don't have a lot to go off when it comes to this concept art as it's pretty undetailed and sketchy looking, but looking at what they were trying to go for and giving Callie a post-apocalyptic look, it looks pretty good. Love the puffy sleeves, the gas mask is pretty awesome and the sort of sporty shorts? tights? Fit Callie as well. Don't have much to say other than that.

Splatoon 3 - Concept Art 2

Rating: 8/10

Now this? This is great. The ragged cape, the pants, the boots, the shirt, the fucking shades! This is an awesome look for her and it makes you wonder what kind of story mode were they originally going for. What kind of plans did they have for ROTM? Was it going to be set in the crater instead of Alterna? Hmm...

I would love to see someone give detail to this and make it a full piece of art to bring out it's full potential.

Splatoon 3 - Grand Festival Outfit.

Rating: 9/10

This outfit to me, is ALMOST perfect. She looks like a pretty princess with that cute dress on. I LOVEEEE her spike headdress, the shoes and the pearlescent hair color. However, i do wish there was just more color on the outfit in general, i get why they decided to go with this look because they wanted to have a color scheme that would unify all of the idols together. But, do wish there was some hints of magenta to break up the dull beige, or her iconic 3 squid stripe design she has on her Squid Sisters outfit, oh well!

So that is it for my ratings of MOST of Callie's different looks that she has had over the past 9 years. Callie is such a fashionable character and has rarely had any BAD outfits aside from one that was in concept art anyways.

Hoped you enjoyed my ratings and ramblings (and mildly horny incriminating talkings...) about this squid lady that i love so... so much... maybe a bit too much.... i need help...

[steellotus54]

This is how you do a pinned post right?

Hiya! I'm Marisa, but you can call me Mari. I've been lurking about for a while now, and I figure it's time I changed that!

Literally everything is below the cut, on account of there being so much text.

My Tags

Whoops, I left this empty on purpose! I’ll add tags here as they become necessary, so check back every once in a while.

What I do (and want to do)

Worldbuilding (Been doing it in some form in my spare time for as long as I can remember. No idea how good any of it is, but I’ll occasionally post about it nonetheless - I love talking about the stuff I make.)

Pixel art (I've lost track of how long I've been doing it for, but nevertheless I'd like to think I'm at least decent at it.)

Game Development (I have too many ideas and must make them. With Godot, of course.)

Make music (Of the chiptune variety specifically. I got famistudio a while ago and I have no clue what I’m doing. I’ll figure something out though.)

Stuff I Like (in no particular order)

Splatoon Franchise (I'm a series vet, played since the first game's testfire!)

Celeste (One of, if not the best example(s) of video games as an art form. I can and will die on this hill.)

Terraria and Minecraft (I'm a sucker for sandboxes where you can build shit. Granted, I'm mediocre at actually doing so, but what can I say.)

Mindustry (The best game you can play on a phone. And it's on steam + itch. And it has official mod support on all platforms. And it's still receiving content updates. And- Dies)

Ultrakill (Sensory overload: the shooter, but it’s fun so I don’t care.)

Octopath Traveler 2 (I'm Very Normal about Castti. I'm totally not obsessed with her what could you possibly be talking about.)

No Man’s Sky

Noita

Slime Rancher

Cult of the Lamb

Electronic and Chiptune music (I fucking love this stuff and I cannot explain why for the life of me.)

Where to find me (and not find me)

You can find me on bluesky (where I post my art) and youtube (where I rarely post video devlogs and whatever else comes to mind). Relevantly, you will not find me on tiktok or instagram - I choose not to use either of these platforms for a variety of reasons, and I will not expound upon them.

Boundaries

This list is not a DNI. It describes how I will act or respond regarding certain situations or kinds of people, because that’s how boundaries actually work. Also note that this list is here for transparencies sake and is non-exhaustive. I can and will make liberal use of the block button for reasons not listed.

I block TERFs, radfems, and bigots of any other variety on sight. This blog is a trans-friendly space, and I will NOT tolerate bigotry when I see it. This is your first and only warning.

Additionally, fuck JK Rowling. If you interact with JK Rowling's works, you’ll get blocked.

While we’re on the subject, don’t refer to me with traditionally masculine terms (dude, bro, and the like) or he/him pronouns - I don’t care what your reasoning is. If you do it once unintentionally as a force of habit I won’t be particularly aggravated, but repeat occurrences will result in a block.

I don't mess with gacha games (or any others that are microtransaction-heavy for that matter) as I believe them to be predatory and unethical. If you recommend that I (or anyone else) play any gacha game(s) on my posts, you get blocked.

I'm here to have a nice fun time, NOT to have arguments with randos. Try and pick a fight with me, and you’ll get blocked. What constitutes 'picking a fight' will be determined at my discretion. Quote: "I am not interested in discourse. I am right."

If I didn't put something here and/or you want clarification about something, I encourage you to ask, but I request that you respect my decision to not disclose information about myself. To state this more clearly: Do not pressure me to post (or otherwise make public) information about myself. If you do, I WILL block you immediately. This extends to non-personal information of any variety. Who I am offline is none of your business, end of story.

Don’t ask me for donations or to boost a donation post. I understand that finances are tough for a lot of you, but I don’t have the money to spare, nor is this the correct blog to be asking for this kind of assistance from. These requests will be deleted when they are received. I will block you if this occurs more than once.

Last, but certainly not least: If your blog is untitled and/or lacks a profile picture, I will block you if you follow me. You look like a bot in that instance. I shouldn’t have to explain this.

That just about covers everything! I hope you find my little corner on this hellsite at least somewhat enjoyable to pass through. May good fortune find y'all!

[lancerious]

Ok I made the Nintendo franchises tier list and am ready to see everyone protest

I'm not going to go over the franchises I've never heard of or know VEEEEEEEEERY little about. Therefore I'll only be talking about things in the "Absolutely love" tier down to the "Meh" tier, in that order. If I know a franchise and have experienced it, I'll mention that. If not, I'll just give my initial impression of it. Anyway, let'sa go!

Also I forgot to take screenshots of each individual tier and am too lazy to go back and actually add them, so if you get lost come back up here, k? K :).

Second little thing, I just went forward a color on the rainbow with each tier I cover. So PLEASE pay attention to what tier I'm actually on, and not so much the color.

Starting with the "Absolutely love" tier...

#1: Super Mario. Mario is, without a doubt, my favorite Nintendo franchise to ever exist. I've played a lot of Mario games and have legitimately beaten a couple of them (Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3D Land--both for the 3DS--if you're curious). Otherwise I just cheat and die ten million times until I get that essentially-immortal powerup lol, or in the case of Super Mario Bros. Wii, Luigi SOMEHOW does the entire stage for me. But yeah, Mario is my absolute FAV, my entire childhood was Mario. Love this franchise from the bottom of my heart :).

#2: Animal Crossing. Ok so most of you will be shocked, but I've TECHNICALLY never played any Animal Crossing game. I know what you do, I know characters from the games, and I know how the games work, but I've never played one before. I even know that older games had more...COLORFUL villagers but less to do, and newer games have A LOT more to do but less interesting villagers. WITH this being said, I absolutely love Animal Crossing and am DYING to try the franchise at somepoint. Instant favorite even though I've never tried a game from the franchise before.

Now to the "Pretty good" tier :D.

#1: Mariokart. Mariokart rocks man. I've only played a couple of the games--Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS and the REGULAR Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U--but even then I still love them. I've played these two games so much I've essentially become a god at both of them. The maps and music often SLAP too.

#2: Zelda. I have technically played Zelda...barely. I don't remember what game it was, but I know it was on a DS or 3DS. Based on the TINY bit I remember about the graphics and environment, I think it was Ocarina of Time. I don't really remember anything--I made like 0 progress in the game lol--but I still think it's a good franchise! Majora's Mask especially peaks my interest.

#3: Luigi's Mansion. Similar to Animal Crossing, I've never actually played a Luigi's Mansion game. However, I HAVE seen a full playthrough of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, so I think I have a decent grasp on what the franchise is about lol. A side series focusing on Luigi is always nice--poor guy always gets overshadowed by Mario--and the concept, as well as atmosphere, is really intriguing to me. I definitely want to give this franchise a try in the future as well.

Next up, the "Not Bad" tier :>.

#1: Mario Party. Mario Party's not too shabby! I did play one of these games at one point, but I completely forget which one it is. I THINK there were maybe 3 different maps? I know it was on the DS or 3DS too. Anyway, Mario Party's pretty fun, especially if you play with friends, hehe :>.

#2: Splatoon. I will admit I don't know a lot about Splatoon, but I really like the little I DO know about it. I know there's a minigame where you try to color the cap with ink--or is it a minigame?--and I know a few of the characters you can play as, but that's pretty much it. Still seems interesting though!

#3: Paper Mario. Mario but on paper! Also partly 2D? I think? I'm assuming the whole point of the games is that most of it is in 2D. I honestly have no idea :P. But yeah, the games seem fun! I think these games are known for having villains that aren't Bowser--which if so is genius--as well, but I could be wrong.

#4: Mario & Luigi. I BARELY know anything about this franchise, but it seems all right! I'm assuming you can swap between controlling Mario and controlling Luigi, and I think there's Baby Mario & Baby Luigi too in a couple games.

#5: Metroid. Samus is from here! At least I'm pretty sure Samus is from here :P. I don't know much about Metroid either, but I do know it's a shooter/platformer-type deal and is centered around sci-fi and aliens. At least I think it is lol.

#6: Pikmin: Ok so, to be completely honest, I know virtually nothing about Pikmin. I know it exists, I know some characters look like goofy little plants...and that's about it. The only reason Pikmin is this high is because I know it exists and like some of the designs lol. I know nothing else about it.

Finally, the "Meh" tier!

#1 Pokemon. Okay, in all honesty, I should've put Pokemon a little higher, but I already made the list and don't want to go back and correct it. I have some good memories from Pokemon, but I only really like the part where you wander around towns and talk to people. I'm not too keen on capturing Pokemon, leveling them up, battling Pokemon...you know, the entire plot of Pokemon. I've only played Pokemon on my cousin's DS--or was it 3DS?--when we hung out together at a family gathering and had nothing to do. I never even owned a Pokemon game. Boy the Pokemon fans are gonna hate me for this T-T.

#2: Dr. Mario. Um. You play as Mario, but a doctor. You...match things? Pills maybe? And kill viruses? I think that's the point? Idk man, that's literally all I know. Seems cool, but strays so far from the main Mario IP that it doesn't interest me all that much.

#3: Starfox. This one's ok. I like the concept of intergalactic travel and it kinda being the Nintendo version of Space Invaders, but meh...I never really wanted to play a game from this franchise all that much. The one thing I like about it is this really weird easter egg from one of the games that would be too long to explain here :P.

#4: Kirby. Ok this is gonna be embarrassing, but for so long I thought Kirby was a female. 'Course now I know Kirby's a male, but dang, past me was dumb and never thought to look it up on Google ;-;. But yeah, Kirby's also ok. Kinda seems a bit too similar to Mario in my eyes, though I guess Mario can't eat literally anything :P.

#5: Yoshi. I've never actually played a game with Yoshi as the protagonist. I always just encountered Yoshi in a regular Mario game. The games seem all right, Wooly World looks GORGEOUS though holy CRAP.

#6: Donkey Kong. Finally, another franchise I've actually played! Donkey Kong is...eh. Never really liked it. My parents bought a couple Donkey Kong games over the years, but I only played one, and that is Donkey Kong Country Returns. At least I think that's how it goes. There are a couple highlights I liked from the game, first is the stage with that minecart. THAT was fun, even if I sucked at it lol. The other highlight is those weird pillar things with faces that scream bloody murder. I like those things so much and I don't know why. But yeah, I didn't get far into the game, and Donkey Kong ultimately suffers the same problem as Kirby: it's too similar to Mario. I'd rather play a Mario game than both Kirby and Donkey Kong.

#& Wario Ware. Truth be told, I know nothing about this franchise, but I'm GUESSING it includes all the Wario titles, because what else would it involve :P. The franchise seems all right I guess, but still, I'd rather play Mario.

Well that's it, this actually went quicker than I thought it would lol, but that's partly because I know so few Nintendo franchises. And to think I thought I know most of 'em...NOPE :D. Guess I need to work on that. I'm ready for you all to say my opinions are horribly controversial now :P.

[mario8th]

I don't know if I'm writing this post out for anyone really, I think I just need to see it written out. Mario In Review is set to finish March 10th, and I really don't want to take a break. I mean, I really, really do, but also really really don't at the same time. So I've been hard at work* writing scripts to fit into this gap in scheduling. *trying and bashing my head against writers block So after MIR I think I'm going to try and get a review about Tunic out. I think I know what I want to talk about, but I'm having a really hard time writing it all down. Even me writing this is to procrastinate writing the actual script, although I made decent progress today having now finished Two(2) whole paragraphs. Then I want to do a review of the 1993 seminal hit Super Mario Bros, and the scheduling works out perfectly so the next video can be a review of the 2023 probably questionable but undoubtedly financial hit Super Mario Bros After that's more of a wash. I've got ideas for Psychonauts 1 and 2. Splatoon 3's single player. And I'd like to write about how Lil' Gator Game takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild while incorporating it in a much smaller scale game.

Different topic, I just started watching the second part of Jojo Stone Ocean after putting it off for some reason. I always forget how much I love JoJo until I'm watching it, but man is it some good Anime. Definitely gonna talk about it on my pod next week Also today I got my final part to what will soon be my new PC, so tomorrow I think I'm gonna try and "build a PC" which is still incredibly scary to me.

And I just realized that as of tomorrow I've been making Youtube videos for 2 years now. February 3rd I released my 2020 GOTY video, a couple weeks later I put out a video on the Paradise Killer soundtrack, an album I am listening to literally right now as I'm writing this. And I wasn't entirely consistent that first year, but as of January 22nd 2022 I've kept a consistent schedule of every other week (except for Christmas where I went a week early, and now I'm going to weekly again, plus I started a podcast in there too) But other than one week where I missed a podcast I've been remarkably consistent. I think that's a big part of the reason why I want to get a video out in between Mario In Review and the Mario Movies Reviews. Even though I'll have been going weekly for 6 weeks I want to keep to the base schedule. Also just in general I've spoiled myself by having so many videos done in advance, now knowing I only have a little over a month to finish the next feels, I dunno, bad. This is tangential but I've started receiving more thumbs downs on my videos than before. Someone disliked my 21 GOTY, and my most recent podcast. And as it turns out dislikes really suck. There's literally nothing I can take away. Did those people just not like me? Did they not like my opinions? Did they not like my production? Cannot say, it's just a number. But a number that I wish didn't affect me as much as it does. I think in the end I'm just telling myself I need to keep doing it, but it's certainly disheartening.

I think that's enough of that. To recap, Mario in review for the next 6 weeks, then bi-weekly hopefully a video (about Tunic, maybe lil Gator Game), then the Mario Movies. And I'll keep doing the podcast for now too. Okay bye!!!!!

[strawberrydracos]

Alright! Update! Played Mission 3, 4 and 5 today!

@technoblade-apologist-and-proud (I think I have to tag you in every reblog so it shows up to you, sorry if I don't lmao)

First off starting by answering your reblog! 1. Playing with expert controls reminded me of playing with motion controls in splatoon, it's hard at first but you get much better if you start off like that! Also I love to truly learn a game's mechanics 2. Dw about explaining the story sksksksksk I have a general grasp bc a friend already talks about it to me! 3. I'm familiar with the OST bc this friend also sends a lot of it to me and man. It's great, all of it. 4. My friend also also warned me about the dlc placement so thankfully I was already aware, can't wait to get there Now to the notes! Mission 3 started off well and then Jezz Bezos showed up with his amazon drones. I played well this time, didn't die at all, even if I'm still playing like a drunken bastard.

Always love the post mission cutscenes, girlie pop is talking about her life and big plans with the cowboy music in the back and I don't even know her name, girl who are you. Also Mihaly's doctor is voiced by the same guy that voiced G1 Michigan from Armored Core 6, what the hell honestly. Also I want to know how was the development process to choose Mihaly's full name. Did each dev just say a last name out loud and they just kept writing? I need to know. It's too funny.

Mission 4's briefing scared me. I had no hopes for my future. I was certain I would die. I faked my pilot ID and was suffering the consequences.

Piloting between the radars was impressively fine tho. First time I got fucked by the wind and crashed into the sea for whichever time already, but the second time I was prepared and managed to get around easily, almost crashed on the city, but things turned out well.

Second part of the mission was alright too, I did crash into the sea AGAIN while only one target was left but I am learning. Maybe I'll get a real pilot ID before they find out mine is fake.

Third part right after went smoother, no crashing on the sea this time. My squadron is fucking useless tho they’re fighting for their lives up there and I’m also fighting for their lives. Horrible job everyone, hit the showers.

And then the end cutscene plays. My honest reaction:

NO, MOTHER GOOSE NOO THEY’RE ACCUSING ME OF CRIMES I DIDN’T COMMIT NOOOO JEFF BEZOS NOOOOOOOO THEY’RE GOING TO CONFISCATE MY FAKE ID

I WAS FOUND GUILTY??? HOW???

They sent me to fucking. Narkina 5 dude. Oh my god. All my hard work... My fake ID... It's jover.

Anyways. Mission 5 started smooth compared to the others, the start of not having to shoot was pretty good to try and feel the controllers better, now I’m flying somewhat decent. So much for losing my ID...

Second half of the mission was going fine but for the first time in this I actually got killed from being shot at and not from diving to the ground/sea. I’m getting,, better,, I think. At not hitting the ground, that is.

I was so concentrated on flying around and shooting that I didn’t pay attention on the objective and lost the mission.

Then I lost the mission twice again because??? Idk, I couldn’t kill the last target in time? It looked like it had time so I really don't know what happened there. I managed to finish it tho.

Seeing everyone fly like crazy with the lowpoly planes at the end was great tho... Finally... I have found my people... (Insane criminals... just like me...)

I *started* Mission 6 but didn't manage to finish it. They weren't kidding, Long Day is,, long,,,, For once I really wish I had motion controls here, I feel like it would do wonders to my aim,,, For another I'm struggling to properly hit a bunch of targets in a place at once because the mobility of a plane isn't the same of a mech + it's hard to stay still, one because it's a plane, two because even when I try there's MISSILES TRYING TO HIT ME so I can't really stay still.

I'm having,, so much fun tho. It's genuinely really fun even if the controls are nothing that I ever played before and I want to play it more.

Playing Ace Combat 7

Started playing the game today! I'll go little by little and updating this post through reblogs sksksksks

@technoblade-apologist-and-proud this is for you buddy, since you asked :] Starting with Mission 1 and 2 today

(Putting stuff on read more bc I get a little self concious of long posts)

First impressions of the game upon opening it: Menu music is beautiful "Wow this is so. Graphic design. Wow." upon seeing the actual menus "Why do we have cowboy music on the cutscene?" Girl talking about loving the color of the sky instantly made me remember the damn "Don't you love the color of the sky? / Which one?" classic tumblr post. "That plane looks like a tesla" upon seeing the drone in the cutscene Started laughing for a whole minute when rave music started playing in the plane selection screen before the mission.

Right out of the bat we start Mission 1 with DEATH from controller. I didn't know what to press and the screen only told me about R2 to accelerate so I killed myself by crashing on the end of the take off thingie. This was a warning to what was about to come.

I need to publicly apologize to every Ace Combat fan that has ever lived because inverted controls make me feel insane so I had to "invert" them back to normal. I am very sorry. I have failed you all. Don't look at me.

Anyways, first mission went TERRIBLY. WHO have me a license. I was DRUNK driving in the skies. Absolutely dogshit piloting skills. I didn't know it did a neat little replay of the mission at the end + the replay with the tiny lowpoly planes. Humiliating. Everyone was flying to neatly and I looked like I was using my plane for a ribbon dance.

As someone that played Drakengard on the ps2 and Armored Core on the ps4: Piloting a plane is much more similar to riding a dragon than piloting a mech.

There's a lot going on in the cutscenes, the story seems cool and I have an idea of it already but by god they just feel so goofy sometimes, very silly, I am very lost.

Second mission started terribly as well, I still fly like I'm drunk, I died at least 5 times because I turned a little too much and crashed on the ground. At some point when I was managing to stay alive I thought I was gonna fail from the time running out because I just couldn't hit the targets.

Also. Did you know? In Armored Core you press X, Square and O for boosting and movement, and L1/L2 R1/R2 for your weapons. Ace Combat is the opposite. I've been playing Armored Core for a month already. My brain is having a hard time trying to grasp the controllers, somebody help me.

Second half of this mission went better than the first half bc I *am* learning but by god. I died once because I hit the ground again, I keep doing it, my pilot craves the safety of the ground. It was a nightmare trying to get to the targets to properly hit them but I did manage to do it.

All and all? Game is pretty fun! It will be a challenge to actually learn how to play, specially with expert controls, but that's the fun of every game, learning and mastering!

Had to stop for today but I'll reblog this once I play more :]

[spoopers-bloopers]

Hi! if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is the Bucket Au?

Hi yeah thank you for asking!!! It's a big thing do I hope you don't mind it'll be a bit of a long answer so I’m just stuffing the ramble under a cut!!

tl;dr I wanted more about it posted but I’m currently at the end of a burn-out so I needed a break, but I had the AU on my mind almost the entire time. Small summary on some context for stuff so far, why it’s called Bucket AU, and some plans and also a mention of some other project.

---

Originally I was going to draw/write more and just let it be found out for itself, but art's been rough lately and Splatoon's an easy distraction. (and a lot less emotionally taxing... listen I love Omori for it but it's a really heavy game to constantly have on mind!) Also, I've been trying to take care of myself more so that means going outside now, haha;; I went on a vacation, even, wow...

So I guess I'll just say the meat of it, Bucket AU is a post good end au where Omori appears and lives with Sunny in the real world. It's actually meant to be a more serious AU that's sometimes funny, sometimes cheesy, sometimes morbid.

The main part of it centers around Sunny visiting Faraway a few months after moving to an apartment. Everyone is back to greet Sunny and meet Omori, and Stuff happens to make this possible. I think I got a good plotline going, it sure will be a useful tool for later.

As for the reason it's named Bucket AU, well, it's full name is "Emotional Support Bucket Omori" because one of my friends likened him to the Bucket from Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe. If you know you know.

Its back-end is all memes and funnies simply because it's more fun for me (and my friends), I'm not really a serious person so effectively a bunch of it's just going to be light-hearted shenanigans with a character that Isn't Quite Human and kinda lacks a moral compass. I will not hold back when stuff does gets serious, however.

In other words, most of its content is exploring Omori and what he would be if taken out of Sunny's head, with a few twists. Omori just wants to help :)

Everything about it so far is under the "Bucket AU" tag on this blog, and everything story is planned to be accessed through the AO3 fic, even comics. (but they have to take place in the story, so side comics are probably just staying on here.)

So when's more content? Whenever I can finish what I have, honestly it's a huge project that I've already made a bunch of stuff for, but finishing it is incredibly hard with me being... still pretty new to full-on writing. Drafts, drafts, upon drafts just for a few thousand words. Maybe I'll even reach the ten-thousands...

So if any part does finish it will be bigger that what I already have out, longer chapters, more comics, y'know. It’s a skill I’m trying to get better at, it's still something I'm doing in my free time between other projects. In fact I still have a Celeste blog to finish a story for. (and for those of you here from that, I've already written it, I just need to draw it! Asks will be toned down for more "intermission" posts.)

Aaaand I think that's a decent place to leave this ask so feel free to send more if you have more questions, and as a bonus, the more I think about the AU, the more motivated I am, so chat with me about anything on it! I certainly need the reminder... whistle whistle-