#the gimmick of these having real clothes is just so cool to me

[meownotgood]

ALSO FUCK I forgot to post it on here but look at how handsome figzero aki is I am!!!!! so!!!!!!! I'm so excited for him I can't even 🥹🥹

[mimikinyuu]

pinned post i guess.

names legion. 23. he/they pronouns. alolan.

im a trainer for a living (wow! so exciting and unique!) but im trying to sell the crafts i make. i make mimikyu cloths, hmu for pricing and deets.

my battling team (does not account for every mon i have):

bean - mimikyu ♂

jeffrey - luxray ♀

blair - gengar ♀

willow - absol ♀

dart - umbreon

woop - clodsire ♀

out of character:

this is a roleplay blog. please do not message me about anything for sale. all my in-character posts will be tagged #unreality if they breach containment. admins name is soup, age is 23, and i use it/they prns. my ooc hub is @soupspkmncorner and i follow/interact from @movedto-mementomoreeyes

triggers/content warnings will be tagged as “(x) cw”, current tags include #drugs cw, #abandonment cw, #abandoned pokemon cw, and #ableism cw. #op is added to any post with my additions (as well as my own original posts), and if i interact with someone, i try to tag usernames, as well. #off-screen is a collective tag for mysterious uploads that legion cannot see, but are happening in real time, most commonly audio files or screenshots. #lorepost is for anything i feel is important for legions lore, either character- or worldbuilding-related. any tags/textposts that start with a percentage sign (%) are ooc. all other non-sorting tags are in-character. legions a tag rambler like me lmao

both legion and i are adults. this blog will not contain any nsfw content since some followers/mutuals are minors. middle-school jokes are the furthest extent of nsfw content you will see here (ie. KUNG POW PENIS). if me being an adult makes you uncomfortable, that is ok and you dont have to follow me :-) if i follow you and you are uncomfortable you are free to softblock/hardblock, no hard feelings

arcs: eebydeeby arc (FINISHED 28/08/24), the gang goes to paldea (OFFICIALLY FINISHED 02/11/24), the gang goes to sinnoh (FINISHED 24/11/24) magic!anon mini-arc (FINISHED 30/11/24), the gang goes through a wormhole (UPCOMING)

i am okay with:

- pelipper mail

- mystery gifts

- musharna mail

- musharna malice

- magic!anon (selective, only temporary things)

- union circle (selective)

- interactions from trainers (canon and ocs), antag grunts (team skull members PLEASE!!! interact we can plan plots and sillies), crossover/faller/pokemon au characters. legion is aware there is a multiverse and that some people on rotomblr have very different universes compared to theirs. he might raise an eyebrow, but wont call anything fake because it doesnt align with his universe.

- interactions from sapient pokemon/eebydeeby/hybrid/pmd-based au characters. legion does not question sapient pokemon very much and takes them at face value, but they do react with appropriate surprise with legendaries/mythicals, mostly out of “wow this god is talking TO ME??” shock.

- non-pkmnirl blogs and such (like gen. pkmn gimmick blogs) are cool too. just please remember this is a roleplay blog and i will respond in-character

- gentle/playful teasing (tone tags like /j and /t are greatly appreciated for this) or any low-level antagonist shenanigans

i am not okay with:

- pelipper unmail

- pelipper malice

- any nsfw/suggestive interactions

- any hate, in- or out-of-character. if you want to plan a plot that might involve bullying or anything a bit more malicious than average team skull grunt activity, please dm me so i am aware and we can work out a storyline.

- ableism or transphobia, in- or out-of-character. dont even ask to send any, you will be blocked on sight.

some ending notes:

- legion is not an unreliable narrator but he does withhold information a lot. part of this is to avoid doxxing himself (ie. they cant speak too much on team skull because they live a mile from po town), part of this is because hes emotionally stunted. lol. lmao even.

- muse + mun are physically disabled and neurodivergent.

- ultra beasts have not been formally documented yet. please do not send asks about ultra beasts. legion doesnt know about them outside of “some weird thangs that popped out of the sky.” this will change in the coming arcs, currently they are pre-moon.

- additionally, please see here for the list of legendaries and mythicals that are/arent fully documented in this universe. legendaries and mythicals do not have any sort of distinction in this universe, the titles rely on whatever people want to label them.

- LEGION HAS A FULL-BODY REFERENCE!!!!!

- i reserve the right to not answer any asks that make me uncomfortable.

last updated: 31/12/24

[thestrawberryplayroom]

Doll Review #1: Monster High Freaky Fusion 'Sirena Von Boo'

Hello again everyone! I didn't expect to be back quite so soon, but the mailman brought me a nice couple surprises today! I was expecting this package to come a little later in the month with all of the holiday hustle 'n bustle this time of year. Today we are going to be opening up one of my favorite doll lines of all time: Monster High!

Freaky Fusion was a 2013-4 gimmick line of dolls that were focused on the "hybrid" monsters, essentially a 2 in 1 sort of deal. A little bit of one monster and a little bit of another. When Monster High came out I wasn't allowed to collect any of them. I was older, and was focusing on my diploma, which sadly meant I missed a lot of really cool dolls. Though, I do remember commercials for the movies and playsets when I was babysitting. (Please note I have not watched the movies or tv show, as those aren't really my place of interest. I just like the dolls.) From what I've heard in terms of reception, and what i've seen of other dolls in the line, some were stellar, some were... less so. Ironically, one of the lesser liked lines of the time was where I actually got my start with the series with my first doll, Mr. Neighthan Rot, but I'll save his flowers for his own spotlight review. Today is Sirena's Day~

(Please forgive my poor backdrop) Looking at her in box, she really is a beauty. The flowing light purple hair with the intricate tail piece make her a stunner for sure. There's something so nostalgic for me seeing the Freaky Fusion Box nearly 12 years later. She's a simple doll, a hybrid of a ghost and a mermaid. Though she is unique in that her tail is also her stand! Accessories are minimal, coming with her trademark MH diary, and a comb. Looking at her in box back in the day, I was very torn for a while about her. I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of mermaids (sorry Great Scarrier Reef fans...) and still I'm not. Mostly due to just not being that interesting from a lore perspective, but also they tend to be difficult to display O.O.B. However, I think the additional ghostliness of her pearly skin and black tail and hands really drew me to her the more I thought about her.

Standing up free from her rotting elastics prison, you can truly see the beauty in this doll. Pearly skin, elegant tail, webbed fingers. Her hair is unfortunately rather gross out of the package; 10+ years of product haven't let those curls age very well. I may have to wash her hair, unfortunately. Her neck is also rather stiff due to her in-box pose, but hopefully gravity will make it easier to have her look straight on. My main criticism is that she really doesn't have much going on fashion-wise for a fashion doll. She's pretty, but her accessories on her doll itself are minimal and she can't exactly trade fashions with her friends due to her tail bottom half. I think a little extra clothing pieces to change into would've given her a bit more value, but sadly movie tie-in dolls on an aging line just don't get that kind of attention. A shame, really.

So overall, what do I think of miss Von Boo? Well, I think for what she is, she's pretty neat! A real gem in a rather mixed bag of a line, and a very unique take on a mermaid doll. If you can find one for a decent cost, I would say reel her up! Though I wouldn't worry too much about her hair, it will need some form of restyling either way be it second hand or NIB.

That's all for today my friends, and I hope to see you again soon! Thank you for visiting!

[thelivingmemegod]

Thoughts on the special dolls? (Lily, giant Amaya, the color dolls, etc.)

Starting with collectors! I’m gonna skip Amaya cuz it’s the same doll scaled up, I do wish more of the girlies got 24 inch dolls though.

Jett Dawson!

Love herrrr, I love the 2D drawn look to her first set, I love her lil top bun split hair, I like the hoodie under jacket thing, her eyes don’t look that weird to me, love her fingerless gloves. I…wonder what the black on her legs is tho-

Now her dress…I’ve said before I don’t usually love flounce around the hips. But surprisingly I don’t mind it here! I also don’t hate the attached mermaid skirt. Love the drawn-on silver and black stuff.

Lily Cheng!

I love her. Love her.

Her hairstyle is so good, I love the accessories, I love her makeup and brown eyes. I love her lil fan accessory.

I like every version of her outfit but my favorite is the three peice top, belt and skirt. I love the pattern, I love the entire belt, the empty space on the skirt that makes way for the bow of the belt. THESE S H O E S GIRL(gn) THESE SHOES. AND I MEAN BOTH PAIR THEY’RE BOTH CUTE-

I love all her bangles and her earrings and again HER HAIR ACCESSORIES-

Also the bangs have been banging with these two.

Maria Garcia!

Extremely Day of the dead and I love that for her. She’s doing it ALL and it’s working out so well for her. Firstly the gold accents, the roses lining the sides of the dress and the black lace layers are so tastefully done. It doesn’t overload the dress at all which could’ve been very easy here. I love the Skeleton bodysuit underneath and the gold hand things-I don’t know what they’re called I want a name for those-

I adore the headpiece and the choice to make it a crown and two rows of roses. I love her hair color and skull purse.

Then we gotta get into this makeup (and BROWN EYES AGAIN YES) the sugar skull is beautiful and they balanced the red, purple and white excellently, especially since she has baby hairs.

Her hat?? Queen. Even if I prefer the headpiece. Her shoes also slay even if you don’t really see them. Girl 👏 committed 👏 to 👏 the 👏 bit

Roxie Grand!

Beauty 👏 in 👏 simplicity! We went from a girl doing it all to a girl doing not too much and I love them both. ✨ Women ✨

Firstly, her mermaid silhouette dress is gorgeous. I love the concentration of gems at only the top and bottom, with them sparsely in the middle.

I love the string of gems that outline her wait.

I love how her necklace kinda makes the dress look like a halter top. Her bangles all are super nice, love her big ass earrings. Her makeup is baller and I love that her eyes match the makeup. H A I R ON FLEAK MISS THING Look at her baby hairs and the hair wrapped over the ponytail holder.

Paris Hilton!

Paris, an icon, a legend.

I’m so sorry Stella is right there and like 39$ cheaper. Her base outfit is just Stella’s with the sequin dress but with a bejeweled safety pin on it. Even the crown- just. Girl.

Her second outfit is just soooo cunty tho. The faux blazer bedazzled dress and knee high bedsides boots is sooo good. Especially called off with the sparky fingerless gloves. Love her earrings too.

Fashion closet Avery!

I love this gimmick and I love that she comes with a bunch of clothes and two wigs. I like to think she fried her real hair and had to chop it off, hence the molded on pixie cut when she isn’t wearing a wig.

I won’t do all the outfits she comes with but I will say that the yellow Anti-sparkle Sparkle club outfit is extremely Sunny and the red sparkle bustier outfit is extremely Ruby. Love that for Avery.

Hair Salon Amaya!

Cool gimmick! Her whole thing is the color changing rainbow hair so yeah, makes sense. I don’t love her outfit purely because it looks weird at this scale. If it were life size I’d be obsessed but RH dolls have very short torso’s, so especially her jacket looks weird.

Twin Pack Sunny and Luna Maddison!

Love, love, love these two.

Things from both- Baby hairs, nails, bags, very different kinds of chunky shoes, opposite outfit silhouettes.

Specifics for Sunny- HER HAIR ACCESSORIES. There’s 5 and they’re so random looking it’s so perfect. I love her leg warmers mimicking her normal socks, I love her shoes even if they are platform crocs. Her skirt shirt and jacket are adorable and create a very baggy, drowned look that’s very purposeful. All I want is a bandaid on her nose and face stickers.

Specifics for Luna- I love that her bag is an entire fucking chest. I love her shoes that almost look like somebody molded clips of staples to the bottom. I love that her shirt, bustier, and belt make a tighter, more “basic” silhouette for lack of a better term. In contrast to Sunny she’s only wearing earrings which I adore.

Another thing I noticed and adore is that Luna has twin buns while the top of Sunny’s hair is pinned down, opposites again!

Kia Heart!

Lip color is CRAZY. Girl you need a lipliner!

Otherwise she is gorgeous and I love her. I like her dolls incorporation of rainbow more then most Amaya dolls because it’s a pastel rainbow now. It’s tastefully spread through her pink hair, doted onto her checkerboard sleeves and kept going through her holographic pants. The strangest rainbow in sight is those heels which work pretty well. The hearts everywhere give a lovestruck, heart-eyes type of look which I love.

Love her hair clips, big ass earrings and her lil mole.

Her second outfit? YES. I love all the layering with the hoodie under a jean jacket and a flannel tied over pink bedazzled shorts (I love a bedazzling moment)

My only problem comes in her shoes, her shoes, her SHOES. RH. Just make booties. Just make short boots. I own tons, they’re very popular.

De’Vious twin pack!

Half and half rainbow moment, love that.

I only wish they would’ve symplified the rainbow so Holly’s colors weren’t so…much.

Cuz obvious Laurel is the Red, Orange, Yellow of the rainbow, all on a white backdrop. This leaves Holly with Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet which is just a lot of colors to balance while making them distinct. She looks good but they didn’t nail it. I think removing the green would’ve been how they nailed it. It just looks so discordant with the rest of everything the colors-

Fashion studio Skyler Bradshaw!

Despite sharing a name with her, I have a love hate relationship with Skyler’s outfit concepts. It’s often lots of denim’s and spots inspired stuff and. Yeah this belt skirt is not really the moment. It’s giving 00’s denim insanity and it’s not great. Her shoes and bodysuit are just fine, no problems there!

[glapplebloom]

Let's make Moon Girl's inclusion to the show of the year list legit.

First, let's make this official. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a must watch series. It is so fun, the characters are likable, the Glow Up of the Beyonder, the music is great, and that last episode setting up next season is a real nail-biter. I hope it gets that second season and does well to continue from there. It was not originally planned to be in One Shot because I was planning to watch and love the series as soon as I saw the preview for the opening theme. But then Superman showed up and made it seem like the #1 spot in the end of the year review will be a no brainer. So I’m putting in Moon Girl so there could be competition. And maybe I jumped the gun thanks to this...

For those who don't know, Tiny Toons Adventures is a series about a young set of toons going to Acme Looniversity to learn to become toons. Thing is, you don't really see that story. The first episode focused on the creation of the series. Episodes have them going to school being a plot of a short or the surrounding segments. But ultimately it is a bunch of shorts with Looney Tunes expies. Fifi does Pepe's bit but with boys instead of girls. Plucky does stuff Daffy would do. And for some reason Elmyra got the most screen time despite being an antagonist. She also got a pilot episode for a spinoff series, a full crossover with the Warner Siblings, and said spinoff series with Pinky and the Brain.

Tiny Toons Looniversity is a complete reboot. While they share similar traits, it is its own thing. For starters, there are five main characters to the originals' "it depends on the shorts": Buster and Babs Bunny (yes relation), Sweetie T. Bird, Hamton J. Pig and Plucky Duck. Plucky is the most similar to his original, as he's still an egotistical duck who thinks mostly of himself and at times wanting to make money. But it's a modern egotistical trait. Hamton is the second closest, just remove the cleaning obsession and crank up the anxiety. The other three, they're drastically different.

In the original, Buster and Babs Bunny were not related. So their interactions range from "hummina hummina hummina" to "they're basically siblings". Buster is a Modern Bugs Bunny, which makes him now a Bugs Bunny with 90s mentality for the cool kids. Babs were the best of the two since she got a great gimmick of being an impressionist. And Fields of Honey is my favorite episode. So how does the Reboot treat these two as siblings? Honestly, I really love their interactions. They really do sell a brother/sister vibe and that first episode really sold me on them being siblings but willing to be separate to try new things. Buster is also a great improvement because he gets to be more emotional. Babs doesn't do the impressionist bit, but between her relationship with Buster and her relationship with Sweetie, and even that one time with Plucky really shows she's great as part of any duo.

And Sweetie T. Bird is a HUGE improvement of the original. The original is basically Tweety Bird but louder. Sweetie is a rocker who is ready to cause chaos when needed. She bounces off Babs really well and seeing how fast they became friends really sold me on this series. She's like the perfect foil for the more professional Babs Bunny. She's messy when Babs is clean. She's physical when Babs is more methodical. She enjoys Plucky's Gossip Magazine when Babs saw it as a rival to her newspaper. But they're still friends because there are plenty of things they have in common. Sweetie is also very supportive. She helped Babs try to get a room with her brother even if it means no longer being her roomy. She joins Babs' newspaper. They even enjoy Vintage Clothing after Fifi Showed them off.

As for the rest of the characters, some are basically the same (Dizzy and Max), others have some differences (Fifi no longer being boy crazy), and some very different (Furball talks more in this series than his one voice role in the original). This show also has more appearances from the Looney Tunes cast. Bugs interact more in this than I can recall in the original. Daffy teaches the hardest class, we even got appearances from the Dark Age originals like Merlin and Cool Cat. And while they used Space Jam's version of Lola, they made her Looney in her own way. And with Death Battle having Tom Vs Wile E. on the Tournament of Champions Poll, it gives Wile a new dangerous weapon against his other toons.

Regardless if you like the original or never heard of it, I recommend Tiny Toons Looniversity. I can already tell you it's at the top of the list since I saw all the episodes. And I still need to see the rest of Superman and Fionna and Cake.

[moreplacesyouwillgo]

Wicked movie part 1 thoughts

Nice movie additions

+ Buck says “because you’re so beautiful” to Nessa after seeing Glinda kiss Fyero

+ explaining why Dillamond mispronounced Glinda bc he’s a goat, seems like a more sensitive professor this way

+ Professor Dillamond doesn’t have a weirdly close relationship with Elphaba but was talking to animal friends in “something bad”. This is more appropriate as she is the professor

+ made other characters have weird non-real words except Elphaba, making her seem like the only smart / normal one, but also pts to her being part non-Ozian

+ Elphaba’s makeover doesn’t require her to change her glasses or entire look. She is beautiful naturally. More feminist this way

+ Made Glinda more like-able by having her admit she was Elphaba’s friend in the first song, by having her seem more empathetic to Elphaba in the dance scene (maybe the acting), having her seem like she wanted to be genuinely be nice to Elphaba and was slighted by Elphaba first, saying “just bc it’s your secret doesn’t mean it’s true”, having her send a sentimental note to Elphaba as she boarded the train to Oz, by not having her sing “I hope you’re happy” with so much anger but actually genuine care in the last song, having her give Elphaba a cloak as she leaves on the broom, having Elphaba say “it’s me you want” to distract the guards showing their genuine friendship still. Also she comes off more child-like and innocent, like in the secret sharing. She says “oh hello”

+ tribute to Idina Mendel and old Glinda in Wizomania

+ Made “good” and “bad” seem more gray by introducing more flaws for Elphaba, like her constantly in interrupting ppl, being emotional, defensive, and making it seem like she stole Fyero intentionally more, annoyingly correcting Glinda’s grammar

+ explaining the back story for why Elphaba cares for animals so with her nurse being a bear, as well as the bullying as a child

+ having Fyero seem more charming initially and less dumb, and explaining why Elphaba might like him with their encounter in the forest

+ Glindas possy friends -> friends with Elfie and Fyero next to each other

+ better explaining her enrollment

+ Morrible taking credit was devious of her power, levitation, proving yourself, and manipulation with emotion

+ diversity in Asian, black, fat friend, gay friend

+ Showing her being bullied and love for wizard at young age

Better visualization in general -

+ being able to see scary monkeys and animals in general

+ being able to visualize the gimmicks of the wizard and emerald city more

+ We can see Professor Dillamond as a goat

+ beautiful library dance scene!!!

+ seeing close up of ppls faces and emotions

+ being able to see visions that Elphaba had like prophesy

+ being able to see the cool projection of voice in clouds in the end by Madame Morrible

+ skin color change during de-greenify part

+ loathing song visuals

+ Glinda bowing for people

——————

What I didn’t like

- Made Elphaba’s freeing the cub more intentional use of magic, but weird that she singled out Fyero, her best friend’s bf

—————-

New ways I relate to it I didn’t at first

+ Controlling your passions / emotions, like Elphaba, is important for channeling your magic in real life too. Emotions are your motivation

+ Glinda is like the business person and Elphaba is the engineer in corporate America. One is not better than the other. I feel like Glinda comes across more likeable this time, but maybe I’m also different. Both are equally important to being an unstoppable team

Observations

• Glinda likes air bc she’s ditzy and airy

• Adding explanation in letters home about enrollment

• dancing as the leader in the oz dust ballroom

• parallels of joining to meet wizard and leaving with Elfie at the end; makeover with the clothes and then the cloak

• changed outfit to merge Elfie and Glinda’s styles after they become friends

• inner child guides Elphaba when she almost dies

[monstermaster13]

- Character tf into a character that is rarely done or one you really like but it's a rubber version. Or even worse it's a lewd pervy version. I imagine you look for tf art into characters from children's shows and when you do it's a rubber version or a lewd version. Yeah, Noddy for one. He's a child, why do almost all the Noddy ones I see always have to be lewd and with creepy MC? He's a child character for crying out loud. Also aaaw come on, I like Pinkie Pie but why a rubber version of her?

- Any tf Ciel has done. I have nothing against Avianine but I find that her TF art is overrated and I hate the Ciel character, I HATE her anthro Pokemon tfs because a lot of them either have MC or are too overly sexually designed (it wouldn't kill her to put some clothes on those Poke-girls would it?), her inanimate tfs either make no sense or creep me out (were-pooltoys don't make any sense, pooltoys don't have teeth or anything you could get caught on which could turn you into one, how does that even work anyway? Also why did it have to be a full moon trigger when a water trigger would have made more sense? Why did it have to be a full moon? You know, you could have just made it that water is the trigger for a pooltoy transformation, you could have just made it a cursed swimming pool but nooo you had to make it a fucking full moon trigger), drone tfs that make me feel uncomfortable (yeah i'm sorry but seeing a bulge between the legs of some of the more feminine forms of drones makes me feel weirded out, I know Avianine has done Futa type tfs before, it's all in her Furaffinity account but that one Judy Hopps one where the victim still has a male bulge despite Judy clearly being female pissed me off, it's like when people thought Jamie Lee Curtis is a guy, uhhh...Jamie Lee is female, and so is Lady GaGa!), her Pokeslut stuff (which thankfully is not on here, Avianine, how can you be sexist against your very own gender? You have a sort-of-canonically trans-character yet you totally fetishize female characters anyway? Forshame. Al ot of her slutty tf content is just sexualizing certain species or even her own gender), her 'hero suit' stuff (Uhhh...yeah, tell me how a suit that prohibits the villain from taking it off not even to use the toilet is supposed to do any good. And also yeah i'm sorry, but if it's forcing someone to be good, that is still more evil than good), anything Puro related or Puro adjacent (how can anyone like this? Knowing that Dragonsnow is a sick bastard in real life, yes he supports shotacon erotic art of his own characters even though Collin is a teenager in the game, he's the Dan Schneider of the transformation community, the game was awful enough with it being a blatant fetish-fest but Avianine's Puro stuff made it worse), and of course anyone where Ciel turns someone into herself..(I swear Ciel is the most arrogant phoenix ever, she sometimes forcibly turns people into clones of her. Does Agent Smith know she is stealing his gimmick? And also, arrogant, much?).

- Character tfs that are absolutely cursed, even as a joke. The Noid, seriously? Poor Honeycomb Craver and Honey Monster barely get any, and what about those 'Cadbury Creme Egg' ad characters made to represent star signs who either have a weird ability based on their sign or turn into the animal the star sign is of (e.g the twins who like to slurp it/bite it, the Delboy looking Aries dude who turns into a ram, the Scorpio lady with the whip-like hair-do, or the guy in the sweater who morphs into a crab). Pepsiman, seriously? You know, there's a lovely underrated Danish anthro cow mascot who needs TF attention and also a whole group of lovely anthro animal-girls that need more love. Also Cool Cat? Even if it's a joke or a parody, never use Cool Cat in anything not even in TFs unless it's about Cool Cat and Daddy Derek being punished for being terrible role models. Also seriously, those creepy Poopsie unicorn dolls that wear diapers?

- Fat nerd stereotypes. Oh sure, all anime fans are overweight and are bad at sex, all nerds are bad at sex and have bad hygiene, that is totally not an untrue stereotype at all.

[moonlightreal]

Some magical toys

They’re fun to look at.

This thing

Isn’t this thing marvelous? The beaker in the little twig stand! The jewel on the cauldron! The spellbook! The wand holder! This thing is so hecking cute! Ok, it wouldn't be in person. In person it would be too small, and all the parts all joined together so you can’t move the spellbook or the candle, it makes bingldey electronic noises and its plastic nature would be all too obvious. But maybe if I saved some sticks and boards I could make a real one!

Magic Mixies

Are neat. They are definitely neat. Mixing potion ingredients and waving a wand to summon your own plush familiar is top tier magical toy.

The price kept me from getting my own, but then they introduced the dolls and they are such wonderful dolls. The faces are amazing, they’re just so cute.

The only problem is that if there are several you can’t resist, you accumulate several potion bottles that you don’t actually need. The website does have a section that suggests you make each pixling’s potion by filling the bottles with glitter and things which… ok, points for trying but it’s not reeeeeally a reuse option that actually works. I also thought that the bottles might look cool with battery operated candles inside. The bottles are neat items, it’s just that you end up with more than you have a use for so it becomes waste.

I emailed the company suggesting a “minimal packaging option for collectors” might be a good idea-- and I got a quite nice reply! I don’t know if they’ll listen, but you could message too if you wanted. The company really loves the magical reveal gimmick, and it is super cool, but the dolls are nice enough to stand on their own as a toy.

...I also told the company about treasure rocks, because if anybody’s going to bring them back it’ll be the company that’s big into the “magic reveal.” And I got no reply at all so I don’t think that’ll happen!

Wishcraft Toys

I thought I saw these mentioned on the livejournal post about How To make Magic, but looking back I don’t see it there. Either way, this three-toy set includes a paper foldy fortune teller, a deck of tarot cards, and a pendulum with pendulum board.

The tarot cards aren’t great, they’re black and white with pink and blue accents, the art is just not much. The cards are marked on the back so if you look closely you can do the psychic thing of looking at the back of the card and knowing which one it is. They come with a printed felt reading cloth with a spread printed on it, and there’s a booklet with extremely basic descriptions o what the cards mean.

The pendulum is two plastic ends on a satin cord, with one of the ends containing a magnet. The cardboard pendulum board has a piece of metal inside it that will make the end of the pendulum skip around and appear to point at one of the fortunes printed on it. It’s a subtle effect, not flashy, but it is kind of neat. Or you can use the magnet-free end for a natural fortune.

And the foldy thing is a foldy thing. I’m an absolute sucker for packaged magic, but this package is not really worth it. You can make your own pendulum and you should drop twenty bucks for a deck of tarot cards that really call to you.

Safari Ltd also has a line called "Wishcraft" that are, as you might guess, mystical crafty kits.

[teddypixels]

I think I'm gacha fatigued. I played quite a few games with gachas in them this year and after having my soul crushed repeatedly by my crappy pulls in DTW while my friends and my wife pulled characters I desperately wanted and gleefully showed them off to me (which is valid, and I'm genuinely excited for them too), I decided to reexamine why I was even playing some of these.

I want to begin by making it absolutely clear that I know gachas are gambling. I am aware of my gambling addiction, which I'm pretty sure is equal parts hereditary on my mother's side as well as a kind of mind game these activities trick your brain into. I have a lootbox problem and I am especially vulnerable to costume collecting.

I saved up tons and tons of gems or orbs or tickets or whatever for this game and that game, and because one game in particular had such powerful hooks in me, I didn't notice that my expectations for every other gacha were unrealistic.

I spent actual, real-world money that I needed for new clothes or a haircut or funds for going out and touching some fucking grass on the teeny tiny chance that I could get just one more character or costume or event prize for my digital harem simulator or whatever.

I like to collect things. (Hoarding is also a genetic failing on my mother's side, come to think of it.)

That's why these games are so dangerous in my opinion. I'm glad I don't like any other form of gambling games, and that cute anime girls were the motivation instead of the temporary thrill of winning.

Genshin Impact appealed to me because it felt like a "real" game that just so happened to have a gacha. The way the odds worked for the banners were also very F2P friendly, or so I told myself, with a guaranteed 4-star character or weapon every ten pulls.

The story was robust and the music was gorgeous. The fandom seemed pretty chill in my little corner of the internet, though I did hear the occasional rumblings of shipping drama. I read quite a few fanfics that were cute or funny or even spicy. It was a nice break from other games, or something interesting to do when Final Fantasy XIV had longer maintenance periods and I was anxiously waiting to log back in.

I truly love the world of the game still, even though I haven't played in probably at least a month and a half. I was super hyped for Sumeru, and I pulled my favorite character on my birthday last year.

That being said, I wrongfully assumed the new area in Genshin Impact would make me feel as before. The newest chapter of the main story dropped last week I think and I barely even noticed.

I felt nothing.

There were adorable cat people and steampunk elements and underwater exploration things and I. Felt. Nothing.

I decided that was enough of a reason to quit the game. If I'm not emotionally invested anymore, then why keep playing? I tried to quit before a couple times, but then I convinced myself that it had become a money sink, an investment.

That's not how games should make me feel.

Logging in started to feel like a chore. Grinding for ascension materials or talent scrolls or artifacts was tedious and boring. There were too many characters to keep track of, and they kept adding more and more stupid gimmicks. If I missed even one day of an event I wouldn't be able to finish it in time and receive rewards that would never come around again.

If I didn't log in, I told myself, I would get left behind by the friends I play co-op with. I would waste everyone's time because they would have to go back and redo stuff because I was lagging behind again because I play a lot of other games besides this one.

If I stop playing, I can't stay in the discord server we made for Genshin and I can't see all the funny memes and cool screenshots and drawings and fanfic recommendations.

Somehow I convinced myself that I had to keep playing this game that no longer held my interest or made me happy because if I didn't, then I'm letting my friends down.

This isn't the case, of course, but my brain likes to bully my heart a lot. I'm not letting anybody down. If anything, Genshin Impact has let me down. I have the power to uninstall the stupid thing and never touch it again. It's my damn computer, my phone, my life!

I like Genshin Impact still, but I don't play it anymore. If my friends are disappointed by that, that's okay. They're not disappointed in me, hell, they probably sympathize with my disappointment in the game because they are my friends, duh.

There's no reason to stress myself out over this. Which is why I needed to just write it out and be done with it.

So, there you have it.

I'm excited that my friends are excited, and that's good enough for me right now. If that changes in the future, then I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

And if my friends come across this post, I just want to say:

Thanks for playing with me, you guys! ❤️

[poorly-translated-wagyan]

Wagyan Paradise (Super Famicom, 1994) Part 11

Please don’t laugh at Kumkum’s name.

Another bright colorful stage, the jetpack is actually nice to control compared to how Takuto normally controls. I keep harping on it, but it really does bother me that Takuto doesn’t use the Wagyan Copter. I guess his head just doesn’t have the rotation capabilities that his father’s did.

Please, Takuto’s had more than enough brambles today...

When the narration has nothing to say, it really has nothing to say...

Just another level with cool lighting, there's nothing really that different about the palette or tone, but having the lighting come from below Takuto really shows how dazzling these crystal platforms are! I love these kinds of alien worlds these kinds of old school platformers seemed to love using.

Just in case the unfortunately-colored fishman with huge lips and unfortunately-dressed fishman with bad facial hair wasn’t enough, we now have a sexualized female fishman with rather unfortunate clothing. It was a different time.

On the plus side, another new minigame type they added is a Simon says game where you press the buttons in the sequence shown. Even better if you're playing on original hardware, as the Y, B, and A button were green, yellow, and red respectively, which is a nice touch.

After using the power of music to show her not to dress like that in current year, the end is in sight as we take yet another trolley level. This time, it's not the poop trolley at least.

A lot of sequels in the 90's had this issue where they would introduce constant new gimmick levels every other stage (Hell, some games had every stage be completely different) instead of interesting level designs, and a lot of them suffered from diluting the pool of ideas so much that not only does the game have no real identity, but almost none of the gimmick are fun. Wagyan Paradise is different, it actually refines a lot of the past gimmicks and I can't say any of them are bad, and with the presentation this could have actually been the best Wagyan game. Sadly, it suffers from some pretty bad controls and still has the issue the (almost) entire series suffers from: stages being far too short and simple.

Something I can't put into words is just how good the music is, my god I could gush about the good things in this series and in this game alone, but we'd be here all day and I’m only here to make snarky remarks about the funny translations. If you take anything from my writings, please just do yourself a favor and listen to every soundtrack in this series. Perhaps when it comes down to it, this is what people mean when they call a game "charming", which is a topic for another time if I care to talk about it.

Music to ride poop trolleys to.

After a short minecart ride closer to the capital, we see the crazy mad doctor from before has survived his self-destruct, this time having the lower body of a mech instead of legs. He calls himself Nammerstein, but you'd be forgiven if you thought he was Nammerstein's monster.

<<<Back to Part 10 Continue to Part 12>>>

[lightningspiral]

Grading Monkeys That Everyone Should Learn About

Howler Monkey

Named for their gimmick of throat pouches that let them yell so loud that they can be heard a mile away. Excellent monkey counterpart to the siamang, an ape with a similar feature that thankfully lives nowhere near them. One-note, but it’s a good note, albeit one that I wish to protect my ears from. B

Sun-Tailed Monkey

Excellent name. I learned about this species while reading a list to refresh my memory before making this post. Their titular feature is vaguely ominous, but otherwise they are just OK. C

Mandrill

Well known for a reason. Great colors. They spark the imagination with their threatening vibes. They used to be classified as baboons, and are cooler than all of the real baboons. Would be appropriately cast as the final boss of monkeys. B

Patas Monkey

They’re nicknamed “military monkeys” because their coloration resembles a British redcoat. They can also run at 35 mph, making them the fastest species of primate. Average in looks, but cool trivia elevates them. A

Squirrel Monkey

Actually comparable to squirrels in size. Not as nice-looking as other monkeys, but smallness will go a long way. There are a few different species of squirrel monkey, rated as equals because they are all fine creatures made cute by their tiny stature. B

Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin

Lion tamarins come in gold, black, and golden-headed varieties. Pictured above is the golden-headed lion tamarin, which is like a half-and-half of the black and gold varieties, and is therefore the prettiest and the best. Excellent color scheme, and the leonine look is a good one. S

Golden Handed Tamarin

One of many monkey species named for one body part being an interesting color. Evocative of the Midas Touch. Not as cute as I would like despite a similar color combination to their lovely golden headed lion brethren. Sadly outclassed by other tamarins. C

Emperor Tamarin

How is this a real animal. Made to be a cartoon character. A

Capuchin Monkey

Very trainable, the type of monkey that will most often be used in live entertainment. They get a lot of love in the form of merchandise as a result. Perfectly fine color scheme, one of many monkeys named for their fur’s resemblance to human clothing. They’re OK, but overexposure makes them seem plain. C

Spider Monkey

Up there with capuchins and mandrills in mainstream recognition. They have delightful proportions and strong prehensile tails. Ethereal and uncanny in shape, if unremarkable in color. The platonic ideal of a monkey. B

Proboscis Monkey

Not my preferred aesthetic, but their existence brings me joy. Distinctiveness prevails over blandness. B

Black and White Colobus Monkey

Like a higher-tier upgrade of a capuchin, despite a lack of proximity. Dashing. Their coloration is elegant in its simplicity. B

Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey

Their blue-white faces are cute and expressive, and provide 00′s movie poster style blue and orange contrast against their golden fur.  A

Snow Macaque

The monkeys that most often appear in anime. They like to recline in hot springs. Their thick fur gives them cozy vibes, and their red faces really pop. A

Golden Monkey

Just not as nifty as other monkeys named for having golden fur. They deserve some love all the same - searching “golden monkey” brought up more pictures of golden snub-nosed monkeys and golden lion tamarins, and that’s unfortunate for them. Perfectly fine in their own right. C

Red Shanked Douc Langur

The prettiest monkeys. I have convinced multiple people that monkeys can be aesthetically pleasing by producing images of them. Color gradients make their faces look glowy. The red shanked variant is the best because the red is a striking accent to an already excellent look, but any douc langur is a beauty. S

[year2000electronics]

Malcom Challender and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Very Bad Day

(just a little goofy ficlet set after episode 2 bc i wrote day 11 when i wasnt feeling very good about myself so i think my cool and awesome sona should be able to hang out with vils cool friends :^) )

The sun shone through the crack in Malcom’s windows, and he waved off the pigons that had somehow slipped into his apartment- as they often did, with his bird-whisperer of a roommate around. He swore it was like Player let them in on purpose sometimes. He squinted, avoiding the light as he transferred himself from his bed to his wheelchair, kicking the brake back in.

...Yes, he slept in his clothes. Don’t lie! You do it too, sometimes!

Malcom made his way into the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He pondered to himself where his housemates had gone off to, but he decided against questioning where they went. They were more active than he was, certainly- Player, when he wasn’t feeding the birds in some park, was off using his gym membership or playing bingo with some old ladies. Darnold was probably attaching rocket boosters to things that weren’t supposed to have rocket boosters.

And they were both video game characters that had become real.

God, Malcom’s life was fucking weird.

He could at least take the day to relax- after all, he didn’t have a stream until the weekend. Summer was right around the corner, which meant he could start using all his outdoor gimmicks for streams. Neo had even suggested doing a carnival stream! How would that even WORK?!

He shrugged it off. Malcom was sure Neo had some crazy ideas in his head, anyways. That was just how the dude worked.

Malcom’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging on his dining room window. His head jerked up in surprise when he heard some especially loud banging. Someone was… knocking on his window? From THIS high up?!

And it was…

No.

No fucking way.

That beautifully-styled curly brown hair. That signature sleazy moustache. That suave all-black ensemble. That surprisingly sleek ship they rode.

CAPITAL M?!

They said… well, they said something. Malcom couldn’t hear them through the window.

Both of them paused for an incredibly awkward while, until eventually, Malcom quietly rolled the window down.

“As I was SAYING. HELLO, GAMER BOY! AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE CAPTURED YOUR PRECIOUS FRIENDS!” Mothra shouted, cackling.

Malcom was… unimpressed. All there was were a bunch of birds flying around the ship, with some of them landing near Malcom in a panic.

“Why the hell are you BACK? And second of all, is this some kinda fucked up psychological warfare to say I don’t have friends?! I do have friends, asshole! I have good traits! I know cos my therapist told me!” Malcom shouted in a huff.

“Oh- No, these are- Okay-” Capital M fumbled, hauling a giant, futuristic-looking gun out of vil’s storage compartment. “So first of all, I was just at a resort. And some… people there got me back into the groove.”

“AND SECOND OF ALL!” He posed with the gun. “BEHOLD! MY GUN THAT TURNS PEOPLE INTO BIRDS!”

“AHAHAHAHA!”

“...Birds,” Malcom said in disbelief. He looked down at the birds currently waddling around on his table. They were… unremarkable. Of course they were, they were birds!

“Yes. Birds. It’s perfect cos Player will never allow it to be changed back. Ever.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

Malcom snorted.

“Yeah, well, what. Are you gonna turn every world leader into a bird so you can demand ransom or something?” He said flatly.

“That’s exactly it! PREPARE FOR A GLOBAL DEBT, MALCOM CHALLENDER!” Capital M proclaimed, pointing at him.

“That is…” Her face twisted into one of mischievous glee. “Unless someone were to… stop me…? Hmmm?”

Malcom sighed. “Dude.”

“We need to get you some superhero friends or something.”

“I am a TWITCH STREAMER. I have JOBS I do for MONEY. And I have NO POWERS.”

“PAH! You have your silly stupid power of friendship, don’t you?!”

“..Besides. I know for a fact you don’t stream today,” Mothra muttered.

“...Are you following me on Twitch…?”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, gamer-boy.”

“AND NOW I DEPART!” Capital M shouted, flying off and leaving Malcom with a lot of birds.

“Great. So, uh, who’s who?” He asked the group. “...Nevermind that, actually. No way to tell.”

It was just then his phone rang.

‘DO NOT ANSWER is requesting FaceTime…’

Malcom sighed, picking it up as a squished-together group of scientists took over his entire screen.

“Hey, Doc. Half of us got turned into birds by Capital M,” Malcom said. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with this, would you?”

The mad scientist’s face lit up. “Birds?! Oh, splendid, splendid! They really are coming back with a bang!”

“I’d GREATLY prefer it if they came back with a bang elsewhere? Maybe to the universe where people actually have powers? Like the admins, maybe??” Malcom shouted, as one of the birds let out an angry tweet.

The taller, purple scientist behind Doc guffawed. “Sorry, man. You’re the biggest dork here, so you’re easy pickings. Maybe vil just likes you.”

“It’s a great honour to have a nemesis, you know!” Harold piped up.

“AND HOW!” Doc and Sleepless both chirped.

God, they were all such a happy family. It was contagious. BLECH.

“Either way, I’m not smart enough to make an anti-bird gun. So can you guys PLEASE come over and fix this mess?” Malcom said with a sigh.

“I WOULD like to see how Capital M is doing… When we parted ways, it seemed like things were off to a good start…” Bubby mused.

“Yeah, they’re real excited about this. Just like usual, I guess,” Malcom said with a chuckle.

“Hey, is B’s service cooperating? Can we get him over too?”

The old man shook his head. “I’m afraid his feed was more like… a mosaic.”

“Damn that 2002 phone he has,” Malcom grumbled. “Oh, well. I’m sure you guys can help just fine. C’mon over.”

“Will do! We’ll bring the arsenal of weapons, too!” Tommy said excitedly.

“Like my new invention, BETTER TOASTER!” Doc yelled, holding up a toaster with mechanical spider legs and what looked like a flamethrower.

“Or the evil saxophone!” Sleepless said, and Malcom knew that was his sign to log off, as he cut them off mid-note.

“Okay, Malcom. Your friends are birds and your other friends are Saturday morning cartoon villains. Wonderful.” He sighed, sitting back in his wheelchair.

“And your OTHER other friend sure has a weird way of showing their appreciation.”

He laughed.

“Damn, I love being me.”

[layercake]

Why Naoto is Heavily Trans Coded, and How The Discussion Surrounding Him Needs to Change

Hello, I’ve never written or posted anything like this before LOL so this is a bit daunting. But this subject is something that’s been bothering me for a long time, and I wanted to get it out somewhere. So let’s talk about how Naoto Shirogane is heavily trans coded, and how the fandom has a problematic culture surrounding the issue that really needs to change.

Tw // discussion of misogyny , transphobia , and mentions of harassment

Initial Shadow Confrontation 

Since the discussion is most often about what’s “canon” and what’s not, let’s first take a look at what the game actually does give us about Naoto’s character. During the confrontation with Naoto’s shadow, we learn that Naoto idolized detectives as a kid, and wanted to be one himself when he was older.

However, this posed a problem for him in multiple ways. One, he was (is) still a child, and the people in his field don’t take him seriously because of it. He tries desperately to escape this fact, to try and act as mature as possible, but ultimately he can’t change how others will perceive him at his age.

This is what the shadow confrontation focuses on most heavily. But then it switches to discussing the other part of the issue-- the fact that Naoto’s ideal image of a detective is a man, and he “isn’t.” 

At the end, Yukiko says “You must know already that what you yearn for isn’t to become an adult or to become a boy,” and Naoto accepts it. This is what most people point to when saying that Naoto can’t be trans, because he agrees that it wasn’t what he wished for. So, easy, right? If you take this as him telling the truth, then it looks like an open and shut case-- he isn’t trans. But Naoto’s actions don’t really fit what he says here. 

The issue starts with these next lines (below) in particular. To me, Naoto’s tone in the first line is regretful, and doesn’t strike me as a sentiment someone who is cisgender would necessarily hold. Why would he want to “change into a man?” To fit his ideal image of a detective? As he says here, yes.

(Real quick before I continue, it’s not clear in the dialogue screenshot but it’s important to note that Naoto does say “yes” to Yukiko’s question about him not liking being a girl. He nods his head)

The narrative that the game tries to go with after this is that the “ideal image” Naoto wanted to live up to, including the male aspect of it, was unattainable and formed primarily because he felt that was the only way he could be a detective. 

But, is this really that much of a problem? We all look up to certain types of people, people that we want to be like-- and for many, this can factor into gender identity as well. If Naoto really just wanted to be a cool, male detective, that doesn’t at all negate that being trans would be a part of that for him. 

Naoto’s other words and actions, as well as the framing of this scene as a whole, make the scenario feel a lot less believable to me for multiple reasons. Naoto never initiates the conversation that him wanting to be a boy is incorrect-- Yukiko does. Naoto isn’t even the one to trigger his shadow-- Kanji does that. Naoto had a lot less agency in a lot of these decisions than the other characters did with their shadows. 

Naoto’s Continued Actions

The fragility of the narrative Atlus put together for Naoto continues to grow throughout the rest of the game, due to the way he behaves after the initial shadow confrontation.

For starters, it’s implied that Naoto is not his birth name, something that i think a lot of people either miss or forget about-- and yet he continues to go by it throughout the course of the game. We never find out his deadname and he never expresses a desire to share it with anybody.

The day after the “reveal,” Naoto doesn’t change anything about his appearance, mannerisms, or how he presents himself. He honestly seems uncomfortable with the fact that everyone has found out, in a way that felt much like being outed to the whole school, as opposed to finally being seen and accepted for who you “really” are.

I understand that such a drastic shift in people’s perception of you would be overwhelming to anybody, no matter if you were cis or not. But if Atlus really wanted to hone in on the idea that Naoto was happy about this change, they could’ve at least made him…. Well, happy about it. Even if it was just a small smile, just a tiny indication of relief even despite how hard it will be to adjust, it would’ve made it at least a little more believable that this is what he really wanted.

But that’s not the case. Instead, he’s uncomfortable, he still binds, he still wears the school’s male uniform, and he still goes by Naoto. The only time any of this actually changes is if you as the protagonist push him to, which… is a whole other mess.

The fact that Naoto has even gotten to this point, though, speaks more volumes to me than anything else. Passing is not easy. Coming out is not easy. Naoto would have had to go through difficult lengths in order to get not only his school, but the country and media to see him as a man.  He’s a well-known "detective prince".. someone was bound to look up his records and find out about it. That's a huge risk to take.

In addition to this, he binds. He goes by masculine pronouns and a masculine name. He very audibly changes his voice to be more masculine. I don’t know how to tell you this, but this is just…. not something cis people do? At least not comfortably. 

In fact, doing all of this would have been incredibly uncomfortable for Naoto if he was cis. As someone who experiences dysphoria, looking like and being seen as a gender you are not can be really, really painful. If transitioning was something he really didn’t want, why would he put himself through all of that? Was it really to escape misogyny? Me asking this isn’t minimizing the issue at all, because I understand that it’s incredibly serious and hard for countless women. But I would generally think someone’s first reaction to facing misogyny isn’t to… completely change their identity and present as a different gender.

On top of being probably the hardest option of escaping misogyny available to him, and one of the most uncomfortable, presenting as a man doesn’t necessarily get rid of any prejudices Naoto may face. In fact, I would argue that it’s considerably more dangerous. Especially in a rural town like Inaba, where people seem to not really understand or approve of being LGBT. Naoto is smart, he would have thought of all of this. So why?

Inherent Transphobia of Naoto’s Arc 

There is something to be said about how much misogyny is present in Japan’s workforce, especially in fields like Naoto’s, and the importance there is in discussing that. The base idea behind his struggles and message isn’t inherently a bad one, but the way the game went about it was problematic because it put down transgender identities in the process.

The first time I watched Naoto’s shadow confrontation, it was really distressing to me. The game continuously repeats the idea that you can’t “cross the barrier of the sexes,” that Naoto “can never really be a man,” and  that “you can change your name, but you can never change who you “really” are.” I hope I don’t need to explain why this is a problem.

Naoto’s wish to be a man, regardless of what was driving it, is depicted as something temporary and childish. Something that Naoto “didn’t really want,”  something that was just an excuse to run away from the misogyny he was facing. Even if it was unintentional, this message is incredibly harmful to transgender people.

It would have been a better and much more coherent message about misogyny if the writers had steered clear of trans themes entirely. In fact, I think they did so well with Sae’s character in Persona 5-- she’s in the same field of work, facing very similar struggles, but she doesn’t react in the same way as Naoto at all. 

Kanji and Homophobia 

It’s even worse that Naoto’s “reveal,” on top of being problematic by itself, is used as a method to bury Kanji’s exploration of his own sexuality. The problems with Kanji’s own shadow are bad enough to warrant their own long rant, but the reveal that Naoto was “really a girl” this whole time allows the story to completely wave off his gayness for good.

This isn’t something unique to this game-- the trope of “two boys fall in love, but one of them turns out to be a girl so it’s fine” has been used numerous times in other media to explore the topic half-assedly. It plays with the “exoticness” or “drama” of a gay romance, but backs off at the end in order to uphold societal norms and prevent backlash. 

This doesn’t really give any kind of good commentary on gay relationships, nor does it depict them in a positive or helpful manner. It isn’t something that these games should be getting kudos for doing. 

Misogyny?

I think there’s also something to be said about how poignantly bad Atlus is at really tackling the problem of misogyny. It tries, especially with characters like Ann and Sae, and in certain aspects it can succeed. But then they have scenes like the pageant and Every Beach Scene Ever, where the women are forced to wear swimsuits or revealing clothing against their will, or their bodies are talked about without their consent. There is consistently a character in each persona game who is forced to do the whole misogynistic dipshit gimmick that’s supposed to be funny-- Junpei, Yosuke, Teddie, Morgana, Ryuji-- and while this is obviously not a Persona specific problem by a longshot, it’s still indicative of how unsuccessful these games often are in delivering the message that society’s systemic misogyny is an issue.

This is something I think about a lot when people try and argue that Naoto’s story can’t be about him being trans because it’s “an important message about misogyny.” Atlus often doesn’t deliver on such stories already, and they certainly didn’t with Naoto. As soon as Naoto returns to “living as a woman” he’s subjected to the same misogyny that the other girls are. His chest is commented on, he’s forced to be in the beauty pageant, he’s made uncomfortable in the bath scenes-- really, all Atlus did after the reveal was make the problem worse for him. 

On top of this, his story never actually meaningfully tackles the problem of misogyny in the detective force. It’s not a major part of his social link or the general plot of the game-- honestly, it’s barely even touched on at all after the initial confrontation. Thus, the idea that “Naoto can’t be trans because it erases a story about misogyny” is just plain untrue. There never was a coherent one in the first place.

Problems Within the Fandom

Despite all of this, there is such an intense backlash from the majority of the fandom if anybody dares to bring up these issues with Naoto’s story. Naoto being trans is generally seen as something ridiculous and stupid, or something to insult and mock people for.

I understand that there's always going to be people who say provocative stuff like this, no matter what anyone does, and that it’s not something exclusive to this particular fandom or character. But the problem is that this rhetoric isn't just from them anymore--the consensus among so much of the fandom seems to be either that Naoto absolutely cannot be trans, or that speaking about it at all is "annoying discourse" and taboo. Even from fans that are LGBT or allies themselves. 

This in and of itself is such a telling thing to me. if you find yourself getting angry about the subject, really ask yourself why. Is it such a problem for people to reclaim a transphobic story? Is it such a problem for a character to be trans in the first place?  There is room for discussion and nuance regarding this situation, but we have to make it for ourselves. We can accept that Atlus’s base game will never actually give us a coherent story about either misogyny nor being transgender with Naoto’s story. But petty arguments and insults thrown at people who bring up this topic isn’t any of that-- it’s just poorly masked transphobia. 

So at the end of the day, no, Naoto being is trans is not “canon.” Of course Naoto would not actually be allowed to be trans, he is a main character in a game series where the only explicitly LGBT characters have been consistently buried, stereotyped, or demonized with only a few rare exceptions.

Yes, you’re allowed to headcanon whatever you want about him. I can’t stop you from wanting a story about misogyny, or from seeing Naoto’s gender as something more fluid than I do. But you can’t ignore the fact that his story, as written in canon, is laden with transphobia despite its intentions. It’s not a ridiculous or harmful thing for trans people to want to reclaim that.

There are still a lot more issues with how Naoto is treated in the game-- especially in his romance route-- but that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not ready to unpack today lol

Hopefully all of this made sense though, and feel free to bring up anything else I may have missed or point out any issues you might have with it :-) Thanks for reading!

[ghoulia-yelps]

Top 5 Best and Worst Monster High dolls of: 2014

Since my post ranking the Abbey Bominable dolls got a little bit of attention, I thought I would do something similar! I plan on ranking more characters but, most of them have many more dolls than Abbey, so that will take a while. In the mean-time though, this! 

As with the previous post, everything below my #1 pick under the cut. :)

#1 Best: Zombie Shake Purrsephone and Meowlody

Honestly, these two just look cool. I find that by 2014 Monster High was already declining in quality and complex designs by quite a bit, so these two are very refreshing to see. The other 2 pack of Venus and Rochelle is also good, but i don’t want this list to become redundant.

#1 Worst: Save Frankie! Jackson

Those glasses hurt me. Why does he have to look so cheesy here? I really liked his first 2 releases, but after that his dolls kinda just fell off. 

#2 Best: New Scaremester Catty 

I really do wish they made more of Catty, she’s so pretty! I love basically any cat themed doll, and this is no exception. Pink and black is also a favorite color combo, so im biased.

#2 Worst: Geek Shriek Howleen

I feel bad putting Howleen in the worst, i really do, but this doll of her is just boring. She doesn’t even look bad per say.... just under-detailed. Also whats up with the random blue in her colors?

#3 Best: I Love Fashion Cleo

As with most Cleo dolls, she just looks so nice! I love all of her accessories and outfits, which is always a good sign when this dolls whole deal is coming with extra clothes. Also, I happen to like the blue/black hair. 

#3 Worst: Ghoul’s Alive! Deuce

Okay, let’s be real, the Ghouls Alive line was always... shaky at best. I find that while a lot of the gimmicks are cool, the dolls themselves just end up looking weird and misshapen, as with Deuce here. His hard plastic head just does not look good!!

#4 Best: Monster Exchange Lagoona

This Lagoona is just so pretty, her hair!! The shoes are also really cute, I can’t think of a single thing to criticize about this one. (I also love the draculaura from this line)

#4 Worst: Haunted Draculaura

I’m sorry, but they just messed up on this line. The weird eye makeup I have NEVER been a fan of, and the outfit as a whole is quite cheesy. I wish they would have made these a bit differently, tbh.

#5 Best: Ghoul Chat Rochelle & Catrine

Ahhh these two are so simple but I love them! Just a very cute set, honestly. Their hair and makeup is so pleasing to look at <3 I wish they made more of these characters! (God can you tell i love cats...)

#5 Worst: Freaky Fusion Hybrids Bonita

This is actually the only one of the three freaky fusion hybrids I don’t have... and for good reason. I think i would like her much more without the yellow-green color. Maybe purple would have worked instead? But anyways, just not really my style.

And thats it! I really enjoyed writing this list and again I’d love to discuss it if anyone wants to. :)

fun fact: 2014 had the 2nd most doll releases of monster high, behind 2016.

[abyssaldissonance]

All of Nightbane’s Clothes & Captions (So Far) 

*You can go into “Pieces” in Nightbane’s Reflection to see Soul Magic and Desire Magic captions, but for non-set items I don’t believe there is a similar, compact way to view them. 

I love the difference in how Soul Magic and Desire Magic narrate, changing from a disembodied warning to Nightbane narrating himself. Soul Magic warning the reader not to go near Nightbane, that his disguise is sweetness, charm, and acting submissive to get what he wants, while also warning that, if you’re part of the unfortunate many that can’t resist his temptations, that you shouldn’t wish for anything impossible. 

I also enjoy the way he frames the difference between Lilith and his “Master” (no spoilers but if you know you know /shrug). I think the way he distinguishes them is very purposeful, and perhaps even touches into unreliable narrator territory - almost as if he does care about Lilith in his own demonic way and seems to hinge on the edge of betrayal to his real master in favor of her/his demonic impulse to corrupt her, but that could very well be to lower the reader’s inhibitions as the unreliable narrator refuting Soul Magic’s warnings. 

I also enjoy the fact that his suit is Sweet, while his standalone clothes have high Sexy and Cool stats. It adds a more dangerous quality to his saccharine Sweet suit... I know people call the standalone item captions edgy but they really just screams bdsm to me. Which I think is part of the point, like, yeah they’re about blood and choking but thats also what definitely makes them both sexy and dangerous — it’s the fact he’s a demon that will Literally kill you, but he uses the sensual qualities of how he does it as a style of temptation for those the Sweet gimmick won’t work on. 

[rawbin69]

*Slowly walks up to you, cradling this*

*Gently sets it down in fromt of you*

*SPRIN TS THE FUCK AEWAY IN PANIC*

Okay anyways hi I’m back after like, months lol, sorry about that (but I’m not actually back because I’m busy trying not to die because of school-work and trying to work on some MAP parts. I literally said five days ago on my yt channel “Hi I’m back now!! :-D” and school just said “no <3″ which, um, rude. So yeah I might come on and occasionally come post something but I’m really not gonna be coming on here to be active

OKAY OKAY but I need to explain these sketches because they will be suuuper confusing without context, I am very aware, yes, so there’s an explanation (+ some extra art and a non-shaded version of the stuff above) under the cut :-)

BASICALLY, @lulzyrobot​ made this AU of Pokémon Sword and Shield and now I have brain rot because of it. Also this AU will indeed be confusing to those who have no knowledge about sword and shield so here’s a skippable paragraph about the game:

(OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS BELOW)

Basically, SwSh is just a Pokémon game (no surprise there) and its gimmick or whatever is Dynamax, which turns Pokémon like. Really fucking large. (Some of them can also Gigantamax which changes their appearance as well as size, but we don’t care about that here bc it really isn’t relevant). In all gyms (except one, Spikemouth) there are power spots, which are needed for a Pokémon to Dynamax. If they’re not close to a power spot, they can’t do it. There are also power spots in the Wild Area (which is, you guessed it, an area in the game). At one point in the game, the villain -- Chairman Rose -- starts up something called “the Darkest Day”, which happened before in the Galarian region (which is where everything takes place), in hopes of getting infinite energy for them or something like that (really makes no sense but like ok pop off ig). To do this, he basically uses these things called Wishing Stars -- which are what allows Pokémon to Dynamax -- to summon a Pokémon called Eternatus. In-game, you basically just summon two other legendaries (Zacian and Zamazenta -- they’re on the cover of the games) and fight Eternatus and then catch the fucker. That’s all context you need for this AU so let’s move on to that now:

The AU is basically that Eternatus sends out a powerful blast which fuses trainers with Pokémon, to varying degrees. The closer to a power spot you are, the more likely you are to get it bad. If you’re far enough from one you won’t be affected at all. A person can merge with multiple Pokémon, but the more of them, the harder it is to not go wild. If you merge with a wild Pokémon, you’ll become a Wild Trainer (and those basically act like, well, wild Pokémon).

If you want more info (which you do want, trust me on this), here’s a post made by the creator themself!! https://lulzyrobot.tumblr.com/post/610890677032747008/pokemon-dynamorph-au-masterpost

OKAY ANYWAY, back onto this specific sketch (wow I really went on a rampage there lol)

I decided to Dynamorph my trainersona(??????) (btw, both the Dynamorph version AND the “human” version are WIPs, I’m not completely happy with either of them) and this was the resuulltttt

- Their name is Robin (because I’m a bastard that does self-insert ships with no shame)

- They merged with their Arcanine (and I’m considering also adding a wild Lycanroc, both so I can give them Epic Claws™ and so that their whole extremely volatile nature makes any sense)

- They have some REAL trouble keeping themself in check. Like. They’re constantly on the edge between becoming a Wild Trainer and being “normal”

- Because I am, like I said, a bastard who does self-ships without any shame they are together with Piers. yes I am a simp for him. 

- Robin has their select group of friends (made up of all gym leaders minus Opal because they have no idea what the fuck is up with her, as well as Marnie, Hop and Leon. No they don’t give a shit about Bede) which they are super protective of. They have to be reminded that they can all handle themselves, because they might otherwise become a bit possessive.

- While they are a raging storm you do NOT want to get involved with in any way to anybody outside their friend group, they are really nice to be around when they really care about you. They may be pretty stubborn, but they always do what they think is best for their loved ones. On multiple occasions, they’ve gone out to collect any sorts of gifts they can find that they think their friends will enjoy. They are super gentle and kind with Hop and Marnie (which, by the way, they’d literally die for either of them) and they’re overall a good friend/partner. Their main flaw here is their temperament and somewhat possessive nature.

- If anybody did something to even moderately hurt any of their friends... hoo boy, you do NOT want to do that. They’ve nearly killed people for leaving so much as a scratch on their loved ones, and have to be physically dragged away so they won’t really kill somebody. 

- However. Despite really, truly believing they'd never, under ANY circumstances, hurt ANY of their friends... they’re wrong about that. The only ones they could truly never purposely cause harm to would be Piers, Marnie and Hop. Yes, it would take A LOT for them to hurt any of the others (like, they’d only hurt the others if they tried to, idk, kill them or something. Or if they tried or actually did kill somebody else in their close circle) but it could hypothetically happen.

- If they ever were to see Rose, he’d probably be torn to shreds on sight. Literally nothing would be able to stop them. 

- While it’s near impossible for anybody they don’t care about to calm them down, it’s pretty easy for especially Hop, Marnie, Piers, Raihan, Leon and Milo (and the others, but less so for them lol). 

- They were right by a power spot, like they were about to step into a den, when the blast happened so they were. Really fucking affected by it. They stayed in the Wild Area for a while after that, searching for their Arcanine who had “mysteriously vanished”, before they transformed. They were basically a Wild Trainer for at least a month before Piers found them and managed to get them to remember who they actually were over the course of two days. It was,, really concerning when they’d at first been texting him pretty much non-stop to update him on what was going on with them just to then go radio silent for a few days, especially since people had begun transforming at that point. Haha angst go brrr

- You must ignore how their clothes still kind of fit despite them growing to be both more ~muscular~ and tall and how it’s not dirty for the sake of my convenience ok

Ok I think that’s all? woah that was a long post lmao

Anyways, here’s the promised extra art (first one is the same sketch without any shading and that stuff (buT I MISSED ONE, I DIDN’T REMOVE THE SHADING FROM ONE I AM SORRY LOL), second is Robin as just a regular trainer)

Oh also some context for some of the sketches:

Bottom one where they’re screaming “yOU mOthErFuCKeR” is what their reaction would be to one of their loved ones being killed

The one with Milo is Robin just. Being near him. After probably having some sort of panic or anxiety attack because they’re worried about everyone. Because Milo is a really calming person to be around.

Top one in the middle is Robin just patting the red eye-lens-things Raihan got from his Flygon because they find it to be Very Entertaining to just pat them for no reason at all.

The ones where they’re hugging Marnie would take place right after they come back to Spikemouth after their month(s) as a Wild Trainer. They still weren’t used to being around people (and much less BEHAVING like a PERSON) so they were pretty awkward about Marnie hugging them.

The one where they’re surrounded by darkness to the right and kneeling forward is them in the middle of their “transformation” after the blast happened.

Fiery ones at the top right are just Robin being pissed as fuck lol

(Still haven’t decided if this will be the “official” team of Pokemon I have, but it’s cool for now. Also yes, I added an extra Pokemon to my “team” who isn't actually a battle-Pokémon or whatever. I NEED APPLETUNS EMOTIONAL SUPPORT OKAY)