#tarabakes

[starina23]

Whipped up some cupcakes from a box mix today just so I could make colorful spring flowers! 🌸 #TaraBakes #TaraBakes2023 #Cupcakes #SpringBaking https://www.instagram.com/p/CqHBr8MsdvSkpgXouGulerqMz0SmKToSaKa77A0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[iamthekaijuking]

Gigabash character overview: Skorak

One kaiju archetype that could be used when Passion Republic Games was developing Gigabash was that of a gross and/or ominous evil overlord. So they took advantage of that and created Skorak!

The rest of the characters have reveal trailers so I’ll be using them instead of renders.

Skorak is a character that demands strategy and skill in order to play well. He has a gimmick revolving around his shell (which is actually the skull of another kaiju he’s killed but we’ll get to that). He can send out his shell out to track down opponents, throw it as a projectile, use it as a bomb, use it to pull off two pronged attacks, and just generally use it as a sort of “chess piece” on the battlefield. Not having his shell equipped lightens him and lets him move faster and makes some of his attacks last longer, but it comes at a cost. Without his shell he can’t block attacks or use a defensive move, so in order to play Skorak well you’ll have to remain aware of where your shell is, it’s position relative to you and your opponent, and when it’s advantageous to have it equipped or unequipped. When Skorak was revealed it also caught the attention of a little someone called @bogleech.

Design

Given that Ultraman was a huge source of inspiration for Gigabash, it was probably inevitable that we’d get a Gastropod monster since the ultra franchise has produced a handful. Namegon from Ultra Q in particular was a massive source of inspiration for Skorak’s design.

However, Skorak is also described as an evil overlord, so it’s possible that he’s got some Gatanothor in him as well. Gatanothor would later appear in the game with the Ultraman character pack as Camearra’s ultimate.

Skorak has quite a bit of concept art as well! And for awhile PRG was debating giving him up to 4 heads.

Side note: Skorak’s talons erupt from his pupils.

I personally find Skorak really cute and he reminds me of the “Live slug reaction” meme.

Lore

Skoraks home turf is Tarabak island (the name itself a reference to the snail kaiju Taraban from Ultraman Tiga), which is Gigabash’s stand in for Skull Island; an island overflowing with monsters and kaiju much to the dismay of the native humans. Much like Skull Island, Tarabak has an in universe book written in the early 1900’s called The Lost World of Tarabak detailing the adventures of a man named Petyr Faust in his crew. However, the content was so radical and unbelievable that it was labeled as a fictional story, and this wouldn’t be corrected until the 70’s during the first kaiju crisis.

The natives of Tarabak Island lived in fear for centuries as no place was safe from the rampaging monsters. Eventually though, one day a kaiju came along that curb stomped any other monster and quickly became the “king”. The natives worshipped this kaiju for protection, and under his watch they developed quite an advanced civilization. Entire cities of stone and gold were constructed, and a dam was built to control water flow for agriculture. They even had a legislative and court system! For nearly a century things went well and the people prospered, but this protection came at a cost, which I’ll cover two entries from now when we take a look at this “dragon king”. For some people this cost was too great a price to be tolerated, and so one day these displeased people performed a dark ritual where they spilled their own blood and the offerings meant for their king. Their prayers were answered in the form of a poisonous sludge. These rebels filled their offerings with this sludge and when they fed these offerings to their king he fell sick as Skorak devoured him from the inside before bursting out and taking his skull as a trophy.

That sludge was actually eggs, and this means that Skorak is a parasitoid kaiju slug that wears the remains of its first meal as protection, which is metal as hell. Also, I know Gigabash is a doofy kaiju party game, but the anatomist in me is very unhappy with the skull Skorak wears.

The resulting civil war would destroy the once great civilization of Tarabak and the population would splinter into three factions that constantly vie for control over the island, with Skorak’s followers becoming a cult known as the Eyes Of Skorak.

While the cult’s activities are mostly on the Island of Tarabak, the religion is known amongst occultist circles. In order to be initiated into the Eyes of Skorak you have to be injected with his venom. Those who survive, IF they survive, gain a telepathic connection to the kaiju and other cult members. Hence the name “Eyes of Skorak”.

Sadly Skorak and the rest of the game’s roster don’t have story modes as any more beyond the initial four were too resource taxing on the small indi studio of Passion Republic Games. Skorak does appear in all the other story modes sans Pipijuras’s as an opponent though. In Woolley’s in particular the native Yeti herd of Tarabak are seen celebrating his defeat, and given that Skorak lives for the hunt and consumption of other kaiju, it’s likely that he was routinely eating the poor Yetis.

In summary: Skorak is the coolest gastropod kaiju I know and any who disagree are unworthy of his blessings!

[daikaiju-chaos]

So, like last year, I tried my best in making gijinkas gals out of the Titans that appear in Gigabash. I have not done all of them, as Kongkrete and Thundatross are the only ones left (and being that they're a living building and a mecha, something that isn't my preference, I kinda abandoned it.)

So, anyway, here's the mollusc nightmare of Tarabak: Skorak

She's short, like, short as a female Au'ra.

[virovac]

Rawa Gigabash

So Rawa shares the title of "Dragon King" with the skull of the slain kaiju that Skorak perhaps parasitically burst out of as its first kill.

Makes you wonder if they were kin.

They demand similar sacrifices as well: of an elixir.

In 2009 when Rawas appeared, once it made its way to Tarabak island it must have been like the dead had risen.

Or perhaps they were not related and in a case of mistake identity they got Rawas hooked on the drink they prepared the last dragon king trying to appease Rawas.

[svenerd]

GigaBash Rohanna - Official Reveal Trailer | PAX East 2021

GigaBash Rohanna – Official Reveal Trailer | PAX East 2021

GigaBash Rohanna – Official Reveal Trailer | PAX East 2021 GigaBash is a four-player arena brawler, featuring giant monsters, kaijus, and heroes, developed by Passion Republic Games. Battle in fully destructible maps, each with its own unique mechanic. Clash in the mayhem for primal dominance among your friends, and rise as the King of Titans. In this trailer, Rohanna, The Monarch of Tarabak…

[alfredogregorioblacsi-i]

Turkish food 🍲 at Tbilisi Georgia Tarabak Turkish restaurants

[iamthekaijuking]

Gigabash character overview: RAWA

While Passion Republic Games primarily took inspiration from Ultraman when making Gigabash, it would be remiss to make a kaiju setting without its own Godzilla, and indeed no kaiju setting is worth its salt without one. And brother, Passion Republic Games delivered.

The song used is Area 51 S-class, which would become one of my favorite songs ever. Also if you haven’t already listen to the Gigabash soundtrack, it’s great and funky.

My favorite character in the roster and my main. In comparison to Thundatross, Rawa is the lightning bruiser of the roster. His attacks are slow but hard hitting and he has decent combo potential. Rawa has a powerful charge attack, a breath attack that can extend his time in the air, and an “atomic pulse” with superarmor for sticky situations. This attack in particular can be charged, but be careful with this as the charged version sacrifices one of your health bars.

Design

Being the Notzilla and destruction deity of the setting, Rawa takes obvious inspiration from godzilla, but also some Ultraman reference as to be expected of PRG. Ultraman Belial was a surprising source of inspiration. Rawa also reminds me of Natsunomeryu, although this might not be intentional.

The biggest source of inspiration though was the Phaya Naga, a dragon in southeastern Asian mythology and religion. Different countries and cultures have different versions of the Naga ranging from a snake person, to a multi headed cobra, to a more traditional looking eastern dragon. Rawa specifically takes inspiration from the Malaysian and Thai versions, and it’s pretty obvious given his giant horn, golden plating, and large canines. One of Rawa’s skins is named after the country Napal, and I actually have a coworker who grew up there. It was pretty fun talking to him about his country’s version of the Naga in preparation for this overview! I learned that in Napal, Naga are worshiped as god-like figures, and that to disrespect them or even dirty their shrine can bring bad luck and bodily injury such as swelling and rashes.

Just like his inspiration, Rawa is worshipped and treated with reverence. His worshipers even fashioned him gold rings to wear on his canines!

Here’s some concept art.

Rawa also kinda reminds me of the notzillas made by many people on deviantart back in the early 2010’s when people were starved for kaiju content and were making their own.

Lore

As you figured out by now, Rawa is the infamous “dragon king” mentioned in Skorak and Rohanna’s overviews, and so I think it’s time I paint a complete picture of what happened on Tarabak island.

Long ago the natives of Tarabak island lived in fear. They were constantly under threat of kaiju, until one day a great serpentine dragon appeared and defeated every monster with his overwhelming might and burned them away with his ethereal flames (which aren’t actually composed of fire or generate heat, Rawa’s flames are made of Giga Energy and instead of burning things they rip stuff apart on a molecular level). Under his protection they were safe, and were finally able to settle down and create a grand city.

However, Rawa’s protection came at a cost. He demanded to be treated lavishly and have access to Giga Energy 24/7, so his worshippers had to make giant pyramids in his image that channeled Giga Energy and stored it (that’s why the pyramids in one of the Tarabak arenas sometimes make giant Giga Energy orbs). This wasn’t enough though, and so every year the citizens of Tarabak would gather to provide offerings called “Violet Elixirs”. These were a drink made using Giga Crystals, and people had to mine deep within the earth to harvest them. Years of exposure often left people with purple ring marks on their skin (this is the only side effect of contact with Giga Energy on humans that we know of, and it’s unknown if this is actually a medical condition that needs treatment or if this just means people have tie-dye hands). If this elixir was made in poor quality or if Rawa didn’t like it, then he would burn you alive. If he did like it though then you were allowed to take one of the golden scales Rawa shed.

The most ardent of Rawa’s followers didn’t mind that and viewed death as a gift, but others were obviously not jazzed about the prospect of being killed every year because a big garish lizard didn’t like your radioactive grape juice. What was worse is that the aristocrats started weaponizing Rawa against anyone they didn’t like, so any form of protest was flattened underfoot. This reached a breaking point and almost a century after the founding of the civilization of Tarabak, the people who would eventually become the Eyes of Skorak performed their dark ritual that summoned the eggs of the parasitoid slug. They then put the eggs into their Violet Elixirs, fed them to Rawa, and eventually Skorak ate him from the inside out and took his skull as a shell.

Some people decided to follow this new kaiju and became the Eyes of Skorak, while others fled into Rohanna’s territory and came to worship her. But a third group of people stayed. Unflinchingly loyal to the dragon, they gathered his horn, dead body, and as much Violet Elixir as they could and revived Rawa. This and the fact that flesh still clings to his skull and can still generate ethereal flames after all this time on Skorak’s back indicates that in the universe of Gigabash, kaiju can eventually regenerate from mortal wounds and their cells can potentially live independently and indefinitely so long as they have access to Giga Energy.

Rawa’s new revived form isn’t long and serpentine like it used to be and is now stumpy and sorta dinosaurian, and he’s still trying to gain enough power to reach his original form. This technically also makes Rawa a dracolich.

In the in universe book The Lost World of Tarabak, Petyr’s crew comes across the followers of Rawa last before leaving the island. They still roughly maintain their habitats from their fallen civilization, even keeping their legislative system. They wear gold and some of them even spoke English. Doug, being a member of the Eyes of Skorak, became a slave working in the mines digging for Giga Crystals, the rest of Petyr’s crew were free to leave the island on the condition that they spread word of the return of Rawa, which worked out pretty well since Petyr recorded everything that happened in his book. The captain of their ship never left with them though as he stole a gold trinket, and so he was forced to give Rawa a Violet Elixir before being burnt away. The followers of Rawa know that the dragon hates dishonesty.

To wrap this up: I love Rawa. Rawa is my favorite, and I like talking about him. In fact this entire series of overviews was partly an excuse to talk about him. If you ever face me playing as Rawa then you better beg for mercy.

[iamthekaijuking]

Gigabash character overview: Rohanna

Plant kaiju are kind of a rarity in the genre. Hell, I’m pretty sure there’s more animate object kaiju than there are plant ones. I suppose that’s cause the average viewer/reader of kaiju media would probably be more engaged with a more active animal-like kaiju than an immobile plant one (plants can actually move btw… just very slowly and they usually aren’t mobile). So I was quite surprised when Passion Republic Games revealed that a character in Gigabash’s roster was a plant monster! PRG got around this classic conundrum by simply… making her a mobile plant. She also covers the “nature’s vengeance” archetype popular in kaiju fiction… sorta. We’ll get to that.

Rohanna is, of course, also the only confirmed female kaiju in the original roster.

Rohanna is an agile, slight stunlock heavy, character with fast attacks, some of the slightly slower ones of which hit hard and/or are ranged. She even has a “teleportation” attack that is a little tricky to aim. She also has three quirky moves too. One has her summon a big thorny branch that knocks an opponent upwards, but she can also use it as a club like some of the infrastructure in some of the stages. Her other two moves each summon a minion for a short duration, one of which is actually her ultimate. These minions are respectively called Piki the Pear and the Royal Warden.

I normally play Pipijuras and another character, but if things get serious and I wanna win I bust Rohanna out.

Design

Rohanna, despite being in a game heavily inspired by Ultraman, wasn’t actually inspired by their handful of plant monsters or even the most famous plant kaiju, Biollante. Instead, Passion Republic Games wanted to make something that represents their home country of Malaysia, and so based her off a Malaysian cryptid called the Sang Kelembai. This is a little ironic considering the creature is described as pretty hideous in legend and Rohanna is a beautiful flower monster, but her left arm (which grew back this way after being burnt away by a certain “dragon king” we’ll cover next) is purposely designed to be monstrous to reference the creature that inspired her. Further inspiration was taken from the Bunga Raya flower and the Malaysian tiger, the patterning of the latter was used for Rohanna’s S-class form. Rohanna has some concept art.

Interestingly, Rohanna’s eyes are actually the green glowing slits on her chest, which is shared with the Royal Wardens. Her flower head merely has eye-like markings, although considering that she turns it to “look” at opponents it’s probably safe to say that it has some photosensing abilities too. The devs also said she can absorb the genome of any plant she comes across and can replicate it.

Lore

Rohanna is another one of the kaiju of Tarabak Island and one of the big three fighting for dominance. Her terf is specifically west of the dam that the fallen civilization of Tarabak built, and is defended by giant thorny vines and patrolled by Royal Wardens.

In the in universe book The Lost World of Tarabak by Petyr Faust, the same one that told us about Skorak, we learn a bit more about the civil war situation going on. I neglected to mention but one of Petyr’s party members, Doug, actually knew the language of the natives and so acted as a translator, and he also wanted to become a member of the Eyes of Skorak. In fact it was the sole reason he came on the expedition, and he ultimately stayed on the island and was enslaved by the followers of the “infamous dragon king”.

We learn from Rohanna’s followers that another reason people rebelled against the dragon was that aristocrats actually leveraged their guardian monster against anyone they didn’t like, which very quickly led to an authoritarian government.

When Skorak ate the dragon from the inside out, some people fled the city and eventually wondered into Rohanna’s territory. Luckily for them, Rohanna actually provided them with food and shelter, and still does to this day. Out of the three kaiju and their factions fighting for control over Tarabak, I’ve got to admit the followers of Rohanna do have it the best of the three. In comparison to the indifference of Skorak and the cruelty of the dragon king, Rohanna actually cares about her worshipers somewhat. However there is a catch; her followers must be unflinchingly loyal to her and support of another kaiju is met with death. This fate almost befell Petyr’s crew when Rohanna saw Doug’s Skorak mask, but they were saved by the Eyes of Skorak throwing stink bombs at her army, which also tells us that Rohanna’s kind have a keen sense of smell. Unusual for a plant.

It’s Rohanna’s intolerance of people not worshipping her and a few other things that make me think she’s not actually a selfless being or even an embodiment of nature’s wrath, and in fact I think the only reason Rohanna was kind to the people fleeing from the collapsing civilization of Tarabak all those years ago was just so she could have worshippers of her own. Rohanna only ever leaves her territory unless another kaiju slights her or other humans take something from her, like her Pikis. There was one time Rohanna attacked Japan at the beginning of Thundatross’s story mode for reasons we don’t know, but since OtamaTEC researches kaiju and Giga Energy they might have actually taken something from her. It seems like Rohanna only ever plays the role of “natures wrath” when it directly benefits her, which I honestly think adds a cool extra layer of pathos to her character.

Passion Republic Games made some art of her and a Piki for Mother’s Day.

It’s really cute and sweet, but it also leads into something I’ve been wondering. Are the Pikis actually her children? Or do they simply see Rohanna as a mother figure? If they are her children, then are the Royal Wardens males? Or maybe a warrior caste like ants? Is Rohanna the queen caste of an eusocial species of plant kaiju?!

Also I don’t really know where to put this tidbit but one of Rohanna’s taunts is a reference to Filthy Frank. Do what that information what you will.

[starina23]

Just finished this orange juice cake for Jonny’s birthday tomorrow! I’d never actually zested anything before, so that was new! This required not just orange zest, but I also made a cake, a syrup, and a glaze for this cake, using juice I squeezed from the zested oranges! Fancy! 🍊 #TaraBakes2022 #TaraBakes https://www.instagram.com/p/CaFv6OwFxhC4shUofXBTwo2zXcehiCw73zd7dA0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[starina23]

I did some holiday baking today! Made Butterscotch Cut Out Cookies and Gingerbread! No decorating today, but the two doughs and cutting them out and baking was a big project for one day! #TaraBakes2021 #TaraBakes https://www.instagram.com/p/CXKWVzdFKOXBQiGNRdI9fPQErCpgdgavYRUp240/?utm_medium=tumblr

[starina23]

Happy Birthday to me! Here’s the inside of the cake and me in my Celia Bowen (from the book The Night Circus) costume! Yay! #TaraBakes2021 #TaraBakes #SincereCostumes https://www.instagram.com/p/CVZXTXEsFZ0sLtRbuA8nGQSS8in57xPMTaLrLk0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[starina23]

I made my birthday cake! It’s my second attempt at a two-tier cake! It’s a little lopsided, but overall came out well! I’ll show you the inside when I cut it tomorrow! Note the spiders and the “spider egg ooze” areas. 😆 The marshmallow webs turned out awesome though! #TaraBakes2021 #TaraBakes #HalloweenCake #SpiderwebCake #IMadeThis https://www.instagram.com/p/CVV2lkulO0LZ1XRYlchO0w_SB2I4J3ZFwnwPPE0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[starina23]

Harrison’s 7th Birthday cake/cupcakes: peanut butter cupcakes made with wheat flour, with whipped strawberry frosting. Tasted like a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich!! Then I dunked each one in sprinkles, then right before serving pulled tabs out of tiny individual lights to make them light up! (Lights not edible.) The hilt was colored using black Cookie Icing I had in the cupboard, plus some doodads out of a package of rainbow sprinkles for the buttons! #TaraBakes2021 #TaraBakes https://www.instagram.com/p/CRfGGvcl6mYl3uUucI2pL49uFL93v5meQSBL_c0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[starina23]

Ohhhh myyyyy. I made Nadiya’s Pancake Tray Bake and it’s awesome! I used box mix, added 1 teaspoon of baking soda (I could’ve put 2 in, I discovered later, but it was still good and fluffy!), put hidden morsels of Katie’s homemade strawberry jam, and baked it for 15 minutes. When it was done, I put melted peanut butter on top and cut it up like a cake. The kids and I drizzled a little syrup on it and it was DELICIOUS. Thank you @nadiyajhussain for the time saver this morning! No burning pancakes, no batter everywhere, and enough left over to easily stick some in the freezer for another day! #tarabakes #tarabakes2020 #pancaketraybake #nadiyastimetoeat https://www.instagram.com/p/CCgNPTolfUSSihjVUeVlD6h5aNVUIfsON9Cm_g0/?igshid=10ghpz1vq7llk