#the timestop monster

[leletha-jann]

Le'letha's Grand Unified* Theory of Timestop Creatures

*sorry, neither

Before canon catches up to us, let's fill in the blank:

This creature 

is ​​​​​​​​​​_____________...

1) ​an aspect of Lucrezia

Narratively this makes sense. Lucrezia's the main villain and we really only know the edges of her story yet. But what we do know does not even slightly rule out her being an angry interdimensional timestop creature at some point. We know that the entity originally known as Lucrezia is time-lost and stranded - and I'll take as another data point that she's somewhere without cake! (Does that creature look like it hails from a dimension with cake?) 

We know that a lot of time has elapsed for her and, while I can't find the quote at this exact moment, possibly at different angles - something the Castle describes this creature as traversing. We know that she has been changed by this, and appears throughout the known timeline in different aspects, appearances, and identities. 

And today's page has the Dreen telling us that "a monster must grow! Develop! Mature! ...to achieve its full fearsome potential...worthy of attention."

That sounds an awful lot like whatever Lucrezia has become. 

In fact, one of the very first things Lucrezia told us was "it's been so long since I was really human" (and even at the time, Tarvek went "um wait what", and then sensibly decided not to push.)

It's also distinctly ambiguous if the creature is reaching for the device as the source of the time distortion, or for Klaus. And while it doesn't mean much that I think it's going for Klaus, Gil thought it was. Gil's talent for intuitive leaps is the subject of a different post (I really must write it...), but he's very good at them. When Gil first saw the timestop creature, he didn't say "it's going for the device" or even for "it's going for the device my father used" (which would have moved the dialogue along as needed), he specifically said "it's heading for my father​." I trust Gil's intuition. Here, and in general.

I think the timestop creature is an aspect of Lucrezia. And she is, as far as we know (see option 5), the Big Bad of the series, so "This is probably Lucrezia's fault somehow" is a solid guess.

2) an aspect of Vapnoople

This has been clearly foreshadowed and it's definitely something that's going to come back to bite at some point. This could be that point, absolutely! Not that I didn't enjoy the storylines in the Society dome (I enjoy that phase of the story a lot!), but every storyline is here to do something and it could 100% be the origin story of the timestop creature we'd already seen, because time is not, and has never been, linear in this story! Right from the very beginning! (Yes, this is the infamous Page Four, of course.)

Vapnoople said he'd be back, and once we could talk to Kjarl, we learned that Vapnoople would probably appear very differently and be quite insane. 

Continuing with the idea that the creature is going for Klaus specifically, and not the device, it's possible Klaus cooperatively pinned himself to a board like a specimen and Vapnoople's taking the opportunity to get payback for, y'know, being lobotomized and turned into an object of scorn and pity. That being said, does a warped-by-the-monster-dimension Vapnoople care about that? And is Vapnoople a big enough presence to be the endpoint of the Second Journey? Is this his time to reappear in the story? Besides, he seemed quite happy to be heading off into the monster dimension. I don't think he'd be in a hurry to come back. 

But time is not linear between here and there (or any number of "there"s). So this is a workable second option, and I know it's one in favor with many readers.

3) a totally unconnected genuine interdimensional creature

A pleasingly random option, but one with precedent - we saw the Queen's Society do this earlier and Agatha clearly thought it was relevant to Mechanicsburg. 

One of the fantastic things about Girl Genius is that the world keeps happening. Not everything around us is about us. When you leave food on the floor, the ants that show up are probably not plotting against you. They're just doing ant things. 

(...probably. Although in a world of mad science, who knows?)

4) an aspect of Euphrosnia Heterodyne

An out-there option and the one most likely to elicit screaming from the fandom. (An argument in its favor, I'm sure.)

The mystery surrounding Euphrosnia has been building up in the background for years, a little bit at a time. She was the last female Heterodyne before Agatha. Her story parallels Agatha's, has shaped Agatha's, and keeps being mentioned. She vanished in strange circumstances. How did that happen? Where did she go? Is she coming back? She has too much of a narrative presence not to - there's something going on there. Agatha is returning to Mechanicsburg. Is Euphrosnia? Carson von Mekkhan did say that the Heterodynes always come home in the end...

(See, I'm looking for the ramp-up, the twist I can't see coming, like the two-and-a-half-year time skip was in the first place. I keep thinking recently, we've all been thinking recently, everything's going so well...and I had that feeling before, at the end of the siege...right before everything changed... What's coming for us this time? What evil, evil twist do the Foglios have planned?)

And it would be a heck of a ramp-up to have one of the old Heterodynes, and the legendary princess no less, take the field and change everything.

5) something else

Look. It's not my job to outguess the Foglios. (And if you think it's yours, you're wrong.) I look forward to being surprised!

And probably screaming. A lot.

[yugiohcardsdaily]

Photon Timestop

"Take 1 'Photon' or 'Galaxy' Continuous Spell/Trap from your Deck and either add it to your hand or place it face-up on your field. If this Set card in its owner's control is destroyed by your opponent's card effect during your opponent's turn and you control 'Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon' or an Xyz Monster that has it as material: You can activate this effect; it becomes the End Phase of this turn."

[owlrageousjones]

The thing the Baron did for the Dreen that got them to work for him - something he hadn't done at the time but would do in the future - I think I know what it is.

It's the Timestop. They're after the monster. And it's lured by the blockage.

[remidyal]

Bad Ideas of the Day Part 8 - The Ocho

Part 8 of the series of my occasional roundup of my bad ideas of the day from the D20 Fanfic Discord, as always the link back to the prior one is available here and as always anyone who wants to do something with these ideas is moreeeee than welcome to do so, though I'd love to hear about it!

This list contains spoilers for FHJY through current as of writing (episode 10) as many of the ideas on this edition involve events from this season; I've put it below the read more for that reason. Some of the ideas mark where spoilers are contained up through.

Bad Idea of the Day, Trust Issues Edition, FHJY spoilers through episode four: Fabian, wanting to cash out but not wanting to give Chungledown Bim 18 million gold pieces, tries to find a convincing nemesis who the bank will believe and who will use the money they get in a way that won't bother him, such as to further shitting in his mouth. He finds someone who both has a history that often leads to nemesis-dom and is willing to commit major financial crimes for money: His ex-girlfriend, Aelwyn Abernant. Now, they just need to stage a public enough fight to get her on the list before he cashes out…

Bad idea of the day, Total Party Kill edition: The bad kids and Aelwyn cut a little TOO loose during the fight at Ostentatia's, and instead of nobody getting THAT hurt during the timestop they actually collapse the house on top of all the hudol kids inside, landing all of them in a world of trouble BEFORE they can meet up with Biz…

Bad idea of the day, 'fake' dating edition: Kristen decides that she can maybe make her parents okay with her being a lesbian if she starts off with the worst possible partner for her parents and then backs down to just a normal girl like Tracker. So she asks her friendly local tiefling to come with her to a family dinner as her girlfriend…

Bad idea of the day, the beauty of nature edition: On a trip to the far haven woods to spy on the ratgrinders, Adaine is alarmed to discover that as she grows up the Oracle becomes imbibed with full disney princess powers, and it is very difficult to go about one's business sneakily when all the trees and wildlife are constantly singing to her as she goes

Bad Idea of the Day, spoilers through JY episode 5 edition: In the middle of a fight of gods at the mall, one man whose soul truly represents the very worst the mall has to offer appears, immune to the rage from the stars, wielding a comically large sword and looking like a reject from the Armour Zombie and Lich catalogue: One Cody Walsh.

Bad idea of the day part two, I can't believe I forgot about this detail from the Seven edition: The Ministry of Adventure, in a timeline where their shit isn't pushed in by the Seven, send one of their honeytrap agents to try to ensnare one of the brightest up and coming adventurers in all of Solace. Then, when that one fails, they send another, and another. How is eligible bachelor detective Riz Gukgak seeing through all of their schemes, they wonder?

Bad idea of the day, reclassification edition, JY spoilers through six: In a determination to make certain Kristen can stay in school even without a god, the Bad Kids look for another class to fit Kristen into. Can she try out for Rogue or Fighter or anything else without stabbing herself with her -3 dex?

Bad idea of the day, backup escape routes edition, spoilers through episode 5 of Junior Year: Instead of being bailed out by Connor Counterspell, the Bad Kids are forced to take a different exit from the Mall of the Synod of Spyre through the only obvious portal: The one into the strudel dimension in Oodles of Strudels. There, they find themselves in not just a strudel dimension, but in fact an entire plane of pastry, including a giant octopus-esque monster who is very angry with Adaine in particular as the strudel she has been chopping has been one of its tendrils. Can they survive long enough for Adaine to hit level 13 and get Plane Shift, or will they fall to the forces of the Pop-Tart King?

Bad idea of the day, impractical bard forms edition: Encouraged towards something that is 'respectable' and in which her 'lack of wizardly talent' won't be as much of an impediment, Adaine ends up a bard of visual arts. Specifically, oil paintings. Can she be a useful party member with a form of bardic work in which even a simple spell takes an hour, just because it's the sort of thing that's okay in Fallinel's high society?

Bad idea of the day, soulmates edition: Every pirate gets a birthmark that appears within the first few years of their life indicating the highest rank they'll ever hold on a crew. Bill Seacaster's heart is crushed when his darling boy Fabian's birthmark appears and indicates that he'll never be higher than a First Mate.

Bad idea of the day, courtesy of tumblr edition: Adaine, party wizard, has a sister with crazy drug dealing stories and a dad with crazy drug dealing stories and a need for cash. Who could have seen, when she started drug dealing at parties, that it would end in crazy stories and pain?

Bad idea of the day, Fantasy High edition, spoilers through episode 7 JY: The bad kids do, in fact, do drugs at the party, and there's a fight to the death with Grix during the assembly instead of happening later. Can they rally the other students to not be cowards for once?

Bad idea of the day, stop spreading the news edition: Pete and Maddy lead a strike force against the evil wizard who is running the New York Times and using it to spread all sorts of hate and propaganda, especially on a personal level to them the transphobia.

Bad idea of the day, Aguefort didn't know what he was doing REALLY edition: After the murder-suicide in the cafeteria, left with nobody but the corpses of three staff members and some other confused freshmen, Gorgug Thistlespring and Kristen Applebees are brought back from the dead… Shame their souls went into the wrong bodies, isn't it?

Bad idea of the day, wizard tomes editions: Less a plot idea and more just a general notion, we need more cursed items, and in particular here I'm thinking cursed spellbooks. Give Adaine a book that seers knowledge out of her brain, or reverses portent rolls to be the opposite of what she thinks she's doing, maybe (Though actually on that latter note - it would be EXTREMELY on the nose, should Adaine ever become a follower of Cassandra, if her portents stopped working as she became only able to see the worst that was to come but not prevent it.)

Bad idea of the day, keep your friends close and your frenemies closer edition: In the time in between The Unsleeping City 1 and 2, an insurance investigator comes knocking about a very suspicious house fire. Sofia thinks she'll be fine… until she realizes that the investigator is also going to ask Ricky, as the heroic firefighter who first responded to the scene. Can she train Ricky into convincingly lying, or will she be visiting that famous New York prison of Riker's Island?

Bad idea of the day, class swap secret santa edition: Following a decree from Arthur Aguefort that students are too reluctant to try new things and they should dabble more, every student at the Adventuring Academy is required to try out a class they have not previously attended for two weeks that the rest of their party secretly votes on without consulting each other. What will each Bad Kid be stuck doing, and can everyone else figure out a class they're certain Fig has never snuck into?

Bad idea of the day, stunning strike edition: Realizing that they're being exploited by a system that risks their lives and pays them only with grades, not money, for saving the world, the students of Aguefort go on strike. Can they remain united in the face of the Ministry of Adventure and their union-busting assassination squads?

Bad idea of the day, dirty laundry edition, spoilers through jy 10: Taking Adaine's offer to come over and do her laundry while under the invisibility spell so she can avoid people other than Adaine caring for her, Aelwyn unfortunately triggers an investigation from Fig, Kristen, and Sandra Lynn into why their washing machine is suddenly haunted and running on its own. Can she remain unnoticed without causing a problem, or will Kristen banishing her clothing to the Elemental Plane of Detergent?

Bad idea of the day, with grating power comes grating responsibility edition: Adaine never manages to become much of a wizard, but instead manages to tap into something even more core to her personality than the anxiety: Being a petty insulting brat, and finding herself a Lore Bard on the strength of study + cutting words combined. How does her family handle it when the bickering at the table becomes much more deadly?

[tatatale]

Howdy friendo, care to hear of a fun idea of been cultivating for the last hour or 3?

Great!

So for a good while, I’ve had the Headcanon that Sans’ “shortcuts” are not teleportation, but rather him pulling a Za Warudo and stopping time, and then moving through those periods of stopped time. It explains some things about his fight, when the screen goes black and he switched attacks, mid attack. Papyrus’s abilities on the other hand, are more spatially oriented. See him literally walking on air or casually flipping physics the bird on occasion.

You following along?

Great.

So I Thought to myself, what could the AU equivalent to these abilities be? And I came up with some. Mainly with AUs that are relevant to a fic I’m working on. The one that that one character I commissioned you to draw is from.

UnderFell:

For Sans, rather than stopping time, he pulls a King Crimson and “obliterates” a frame of time, about 10 seconds or so, and only he is conscious and capable of acting during those 10 seconds, while everyone else is basically forced to move on autopilot. You’ll understand if you’ve watched Jojo Part 5.

Papyrus on the other hand… doesn’t get any special ability. Part of the reason he’s such a cranky pants in this world is because he doesn’t get some insane, OP ability like his brother or counterparts, and has to make do with the standard Skeleton Abilities. The trade off being he probably has the most powerful (and potentially creative) normal attacks. Think Papyrus’s final attack but on steroids.

UnderSwap:

Since the brothers Swap roles, I swapped the base natures of their abilities, Time vs Space, while still doing something new. Sans can now accelerate himself, essentially making himself like the Flash, but blue.

Papyrus instead gets a bootleg Reset power, where he can rewind time, but only by about 10 seconds, and this ability, along with Fell Sans’, probably have the longest cooldown times.

OuterTale and StoryShift:

These two are grouped together for similar, but different reasons. With OuterTale, I’m just not sure what to do with the brothers since they’re almost identical to the originals, except they live in space, so I’d like to hear your thoughts.

The StoryShift bros on the other hand, just have the same powers as the OGs, but much more powerful due to the fact that they have been alive for centuries in StoryShift canon, and as monster royalty, are probably need to be much more powerful.

HT Paps and the Murder Trio:

The HorrorTale bros can’t use their special abilities. With Sans’ magic eye being ripped out and his brother being so messed up, neither of them can access their special moves. Killer theoretically can probably use a stronger version of Classic Sans’ time stop thanks to the raised LV, but he just doesn’t since his eyes never glow anymore. (I headcanon these abilities being tied to their magic eyes btw) and it’s a similar situation with Dust of probably just having a super powerful timestop. Whether he uses it or not is debatable.

And then the bigger entities like Error, Dream, Nightmare, Ink, and Fresh all simply traded temporal abilities for multiversal traversal.

Sorry for the essay, I wanted to share these thoughts with ya, lemme know what you think if you have time!

Yeah, I've also think about the stopping time thing, since in Grillby's it looks like time stops when he tells you about Flowey and Papyrus (in fact I think Sappy could do this if I remember correctly). So it could perfectly be that! And about Papyrus flying I always thought it was more a comical thing than he really flying, but it can be too! Papyrus really is a strong character, even Undyne knows this.

Underfell: I haven't watched Jojo but I think I get it! Underswap: OMG I love Blue with that power!! I don't know if Alphys is super fast in this AU like Undyne in canon, but imagine Swap!Alphys and Swap!Sans racing! Outertale: About this, hum, what if Sans can create little wormholes to travel and Papyrus blackholes to absorb stuff (like Alive's arm)? And yeah, the others are cool too!

I like your ideas, I hope you have fun writing your fic!! ≧◡≦) It looks like a lot of work.

[magpiejay1234]

So, let’s talk about the worldbuilding in FF3.

*The world of FF3 is divided between three maps. Floating Continent, Surface World (Pre-Time restart and post-time restart), and World of Darkness.

Floating Contient is the initial and most attention grabbing part of the game. This is especially true in DS version, since prologue is expanded to introduce the party members and game mechanics.

Floating Continent houses two of the crystals, Fire and Wind. Fire Crystal gets a dedicated arc for itself with Desch and Gutsco, and the finale of the segment, battle with Hein, is truly memorable.

Surface World starts off really weird because of Aria’s timestop, but after timestop is reversed, the actual region is very barren. Unlike Galuf’s world in FF5 however, there isn’t a lot of varied monsters here. The shops in this segment are not all that interesting, even if DS version mostly improves on them, as each city is dedicated to a specific later-game job. Amur is dedicated to Vikings and Thieves. Duster is dedicated to Bards and Geomancers, Replito is dedicated to Evokers and Summoners (which I currently don’t have), and Saronia is dedicated to Rangers and Dragoons.

The region also doesn’t have a lot of unique dungeons, except Goldor’s Manor, which is probably the prettiest DS dungeon in any JRPG ever, and my primary grinding spot (largely because the emulator works fastest here for some reason).

Amur and Saronia are the most interesting settlements so far, but I hope I will get more when I see Noah’s apprentices’ domains. Don’t dissapoint me Doga and Xande.

*Crystals and Elder Tree talk a lot, but you don’t feel the destruction or corruption of the crystals causing havoc, as it was the case in later FFs, and arguably FF2 (even though all crystals get screwed near the end of that game). So their role feels rather worthless besides providing commentary and jobs.

*Part of this is because FF3 is different from other FFs when it comes to magic. This world, unlike other FFs, is a world of true magic, as all bosses and major enemies require magical characters to defeat them. The sole exceptions for this so far are Goldor and Garuda, Goldor just requires you to punch him really hard, and Garuda is designed to be beaten by Dragoons (like Barbaricia in FF4).

While apparently Monks can get over physical resistence (and I presume all melee jobs can provided they are sufficiently leveled up), game wants you to magicians, and part of how it does this by forcing certain dungeons to be explored by Mini or Toad in Floating Contient.

As such, magic is not seen as an external force here, but part of the nature, so even if Earth Crystal is destroyed by Goldor for example, the life will clearly continue on, because individuals have sufficient amount of magic to survive.

This magic as lifeforce aspect is obviously getting rarer, since the inherent association of magic with organized religion, but this classic trope feels like a breath of fresh air compared to modern JRPGs with their obsessions with physical strength.

Of course, this is still a FF game, so Monks and other physical jobs are still technically the strongest, and can generally move around physical resistences (yes, apparently even against Hein, so keep grinding your Monk), but game is designed in a way to ensure you won’t figure this out.

*Second good aspect of this remake version of the game is all the orphan kids’ families are shown to be proper families... even though only Luneth and Refia have real adoptive parents. Again, considering how big later post-Enix merger FF games are super into eugenics and pure royal or noble family lines like rest of JRPGs, this feels like a breath of fresh air again.

[takerfoxx]

So long as I'm getting caught up on all my stuff, here's the next installment of the Walpurgis Nights girls watch The Rebellion Story, this time stretching from Homura shooting herself in the head to her talk with Sayaka the vague-poster!

Reminder:

G=Gretchen

H=Homulilly

Op=Ophelia

Ok=Oktavia

Ca=Candeloro/Mami

Ch=Charlotte

...

=still screaming=

G: Turn it off, TURN IT OFF!

Ok, panicking: I got it, I got it! Off!

=TV winks out=

Ch: Sweet Christ!

=long pause, and then Gretchen gets up and runs off. Homulilly quickly follows=

Ch: This was a mistake.

Op: What. The fuck?

Ca: I should have known. I should have known it would go this way.

Ch: Candy, there’s no way you could have-

Ca: No! There was! I knew how bad it could get! I knew how far we could have fallen! I shouldn’t have let you guys see any of this.

Ok: It’s not your fault.

Ca: I still should have known. I should have at least screened this!

Ch: Yeah, one of us probably should have.

=another long pause=

Ok: So, uh, are we, like, done?

=suddenly Gretchen reenters the room, followed by Homulilly. They silently return to their seats=

G: Okay. Play it.

Op: Gretch, are you sure?

G: I need to know. I need to know what happens to her. I need to know if we turn out okay. Play it.

=everyone exchanges uncomfortable glances, and then look to Homulilly, who slowly nods=

Ok: Okay, if you say so…

Op: We’d better ease it with the commentary. I mean, this isn’t something we can-

G: No! Please, no. The talking…and the jokes…well, it makes it easier.

Op: Sure.

Ch: It’ll be kind of hard to find anything funny about this.

Ca: We can try to do what we can.

=they start the movie, and silently watch as Homura falls in slow motion, blood and brains spewing out. And then…=

Op: Wait, hold up! How is she still moving?

Ca: As I said, something like that won’t kill her. You would need to destroy her soul gem.

Op: So she can straight up just blow her own head off and walk it off?

Ca: So long as the act of healing didn’t use up too much magic, yes.

H: Okay, but why? Why would I do something like that?

Ca: Let’s find out.

…

Ok: Uh…Ooooh.

H: Oh. Really?

G: What’s going on?

H: I couldn’t get rid of the ribbon on my ankle. Every time I tried to shoot it off, Mami would just grow it back. So I tried shocking her so badly that she wouldn’t think to regenerate the ribbon long enough for her to be caught in the time-stop.

Op: By shooting yourself in the head?!

H: Clearly, I have a considerable amount of emotional issues.

Ch: You know, it’s really starting to concern me how you keep referring to her as yourself just now.

H: I apologize. I will try to differentiate between my alternate selves.

Ok: Oh great, now I’ve gone cross-eyed.

…

Ch: So…this is really uncomfortable. Again.

G: Is she going to shoot Cand-I mean, Mami?

Ca: I mean, there’s clearly a moral struggle.

H: Well. At least I didn’t turn out as a complete sociopath.

Ok: This is seriously gross. Can we just skip this part?

Ca: No.

Ok: But-

Ca: No.

Ok: Okay.

…

Op: In the leg. Well, I guess that’s not as-

Ok: HOLY!

G: What’s happening? What’s going on?

Op: Sweet flames, she’s…a ribbon monster? The fuck?

=pause, and then Charlotte starts laughing hard while Candeloro just sighs=

Ok: Charlotte! Explain! Now!

Ch: She did it! She actually did it!

Ok: Did what?!

Ch: You’ll see!

H: Wow, I am…I mean, she is just all tied up now.

G: Wait, Mami’s there? But I thought…then what was…

Ca: Oh, good grief.

Ok: Wait. Wait a second, you can clone yourself?!

Ca: It’s…not so much a clone as it is a puppet.

Ok: Since when could you do that?!

Ca: Um, well, I had figured it out a short time before our, um, deaths. I was training with Kyo…with Ophelia, and we were practicing with her illusion magic. You know, the duplicates?

Op: Uh-huh.

Ca: Well, she suggested that perhaps I could do something similar with my ribbons, since I could use my ribbons to form other objects. And, well…it worked.

Op: Ooooh. Okay, that’s actually kind of awesome.

H: I was fighting a copy the whole time?! How is that fair?

Ch: You can literally freeze time!

H: Hey, wait. How do you know that she could do that, Charlotte?

Ch: How do you think?

Ca: Like we said: our therapist suggested building positive associations around my change. We had to get creative.

Op: Oh, come on, that’s not fair!

Ok: Wait, you were the one betting on her!

Op: I’m not talking about that! When I do my duplicate trick all I can do with them is give Tavi a show! It’s not like she can touch any of them!

Ok: Babe. Relax. It’s honestly fine.

Op: All I’m saying I should be able to give you a lap dance while the striptease is going on.

G: TMI! TMI!

Ch: You, uh, do know that you can give her the lap dance and let your illusions handle the striptease, right?

Op: Do you know how hard it is to handle two kinds of dancing at the same time when you’re horny?

G: Please, I am begging you to stop!

…

Ch: So…I think someone owes me and Fee-Fee some talents.

Ok: Fight’s not over yet!

Ch: It clearly is…

G: You don’t know that! Maybe Homura will drop a hand-grenade to blow the ribbons up! Or maybe Kyoko will come to save her.

Op: Look, if other-me tags in, that’s an automatic forfeit. This is supposed to be one-on-one, and that clone trick is stretching things as it is.

H: Wait, wait, shut up. Wraiths? What are wraiths?

Ok: Dunno.

Ch: Did we miss something? I get that that nightmares replaced the witches, but what are wraiths?

G: Maybe…after I erased witches, wraiths are what replaced them!

Op: We should’ve just watched the damn show first.

Ch: Do you really think it’ll make things make more sense?

Op: Probably not, but at least we’d know about half of these names!

Ch: Jesus Christ, the fuck is that?

Ok: The sky wants to eat that giant walnut, apparently.

Ch: I can see that, but what does it mean?!

G: I think that’s an eye, actually.

Ok: An eye with teeth.

Ch: None of that answers any of my questions.

Op: Nope, this would still be just as weird even if we watched the show.

…

Ch: And here comes the rescue! Via…fire extinguisher for some reason. Sorry girls, Mami takes this.

Ok: Fine, fine. Thanks a lot, Homulilly.

H: Not my fault. None of us knew about the duplicate thing. I had her beat until then.

Ok: Wait, is that a sword?

Op: Guess it ain’t me with the steel chair, then!

G: Well, of course not. It’s a sword.

Op: That’s not…never mind.

Ok: It’s me! I’m coming in to save you!

H: I’m touched. But…why?

Ok: Because I had fifty talents riding on you, and you let me down.

H: Oh, don’t start.

Op: Wait. That ain’t your voice, Tavi.

Ok: Who else has a sword?!

G: Um, who is that?

Ch: Some kind of kid. Candy, do you recognize her back from before?

Ca: No, I really don’t…

Op: Wait, BEBE?!

Ch: Excuse me?!

H: Um…this is…a turn.

Ca: Don’t look at me, I’m as bewildered as you are.

Ch: Oh, so first I’m a creepy idiot doll, and now I’m a fucking child?!

Op: What is this, some kind of alternate universe bullshit?

Ok: I mean, basically. Uh, you okay over there, Charlotte.

Ch: Nope!

Ok: Wanna take a break?

Ch: Yes!

…

=everyone returns after half-an-hour=

Ch: I think I’ve figured it out.

H: Oh?

Ch: Butterfly effect. Like, okay, in this universe, Madoka somehow erased all witches, right? I mean, made it so magical girls don’t turn into witches anymore, right? And did it all through history, right?

H: Presumably.

Ch: So that means that there has to be major repercussions! Like, like, this girl doesn’t turn into a witch fifty years ago, so she doesn’t eat some random passerby, and that rando goes and marries someone that would have married someone else in the original timeline, so they have a completely different set of kids, so the kids they would have had originally don’t get born! So somewhere down the line, things got all screwy and I ended up being born a few years later!

G: Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Op: I guess we’re all super-lucky that we got born at all. And that the rest of us ended up more-or-less the same. Um, no offense.

Ch: Right. That’s all it is. Different timeline, things happened differently, and I’m a little girl in this world. That’s it.

Ok: So…are you okay with this then?

Ch: Oh, absolutely not! But I can at least deal with it now!

Op: Bet’cha anything that good ol’ Bebe here still has a major crush on Mami.

Ch: Oh, God! Don’t even go there!

Op: I’m just sayin’…

Ca: Ophelia…

Op: Stopping, stopping.

H: Shall we continue?

Ch: Yeah, I guess. I’m gonna need major therapy after all this is over, though.

G: We all will.

…

Ok: Okay, I know this is probably a bad time to point this out, but Sayaka has style!

Op: I mean, you’re not wrong. Look at you, being all effortlessly cool! Not that you aren’t already.

Ok: Nice save there.

Ch: Haha, Sayaka’s got it right! Taking on Mami was a dumb idea. Speaking of which…

Ok: Oh, come on! That clone trick was dirty and you know it!

Ch: Oh, I’m sorry. Are you upset that she so happened to have something that counters Homura’s extremely unfair timestop power?

Op: She’s got a point. A bet’s a bet.

G: All right, I guess it’s official. Mami won.

=Candeloro smirks=

H; You don’t have to be all smug about it.

Ca: True. I don’t.

…

G: Wait…

Op: So, what, Sayaka knows what’s going on?

Ok: Of course I do! I mean, I’m the brains of the bunch!

=Homulilly coughs=

Ok: I heard that.

H: I didn’t say anything.

Ch: Well, finally some exposition!

G: I do sort of wish that she’d just tell Homura what is going on without being so vague about it.

Ok: Look, I’ve been pretty much on the wayside this whole movie. Let me have my monologue.

Ch: What’s she getting at though?

H: Oh.

Ch: Huh?

H: I think…Never mind.

G: What is it?

H: I just had sort of a realization, but I’d rather not say it now.

Op: Eh?

H: Hang on. Let’s just watch a bit more.

…

Op: Jesus, Tavi! No need to show Homura up like that!

Ok: Let! Me! Have! This!

Ch: That was pretty cool, though. Shwing! Stopped her cold!

G: Wait, so one of us is the…

=voice trails off=

G: Is it me?

H: Um…

Op: Oh.

Ok: Oh.

Ch: What? Oh, okay. I get it now.

Ca: I sort of put it together too.

G: What? What are…Oh.

=everyone looks at Homulilly=

H: Well, it only makes sense. I guess.

Ch: You don’t seem all that upset about it.

H: Well, at least I get to become my best self in this movie.

G: But…how though? I thought I erased witches or whatever!

Ok: Let’s find out.

Ch: If your other self can ever get to the point.

Ok: Shhh…

…

Ca: Wait, I’m the witch? Is that what she’s implying?

Ch: Pretty sure that’s just a red herring.

Ok: You know, it’s nice that Sayaka is actually being all sympathetic toward witches. I mean, it’s kind of fucked up, isn’t it? That even the magical girls that know the score still hunt down witches instead of trying to help them.

G: I mean, it can’t really be helped, can it?

Ok: I know, I just like that I’m saying it.

G: The Law of Cycles? What’s that?

Op: Probably whatever trippy business you replaced the witch stuff with.

H: Oh, now I’m finally just saying it out loud! Madoka erased witches. Took us long enough to get to that point.

Op: Wait, sacrificed herself? Only Homura remembers her? What?

Ch: Pretty sure this was all explained in the show.

Op: Well, that’s what we get for watching this first. Should we go back and-

Everyone: No.

Op: Cool.

…

Op: Oh, freaky!

Ok: Wait, so I’m the witch now?

Ch: Could mean that in this timeline you turned into a witch before Madoka did her un-witching…thing.

Ca: That is what you looked like. Right before you became one with Charlotte, I mean.

Ch: Er…

Ok: Phrasing…

Ca: Oh, for Heaven’s sake. It is literally what happened. You turned into a witch while we were fighting Charlotte, and then the two of you fused. Then I became a witch and fused with that witch. And then Ophelia became a witch and we all fused together.

Ok: Yeah, but the way you said it…

…

H: Where’d she go?

Ok: Clumsy? You have the gall to call me clumsy? Who just saved who’s ass, just now!

H: Cut me some slack, it’s been a long evening.

Ch: Y’know you still got blood and brains all over your cheek, right?

H: I am certain that Homura does not care.

Op: I am certain that Homura is about to blow the brains out of the first punk-ass that looks at her wrong right about now.

Ok: Headshots for everybody!

H: Except Madoka.

Ok: Except Madoka. She can be the token un-brain-slushee.

G: Gee. Thanks.

Ca: I’d like to just point out that Homura came very close to turning me into a brain-slushee, but changed her mind.

Op: I doubt she’ll let you off so easy a second time.

Ch: Easy. Hey, may I remind you who won that fight?

H: You’re not going to let that go, are you?

Op: Tell yah what. Losing party treats the winners to dinner at the Tradewinds. Fair?

H: Fair.

Ch: Seriously? With the prices they have down there it’ll be cheaper just to cough up the fifty talents.

G: Yeah, but onion volcanoes!

Ch: Hard to argue with that logic.

Ok: So…on a scale of one to ten, how badly is Homura going to flip out when she realized that she’s the witch.

H: I will accept nothing less than a massacre.

Ok: Cool. Just so long as it’s not of us.

Op: I don’t know. The way this movie is going I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into a straight-up snuff film.

[mistbornthefinal]

Madoka Magica Aniversary Analysis: Part 9

Can Love and Courage Still Triumph?

The beginning of this episode replays the end of the last, Sayaka’s transformation into a witch. As Oktavia von Seckendorff looms over her Kyouko is initially uncomprehending or perhaps in denial of what just happened happened. Kyouko grabs Sayaka’s body as it falls and is forced to dodge a barrage of Okatavia’s signature wheels. Homura arrives on the scene and sets off another flashbang and the offers Kyouko her hand.

Kyouko takes it and we get our first look and Homura’s timestop from an inside perspective. Within the stopped time Kyouko demands to know where that witch came from and what happened to Sayaka, Homura reiterates the truth that Kyouko is unwilling to internalize, Sayaka has become a witch. Homura then says that unless Kyouko is unwilling to discard Sayaka’s body then they will have to run. Kyouko can not do that so they exit the barrier. (cue connect)

We find Madoka walking morosely along the railroad tracks only to run into Kyouko and Homura walking in the opposite direction. Seeing Sayaka’s lifeless body Madoka tearfully asks what happened to her friend. Homura lays it out her Soul Gem shattered and became a Grief Seed, Sayaka is gone. That is the final secret of the Soul Gem when they fully darken they become Grief Seeds and a girl is reborn as a witch. This is the inescapable fate of those who become magical girls. In payment for the number of people Sayaka has saved Oktavia will curse and equal number of people.

Of course this sort of law karmic balancing that the girls have been claiming for the past few episodes doesn’t really hold up if you think about it. Mami saved a large number of people and cursed no one due to dying before she became a Witch. Heck Kyubey’s whole operation sort of requires a certain amount of unfair exchange to be possible given they use magic to extent the life of the universe and leave other species with the bill.  That said it’s easy to buy equivalent exchange as something the characters believe,(especially Homura who at this point want’s to resolve her wish as “a life for a life”) but it’s something that Madoka’s wish ultimately rejects. 

Kyouko is angered by Homura’s cold words in the face of Madoka’s grief grabbing her by the collar, but Homura simply continues her monologue telling Madoka that this is the truth of what she aspired to become. Homura then tell Kyouko that there will be trouble if she isn’t cautious about disposing of the body. Kyouko similar to Madoka in episode 7 asks Homura how she can call herself human.

“I can’t, of course. And neither can you.”

We find Madoka sitting on her bed when Kyubey come for a visit. Madoka is unsurprised to find him alive, and he confirms that nothing that Homura said is wrong enough to require further explanation. He then lays out the reasoning behind the system his kind have inflicted on humanity. When the Soul Gem undergoes phase change a tremendous amount of energy is released and that energy is their ultimate goal. It is a source of power unbounded by thermodynamics that they can use to stave off the heat death of the universe. 

While he implies that this is ultimately for the benefit of humanity as well (and that humanity will eventually join the interstellar community) the next episode proves he is full of shit. That they have a fixed quota of energy that they expect each planet to produce and express no regret at humanities immanent extinction strongly implies that the extinction of the client species is the expected end state of their operation. In which case the relationship is purely predatory regardless of what he might claim in episode 11. 

He also gives the fig leaf that the girls all consented but that’s a weak dodge. Like forget informed consent this is maliciously and deliberately misinformed consent, he may claim that his species doesn’t understand the concept of deception that doesn’t seem to stop him from doing it constantly. Also while it’s not brought up I can’t help but feel then need to point towards all the normal humans who never consented to anything and are being eaten by witches regardless. 

Kyubey then says that given that there are billions of human’s he doesn’t understand why the death of a single human has her bent out of shape. 

you tell ‘em Madoka

Kyubey gives yet another sales pitch this time stressing the vas amounts of delicious energy she will produce when she becomes a horrible monster. Leaving with.

“So, if you ever feel like dying for the sake of the universe, just let me know.”

We check in on Kyouko who is using her magic to stop Sayaka’s gem from decaying. Kyubey shows himself to ask why and Sayaka answers his question with another question. “Can Sayaka be brought back.” Kyubey uses ambiguous phrasing to give Kyouko false hope like the dick he is. We leave this scene with Kyouko stuffing her face making it pretty clear that her eating habits are less “endearing character quirk” and more “worrying coping mechanism.”

As Madoka is walking to school with Hitomi (who tragically unaware of what has happened), Kyouko calls out to her with telepathy asking her if she’s really just going to go to school after what happened yesterday? Realizing that the fate of her friends soul is probably more important than compulsory education Madoka ditches Hitomi runs off. 

Kyouko tells Madoka that she can’t abandon Sayaka so long as there hope she can be saved. (and potentially even if there isn’t) He friends voice might still be able to reach her, might bring her back to humanity. Madoka asks if that will really work to which Kyouko replies that she has no idea. She want’s to do this because she doesn’t know, because that uncertainty allows room for hope

“Maybe if we slice that witch in half, Sayaka’s Soul Gem will fall out instead of a Grief Seed. Wouldn’t that be something? It’d be like one of those stories where love and courage triumph over all. Come to think about it, I probably became a magical girl in the first place because I loved stories like that. I’d totally forgotten about it, but Sayaka reminded me again.”

You did it Kyouko, you boiled your character arc down to the bare essentials. Kyouko asks Madoka if she is willing to help even if Kyouko can’t promise her safety or success. Madoka cinnamon roll that she is accepts immediately offers  her hand into which Kyouko places a piece of candy in lieu of a handshake. 

Back at school Homura decides to dich as soon as it’s clear that Madoka isn’t coming. 

As the two of them search for Oktavia’s labyrinth, Madoka asks if Homura is going to help them. Kyouko says no and denies that Homura is her friend, they simply share a common goal, to defeat Walpurgisnact an enemy neither of them could face alone. 

Within the barrier Madoka asks Kyouko if she is a coward for always leaving the fighting to others. Kyouko flips the script her life is happy one, to abandon that, to become a Puella Magi for a mere whim is the height of stupidity. Kyouko won’t allow it, if Madoka did she would be the first to kick her ass. 

“The only people who should put their lives in danger are those who’ve got no other choice. Anyone else is just playing around.”

Kyouko then says there might be a time when Madoka has no choice but to fight, she should only consider the contract then.

We then arrive at the center of the labyrinth, or rather Oktavia realizes that she has intruders and they are pulled to the center. Oktavia’s familiars supply the background music as Madoka glimpses the remnant of her friend for the first time. She calls out to Sayaka but Oktavia’s only reply is to summon her wheels.

Kyouko raises her barrier and perpares herself to intercept the Witches attacks. As Madoka calls out to Sayaka Kyouko deflects a barrage of wheels with her spear. However Oktavia only steps up her attacks and Kyouko seems to be struggling to fight a purely defensive battle. 

As Kyouko starts to take hits she reminisces about her first encounter with Sayaka. She had dismissed the girl a first but she kept getting up no matter what. As she recalls that day red and blue flows across the screen froming the silhouette of Kyouko and Sayaka before resolving as flowing blood. Several wheels hit Kyouko and she is thrown backward. As Madoka moves to help Kyouko to her feet Oktavia seizes her in a massive armored gauntlet and begins to squeeze. 

Kyouko finally strikes severing the Witches limb and berating Sayaka. Oktavia brings her sword down shattering the floor and reveling an inverse of the concert hall they were in presided over by a familiar that resembles a certain boy.

Homura is there to catch Madoka. Kyouko apologises to Homura for dragging Madoka into her idiocy and the creates another of her barriers between her and Homura. The message there is clear. Kyouko acknowledges Homura’s mission focusing on the one thing she wants to protect above all else, Kyouko used to think that was what she was doing as well. She undoes her ponytail to reveal the symbol of her fathers faith that she had hidden in her hair, she never truly stopped believing. 

As Homura flees Kyouko summons spears from the earth in massive numbers including on large enough for her to ride. From her clasped hand she draws her Soul Gem that she has fused with the symbol of old faith.

“Don’t worry, Sayaka I know you don’t what to be alone. It’s ok. I’ll be here with you Sayaka.”

She then unleashes a massive attack through her own Soul Gem killing both her and Oktavia.

Back at the Homu-home Homura asks an interloping Kyubey if there was any chance for Kyouko’s plan to succeed. Kyubey admits that it was impossible and that he basically manipulated Kyouko to her death so Homura would have to face Walpurgisnact alone, and thus Madoka has no choice but to contract in order to save the city. Homura says that she will never let that happen.

For this episode Magia does not make it’s usual appearance instead replaced by “and I’m home” sing by Ai Nonaka and Eri Kitamura (VA’s for Kyouko and Sayaka respectively.)

And that’s Episode 9, when you get down to this Kyouko’s episode as much as Episode 10 is Homura’s episode. Kyouko what had come into the narrative preaching selfishness stakes it all on trying to save the girl who remined her of her old ideals. Now that the full weight of Kyubey’s system is reveled Kyouko tries to find a way out and in bittersweet way she does, choosing to expend her Soul Gem in a heroic sacrifice rather than fall into despair and become a Witch.

That said now there’s only one person standing in the way of Kyubey’s plans, though to a certain extent that’s how it’s always been.

[squeiky]

Honestly papyrus and sans are the #1 deltarune teasers.

From the door... To papyruses little Easter "egg". Tp the gaster connections :/

(ps: papyrus is way more connected to gaster than sans is. )

Then the "dont forget" <- take it literally friends you seriously want to remember small tib bits in both games.

The sans wink in deltarune.. The fact that they seem...wary of the player. In fact, they talk directly to us. And even add sound effects! How kind.

Reminds me of lancers mp3. Its a cute sound effect.

Tbh, they remind me of those kids tv shows.

You know? Where they are talking someone and look directly at YOU, and go "can you find this?" Or "what should i do?" Or "what do you think?"

Like.. Elmo, or dora the exlporer. Or something.

I could go off on papyruses flying ability, or sans timestopping, time manipulating.. Just a bunch of things about time tbh. Or papyruses... Strange music in his room, or his apperent blasters, pr the fact that he looks similar to gaster....

(i messed with both gaster/mysteryman and papyruses sprite a bit. I just flipped papyrus's default face, ontop of gasters. I guess they are just 2 eggs. Beacuse they seriously have that egg shape apperance. So we have 2 eggy bois and i love it.)

Okay i dont want to go to much on papyruses frequent wall breaking which is like 24/7 and how he knows about alphys... Or the fact that she works in a laboratory... Or how the bone brothers barely know anything about the other, and how it was pointed out by the shopkeeper that she cant tell if they are related or not..

( someone said the shopkeeper has a sister soo..)

Or how similar sans is to lancer... Or how similar he is to literally everything in deltarune. Actually he's so connected to deltarune, you cant even see him die. He supposedly gets "tired" and runs away, exactly how with the nightners.

(Personally i dont think he died. He has an arrange of sound effects,( papyrus included) such as drums and what not.)

He bleeds like the nightners. According to lancer they have a blood bucket, and someone to clean up the "blood" (i think they do, i forgot their name) and how apperently know about blood to the extent of how it works, and know how to use it as a joke and not freak out. (I.e. That one kid and noelle) to the loint of having a janitor to clean it up. And sans is the only undertale character to bleed, and walk away. Seeing as monsters IMMEDIATELY dust after being brought to 0 hp. And not bleed to death, as sans does. Which sucks alot but oh well. the ICE-E crossword, that only exists in deltarune.. That sans has in undertale.

And the connects with papyrus is more undertale related/ gaster related than deltarune related.

So mabye i was wrong and sans is more of a hint for deltarune + lancer (from his bike, to prankster personailty, to clothes, to his ENTIRE HOME.)

(the castle is filled with those forever smiles that sans has. Which is funny cause that castle is in shambles and is obviously has a terrible king in charge, and its really depressing how lancer's dad was nice, but not anymore. But yeah KEEP SMILING YA SACK O POTATOES.)

(To the benches that sans has in the fundraiser)

OH OH OH ! AND THE FACT THAT PAPYRUS REFERS TO UNDERTALE AS "HIS GAME!" AND CONNECTION WITH TOBY FOX (and possibly the temmies) AND WITH GASTER POSSIBLY BEING APPART IN DELTARUNE THATS VERY VERY INTRESTING IS IT NOT?

I mean what do you think?

Though i dont understand the "you hear a trousle of bones" in deltarune. And sans says "my little brother"..

Like how old are you sans that it conerns me. You even befriended toriel, which personally sounds awsome.

(People draw kris as if he would hate that, but kris is such a prankster, he and sans would be besties like-)

Also how young exactly is papyrus here? Asriel is obviously younger than papyrus in undertale, by using him as a ruler, papyrus and sans shouldn't be so..... Young? Adult age atleast not..babybones.

Unless papyrus indeed does the trick that goner kid did, and just doesn't exist in deltarune, due to his connection with gaster and his connection to undertale.

Unless im wrong, and asriel was just born before papyrus and sans came to snowdin, which might mean he would be older but... UGH THIS IS CONFUSING BUT THERE SHOULDN'T BE BABYBONES PAPYRUS ANYWHERE BEACUSE EVERYONE IS THE RESPECTIVE AGE OF UNDERTALE, INCLUDING ASRIEL AS DUE TO HIS CONSTANT RESETS HE'S PROBABLY ALOT OLDER THAN WE REALISE!!!!!!!!

And that papyrus cannot be connected to sans, unless toby says so.

Otherwise papyrus cant exist in deltarune, and sans has another brother or something.

Also undertale papyrus and sans are alot.more diffrent than you realise.

Actually their roles where reversed at a time! Cool huh?

Papyrus is seen being pretty depressed, while somewhere, i cant remeber where, but it is said that sans wans't always this lazy.

Which means....

ROLE REVERSION!!! Cool right?

Before you OFFICALLY MEET papyrus and sans, sans is constantly trying to cheer papyrus up with jokes

(terrible pun are normally a thing of inexperience. Unless on purpose. But he has a joke book. Most likely papyrus's book beacuse of the constant puns papyrus makes, that are really good! Papyrus is the only one who has a book shelf, so probably the quatum physics is his too. As he needs SOMETHING FOR THAT FREAKING BRIDGE. And why would you need a book if you already know all the jokes? :/ also im pretty sure either he recites it for toriel (which hes not aware is toriel) or its for papyrus. Either one makes sense. Even both)

Anyways sans was alot more hopeful and papyrus was a lot LESS hopefull. Only by meeting you, the PLAYER err... Human! He regains his hope back!

Sans is also homesick. Undertale isn't his home, he doesn't feel happy with going to the surface either.

Deltarune is the only place he truely seems at home, happy, joyfull. And even owns a...

Bar!! :DDD probably got handed it thx to grillby!

And has a freind named alphys who is just as nerdy as she was before. But now a nerdy teacher~

(WHICH CAN RELATE! I HAVE SO MANY NERDY TEACHERS IN MY SCHOOL LMAO ITS AWSOME, I GET TO TALK ABOUT ANIME LIKE-)

And not some depressed scientist with an anxiety and peer pressure.

Like no wonder he's homesick.

No wonder papyrus feels a bit "down lately." He gets the sucky version.

I guess when your suck in a strange place, a different home you lose alot of hope, rather than gain some.

Or hp. What ever you want to say. Hp= HoPe ? Sure why not i guess.

I mean, im trying to write my goddamn comic, and its gonna be hard to keep all my notes conistent.

Cause just rewatched their whole introduction and im like-

GODDAMIT PAPYRUS DO YOU NEED A HUG? FRISK MOVE, MAKE THIS GUY HAPPY. YES! THAT CONVERSATION ALSO FILLS ME WITH DETERMINATIOM! I CANT BELIEVE ITS CALLED THE "BOX ROAD" THANKS TO 1 FRICKING BOX.

YES SANS CHEER UP YOUR SUPPOSED BROTHER WITH DESPERATE JOKES AND FUNNY COMEDY AND POSSIBLE SOUND EFFECTS.

YES PAPYRUS SMILE, YES PAPYRUS GET MAD AND MARCH OFF LAUGHING HAPPILY WITH THAT ONE BACKBONE PUN.

PAPYRUS NO DONT GO BACK TO BEING Sad- goddammit he left my screen AND HES BAck... Aww... :(

What? Yes sans? He's been feeling down lately? Seeing me could cheer him up?

AWWWWwWwWWWwWwww thats so SWEEETTTTT

THANK YOU FOR TALKING TO ME DIRECTLY LIKE YOU SHOULD BTW. AS IM NOT FRISK, I AM A REAL HUMAN, USING FRISK AS A VESSEL AS I TOWER FROM ABOVE. AND YES I DO SEE YOUR FACE PAPYRUS FROM THE DIALOUGE BOX AND YOU LOOK AMAZING.

*Papyrus realises he doesn't have ears

[Facepalms]

*theres.just a bunch of makeup and sludge on the floor.

[Covers face]

*why does he even carry that?

[Peaks a little and whispers]

"Its always important to carry makeup on. You never know when you need it. Like now."

*papyrus nods his head thoughfully.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: PMMM Rebellion - Part 2

I’ve been comparing the start of this movie to the start of the show itself, and it’s interesting how it’s being set up even more as a standard “happy-go-lucky Magical Girl” show. Don’t get me wrong, I know Urobuchi enough this time around to know that whatever’s going to happen will hit hard soon, seeing Charlotte was a great big flashing SHIT IS WHACK neon sign. But just going by the intro, Homura’s dissonance aside, I could see this as a show about the girls having magical hijinks like Xeno said.

Flashes of scenes from the show (windmills by river, Duel Alleyway, powerlines strung across street, Confession Riverbench) and now the city at night again. Homura and Madoka are sitting in a garden of sorts looking over the city, Madoka expositing that it’s been over a month since Homura first transferred. Homura comments that if feels like she’s known Madoka forever (wink wink nudge nudge I’mma save your life this time I swear). Um, so what’s up with all the blimps? Are they supposed to be a thing in the city, cause I don’t really recall many blimps in other Japanese settings. Girl looking out a window at one of said blimps, hey Hitomi! Daw, working up the courage to call your boyfriend I see. (It’s safe to ship the NPCs, right? *glances around nervously for the Urobutcher). Phone’s ringing, damn girl but you’ve got a fancy bedroom. What do your parents do for a living again? Kyosuke does pick up, and Hitomi is quite adorable, but unfortunately he’s tied up in practice for his next recital. Oh come on boy, you’re supposed to say something in return when a girl says she loves you! Yep, as much as Hitomi respects his dedication to music she’s feeling a little neglected right now. Take that, pillow! Wait, what? Art’s getting trippy again, I think we’ve got a Witch inbound! Hitomi?! Gah I’m sorry I’m so sorry I thought you were safe from the Ship of Death please forgive me! While that badness is going on, looks like we’re at Mami’s place now, she’s getting ready for bed while Charlotte lurks on the mirrorframe. Nomming on something while asking if it’s cheese? Holy carp that’s Mami’s hairpin with her Soul Gem, get it away from that thing. Suddenly Charlotte tumbles down, starts yelling about a Nightmare. Hmmm, how convenient that you can sense these “Nightmares”. Ah, so it’s magic that forms Mami’s corkscrew hair. Explains a lot, and I am really jealous of the ability to prep hair with a snap of your fingers. Towel comes off MOVING ON!

Sayaka and Kyoko are bounding along the rooftops. They recognize the Nightmare as Hitomi’s, hey it’s Teddy Doll from the beginning! So they didn’t kill it before? Why not? Anyways, Sayaka’s snarks about Kyosuke being oblivious, Kyoko snarks back before Teddy Doll interrupts with an attack. The two fall back to Mami arriving on a train with Charlotte, and then Homura and Sayaka Girly Run up with the Incubator. Who doesn’t say anything? Hey, actually I don’t think the Incubator’s said a word so far in the movie. What’s up with that? Then Charlotte hisses at it? Huh. In a basic MG show I’d say it’s a case of feuding familiars, but we know their true natures. What’s going on here? Regardless, the Madokrew has arrived, time to Transform! ...well, that was incredibly elaborate. This is more what I was expecting when I started PMMM, long elaborate transformations scenes to pad out the running time. Also, is the Teddy Doll just standing by patiently during all this? I’m picturing it checking its watch.

“Puella Magi Holy Quintet!” ...Really? I’ll stick with Madokrew, if that’s alright with you. And yeah, checking the running time all that took three freaking minutes. But finally, Transformations are done, time to fight! Teddy Doll starts off by holy carp ok it just smacked a violin into a skyscraper hard enough to trash the streets. The girls go flying, Mami grabbing Madoka and Homura with her ribbons before Homura timestops everything. But not the other girls? Oh, she’s tied to Madoka and Mami with the ribbon so the timestop doesn’t affect them, got it. “Tiro Duet!” Wait, do we get to see team attacks? Heck yeah! Looks like that one is a bunch of Madoka’s arrows trailing Mami’s ribbons, to wrap up the wrecked skyscraper and fix it. Handy… but I thought the point of Labyrinths was that it didn’t affect the outside world? Anyways, Teddy Doll goes flying, and Sayaka’s in pursuit. Time for BEST FRIENDS Sayaka and Kyoko to do a team attack, Sayaka throwing five swords through one of Kyoko’s diamond barriers to trap the Nightmare. All five girls charge forward, time for the finishing move! Which is… trapping the Nightmare in a glass bowl? They’re all seated around a table, they start NONONONONONONONONONONONOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Yup, Charlotte is the Dessert Witch, it just unfolded into the Dessert Worm that killed Mami in the show. Girls, stop singing about cake and kill that monster!

  Um, the girls are now singing about who the cake is, as foods they name appear in the bowl to be eaten by Teddy Doll and the Worm lurks around the edges. Apparently Sayaka is a raspberry, Kyoko is an apple, Mami is cheese, Homura (who’s new to this and stumbles on her line) is a pumpkin, and Madoka is a melon. Which leaves the trapped Nightmare to be the cake, and yeah it just turned into an elaborate cake and the Worm engulfed it. Guh. Wait, it spat out a head? Hitomi?! Well, strange drippy Hitomi head, that’s crying until Sayaka magics up a silhouette of her boyfriend. We get to hear him play a bit as a light spreads across the screen, lighting up each of the girls’ Soul Gems. And then we see Hitomi resting peacefully in her bedroom. Although she might be a little tired in the morning from sleeping on the floor. And with that, the labyrinth fades to the rising sun. Charlotte reverts back to Cute and Cuddly form, Madoka and Homura high five while the Incubator does a wordless photobomb. Sayaka makes a bad cake pun, and Mami agrees to have them over for cake and tea after Kyoko goes and invites herself. Nice little shots of each of the girls greeting the sun… and Charlotte looking up with a grin. Hmph. Homura glances around, and frowns? Hmm. She knows this is wrong, just hard to find a time to fix things, I guess. Ok then! So on the one hand we got more of the Standard Magical Girl Show this started out as, even Team Attacks and Final Moves. But the undercurrent of Something Is Wrong is growing stronger as well. I still don’t know why things are different from baseline, but it seems to be centering around Charlotte acting as Mami’s familiar. How did that happen; I thought Witches were just mindless beings of destruction? Although a thought occur: their final move was having Charlotte (or Bebe as they keep calling it) eat the Teddy Doll. Can Witches feed on each other, and would doing so add intelligence? Then we’ve got a Witch that could think clearly enough to manipulate the Magical Girls rather than kill them, even brainwash them into catching “Nightmares” for it to feed on. And then the Incubator would have a reason to play along with the deception, to see if this Cannibal!Witch could provide more energy than the usual methods. I dunno, we’re only half an hour into this thing, after how wrong my “Homura summons Wallywhatsit to get a Super Grief Seed” theory was I’m not putting much faith in my predictions.

[adamarinayu]

Now that we're on this hiatus, do you mind telling us what you thought of each episode?

Okay, I know I’m super late to answer this but here I am! I’m not gonna go too in depth on them, but I do want to talk about them.

Treasure of the Found Lamp!

This one was amusing, and I absolutely love what they did with Djinn. I’m so so so glad they changed his name, too, as “Dijon” always bothered me, even as a kid. Also, the story of the lamp was very heartwarming! And seeing Selene again was fun, especially as she had to run around and we find out she’s a terrible liar lol (so she definitely had nothing to do with Della’s disappearance, I think we can all finally put that theory to rest).

The wild goose chase aspect was funny, coming from both sides, and I still think the actress on Ma Beagle’s TV looked vaguely like a character from PKNA so. But Djinn did not pull punches and them Beagles at least got hurt XD

Also. It kinda has a “the greatest treasure is family” vibe to it.

The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!

As someone who loves Scrooge and loves Goldie, but is indifferent to Scroldie… I still loved this episode. It was great! It was also absolutely hilarious. And Gyro’s time traveling was amazing. Especially Scrooge’s sudden moment of realization when Gyro returned lol.

Louie’s gonna befriend Goldie! That makes me excited. I bet they’re gonna teach each other things that we haven’t even thought of (ie Louie values his family, while Goldie doesn’t even have a family. Maybe Goldie will officially join the Duck-McDuck family not through her strange but obviously antagonistically-romantic relationship with Scrooge, but through her friendship with and tutelage of Louie? Maybe he’s the one who shows her the importance of family and offers her a place in their family… it doesn’t mean giving up adventure, it just means always having somewhere she can call home, and people she can trust and rely on!).

I’m iffy about Jeeves’ redesign, and also his somewhat betrayal of Rockerduck, but I’ve never been like a hardcore fan of the two of them so it was easy for me to move on. I am curious, though, just how they’re gonna come back… guess Gyro’s not quite done with time travel shenanigans.

The only real gripe I have is Sheriff Marshal Cabrera. DON’T GET ME WRONG, I absolutely loved him. He’s a beautiful babby boy. But at the same time, he’s literally just. Fenton. I know he’s like. Fenton’s great grandfather (or maybe uncle, idk) or something. There should absolutely be similarities yes, but it felt like someone had taken the characters and placed them in an old west setting. That being said, I do love him, I just wish he’d been slightly more his own character. Like, maybe a little more like a mix of M’Ma and Fenton! Idk.

The 87 Cent Solution!

…….. You really want to know?

Okay, the episode was good. It was funny, and I enjoyed seeing Glomgold’s timestop shenanigans.

But the funeral scene? That wasn’t cool. I saw the “not really dead” twist coming, I think we all did, but no one thought to tell Donald? Donald thought that, so soon after finally making amends with his uncle, he had lost him for good.

And I get it. It’s meant to be a gag. It’s supposed to be funny. But it kinda really soured the rest of the episode for me. I hate to say that too, because it was a good and funny episode… I just… I can’t believe they did that to Donald. :(

The Golden Spear!

AGONY. Agony is how I feel about this one. Della made friends with the Lunarians! Actual friends! And then Penny made a bad choice, and Lunaris… damn you, Lunaris, you traitor.

All the things Della listed off, wanting to do with her kids and brother and uncle… they’re things the others have already done without her. That hit me in the feels.

AND THEN DONALD- AGH, I CAN’T EVEN. Poor Donald. He’s so stressed and his family loves him so much and just wanted him to have some peace. But alas, it was not to be. And now the fandom cries.

… Even if he really shouldn’t have climbed into that rocket but y’know. He didn’t MEAN to press buttons….

Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!

Della reunites with her boys and no one realizes Donald is gone. And we see Della trying to be a mom, and kinda failing miserably. But she’s trying, and she’s learning!

ALSO THEIR WOULD-BE NAMES HFBVSHKFCS

It really put to rest one of my biggest fears, that all of the triplets would accept her immediately (Louie showed serious hesitation through the entire episode, definitely coming from his place of insecurity that Dewey and Huey don’t share) and she’d be super-mom. She makes mistakes, and it’s acknowledged that she seems to be trying to be one of them rather than be their mother. It does feel awkward at times, and alien, like the boys are trying so hard to think she’s doing great when she’s really causing harm, but in the end when it comes down to it she’d do anything to protect them, and gives them the choice of letting her into their life. She doesn’t try and force her way in (as she kinda did at first, but came to realize this isn’t easy for them either).

Right now she feels kinda more like a cool aunt than a mom, but she’ll learn.

Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!

IS LUDWIG’S CONSCIOUS TRAPPED IN THE VAULT?! HE REACTED TO AND INTERACTED WITH THE PEOPLE OUTSIDE.

Anyway Scrooge and Glomgold’s parts were absolutely A+ hilarious. Della and Dewey bonding, they’re so much alike, but we see Dewey’s insecurity flare up- how he wants to impress Della, feeling like he has to earn her love. Even though she’s already loved them for ten years, even without ever knowing what they looked like.

Della has a moment of realization here, too. She looks down and realizes Dewey is in a dangerous situation. She realizes that Dewey is in danger. She questions if they’re doing something crazy, clearly thinking maybe we shouldn’t be doing this, but when Dewey quotes her “I’m your son, I can do anything!” she instead chooses to encourage him, not wanting to discourage him and possibly cause him to fall.

And then of course, her “exit strategy” thing. I honestly kinda feel like it’s a bit of an ass pull, but it at least makes a little sense. When you’re being hunted by a monster on the moon, you always want to have an escape route planned. Scrooge sees that, even if she’s the same ol’ Della she was before, she’s still changed. Ten years still changes you.

Friendship Hates Magic!

New Girl! New Girl! Violet’s pretty cool. At first she comes off as one of those “um, actually” people, but since I’m one of those “um, actually” people it’s pretty whatever to me lol. And Lena’s back! I’m super excited about that.

Lena gets a little jealous-possessive but who can blame her, Webby’s one of the few people who have always believed in her. And Webby spent so much time we never knew about trying to find ways to bring Lena back, to the point that it’s like clockwork.

The whole “being tormented by her own mind” thing was actually frightening in a way, and I’m just glad it all turned out alright. And now Webby isn’t just a fourth triplet, she’s the central member of her own trio. It’s great!

The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!

Admittedly another plotline to be seen from far away. A good episode full of secondhand embarrassment, but dang Huey’s LUNGS.

I love Gandra’s design and personality. It’s pretty durn great. I love it! I just have one gripe. Warning, this is a bit of a rant.

Why can’t we let characters be feminine? By this I mean traditionally feminine. Dresses, makeup, shopping, high heels, giggling, soft and compassion and gentle and things I’m not, pinks and lilacs, etc. Yes, Webby’s favourite colour is pink and she likes glitter and wears skirts, she is pretty feminine. But she’s the only one, besides Roxanne Featherby (Featherly? I don’t remember, and that’s only arguably because of her clothes), to be even slightly feminine, and even then it can be argued she’s not all that traditionally feminine because, well… she’s the bruiser of the group. Which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with! A feminine bruiser absolutely works, and I love it, but looking at it from certain angles…

Most of the (non-villain) females, besides Webby, show next to no traditionally feminine qualities- Goldie is the closest, when she dresses up for special events or for schemes. Which I don’t mind, per se, I don’t have many traditionally feminine qualities either, but you’d think at least a few would. The original Gandra Dee, who I am glad they changed mind you, was very feminine; she wore her hair long, wore dresses, enjoyed makeup and manicures, etc. She was traditionally feminine, AND smart. (even if I never liked how they drew her face (the eyes and beak look weird imho, DT17 pulled it off better), and I felt like she left much to be desired *cough*…)

There is nothing wrong with having traditionally feminine characters. There is nothing wrong with having characters who enjoy dressing up, or putting on makeup, or shopping, etc. The problem with traditionally feminine characters comes in when it’s done for sex appeal, or you have a woman running from dinosaurs in 6 inch heels (yeah I’m calling that out) or there’s a feminine character there only to be dragged on by the others for their feminine characteristics.

Anyway, rant about that over. I still love what they did with Gandra, but I’m just noticing this trend where female characters aren’t being allowed to like traditionally feminine things. Yeah, there are absolutely a lot of girls who don’t, but there’s probably an equal amount who do! And there’s nothing wrong with showing a competent, traditionally feminine character. :/

The Duck Knight Returns!

DARKWING DUCK DARKWING DUCK DARKWING DUCK NEGADUCK AAAAAAAA

Need I say more?

Okay, Launchpad is a sweetheart and let’s be honest, we knew the moment we saw him that the other guy at the signing was Drake Mallard.

I love that they kept the “Darkwing Duck inspires Drake Mallard to become Darkwing Duck” aspect of DW’s origin story, while twisting it around so that time travel and paradoxes don’t occur. Also! We still get Jim Cummings as Negaduck, while also getting a new VA for Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck- someone who does a pretty good job at sounding like them, too. So now Negaduck, who is no longer Darkwing/Drake Mallard from an alternate universe, has his own distinguishable voice!

… And I still think Negs is gonna have an unhealthy obsession with Launchpad, thanks to the “my fan” comment. I figure that’s how we’ll get Nega Launchpad, but who knows! There’s so many possibilities!

Anyway Gosalyn, yesterday please. Gimme.

[paxx-has-toebeans]

Aight here’s that AU with the miraculous box I was talking about earlier lolol

A car was flung into one of the street vendors, crushing it flat almost instantly. Cowering beside it was the poor owner, who’d only been in Paris for two weeks and was completely freaked out by all the madness brought by an akuma. Cassandra felt bad for the guy, especially since he’d been so nice to everyone earlier. She almost made her way over to him, but was sent backwards by the falling debris of a nearby building.  “Pay attention Midnight!” Her eyes could catch the tall male smacking his partner upside the head with a red and black spotted clipboard.  “Ow! I’m pretty sure the Lucky Charm isn’t meant for hitting innocent felines.” The leather clad heroine rubbed the back of her head, clawed fingers tangling into her red hair.  The observing girl had to bite back a sigh as she ducked behind one of the abandoned café tables. Didn’t Redbug and Midnight have something better to do than bigger with each other? They used to be so in-tune, until the akuma attacks suddenly started to get more frequent. As she waited for them to figure things out, a small yellow and black creature flew out from her pocket. It’s small arms were crossed and an annoyed expression seemed to be on its face as it floated next to her head, watching the chaos ensue.  “I thought the black cat and ladybug miraculouses were supposed to be in sync. What a blunder.” Its long tail flicked mischievously, but quickly straightened out as the girl grabbed him by an ear and pulled him back. Another piece of debris flew, along with a shout of ‘cataclysm’ from Midnight. “Paxx, have a bit of respect. They’ve been fighting Monarch nonstop for the past four days. They’re probably tired and irritated.”  The creature didn’t say anything after that, just deciding to turn his attention back to the fight. The both of them watched with wide eyes as Redbug, the ladybug holder, got himself stuck in a wall of cement. The clipboard fell to the ground with a loud clatter, making Paxx flinch. “I’m sure they’re fine, Midnight will recharge themselves soon an-”  He got cut off as Midnight got grabbed by the hair and swung right into the wall Redbug was currently trapped in. The villain, Cementor as they crowned themselves, was snickering as the concreate piled over the now unconscious hero.  “Or not. Well, time to go. Places to run, people to hide with.” He started hovering towards the creaking café, which now had a billboard stuck halfway through the roof.  “Oh no you don’t! Paxx, transform me!” A loud groan escaped from him as he was sucked into the pendant of the girl’s necklace. With a flash of yellow light, she’d transformed herself into a new persona. The ‘smile’ tee and shorts were replaced with a yellow romper, black spots dotting everything but the stomach and chest. Her hands were gloved in white, small claws prodding from underneath them. (I’m so bad at this part I’m sorry ajdfndf)  The mask felt weird to her, almost like there was something glued to her face. She’d always known the transformation words, but had never used them until now. It was dire at this point, she could no longer hide in the shadows. Throwing herself into the middle of the scene, she grabbed the weapon on her side. She stared at it oddly.  “An African trumpet? The heck is this gonna do for me, put them to sleep?” She didn’t have long to think on it too much, just barely dodging the clump of concrete thrown at her face.  “Who are you?” The concrete monster in front of her was dripping onto the pavement, every movement making a bubbling sound as they stepped closer.  Even with all the times she wondered what it would be like to transform, she never figured that part out. “I’m uhhh....uh...Quick...stop?”  “Lame!” There was a coughing noise from the dazed Midnight, who’d stirred not too long before.  The akuma glared at them before turning their heads back to the novice hero. “Doesn’t matter anyways.” They lifted their clumpy arms above their head as a large dome of liquid concrete started to drop onto her head.  In a moment of panic, she shouted. “Timestop!”  Birds stopped in mid-air, people were frozen as they ran, even Midnight had been caught in the middle of her laughter. With a sigh of relief, she looked at the concrete stuck in the air. “I have no idea what I’m doing.” She looked around the scene, knowing her range of the time freeze was only a mile. People would start to suspect soon, so she needed to hurry up. Looking to the concrete monster, then to Midnight and Redbug, a grin formed. Walking over to Midnight, the staff was plucked from the ground next to her. She then walked over to the opposite side of the akuma and held the staff in front of her. “Resume!”  As soon as time started to flow again, she pressed the button on the staff and sent it straight onto the only hard spot on the akuma--their left arm. It look like it had been casted before they were akumatized, perhaps that’s where the akuma was hidden? Regardless, it was being used to fling the concrete creature underneath their own falling dome of concreate. Once they were trapped underneath, she breathed a sigh of relief out.  “Uhm....excuse me? New person in the yellow...Can you hand me that clipboard please?” Redbug waved his hand around a bit until she grabbed the fallen charm and tossed it up to him.  He just barely caught it, but immediately through it back up into the air with less enthusiasm than usual. His ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ was muttered half-heartedly. Redbug ended up landing on top of Midnight, who wheezed as her breath was knocked right out of her lungs. ‘Quickstop’ could barely contain her laughter. As Redbug retrieved and purified the akuma, she found herself staring into Midnight’s judgmental eyes.  “Hey. What kind of Miraculous is that? Where’d you come from? Where’d you get it? I’ve never seen you anywhere before. Did you steal that from someone? How d-” The girl was cut off as Redbug pushed her face out of the way.  He rolled his eyes before apologizing on behalf of his ‘overexcited’ partner. “Sometimes she forgets that bombarding people with questions is rude. Whether or not you tell us is up to you, but I can’t say I’m not curious. But don’t make the mistake of thinking I won’t know if you’ve done anything sketchy.”  The girl frowned. This wasn’t the ‘greeting’ she’d expected. Neither of them seemed to trust her too much. Then again...they’ve dealt with quite a bit. The sound of another miraculous holder they hadn’t chosen would likely seem a little questionable. Even still, she wanted them to know they could rely on her.  “It’s okay, I understand....If I met a random person like this I’d assume they were weird too.” She tried to choose her words carefully. “You can probably tell from the spots, but my miraculous is the cheetah. I can’t tell you where I got it from, but I didn’t steal it. It was given to me, probably the same way it was given to you...”  She watched their eyes grow more serious, but continued when they didn’t say anything. “You’ve never seen me before, because I’ve never made myself seen. The cheetah is really, really dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands. If I threw myself out into every battle, the chances of it getting taken would skyrocket.” “Makes sense...” Midnight nodded, her ears flopping with every tilt of her head. “But why did you jump in now? We totally had that guy under control. If I had a few more seconds I totally would have gotten us free.”  The question was inaudibly answered, just the look from Redbug made the red head shrink back with nervous laughter. The sound of beeping filled the air, then another, then a third time. The little group were nearing their times for detransformation, so ‘Quickstop’ decided to start taking a step back. Redbug grabbed her arm. “Wait. If you ever come back, there’s just one condition on working with us.”  She looked at him nervously, hoping he wouldn’t ask something impossible like her identity. Thankfully, he let go of her arm and just smile.  “For gods sake, find a better name.”  ~~~~~ “That was awesome! We should do this more often, wouldn’t it be fun? I think it’s fun! Cassandra, Cassandra--are you even listening to me?” The yellow and black kwami was floating around the girls head, tugging on one of her afro puffs. Cassandra was definitely not paying attention, brown eyes scanning through something on her phone. It took him floating in front of her screen to get her attention. “Huh?”  “Excuse me, your kwami is very tired and very HUNGRY! We just had the best time ever and now you won’t even look in my direction.”  He crossed his arms into a frown, green eyes looking irritated but it was hard to be intimated by a kwami with a candy wrapper stuck to his ear.  With a bit of a smile and a chuckle, she lifted the wrapper off and tossed it into the trash bin just outside the alley she’d detransformed in. “Sorry Paxx, I got a little distracted. I was looking at the news for a second. Nana said it was supposed to rain and I still have to pick up more flour. I’d never forget about you, I hope you don’t think any less of our friendship.”  After putting her phone back into her pocket, Cassandra adjusted the tongue of her converse after giving the kwami a quick pat over the head. Seeing as he was satisfied with her answer, she pulled a jerky stick from her purse and handed it to him. As she walked back out onto the streets of Paris, he hid inside her purse with his snack clutched to his chest. The sky was turning an ugly gray and black color as storm clouds began to form overhead. While she could hear the thunder in the distance, there were no signs of rain just yet so she walked towards the small grocery nearby. 

It was nothing fancy, just an old shop run by an older couple who’d always been in Paris. They were always nice to the customers who came by, and the prices were reasonable. Most of the goods by the counter were made fresh by the owner’s wife, others by local shops. Cassandra would have loved to search for the grocery’s cat, but knew she didn’t have nearly as much time as she would have wanted. After picking up the biggest bag she could find, she paid at the front desk before leaving through the side door.  She definitely should have gone to the grocery before that movie. There was now a downpour outside, making everyone either run indoors or search for their umbrellas. Cassandra didn’t have time for either.  “You’re not seriously thinking about walking in the rain, are you? Its a ten minute walk back to the restaurant--we’ll get soaked!” Paxx whined, popping his head out from the front pocket of her bag.  She patted his head with a finger and a grin. “You say that like you’ll be getting the worst of it. Relax, there’s plenty of canopies out to keep us dry.” Ignoring his protests, she untied her jacket from her waist and pulled it over her shoulders. Once the hood was over her head as much as possible, she ran out from under the canopy and dashed across the street. Rain sloshed at her feet, flicking up her legs and making her shiver. Why did it have to be so cold? By the time she stopped in front of the Italian restaurant, she was drenched and panting heavily. Her shirt was heavy on her, soaked to the point where the gray had turned to black. Even her shorts were sticking to her legs at this point, making an uncomfortable feeling every time she walked. Her shoes were definitely going to need a quick wash, covered in mud up to the laces.  “Good heavens Cassandra, you’re going to get hypothermia!” A tall man dressed in a black apron opened the door, sauce all over his uniform and the smell of oyster coming off of him.  “Sorry dad, I didn’t realize it was going to rain that soon.” She quickly ran inside as another crack of thunder sounded, shaking the ground just a bit from its power. “Geez, I’ll be surprised if the power doesn’t go out.”  “I hope not, everyone ran inside for cover. They're cold and hungry. Hurry up and dry off, your mother needs help in the kitchen.”  Cassandra couldn’t help but sigh a bit to herself, rushing up the stairs and hoping not too many of the customers would stare. Their house was just behind the restaurant, and her grandfather had long ago built an entranceway to it from the top floor of the restaurant. It was a business passed down from everyone on her mom’s side of the family, and she hoped she’d be getting it too some day. Although, today was not one of those days. She wanted to spend some time with Paxx rehearsing lines for a musical audition. But she wasn’t going to tell her parents and grandmother ‘no’ during an unexpected rush. She placed her purse on the bed and started changing her clothes into a black shirt and jeans.  “Wow, everything is really busy today! I bet the restaurant will get lots of income from it.” Paxx flew around her bedroom in hopes of finding something to do while she would be away.  “Since when were you interested in the restaurant?” She raised an eyebrow as she put non-slick shoes on.  “Since Nana Rose said I could eat the leftovers after everyone went to bed.” He snickered to himself, stomach growling at the thought.

Of course she did.” Cassandra found herself rolling her eyes. Even though she was Paxx’s holder, she often found him getting spoiled by her ninety-year old grandmother. Her grandmother was the current guardian of the miracle box Paxx was connected to, and was the only one in her family that she could talk to about everything. While it was nice to have someone to tell everything to aside from Paxx, she hated having to lie to her parents and younger sister. She knew they would love Paxx and the other kwamis, but it was too dangerous.  “I’ll be back in a few hours, feel free to go say hi to the others if you want.” As she shut the door, she could hear the faint happy squeal of Paxx as he flew into the secret pipes running through the house and restaurant.  The restaurant was definitely overcrowded for a Tuesday. People were still streaming in, ordering only the hot items in hopes of giving comfort to their soaked bodies. Cassandra found herself working in the kitchen, making pastas and pizzas from scratch. Everything they served was from scratch, which was why they were so popular. The day soon turned to night, and the hours dragged on like days. Around 5:30 in the evening, Cassandra switched with her father and started serving tables.  One table sat two people, a girl with her long, red hair in a braid and a silver and blue-haired boy who appeared to be a few years older. When Cassandra came over with her notebook, they both smiled.  “Sorry I took so long to get your drinks here. Can I get any appetizers?” She tapped the pen against the notebook as the boy ordered for the both of them, the girl seemingly shy. “Two orders of the camembert cheese bites, and mozzarella sticks.”  As she scribbled it down and went to place the order in, she said a silent prayer for her poor father who would have to deal with all the cheese. It was a popular appetizer, and he absolutely hated it, but it was unthinkable to remove it from the menu.  With the rush pretty much over, she was able to return to her room soon after serving one last table. Her feet were hurting from the constant movement, and her head throbbed with a headache. Sighing, she elected to wait on telling her grandmother about her ‘heroic’ activities.  -----

Whew, took me forever to get the motivation to actually write it lolol I won’t tag it, seeing as there won't be much mention of any canon characters--at least not for a while. It’s just something I enjoy writing. 

[hopoo]

RoR2 Q&A 12/2/17

Since we got a million asks, I’ll collapse all the answers periodically into one giant QA so it doesn’t ruin your tumblr feed. I tried to answer every question - if yours isnt there, someone else might’ve asked the same question. Expand below to read!

Q: Are you thinking about putting out a beta version to test or are you just waiting for the game to be fully released A: Not sure exactly how we want to do it – we HAVE to have some way of getting the game out to testers, especially for networking/matchmaking testing. It will most likely be some form of closed/limited beta, but we really haven’t though too much about it.

Q: Any ideas on what the system requirements could be? Will they be high or playable on most machines? Also will it work with integrated graphics? A: Most likely the game will be pretty light for GPU with our graphical style, but CPU intensive. What that actually translates to won’t be until the game is closer to launch, where we start optimizing.

Q: ROR1 most loved thing me and my friends liked to do is ruining the framerate with all the items that we had. we had lots of fun crashing the game for whoever hosted the game. might this still be able to happen? I'm looking forward to the release anyway and so are my friends especialy with peer to peer now we can connect better. A: Uhh hopefuly you won’t be able to crash the game, but the game will still scale infinitely like it did previously

Q: Could you make it so that when you use Unstable Watch and timestop, all colors in the game become inverted for the duration? And if you want to go all the way with a certain reference, have only Chef's cleavers stop in midair at the edge of a radius from an enemy, and when the timestop ends the cleavers hit at the same time. A: No memes

Q: Super excites for risk of rain 2. Im real glad i found it in a steam summer sale, bought then and after that bought it for my ps4. Are we going to see any new characters? (Bandit will always be fav so as long as hes good im happy) A: Yes, definitely new characters!

Q: can you make one of the new death messages be "HOST WHEN?" A: No memes!!!!

Q: While Vita's out of the question, what about the Switch, which basically seems to have slotted itself in the 'more powerful handheld device' niche? A: We’d obviously love to be on the switch, but that ultimately depends on A. can we optimize the game to run on the Switch, and B. do we have the technical know-how to actually get it running? Porting to consoles tends to be a much more dramatic change than people expect, even if the engine natively exports to it.

Q: Hi. I’ve been a fan of risk of rain for the past few years. I just want to ask: in risk of rain, some mechanics like heaven cracker can pierce a line of enemies and the huntress’ ability to hit and run. With the change from 2D to 3D  environment, how will they work? There are many other abilities and mechanics that i also want to ask about, but these two were the first ones that i could remember immediately. A: We’re not going to bring back any mechanics that don’t fit just for the sake of continuity – however, the Heaven Cracker I can see being actually more fun in 3D since you have to actually align yourself with the enemies. Since everyone can shoot and run in the 3D version, Huntress’ niche is sorta gone, but we have some clever ideas to make that back

Q: In DevBlog #8 you explain some of the steam integration going into Risk of Rain 2 which will make a lot of people happy but will RoR2 also be available without steam for those who prefer? For example will I be able to buy it on GOG like I did RoR1, and play LAN games without steam? A: Right now we’re focusing on making it work via Steam P2P, but (I believe) that we haven’t done anything to explicity lock out connections via IP. You just won’t get the same Nat punchthrough benefits (I’ll have to ask Jeff, our network dude about it to make sure this is correct, but afaik I think that’s right)

Q: Would you guys happen to have an idea of when you think the game would be realeased? A: Nope! Hopefully not too long!

Q: Hello! I loved Risk of Rain 1 and it is great to play with friends. I have two questions (technically three, I'm cheating). 1. I am assuming you're going to release it on steam, so that said will there be steam multiplayer integration? Like... Invite via steam, games are created with the help of steam peer-to-peer. It was a pain to get 4 people playing on one server without port forwarding. 2. Will there be a better way to keep track of items? 3. Can you add a menu to see what items you have? A: Yes, steam invites and all that are the goal. I know we talked about holding TAB to expand the item menu so you could see more at once, but we haven’t actually done that yet. I know it was a bit silly for it to be uncropped and expanding off the screen.

Q: Is this still in development? A: No we’re just pretending

Q: Are you gonna have the same soundtrack from the first game? A different soundtrack? A mix of both? (Don't get rid of the Dried Lake or Sunken Tombs songs). A: That’ll ultimately be up to Chris, but I’m sure he’s in the same boat as us and doesn’t want to cover the same ground that we did previously.

Q: I was telling a friend how excited I was for this, and he expressed a concern I’d like to ask you guys about. He said that, being 3D, the game might end up either not as hectic as the first, or too hectic, what with the hoards coming from all around you. What’s your take on this? (I’m not actually too worried about it, but I still wanna hear your take on the matter.) A: Currently, we’re using SFX as a tool to present not only how close an enemy is, but what state they’re in and how many there are. Since I’ve also been playing the game for like a million hours I’ve also developed the ability to recognize which enemy by the frequency of their screenshake… but that won’t be relevant to most players. We’re really hoping to avoid radars or anything like that for awareness.

Q: Just wanted to say, RoR2 is looking to be coming along fantastically. I really love that you are constantly taking things in unexpected directions-- I never expected to see the game translated to 3D but you have done it and I can imagine many hundreds of hours spent playing. Will Chris Christodoulou be working on the music this game as well? A: Yes, he will be back!

Q: Have you considered calling the second Risk of Rain "Risk of Twain"? A: Not until now

Q: This is kind of a question and a half. How big will the RoR2 maps be and will all the RoR1 maps return in 3D with the additions of new maps or just overall new maps? A: Overall we’re not really looking at the previous maps for the inspiration for our new ones – we’re not making RoR 3D, but a sequel, so we don’t really want to recreate too much old stuff!

Q: Since RoR2 is moving to more dynamic network model, how will people with screwy NATs be affected? NAT Punchthrough is great and all, but if implemented incorrectly can lead to multiple users on the same NAT being unable to join servers outside of the NAT (See Rainbow Six Siege). Will users still be able to host dedicated servers like the old game? What does this mean for users buying the game through GOG/Humble Bundle? Really hope everything goes swimmingly because port forwarding sucks. A: This is the exact reason that we will have to have some form of limited beta, because this is something that we can’t recreate in office. I honestly don’t know enough to respond accurately on what would happen in that particular situation, but thanks for the heads up

Q: Relative to the first one, will Risk of Rain 2 be a sequel, prequel, completely unrelated, or even have story at all? A: Sequel!

Q: How were you going to implement artifacts this time around? Is it going to be based around areas that are randomly generated and you sometimes have access, or multiple spawn locations, etc. A:  Dunno, we haven’t implemented really any form of map permutations yet. The artifacts also ended up taking a much more important role in the game than we initially expected – not sure if the old way of unlocking is strange if it’s to be a core feature.

Q: (Big fan) I just had some curious questions; How many characters do you intend there to be in RoR2?, How differently do you plan on changing the previous characters?, Any hints on the final boss? pls, What is the estimated price of the game? and will their be any chance of PvP? Cannot wait, super hyped and keep up the great work :D A: We’re aiming for 10 characters on launch. No spoilers or hints! Definitely not PvP in any official capacity since the networking structure wasn’t designed for a good PvP experience.

Q: I've got three questions : 1) Will it be called RoR2 or will you find / have you found something else ? 2) Why the hell is there one more 'o' in the tumblr URL than in the actual 'Hopoo' name ? 3) What's the average of the team's favorite meals ? thx xoxo <3 A: I think it’ll just be RoR2. The hopoo tumblr was taken on creation of this tumblr, so we had to make it hopooo instead ☹

Q: Will RoR2 reveal why the Contact Light was carrying a teleporter linked to a planet crammed with hostile lifeforms? A: I’d like to explore what the heck is up with the humans in this game, but I sorta wish I had a better avenue that’s not just item logs and monster logs.

Q: I'm going to ask the real questions, is Sniper a man or woman? This is important because reasons. A:

Q: Theres something that confuses me alot about risk of rain 2. It's the lore. If the characters have left the planet, why would they come back? A: Canonically, the returning characters were never on the Contact Light to begin with (and presumably there could totally be like, a bunch of engineers and commando suits.)

[sapphirestream]

So I’ve been watching Thrilling Intent and I just need to get a rant out or I’m going to stay mad at Gregor forever. I know that’s not a valid solution because he’s a lovable character most of the time and he sticks around and needs to be forgiven if I still want to continue to enjoy watching the show. I don’t really trust the formatting to give the issue space to breath and be properly addressed rather than just falling into the background due to the serialized nature, so I’m going to get out all my feelings here and hopefully get some catharsis doing so.  I WILL acknowledge that I am a bit biased, because Ashe is my favorite character so far, and she’s the one who has the most conflict with Gregor on these issues. I still think I would hold these same opinions if the positions were flipped though. The first big conflict between Ashe and Gregor was, of course, the Charoth issue. At first, I agreed with Gregor’s stance. “Cool motive, still murder” and all that. And sometimes the only option to stop the killing IS to slay the monster even if it is hungry or just being itself.  And if regular slaying would have done anything, I would have agreed that it was the right thing to do, especially since we couldn’t fully gauge Charoth’s mental state at the time and had no way to know of its childlike understanding of the world. 

HOWEVER. However. Killing Charoth would not have done anything productive, and the only way to permanently slay it was to destroy it’s literally immortal soul. Just on an ethical level, that is a step so extreme it SHOULD be a last resort, as Markus stated. Even with all the monsters and even people they have killed before, this is not a step that they had taken. It is striking it beyond all chance of redemption, even after a complete wipe of identity. Other methods should be tried before it, even if they don’t ‘punish’ the creature for its wrongdoings or are risky. Fighting it is risky anyway. You don’t slay a creature because you want to punish them, you slay them to STOP them. Ideally, in the real world you relocate them before they hurt somebody, but even if a bear or something is put down, it's because you can’t control the risk, not because the bear is inherently evil and need to be punished for its sins. The goal is to STOP the monster, not get vengeance for those lost.  It also bothers me on a practical level as well. Gregor did have a point that this could lead to future troubles if something happens to Ashe, but honestly, it was the option that mitigated the consequences the most. Especially after they had already talked him down! Kylil even said she had experience coaxing spirit folk back from their wispy state, and Charoth had an entire island to socialize with now that he wasn’t locked in the temple by a short-sighted father figure. Even before they decided to set up shop in the Nine Shrines bar, Charoth had the beginnings of a loving childhood and a budding support network to help him work through his grief. Also, if you ever wanted justice or remorse for those who died, this would be the only option. Charoth will eventually have to face what he did during these times, but if you kill him he will truly be a new person. Some of the spirit folk will surely still blame him and be scared of him, but as it is now he has the framework to deal with that guilt and would deserve it. He could come to regret what he did during this time and work through that fear and try to earn forgiveness, rather than being unfairly blamed for a previous incarnation. If he has to grow up surrounded by fear for something he no longer is responsible for, that can only breed resentment rather than healing.  Killing him would have only put the danger off into the future, and erased whatever ground they had gained. He MIGHT have been ok, if Kylil had still taken a hand in his raising and the spirit folk had a good handle on separating out previous incarnation’s misdeeds. But you would have erased whatever good work and morals his father had managed to instill in him for twenty years. And he certainly would no longer have any love for humans and would take his cue of humanity from the clearly biased (rightly so! they’ve been burned before and we can be pretty awful) spirit folk. No way would Ashe have wanted to stick around on the island after that (nor would I blame her considering her backstory), so Charoth would have grown up with no human influence at all. Which doesn’t sound too great for humanity later, does it, if later it decides to continue wrecking ships, this time on behalf of the spirit folk? They might not have the temperament to do so, but Charoth would certainly have no qualms about it if they asked him in this scenario. This would not have helped the spirit folks goodwill toward humanity either, ESPECIALLY if Gregor had killed Charoth after a peaceful solution had been reached.  And destroying him utterly? Besides it being the most morally dubious way to go, it would also have potentially the worst consequences! Charoth is a GOD. He is the line between life and death! What happens when you erase that!? Does anyone even know? BEST CASE you just get a new one forming anyway, with an entirely unknown temperament. Alternatively, everyone could be stuck on the island forever, metaphysics fucked from the missing death god. There’s no saying that death itself wouldn’t be royally fucked in the localized area, and we already saw that even just Charoth stoppering it was causing problems. That’s not even mentioning if an unfriendly death god neighbor saw that the Shrouded Isles were undefended and decided to take over! This is only an option if you care about no one and nothing on the island, because this fucks them over hard. This is NOT a good deed, nor does it save anyone but humans. The party would just be one in a long line of people who have screwed over the natives and left them the worse for wear.   Legen’s Eye is actually what prompted this rant, as I had to take a break after watching the conclusion of Wizard Highschool. I have a lot less to say about it because it’s been percolating in my mind for a lot less long, but it was HIGHLY frustrating to watch Gregor shut down all discussion and go straight for destroying it. I’m still not sure whether they should have kept the artifact, but they CERTAINLY should have had a thorough talk about it without Inian and taken more than two seconds to decide. Inian should have been excluded not because she wasn’t part of the group or whatever, but because she was *actively shutting down discussion as well* If she had been willing to sit down and actually talk through everything then I would have been fine with her participating. If they felt that strongly in their convictions, they should have trusted them to shine through and convince the others. The group honestly probably would not have been able to put it to good use, but even if they had shoved it in a corner and let no one know they had it, it would have been a better option. Even setting aside if more magic would be better for equality, you never know if humanity+ is going to face some kind of natural or supernatural disaster down the line where that artifact could make a difference. You can never un-destroy something, and that's a decision that should at least have been talked about rather than decided by one person. They talk about not having the right to make those kinds of decisions, but they made a decision not just against their own party, but humanities(+) entire future, and banked against them EVER figuring out a way to use it wisely, or even the possibility of the necessity of its use.  As an example, I once had a dnd game where the players went into a timestop for hundreds of years and emerged in a world overrun by demons. The gates of hell had busted open and there was a war between the celestial and hellish planes with humanity being the unfortunate battleground.  Do they think such things are impossible? Do they think cataclysmic events will never happen where something like Legen’s Eye could make a difference in the material plane’s survival? No, it might not be the answer to all the world’s social ills, nothing simple will be. There is no magic bullet for our own weakness and greed. But this is the kind of artifact that should have been entrusted to future generations, as an ace in the hole if nothing else.  Overall I am just extremely disappointed in Gregor’s unwillingness to talk things out and his black and white thinking. I know it comes with the territory of a Lawful Good character, and kudos to his player for a doing a good job with him, but damn is it frustrating to watch. This show is so good and so investing that I just want to reach into the screen and argue my own viewpoints with the characters, and I’m glad they cover these hard issues that other shows would skip over entirely. I really appreciate how willing they are to tackle things like this, and we wouldn’t even have had a discussion without varying viewpoints. I know Gregor’s in the hard spot of being devil’s advocate a lot of the time. (ironically it’s not Markus! Isn't he a Demon AND a ‘lawyer’?). Still. Still. I guess the counterpoint to being so invested and tackling hard moral issues is sometimes your viewers are just going to have to go rant on social media to get in their own two cents. God damn do I need a friend who watches this show. 

[snarlylime9292-blog]

This is a headline from only five days ago, showing a busted human trafficking ring in Florida.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Journey to the Center of the Earth Sandwich

Published in 1864, Jules Verne began his journey into becoming the Father of Science Fiction with this science-adventure classic theorising a subterranean, prehistoric world existing deep under the earth's surface (and potentially within the human psyche). How Ol' Matty thinks this will help him out of the catacombs, Zeus freakin' knows.

In a severely over-budgeted and tragically lost filmed sequence, Ol' Matty slew Breaderick the demon, who turned out to be a lousy side-kick, friend and understandable co-host. Our hero now follows the advice of Jules Verne's subterranean adventurers, delving deep into the earth, the courage of humanity, and his own snickers bar food reserves in an attempt to finally escape the catacombs. I keep telling him Snickers weren't a good food ration for his journey (other than his delicious word sandwiches), but he keeps bringing up that they're full of nuts. Well, so is he.

His spirit has somewhat returned since slaying Breaderick. It was brutal. I wish you could have seen it. I think at one point Ol' Matty literally consumed all of the souls Breaderick himself had harvested. I guess that makes Ol' Matty a demon as well as undead, but who's counting? Me. I'm counting. The idiot is going to become a God with his lunacy, while me, with my stupid sane and responsible decisions, shall die a sane mortal, and he'll be all like, "The key is just enjoying yourself" as he ascends to Valhalla and Olympus at ONCE.

Despite losing oxygen and a lot of bread, Ol' Matty explores every layer beneath Verne's earth's crust. He always was one to eat the whole pizza. With neither Hemingway or Plath to guide him, Ol' Matty returns to the glamorous whimsy of French literature of his youth, and using a variety of sources, spelunks through bread (Background), meat/meat-substitute (Story), cheese (Characters), sauce (Themes) and seasoning (final thoughts/feelings). It's not easy to make a sandwich out of a story that takes place 20,000 feet below the earth's surface, but by gum my boy did it.

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is the second of Jules Verne’s “voyages extraordinaires,” a vast project entailing nearly a score of novels about adventures on, beneath, and above the earth and seas. By combining diligent research into scientific fact and hypothesis with his natural bent as a storyteller, he moulded a popular form of narrative which appealed to his nineteenth century audience’s appetite for tales of wonder.

Keeping with the theme, somehow, of The Bell Jar and The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the story is yet another journey through the darkest layers of the human psyche and back, as well as a ripping story of adventure. Yes, Ol' Matty, I know you wanted more swords. Science was their sword, sir! ...no, you're lame.

Love stories? Love hearing about the tales of old with Ol' Matty but want to know them yourself? Want to join the Book Club Sandwich but don't have the time or desire to sit down and read? Well, you dolt, check out Audible, where you can drive to your destination and faraway lands all at once. P.S. Audible, please sponsor me.

I read this story twice, once with that tiny narrator in my mind, the second on Audible listening to Tim Curry's superb read through. I must say, my Quixotes, that I think Jules Verne himself would be proud of this somehow at once fresh, faithful and buoyant revival of his story, and would laude the use of technology to listen - so by no means feel unfaithful or less legitimate by taking in the story with Audible's production of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, read by Tim Curry in a way that makes every layer of Verne's first iconic world bloom into life.

The 2008 adaptation of Journey to the Centre of the Earth I will confess got me through purely on the shoulders of the mighty Brendan Fraser, however I did very much enjoy the concept of Vernians, a secret society that function on the premise that Jules Verne's works were non-fiction. Like the rest of the world, the 4D gimmick I found pretty lacklustre alas. The 1959 adaptation did its best but hasn't aged well, but if you really don't want to read I would say is the better bet, being labelled, "a silly but fun movie with everything you'd want from a sci-fi blockbuster – heroic characters, menacing villains, monsters, big sets and special effects," which ain't half bad at all and can scratch a mighty grand itch.

Until next time, my Quixotes! Tuesday week Ol' Matty might just find his way out into the land where "The Sun Also Rises", returning to the land of the living and his more beloved land of Ernest Hemingway, celebrating with nothing less than a Fiesta.

Ol' Matty doesn't have a literature degree, but he does read a lot:

For wanting to look more into the bulk of this analysis, refer to:

Sources:

Bread:

From <https://www.enotes.com/topics/journey-center-earth/critical-essays>

From <https://www.biography.com/people/jules-verne-9517579>

David Niven's The Moon is a Balloon

Yeast:

From <https://the-bibliofile.com/2019-books-to-movies-film-tv-adaptations/>

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/roberto-bolano-and-the-beat-connection

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/theater/scott-rudin-mockingbird-broadway.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FBooks%20and%20Literature&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection

Sauce, Cheese and meat:

https://www.gradesaver.com/journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth/study-guide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_Center_of_the_Earth

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