#there’s still a few others I want to remake but it’s not necessary just ones I personally dislike

[arolesbianism]

Ok ok Tali ref sketch finished now to firmly close that damn canvas until tomorrow

[xamag-draws]

BBR thoughts 2024

Since I mentioned that I finally dusted off an old project of mine and was ruminating on how I'd remake it, I thought I'd elaborate a little, now that I've solidified some concepts. For funsies

This is gonna be a bit of a long and unfocused one, but I don't share my personal thoughts here often, especially the stuff about my projects I always marinate in. And for once it's something that people have existing context for, so hey why not

So for anyone who hasn't been following me for a gajillion years, The Black Brick Road of OZ was a webcomic that I posted around 2013-2015, back when I was in highschool going on college (which is kinda crazy to think about). It was sort of a darker twist on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, although I definitely leaned a lot more into dark humor more than anything in those first few chapters

I don't think it's available to read anywhere anymore, and I know people have been asking me about it. So here's the full proper archive of BBR, as full as it can be with deceased Flash

I totally used it as an excuse to shamelessly and self-indulgently experiment. It had interactive pages and GIFs and was wayyy too overproduced for what I could handle or what was necessary, but I did have great fun making it while it lasted

Unfortunately, that excess and the fact that I've changed too much as a person by the time I was in college is what ultimately killed it. The direction I wanted to go in was practically unrecognizable from the original idea started back in 2011, so there were many old hold-ups that I felt ruined it

At the time I kinda wished I could start/rewrite it all over, but considering that I pretty much had the entire script done at that point, it felt like a pointless sisyphean task. So I just put it on a shelf and didn't look back for about 8 years, because I didn't know what else to do

Now to be fair, the nature of my art has always been iterative and cyclical; when I feel like my creative juices have run dry I prefer to leave a project to marinate and move on to something else; cycle through other old things and bring in new skills and perspectives into the mix when I'm ready again. Not very productive, but it is what makes me happy to work on my OCs; I'm doomed to hit a wall with them eventually and I need some time to be able to find a new direction

So that said, I'm glad that BBR was left to marinate for that long. I don't think I was prepared, emotionally or intellectually, to tackle it again until now. The Wizard of Oz book (and the entire series of them, really) has always been near and dear to my heart, but there's a lot of context around it that I'm only unpacking now that I'm older

I think I always inherently feel negatively about the stuff I've made in the past, like its faults always jump out to me more than the positives, especially the more time passes. I've never liked that, and I do really appreciate the kind things people have to say about BBR to this day. The fact that it still can be recognized and remembered is very sweet

When I left it, I already found it "kinda cringe", and that feeling only deepened with years. When I took my first look back at it, asking the question "how would I rewrite it now?", at first I took a very cynical approach, as in "everything would have to be torn down"

But the more I sat on it, the more I found that I still see some merit and charm in the ideas I was putting out; I just didn't know how to execute them at the time (not to pretend that I know what I'm doing now, but I certainly know more at least). Turns out a lot of my old concepts could be changed substantially with just a few small tweaks. So I'd say that's a nicer way to think about my previous work

If you haven't seen yet, I posted a first draft of my new designs for some of the characters (the main group, the Goods and the Wickeds). Definitely subject to change, but more or less how I see them now

I'm just playing with these concepts; by no means would I attempt to remake BBR right this moment. Call it a pipe dream among my other ones. But just for fun, this is the direction I'd like to take:

Nowadays I'd probably make it a visual novel, with more emphasis on the visual part than the novel because I'm no English prose writer by any means. It'd still let me play a little with the interactivity while helping cut some corners on the drawing part (only some, I imagine I'd go hog wild anyway)

I've always intended for some events inspired by the sequel books to take place in BBR's past. Stuff like Jinjur's revolt or Ozma's rule preceeds the main events here. So I think it would be fun to follow the past of a few key characters alongside the main story. One chapter focusing on the present quest to see the Wizard, then one focusing on the past events (that are maybe reflective thematically); rinse and repeat

I'm also sticking a little closer to the original text in some regards. Not everything that I enjoy from the books would be translated here, it's still just a very loose fantasy on the material; but I'd like to be closer in spirit at least

I like mature, wise and powerful Glinda, I like kind and vulnerable Tin Man, I like the Wizard being a pathetic yet loveable liar, so I'm sprinkling in more of that for example

I'd like to keep some whimsy, but make it more grounded and a bit more serious to be coherent in tone. I think the original TWWOOZ book was a more realistic fantasy in some ways, even for the standards of the time; I like its simple but vivid tactile descriptions and details like bringing attention that Dorothy needed to eat and sleep

I find it funny that Baum specifically was averse to making his books scary or unpleasant, finding that unnecessary for telling a compelling kids story, but they still can get pretty dark and disturbing, at least for our modern sensibilities. Let's just say that I intend to use the Evoldo and Chopfyt storylines for my purposes. In that way, I feel like a "darker" Wizard of Oz retelling can still mostly be tonally in line with the original and balance it with enough heart and occasional humor

I slowly grew to appreciate the quaint old-timey quality of the original series, as well. The first book is both timeless and very much a product of the 1900s. Originally I tried to give it a little modern or at least anachronistic spin, but it was moreso because it's what I knew best, so these days I'd rather intentionally lean into the time period. Still not fully historically accurate by any means, but at least directly acknowledging the influence

The events of the story span across 40 years of these characters' lives, so I'm drawing inspiration from the entire so-called La Belle Epoque: the time period around 1880s-1920s. Basically I'm cooking, and my soup is old Victorian fashion morphing into Edwardian fashion and slowly inching towards flappers

Some new Dolly outfits

Lots of crazy things, political changes and innovations were happening at the turn of the century, which I think is noted and reflected by Baum in the books as well; the character of Tik-Tok might not blow any minds now, but he was one of the first robot characters in literature at that point; and don't even get me started on Jinjur, etc. Plenty of really interesting stuff one could lightly ponder in an Oz adaptation these days

Aesthetically, art nouveau has always been a big artistic influence for me, and it'd definitely be its time to shine here. John R. Neill's illustrations of the Oz books often keep me company as well. Nouveau architecture in particular fits that fairytale whimsy extremely well imo

I'd allow myself a little bit of art deco here and there, but ultimately its intimidating geometrical splendor is an antithetical to the flowery nature of nouveau and I associate it with a completely different era. Definitely fitting some characters like my Wicked Witch of the West, but shouldn't be overused

One of my main problems with the original BBR was that eventually I lost track of what it was even about; and the original ending felt too mean and unfulfilling to be worth it. Now I'd like to stick to the theme of home and family as my main theme, but in a different, more bittersweet way than in the book

An interesting connection I made is that a lot of my aforementioned older key characters (the Witches, Jinjur, the Nome King, etc) all came from the same reformatory as kids, that's how they know each other. In my recent research I learned that in those reformatories it was usually frowned upon to release the children back to the families, which were seen as the original corrupting influence regardless of the circumstance. The reformatory did everything in its power to cut that connection and make itself the only family those wayward kids were supposed to know and love. That's an unexpected tie into the theme of home that I'd like to explore as well

So yeah that's the current state of it. I have a bunch of outfit concepts I'm slowly cooking, although I'm now sure whether I'd post them... But I do miss these funny guys, and I'm glad some people still do as well :)

[blueskittlesart]

where do you think eow falls on the timeline? i had assumed it was the alttp incarnations (because it's the same art style as the la remake) but since she doesn't know him, that would only make sense if eow is an alttp prequel, which seems unlikely

this is my current theory. there are several things in EOW that point to it being at a point on the timeline where the kingdom of hyrule and the authority of the royal family has been recently established or reestablished, most notably the fact that very few people outside of castle town recognize zelda and that she's able to introduce herself with the royal family's ancestral name to multiple other characters without immediately getting clocked. this suggests that the hyrule kingdom we're seeing in eow is significantly weaker in terms of influence than, say, botw or oot's hyrule kingdoms.

initially I was thinking about placing it somewhere after alttp and its sequels on the timeline, as that fits the bill in terms of a less-influential kingdom and the map similarities are glaringly obvious. However, there are a few things that make me think that's not where EOW goes. the most noticeable discrepancy is the triforce and how it's referred to in-game. games in which the triforce is not referred to by name usually do so to suggest a level of removal from the creation myth of hyrule--in both twilight princess and botw, it's implied that the triforce is never outright named because, for some reason or another, the people of hyrule forgot about it. because of that, I don't really want to shove EOW in after alttp on the failure timeline, because then we have to somehow justify how the triforce faded in and out of public consciousness so quickly.

what makes much more sense, in my opinion, is to place it on the timeline directly after the zonai era of totk. there are a few reasons for this. It fits the bill in terms of setting--I ascribe to the new-hyrule theory when it comes to totk's timeline placement, so a newer, less-established kingdom makes sense here, and the map is JUST similar enough to botw/totk in terms of major landmark placements for me to justify it. the one glaring flaw is the fact that the rito are missing from eow, but nintendo has historically said some insane things to justify when they exist and when they don't so i've decided it doesn't actually matter. there are a million different ways I can think of to justify that discrepancy if necessary. Similarly, the lack of knowledge about the triforce is consistent with what we know about zonai-era totk--it's never directly named, but does still exist in some form as a symbol of divine power.

The thing that really sold me on this being the placement of eow, though, is the existence of might crystals. To me, this is pretty transparently zonaite by a different name. I think the fact that it's no longer widely used or understood suggests maybe a few hundred years of removal from rauru's hyrule, but not so much that it's completely fallen out of use like in botw. Hell, if I wanted to get a little less canonically backed I could definitely make a connection between the eow rifts and the depths of totk. you see the vision.

anyway tldr i think it's after zonai-era totk but long before botw. hope this helps!

[ewingstan]

Ward thoughts post battle-involving-throwing-people-at-mercenaries:

I think that thematically, Ward would be stronger if Sveta-as-Tress actually hurt someone with her tentacles without it being brushed aside as alright or necessary. We've had her almost hurt Victoria a few times, and accidentally harming a mercenary—but one who was actively shooting at a child, so it was fine. She should’ve hurt someone and have it not be fine by this point.

I recently got far enough into arc ten to reach Victoria accidentally break a man’s arm, purposefully throw a lot of non-capes at enemies, and use her costume spikes to try and stab at someone's neck while internally ranting about wanting them to carry scars and bruises. And I think all this works for expressing one of the big themes of her character: Victoria is unable to not get involved in situations. The same chapter has her telling Crystal that she can't see herself not getting involved in Numerous times its suggested that this trait, which we'd usually regard as heroic and which is being applied to one of the more archetypal "hero" characters wildbow's written, often leads to Victoria making situations worse. She's a blunt hammer, and oftentimes swinging a hammer at problems will just break things. Problems have escalated unnecessarily, people who shouldn’t be in the field are taking bullets, it works as a theme. It pairs with the setup of The City as a place desperately trying to remake the world as it was without really dealing with the problems inherent to the post-apocalypse. Victoria seems to have lost most of her faith in various institutions, but still single-mindedly works in their interest, acting according to the law over what she thinks is right, because its the only way she knows how to act and she can't not act.

And to a certain extent "keeps getting involved despite it being bad for them and others" is an aspect of all the members of Breakthrough: Tristan keeps trying to be a hero despite it previously having contributed massively to the Vera twin's crisis. Kenzie trying so hard to involve herself with others and help them routinely leads to her hurting them, and her drive to become a hero and earn the affection of those around her has led to her taking two bullets. Rain keeps trying to redeem himself, but he's only just broken out of a Christian Identity compound and probably isn't the first person you'd want to have power over people. Ashley needing to be a big deal led to her spiral as a failed warlord, and re-entering the field as an undercover agent led to her killing a dude.

Now take Sveta. She is a person in a relatively fragile shell who, if that shell is destroyed, is at risk of harming everyone around her. And she is routinely throwing herself in the situations most likely to destroy that shell, often with lots of civilians nearby. This is obviously a bad idea, but if you subscribe to my reading of Ward as having "throwing yourself into a situation in a way you're not equipped to help with is harmful" as a central theme, then it works. But it would work a lot better if she actually hurt someone she shouldn't have while hero-ing.

(thanks to @n0brainjustvibes for pointing out the similarities between Kenzie and Victoria).

[districtxii]

Thoughts upon finishing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Spoilers unmarked ahead as it's been out for a while and the title of the post warns for them.

As I've mentioned in my other few posts about it so far, I came into TBOSAS as a movie-only watcher despite having been a book-first person back when the original Hunger Games films came out.

I've got to say that when I heard the idea of a prequel about President Snow which included a love story, my tumblr-raised self wasn't particularly interested. I remember seeing the book display at Walmart when it first came out and not really having time or interest at the time.

However, the movie trailer caught my attention, and I'm really glad that it did.

I am happy that TBOSAS, while having a single POV character in Snow, switched from first person narration to third person. I remember reading meta years ago that I wholeheartedly agree with. While one can make the argument that the "blindspots" one gets in the original trilogy themselves make a point, having a slightly more zoomed out, third person point of view just feels better for the scope of the story. As an English teacher, I can't help but feel like it's a little more mature, too.

But without the movie, I still don't know if I would have ever picked up this book in audio or visual format.

Funnily enough, looking back on the first four Hunger Games movies, I actually don't like them as much as I like the books for the most part. The visuals are good in parts, but I do not like the casting philosophy that was used. I sort of hope that we are around long enough to see remakes as a prestige miniseries or something like that.

Back to thoughts on TBOSAS: I remember seeing a few kind of poorly produced (sorry lol) thinkpieces on websites like ScreenRant that were insisting that you weren't getting the full picture from the movie, that the movie made Snow too sympathetic, that you have to understand he's a monster because he views Lucy Gray in an objectifying manner or because he gets Sejanus killed.

I think that those takes have a point. However, I think that they also miss the nuance of the narrative, and I am not even suggesting that the prose is particularly deep or esoteric. Just that people love to be reactionary.

What I saw in Snow's character throughout the book was someone who was warring with various philosophical and personal dilemmas without having anyone he ever really trusted to talk through it.

There are moments with Lucy Gray and with Sejanus when Coryo almost opens up completely. When he has real conversations with them. But, like Katniss, he is a traumatized person who has a lot of baggage which makes him strategize and behave defensively with every decision he makes.

If anything, Coryo is LESS closed off than Katniss is at first throughout most of the story.

I couldn't source it, but I distinctly remember reading someone suggest that they believed that Coriolanus became irredeemable when he got Sejanus killed. However, reading through his internal conflict about the decision to snitch on him was one of the times when I found Coriolanus the most human and relatable. He was torn in every direction. He is someone who is deeply propagandized into a fascist regime whose family has a personal narrative of power and meaning within that regime. He also believes that the Capitol is necessary and better than the alternative. He wants Sejanus to survive and to change his mind. He wants him to stop putting himself in danger. He wants him to stop implicating Coriolanus by association. And yet, Coriolanus does feel responsible and tied to him, however much he hates it.

Coriolanus defends himself from emotional attachment and the cost of loving anyone, romantically or platonically, as a defense mechanism.

It isn't until he works himself into a frenzy and narrates what Lucy Gray must be thinking out at the lake in the end that he finds himself so utterly alone in his own head that he has no choice in his mind except to give into his colder side that he associates with his father, the Capitol, and ruthlessness.

Interestingly, a running theme throughout the book - without ever being explicitly stated in these exact words - is that Coriolanus is irreligious and doesn't believe in gods, rituals, or an afterlife. Every time someone brings up the stars or fate or performs some kind of ritual associated with passing on an even in the scene where Lucy Gray sings about the hereafter and therebefore, he can't help but internally scoff at the idea. He holds himself as more enlightened than those who believe in such superstitions.

But then, when he is all alone and trying to navigate his way back to District 12 with his father's compass, he starts to believe that there is some kind of spiritual guidance and blessing from his father, whom he never even felt close to except as an idea.

I think that Coriolanus's internal journey is an exploration of opposites and the divide that Lucy Gray describes and how evil is rarely even a boundary over which one cannot cross back into good from. It's just that, at a certain point, Coriolanus cannot bear the weight of his own guilt and misgivings if he ever turns back to a "better" path.

On the subject of Lucy Gray: I've got to say that I thought the book was effective in showing Lucy Gray as someone with dimension and depth that Coriolanus saw glimpses of but never really fully understood. Had he stayed with her and not needed "civilization" so much, I believe he would have learned to see her as more and more of a full person. However, the way she is written in the book, it is really hard for me to get a mental image of her at all.

Again, I think that this is perhaps intentional as a part of this format of the story. However, I find that I appreciate Rachel Ziegler's portrayal of Lucy Gray so much because without it, I'm not sure I would find that much to emotionally invest in. This is actually quite the opposite, as I like my mental image of Katniss far more than JLaw's portrayal lol.

Anyway, those are my wrap-up thoughts.

[tigertaurus22]

I was watching SCP videos, along with Pokespe stuff, and an idea came to me

SCP- 6517

Gotta Catch ‘Em All Part 2

6517 is an unassigned number as of the time of this post

Object Class: Euclid

What if the effects of SCP-5254 didn’t just apply to the Pokémon creatures? What if it was extended to the human characters featured in various Pokemon-related media as well?

SCP- 6517 refers to a series of cosplay costumes produced and sold from a particular website.

This website is called PokeTrainer Depot, which features a wide array of character costumes specifically themed to media released by the Pokemon Company and its affiliates.

Analysis of these costumes by themselves, even as separate pieces, reveals nothing inherently anomalous about them. They appear to be constructed of normal clothing materials such as cotton, denim and some plastic. Even chemical analysis revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

However, tags with the acronym AWCY? have been found inside the clothing articles, suggesting a connection to the avant garde art association Are We Cool Yet?.

Access to the website has been restricted to the public and can now only be accessed by the SCP Foundation given the necessary clearance.

Efforts are ongoing to keep the website from popping back up, as Ser_Viper seems determined to sell them all.

No pop-up or brick and mortar locations have been reported to date.

There is also no factory name on the labels found within the costumes. Just the logo of the website and washing instructions alongside the AWCY? logo.

Navigation of the site is relatively simple, with the costumes divided into sections based off of which ‘Generation’ they originated in.

For example, Generation 1 refers to the characters introduced in the 1996 releases of Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, and Pokemon Green as well as Pokemon Yellow in 1998. It also includes the remakes, namely Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen released in 2004.

SCP- 6517 was first discovered in 2022, post pandemic when a female cosplayer decided to go as one of her favorite Pokemon characters to a local convention, but didn’t have the time, talent or resources to make the costume herself.

So, she ordered it online.

After browsing several sites, ranging from Party City to Spirit Halloween, she found PokeTrainer Depot. It seemed to be of the quality she wanted and for a decent price (converted from yen to USD).

The costume was based on Rosa, the female Player Character from Pokemon Black and White 2.

She received the costume in the mail after about two weeks, and she immediately tried it on for size.

It fit her fairly well, though the wig was a bit cumbersome. She took it off after twenty minutes. She figured that was long enough to break it in.

A few weeks later, she attended the convention with a few friends, who were also going as Pokémon characters, and had a fun time.

They attended a few panels and ogled over other people’s art and crafts for sale.

After the cosplayer had worn the Rosa costume for over three hours, she started to feel an itchiness in her eyes that refused to go away.

She regretfully had to leave the convention due to the prolonged discomfort.

Once at home, the cosplayer removed her Rosa costume and slipped into something more comfortable. She took some painkillers and laid on the couch in her living room, eyes closed and waiting for the pain to stop.

Once it subsided, she felt the call of nature. As she finished up, she looked at herself in the mirror and gasped.

She noticed that her eyes had changed color to match that of the character.

She was confused and a little bit scared. She didn’t wear contacts, so how did this happen?

Freaked out, she contacted her doctor about the sudden eye color change.

She made an appointment for one week from then.

In that time, the young woman still had to go to work, but she noticed other changes as well.

Her hair grew longer and started to change color, though she was already a brunette so the color change was subtle.

Her skin tone changed as well, though again it was subtle as she was already caucasian. She felt a stinging sensation along her skin as it changed, though, preventing her from sleeping and thus arriving to work the next morning sleep deprived.

When the day of her doctor’s appointment came, she still looked like herself, save for the eyes, hair and skin tone.

She decided to wear her suddenly-longer-hair in a ponytail.

The doctor looked her over, tested her blood pressure and all the usual checkup procedures. When it came to blood and urine tests, the results were… unusual.

So unusual in fact, that her physician contacted their peers, which eventually reached the ears of the SCP Foundation.

The cosplayer lived alone in a rented apartment while working retail at a large name brand store. Her coworkers noticed the changes in her eyes and hair and complimented the cosplayer on it.

Though the pins and needles-like pain she felt in her body made her worried.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the cosplayer experienced further physical changes, including height and a visible de-aging. She looked like she was twelve again.

She also started blacking out without explanation, appearing someplace else some time later.

It was around then that the SCP Foundation went to the cosplayer’s home to investigate.

She let them in with no fuss and complied with answering their questions.

The entire conversation was recorded for future analysis.

She admitted she had to call in to work the past few days because she felt there was something seriously wrong with her.

The blackouts frightened her, and the pain and discomfort she felt in her body didn’t help. She knew it wasn’t time for her menstrual cycle yet.

It was like she was an alien in her own body.

As she was trying to explain her situation to the SCP Agent, she seemingly blacked out again, going silent and still for a moment. But she didn’t pass out.

When she looked back up, she wasn’t as shaken or anxiety-ridden as she was before.

It was as if she was experiencing a personality disorder, and another personality had taken over.

The Agent continued with their questioning, asking the new entity to identify itself.

It identifying itself as Rosa, a saddened look on her face.

She also complied to answering questions, while asking several of her own.

She admitted to being very confused as to where she was most of the time, and that she felt guilty about inconveniencing her host once she realized what was happening.

‘Inconveniencing’ was an understatement.

She knew she was no longer in Unova. She was in someplace called New York, where Pokémon existed only in fiction. As did she.

But Rosa wasn’t worried by this. Quite the contrary.

Rosa told the Agent that the last thing she remembered before waking up in the cosplayer’s apartment was darkness.

Her memories in fragments, recounting events extremely similar to that of Pokémon Black and White 2 from her perspective, with realistic details that the game and its adaptations never mentioned.

The Agent was able to help clarify the situation for the displaced Pokémon trainer, and asked her if there was any way to reverse the process.

Rosa shook her head sadly.

There wasn’t one she was aware of, as it wasn’t meant to be reversible.

Before the darkness, she remembered the end of her adventure.

While she was in the darkness, she heard a voice telling her that her story wasn’t finished yet. That she would be given a chance at a new life in another world.

Soon after that, Rosa switched out with the cosplayer, who panicked upon waking.

The Agent informed her of what Rosa had explained, as she had not been conscious for the duration.

The cosplayer directed him to the website she ordered the costume from.

The cosplayer was taken to Site 19 for containment and further questioning.

All the while, the Foundation contacted their Site in Japan, wanting to know if the Nintendo Company knew anything about the PokeTrainer Depot website.

It turned out they didn’t, and any instances of SCP- 6517 were already being kept secret from the mega million dollar company by an unknown third party.

Understandably.

If they found out there were cosplay costumes that successfully turned humans into their characters, albeit not the Pokemon themselves, it would be like SCP-5254 all over again.

After some digging into the website, analysts found an address attached to the sender of the anomalous costumes.

Members of special task force MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox"), the same task force responsible for neutralizing SCP-5254 instances that manifest in public spaces, were dispatched to the address to investigate and secure any instances of suspected SCP-5254 and/or SCP- 6517 that may be on the premises.

The location was a house in the Kansai region, surrounded by fields and sparse trees. The house was of traditional Japanese design with a second floor and some modern amenities.

When the MTFs arrived, one operative observed that there was someone waiting for them outside, sitting on the front porch.

They appeared to be a Japanese woman with long dark hair kept in a high ponytail wearing a simple loose shirt and long skirt. She appeared to be in her late 20s.

When the MTFs approached, she showed no resistance or hostility. She even showed them inside upon being asked.

She had seen the trucks coming and knew what it meant.

They soon found a group of children and teenagers, ranging in age from 10 to 14 years, huddled in the living room.

The woman urged the children not to resist and to go with the MTFs willingly.

She asked if where they were going was safe. One agent responded that yes, they would be kept safe and secure until they could better determine what to do with all the transformed persons.

But that wasn’t up to the MTF.

The woman was identified as Keiko Nakamura, daughter of the mysterious Ser_Viper connected to SCP- 5254

She informed them that her father’s real name was Eiji Nakamura, but suspected that he would’ve changed his name to stay hidden by now.

That much information was better than nothing.

Keiko requested to come along with the SCP- 6517 instances so they may feel less afraid.

The request was approved.

Keiko was immediately brought to an interview with a SCP researcher assigned to SCP- 6517, Dr. Ruka Onata.

Keiko confessed that she knew this day would come, and had made rudimentary plans for such an occasion.

She confessed that she was the one who suggested to her father about bringing the human characters to life too.

It gave the man the idea to create the costumes sold on the PokeTrainer Depot website, working with AWCY? to produce them. He continued to create and add to the collection with every new Generation and characters created by the Pokemon Company.

She had no idea where he was doing it from, as they’d cut ties after she found out about his involvement with SCP-5254

It had been about five years prior when Keiko encountered the first instance of SCP- 6517.

She had been driving home from work in the city, and had just parked her car in the driveway when she saw someone on the porch.

It had been raining, and the rain obscured the person’s shape, though they didn’t seem to be moving.

Upon closer inspection, Keiko saw it was a girl around 9-10 years old, who had fallen asleep on her porch, seemingly waiting for her return.

Concerned, she picked the girl up and brought her inside without thinking twice. It wasn’t until after she’d laid the girl down on some tatami mats that she noticed the blonde coloration of her hair and odd clothing.

The next thing she noticed was that she was running a fever.

Keiko nursed the mysterious girl back to health, during which time she learned her name was Yellow and where she came from.

She confessed that her host’s name was Himawari, fittingly enough. It meant sunflower in Japanese.

When Keiko looked into the website herself, she was angry at Ser_Viper that he’d put her address on the site, seemingly using her as his scapegoat.

Attempts to change it were futile, and she couldn’t move away due to financial restrictions.

Without much of a choice, Keiko let Yellow stay in her house but she had to earn her keep and so the Pokemon Special character became her adopted daughter and housekeeper.

Over the next five years, characters from Generations 1 to 4 had shown up at her house, following the same logic as Yellow had only to be disappointed.

Keiko let them all stay with her… until the SCP Foundation arrived.

She found that any Pokémon character costumes after Gen 4 were not available in Japan, and the same could be said in other countries.

Gens 5 and 7 were only available in America, Gen 6 was only available in France, Gen 8 was only available in the UK and Gen 9 was only available in Spain.

Notices were given out to SCP Sites in these countries in case instances of SCP- 6517 were ever reported.

As previously mentioned, the MTF squad had recovered several children from Keiko’s home, all possessing physical and personality traits matching that of various Player and Rival characters from before Generation 5.

These include:

Kiiro (SCP- 6517-A), also known as Yellow

Age: 15

Akai (SCP- 6517-B), also known as Red

Age: 20

Midori (SCP- 6517-C), also known as Blue Oak or Green

Age: 16

Aoi (SCP- 6517-D), also known as Green, Leaf or Blue

Age: 20

Hibiki (SCP- 6517-E), also known as Ethan, Kin or Gold

Age: 17

Gin (SCP- 6517-F), also known as Silver

Age: 17

Kris (SCP- 6517-G), she is not known by other names, though she sometimes answers to Kotone or Lyra.

Age: 17

Yuuki (SCP- 6517-H), also known as Brendan or Ruby

Age: 15

Haruka Birch (SCP- 6517-I), also known as May or Sapphire

Age: 15

Wally (SCP- 6517-J), also known as Mitsuru.

Age: 15

Hikari Berlitz (SCP- 6517-K), also known as Dawn, Shirogane or Platinum

Age: 12

Kouki (SCP- 6517- L) also known as Lucas, Dia or Diamond

Age: 12

Jun (SCP- 6517-M), also known as Barry, Shinju or Pearl

Age: 12

While under initial containment in Research Site-79 in Tokushima, the victims of SCP- 6517 were kept in separate humanoid containment cells decorated to resemble relatively normal bedrooms.

They were later transferred to Site 19 in the USA for their own safety and because they had the additional housing necessary.

Luckily, the subjects were discovered to be multilingual, adapting to the many languages the Pokémon games are translated into.

Through testing, as with instances of SCP-5254, the effects of SCP- 6517 were irreversible, try as the researchers might.

Several trials were conducted to see if the subjects of SCP- 6517 could recall the memories of their hosts.

Some of these trials were successful, but it left the subjects with symptoms of a looming existential crisis.

To mitigate this, an on-site counselor was assigned to SCP- 6517 to help the subjects through this difficult time.

Other attempts to reverse the transformation with the twelve previous instances were proven ineffective, whether it be through hypnosis, wearing the Host’s old clothes or surrounding them with things that would hopefully trigger something from the Host’s memories.

The instances did divulge that while they could access some of their Host’s memories, their souls were gone.

For all intents and purposes, the original hosts were dead.

The Department of Misinformation made sure that the hosts’ deaths were made official despite having no bodies to show for it, the disappearances covered up and their families notified.

To test the effects of SCP- 6517 for themselves, Site 79 researchers ordered a cosplay of Lance, also known as Wataru in Japan, from PokeTrainer Depot.

Using Rosa’s testimony as a guideline, the researchers made the D Class keep the Lance costume on for three hours. When he began to complain of itchiness in his eyes, he was instructed to remove the costume.

The D Class was kept under surveillance for the next two weeks, during which time several notable physical changes occurred.

The D Class was originally a middle aged man with balding hair, a beard, and a portly body.

His eyes and hair changed color and shape. He also got taller, thinner with more angular features, and de-aged until he appeared to be in his late 20s.

He looked like Lance wearing the orange jumpsuit of a D Class.

They extracted samples of the D Class’ DNA every day, which allowed them to track how fast the effects of SCP- 6517 took to completely override the host’s DNA.

They also kept track of his brain waves, for when the other personality manifested.

It was after those two weeks that the D Class’ brain waves were replaced by another’s, though briefly.

Through interviews with the other personality, identifying itself as Lance, the SCP researchers learned that these instances borrowed several traits from the host in order to fill in gaps in their own personalities.

After the third week, the D-Class was gone, fully replaced by a walking and living version of a human Pokemon character.

The Cosplayer who became Rosa was given the designation of SCP- 6517-N.

After the transfer to Site 19, several other D-Class personnel were used to test the effects of SCP- 6517.

Lance was given the designation of SCP- 6517-O.

Three other characters were brought to life in this process, including N (aka Natural Harmonia Gropius), Cynthia (aka Shirona), and Hilda.

They are 20, 27 and 16 years old respectively

They were given the designations of SCP- 6517-P, Q and R.

Given that there were so many of them, the 0-5 Council allowed them to be moved to a separate location where they could be monitored but otherwise allowed to lead relatively normal lives.

The location was a campground located in Nevada.

The campground encompasses five acres of land, bordered by a concrete wall that only SCP personnel have clearance to enter and exit at any time.

The instances of SCP- 6517 have been given access to one acre of fruit trees and garden vegetables they tend to themselves.

The other four are woodlands that surround the campground.

Other food items and necessities are provided by the Nintendo Company as compensation for their involvement in the SCP-5254 fiasco that led to SCP- 6517.

The boys and girls sleep in separate cabins, as do the adults.

Personnel are assigned to act as Camp Directors, helping the instances adapt to how our world works and the animal species.

It is noted that they all own plushie versions of their individual Pokémon teams.

Addendum:

Having found the essay Eiji Nakamura had to prepare for the AWCY? Exhibition in 2014, SCP agents found exactly what they were looking for in terms of how SCP- 6517, and by extension SCP-5254 really worked.

The costumes were manufactured using a thread coated in an anomalous substance, one that once soaked through became indistinguishable from the thread itself. If used to stitch together clothing, the effects of the substance would spread to it as well.

The effect was listed as ‘transformation into the subject of the costume itself, believing themselves to be a certain character over a period of time.’

Other ways SCPs can bring Pokemon to life:

SCP-387 Living Lego

Lego Pokemon exist now

SCP- 507 Reluctant Dimension Hopper

If he somehow landed in the world of Pokemon and brought some back with him

[t00fumaple]

Paldea Shiny Starter Edits

Please know that these are remakes from ideas I made before the game released and the actual shinies were revealed. I just redid them since the other stages in their evolutions weren’t HQ, and adding a few color adjustments when necessary.

Some more notes below cut

Some of the color adjustments are crap because I don’t use a program that isn’t exactly that good with specific color adjustments, but it turned out fine lol

Anyway, Quaxly line is actually me making a reference to Ahiru from Princess Tutu (Well atleast the first evo, it kind of died out as it went on lol)

Fuecoco line doesn’t really have any specific inspirations, I just was doing whatever. I liked how the fire turned out, and it’s a shame that the fire didn’t change in the actual shiny

Sprigatito was very much Puss and Boots inspired lol, that’s about it for my notes for that one really.

I may make this an actual series, so if you want me to see reimagine a shiny, feel free to request it!! I hope you enjoy these edits though.

One last thing, I changed Quaquaval’s colors from my og edit, but I still want to stay the red and black color palette looked really cool and someone must appreciate it lol

[icedragonlizard]

The one Kirby game that really deserves a remake, in my opinion.

When Return to Dreamland Deluxe came out, I've then noticed people wanting remakes for Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. And if I'm going to be honest? I don't think it's necessary to remake those two games. At least not around this time. They're still deep in the newer half of the spectrum for Kirby games, they're still literally from one console ago, and thus I believe it's too soon to remake them.

Remakes don't happen very often in the Kirby series anyways. But if I think there's one game in the series that absolutely deserves a remake more than the others, I think it's Dreamland 2.

This is another long rant so I'll add a "keep reading" tag to this if you're curious to hear more of my thoughts as to why I think this.

Dreamland 2 is the most outdated mainline Kirby game, as the original Kirby's Dreamland has been used for Super Star's Spring Breeze gamemode, and Kirby's Adventure has been remade into Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland for the GBA.

Dreamland 2 is the only mainline game in the series that you can't play in graphics better than Gameboy Color.

And the game has a lot of flaws. Due to being on the Gameboy, it's got a small screen. Kirby can't even run in this game because of how small the screen is. Kirby also loses his copy ability EVERY time he takes damage in this game, compared to other games where it usually takes more than one hit for him to lose his ability.

Rick and Kine both suck to use in this game, but thankfully they've been heavily improved in Dreamland 3 when they gave Rick all sorts of perks like climbing walls and being unphased by slippery terrain, and allowed Kine to be faster on land. But in Dreamland 2? Coo is the only one out of the three animal friends that's actually good here.

Planet Robobot is still pretty fresh and fine, as is Triple Deluxe. They can stand pretty well on their own and don't need remakes for a while. Dreamland 2, however, really shows its age. It's good for a Gameboy game, but it's so archaic and lackluster compared to all the newer Kirby titles, and like I said above, it's the most outdated since even the Kirby games older than it got remade one way or another.

Remaking Dreamland 2 into the modern era could easily go a long way to do it much needed justice. It could address all or at least the majority of its problems. It could provide a bigger screen to let Kirby actually run like he does in the newer games. Rick and Kine could be given all the same buffs that they were given in Dreamland 3. Heck, we could probably even add a few more copy abilities to provide combinations for, as after all we're still only dealing with three animal buddies here, so it should be okay to add a couple more abilities into the mix! They added some abilities in RTDL's remake that weren't there in the original game, so the same can apply here.

I think a Kirby adventure where Rick, Kine and Coo are the companions could be great. I love those three characters anyways. But Dreamland 2 as we know it is really outdated, barebones and tbh I'd be hard-pressed to call it fun at this point. For a Gameboy game, yes, but it's kind of a joke compared to all the newer Kirby titles. Looking at this game, it seems absolutely ripe for a remake imo.

Dreamland 2 is a short game, but in a remake they could easily just add more gamemodes to make it a larger game compared the original. I'm aware that a remake doesn't typically do any real notable expansions on the gamemodes that existed in the original, but I mean.. they could add a few things in the original mode. Like I said, they could maybe add a few more copy abilities.

Extra gamemodes.. I dunno, they could be stuff similar to Merry Magoland. I'll admit, I'm not that creative when trying to think about gamemodes, I guess they'd come up with stuff fine if they ever choose to remake this game into the modern era.

Also, maybe GOOEY could be a little bit something more in a hypothetical Dreamland 2 remake compared to how he was just in the bags in the original to serve as a heal item if you already were riding around with Rick, Kine or Coo. Who knows? Maybe a Gooey "epilogue" that happens between Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3 to show his growth and to how he got to his position in Dreamland 3! Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly advocating for all sorts of characters to have prologue/epilogue-style gamemodes similar to what Magolor got, as that could get old and repetitive pretty fast. But hey.. I think Gooey would be a sensible candidate if they actually do decide to go that route again for whatever reason.

Given Dreamland 2's shortness, even with extra gamemodes included I would agree that a remake for the game definitely wouldn't be worth $60 like most switch games are. I guess... $15-30 would be better? HOWEVER, I wouldn't be opposed to a "Dreamland Trilogy" that contains all of Dreamland 1, Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3.

Dreamland 3 is also rather old for the series, although the idea of remaking that game sounds a bit weirder in comparison because I think it should keep its crayon aesthetic to allow it to stay unique. I also think it's generally more fleshed out than Dreamland 2. So in my opinion, Dreamland 3 isn't as needing of a remake as its predecessor is. I wouldn't be too opposed to it, though, since it's also old.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. I can understand why people would want Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot to be remade, but they're still new for Kirby games, and I think it'd be weird to just remake all the Kumazaki games and ignore all the older titles that arguably need remakes so much more. I mean, remakes are rare in the series like I said earlier, but if we're gonna choose another one to remake, I think it's pretty obvious who could ACTUALLY use it. Dreamland 2 is the one Kirby game in most dire need of a remake, in my opinion.

What do you think?

[moefling]

ok i’m gonna talk about the RWRB Movie...

SPOILER: i’m gonna be negative and i’m not planning on watching the movie (i guess that means ppl are gonna block me??? idk why ppl are just mass blocking because of this but whatever) (edit: per a suggestion I swapped the tag on this post so it isn't tagged under "rwrb movie")

so i’m gonna start by saying that i’ve watched the trailer a few times and honestly i love the vibes, it makes me smile ever time.

-the kiss is great

-the butt slap is everything

-Henry’s facial expressions *chefs kiss*

-the visible chain around Alex neck. yes

i’m also gonna say that its great that people ARE going to see the movie, we need more queer movies and the only way for that to happen is if ppl watch the ones that are being made now.

so the bad.

honestly i could deal with a lot of the little things.  like they make my eye twitch a little but i do actually understand that you can’t 100% remake a book into a movie.

 BUT

it’s June that i can’t forgive.

if i’m wrong and she is in the movie than amazing and i redact everything but it doesn’t seem to be that way.

removing June makes me SO angry.  its like removing Alice from Twilight or Sam from Lord of the Rings.  if Main Characters are just the romantic leads (Alex and Henry) than June defiantly falls into secondary tier - all the Super Six kinda do (Bea would be the most removable for me but is is also necessary for Henry’s development as much as June is for Alex.

June balances Alex out.  the book even specifically states WHY all of the White House Trio are needed (page 28: “Alex pushes them. June steadies them. Nora keeps them honest.”) She keeps him sane and she put her life on hold to watch out for Alex, and Alex knows this!

the idea of Alex being an only child is terrifying.  he is already kinda selfish (i say that lovingly) and “a little shit” without growing up with an older sibling to shut him up he would be a monster (and Nora doesn’t count because first they don’t actually meet until Ellen is running with Mike as VP and second Nora’s personality is to “go with the flow” to really steady Alex)

June also has some important moments that happen in the book! like it doesn’t really work to have Nora be fake dating Henry for the like 2 days that that happens and no June means no Magazine moment (i know that isn’t really directly in the book but its a fav for everyone).  no June also really changes the tone of the Lake House....

ANWAY, moving away from June here is some other things that i don’t like (because its my rant and i want to, feel free to change my mind)

- the height difference (i did love the lifts comment in the trailer but idk if they’ll be able to keep that up in a way that makes since - that means that if they are every barefoot Alex would have to be shorter *cough* like swimming)

-the actor for Alex is to old.  i know ppl are really split about this but the actor feels put together and like an adult to me (vs. book Alex feels very young - or he honestly acts his age of 21/22).  i think the polo match scene says a lot for me in the postures of the 2 actors, Henry is ok (tho honestly i think he wouldn’t have the loose posture once he rejoined ppl but its cute so pass) but Alex is to stiff, he should be almost bouncing as he walks.

-WFT is Ellen’s accent in the trailer???

-i heard a rumor that Raf and Liam are merged and redone.  Gross and big no.

-King instead of Queen.  i understand why this was done but the tone changes a lot in my head of abusive Grandpa vs. Grandma

-Zahra.  don’t like, the vibe is off with the actress... can’t explain why except the smile in the photos and the bow in the trailer

 -i feel like some of the scenes feel still (this is 100% my opinion and i could be reading this VERY wrong so ignore this if you interpret it differently)

i really wanted to like the movie but realistically i probably wouldn’t watch the movie anyway because i have issues with that so..... i guess it doesn’t matter.

i hope ppl who watch it enjoy it and please separate tags of movie vs book, thanks

[pinksilvace]

Did you see How to Train your Dragon is getting a live action remake???

Alas... yes.

Iirc some of the folks that worked on the animated films (writer, director, and composer???) are returning for this project. It would be really neat if they did a more direct adaptation of the books, but I sincerely doubt that, all things considered, which raises the question: WHY???

Granted, there are aspects of the second and third films I don't like; the villains, especially, could stand to be fleshed out. Maybe going live action will encourage the creative team to push for a PG-13 rating or a more serious tone overall. Going live action will allow the dragons to have more consistent designs/textures (I'm partial to the grittiness of them in the first film) and the precedent of the animated films will allow more opportunities for foreshadowing. It would be fun to see some of the characters from the various television shows, especially Heather and Dagur. There are so many directions in which this world can be expanded.

THAT SAID, there are a few immediate problems I can imagine:

A lesser suspension of disbelief. This one is pretty self-explanatory; fantastical stuff just works better in animated form with the technology used in the film industry today. If the actors and dragons can really sell the performance, that would be fantastic, but it still won't feel as seamless as it does in animation.

Eternal comparison. Again, self-explanatory; it would take a miracle for the live action films to exist within their own bubble. Maybe the director doesn't want them to. Adding onto that,

Nostalgia. There's a decent chance that this project is just a way to continue profiting off of the franchise. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but if that's all it does, it'll be immensely disappointing. The presence of some of the creative team hopefully hints toward this being a product of passion, but only time will tell.

Bland design. This is probably the thing I'm most worried about. The world of Berk and the Barbaric Archipelago have been established as colorful places bursting with life. Each dragon design is distinct - enough that they stretch the definition of what a single species can evolve into. It seems to be a trend in live action to make things toned down for the sake of "realism," and in this case, I'm especially concerned about the dragons losing the strong shape language of their animated counterparts. Actually, you know what? Everything in this franchise is dripping with shape language - even the main characters. Oh, gosh, the characters will all lose their shape languages unless the costume department is allowed to go wild (as they SHOULD). Color is a different matter entirely. I'm almost certain that the live action films will be less saturated than the animated ones, and there's definitely a reasonable degree to this, but knowing that the premise of this story is a low fantasy set at least 600 years ago, there's a non-zero chance that everything will be gray, brown, and maroon.

The most baffling thing, however, is the fact that the HTTYD films are being remade in the first place. The third one came out in 2019. The first film, dated as the graphics are compared to those of the other two, is an absolute masterpiece. While I have more (hopefully not misplaced) hope for these films than any of The Mouse's live action remakes, they just don't feel necessary. Not yet, anyway, and as much as I would love animated remakes instead, I can't imagine such a thing ever happening. Hopefully, the creative team uses this as an opportunity to fix the prior films' problems (or make new plots in this world entirely!) and not just as another leap for money.

[ticktockmyclockworkhart]

I'm perhaps one of the most easy to please Pokemon fans ever. I wouldn't identify myself as a nintendo fanboy or anything even though I love a lot of their IPs (largely because the number one prerequisite to being a "nintendo fanboy" is hating Nintendo more than anything on earth it seems), but I will be the first to admit my standards are much lower than they should be. I eat up everything Pokemon related like the blindly eager little consumer I am, I've beaten every main series game and damn near every spin-off.

All this to say I think it says something when even I haven't beaten BDSP yet, and not for lack of trying. But the game bored me to tears. I've reset my saves on that game more than any other I have in the hopes that "well, maybe the next file I'll be more attached to". I can eat my way through new Pokemon games when they first come out in a few days and never put them down, but whenever I'd put BDSP down I'd have to reset my file again when I picked it back up because I no longer cared about whatever I had going on.

I've been grappling with this for a long time, trying to figure out what it is about this remake that makes it the one Pokemon game someone as easy to please as me couldn't care enough to finish. I'll be fully honest when I say I'll happily take whatever table scraps Game Freak cares to toss me and I'm not proud of that fact lol. I love Gen 4, it's one of my favorite Gens, and I actually like the BDSP artstyle too, I think it's a fun way to keep the spirit of the original games, though it really would have been cool to see Sinnoh at full scale and free to explore in 3D.

But today after another attempted replay I think I figured it out. It's the dumb. Fucking. Experience Share.

Pokemon is a turn based RPG, battling is literally the main gameplay loop and I found that I kept putting the game down because I would get so incredibly bored by the battles. None of them felt necessary and all of them felt way too damn easy. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet had this problem too, I noticed, but what got me to finish those games was I'd never experienced the story before and I wanted to see it finished. But with BDSP I know the story, so why should I finish it if the battles are such a drag? In the original Gen 4 I'd make a point of battling every trainer on every route. I'm very meticulous about my leveling and my Pokemon all need to be within one level of each other, lol. So my incentive for fighting every trainer was to keep my team at a high enough level and also to keep my levels rounded out. But with that EXP share they're always rounded, or god forbid they have different growth rates and I have to keep putting Pokemon away to prevent overleveling which just bothers my OCD more than anything lmao.

It also makes me care so much less about my Pokemon. I cared about my team because I took time to individually raise and train each Pokemon, and if I don't care about my Pokemon then frankly I barely care about the game. In Scarlet/Violet where trainer battles have become entirely optional for the most part I barely did any of them! And in BDSP all I am is annoyed by the trainer battles. There's next to no new content to keep the game interesting and give me a reason to keep playing, and when the main gameplay loop isn't even fun anymore, why would I play at all?

I was worriedly thinking that maybe I'm just getting old and it's hampering my enjoyment of the games (Terrifying thought) but I have just as much fun with ROM hacks that I did with older games. Most notably, there's no broken EXP share. Can't we at least get the option to turn it off? I get trying to find a solution to make grinding less of a miserable drag, because grinding is always the worst part of playing Pokemon, but the broken exp share hasn't made grinding less tedious, it's just made battling as a whole feel hollow and boring.

I still want to beat you some day, BDSP, I really do. Nothing makes me feel sadder than being bored by a franchise I love and I know can do better.

[blaaaaask]

My Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review:

Spoilers ahead, you've been warned!

So here are pros and cons of what I thought about Rebirth.

Overall I really liked it, can't wait for the next installment. I still have a few items to wrap-up with side quests, but I did beat the game with a large portion of items done in 94 hours.

Pros:

Character development is on par. Lots of 'getting to know' not only your teammates but characters they introduced from the Remake version as well. This kind of feels like an Easter Egg moment sometimes, and gives the game consistency and charm.

Gameplay during battle is smooth, consistent, and the added synergy attacks are interesting. Playing as a larger group of people with their own assets can be a little overwhelming, but fun to find your favorite playing style. Using different characters feels absolutely necessary for differing battle mechanics, and I think they did a great job in providing the opportunity to keep all characters relevant rather than 'backseating' someone. The side quests and even main storyline ensure this.

Storyline. The intense amount of speculation people have been doing has been a little blown out of proportion and I kind of like that. I mean we weren't wrong about differing timelines, the game does have that, but the way it is incorporated was done beautifully. They followed the original story very well, and moments that were changed only seemed to enhance the clarity that was occurring in those scenarios. Moments that I had thought of prior were now in different tones, giving different meanings. I enjoyed that.

Voice acting. Using new voices can be a bit of a dealbreaker for those of us who enjoyed the original VAs, but I think they did a great job in continuing with VAs that fit the tone of this 'newer' version of the FF7 world. I do still miss some of the originals, but with the storytelling in this format I think it's done very well.

Music. I really don't know what else to say other than the blends and tones and meshing of songs and the moments they're in is just. It's everything. It really makes every. Single. Scene. If you played the demo you know exactly what I mean.

Scenery. Everything is so gorgeous. Ugh. I just want to paint every little scene into a pretty landscape.

The comedic value is gold. Random characters will bring up points from Remake that will make you die of laughter. Side quests can be beyond hilarious (looking at you, Johnnys).

The intense amount of flirting and goofy moments of people hitting on Cloud is beyond amazing and very fitting. The dating scene I ended up with was with Tifa, and it played out beautifully. I am totes excited to try out the others, too.

Cons:

Too many minigames? It might just be me, but it felt like every mechanic had an unnecessary 'challenge' to it that robbed the enjoyment of the side quests. Each mini game has its own rules, mechanics, and is oftentimes poorly instructed to the point you will be redoing them in multitudes. Precision is key to every single one of them, but getting there seems too difficult at times. It's probably just me lol, but the piano keys with a PS5 controller can be incredibly difficult to get accurate notes. The march portion of the game was increasingly difficult, too, borrowing from the dance mechanics of Remake and yet somehow making it more motion-sickness-y. Granted, it was still funny, but the practice rounds they allow you do not compare to the actual hell hole that is the 3 march portion. It felt like when a teacher tells you '1+1=2' but on the math test they give you 'If Jimmy sells 83 portions of apple purple, who is the sun representing in the third movie of cryptocurrency?' Fort Condor makes a comeback from Yuffie's DLC, which is fun and kind of annoying. I am terrible at timed things so don't mind my venting here. And don't get me started on MOG HOUSE. The weird slide mechanics of trying to 'push' things around in this minigame while trying to avoid haphazard death feels a little too much like reality for me and I cannot deal, yo. The 'Run Wild' or whatever Red XIII game has a similar mechanic, which only makes it frustrating for the harder challenges they throw at you in making goals. Also, every minigame seems to incorporate an insane amount of R2/L2 button mechanics. Being left-handed feels like a bit of a disadvantage in some of these games, and it sometimes feels like the PS5 controller has too much of a 'soft push' on it that doing full trigger clicks is like a whole hand exercise. These games crippled me hahaha. I would love a Story Mode for us cripple-y old fucks that makes it so I don't have to do minigames. To add to that, Queen's Blood ended up being a relief for me after the hell that I faced in all the other minigames, but only later in the game once you get better card decks. However, I am currently stuck on Dale in Nibelheim. Yes. Dale. Don't laugh at me.

Not all characters fit the aesthetic of the original game. I'm mostly thinking of Kyrie and Regina. It's such a dumb nitpick on my part, but I kind of wish they had toned down their looks to match the game a little better that way it isn't such a 'sore thumb' kind of vibe. The moogles are also a bit terrifying to look at. Why did they give them such horrifying teeth?

And speaking of sore thumb, Chadley and MAI. I like the banter but oof what an annoying duo, hahaha. The 'fun' mechanics they're trying to implement with having these two talk to you through the PS5 controller was a bit of a fun and novel concept in the first 2 seconds, but MAI's voice is a bit too grating for me that I had to turn off that feature.

Speaking of voices, Red XIII's splits back and forth at times between his 'pretending to be sophisticated' and 'teen' voice. I prefer his sophisticated voice, and it's a pity they don't have an option to choose what you want to hear. I think I just hate the sound of children's voices, so anything that is too high pitched sounds a bit like nails on a chalkboard for me. I am guessing no one else cares about this, hahaha.

Chocobo mechanics. I like sweeping onto a chocobo smoothly without button pressing, but sometimes Cloud gets off the bird in a direction that accidentally makes it possible to get back on the bird. Also, the open world trekking is only fun in the Grasslands area, after that it is a bit of a nightmare that continuously gets worse the hillier things get. I spend a lot of time staring at the map trying to figure out where I'm supposed to go because you can't actually 'go' wherever. This is a bit unfortunate because it can make simple tasks of 'I need to go here' turn to 'I need to make 70 different turns to get there.' And the traversing for specific regions can also feel like hell, mostly in Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon.

Controller mechanics. Kind of already talked about this, but because the PS5 is supposed to be a 'new, novel console' with things like speakers in the controller, touch sensitivity, motion sensors, etc, they go at it hardcore here. Tilt mechanics, sliding things, and all that garbage is just annoying. I turn it off as soon as I can. It is especially annoying during Cait Sith's time in the Shinra Manor. Boxgate. That is all, lol. If you like silly things like this then more power to you.

I am sure I am forgetting things, but to wrap-up: the storyline is what I'm in it for, and the story was beautiful and therefore I enjoyed it even with my stupid gripes. Please remember this is just my ridiculous opinion. I am merely a purple dinosaur on the internet and should not be held as gospel.

[garden-bug]

Not a huge fan of the ATTLA LA trailer from today.

It’s dark and I didn’t feel like the humour really landed… I wonder if other people felt the same? It gave me goosebumps but honestly I think that was just nostalgia from the powerful music.

I predict that I’ll watch the first few episodes and then drop it and I think that’ll probably the same for most people unless you’re a super fan or it turns out to be amazing.

But since it likely won’t be as good as the original or bring anything new to the story (see my other post abt this) I don’t think it’s worth the time investment for me. Maybe I could have sacrificed the time a year ago, but I’m not re-watching a show I’ve seen twice in a worse medium... There are other new stories I want to experience.

Even if it’s ‘good’ I’m still against the idea that these types of live action remakes are necessary unless under particular circumstances (eg. the One Piece LA - also see my other post for why).

I’m excited for the YouTube video essays though lmao.

[perpetuallyconfuzzled]

Yo’ can I nag and theorize about Beauty & the Beast (1991+2017) for a second???

You’re still here??? OKAY COOL CAUSE I AM NOT HOLDING BACK ANY LONGER, HOLD ON CAUSE ITS A LONG ONE SO while I can admit I did like a few things from the Live-Action remake version of Beauty & the Beast, mostly how stunning the cinematography and animation was as well as the music (I AM A SLUT FOR EVERMORE) the thing that was breaking my head was how obvious the movie was trying to justify the plot holes of the first movie like a ‘wink wink nudge nudge’ while accidentally making it seem worse???   and even more when I don’t think it was necessary cause kids either never realized or came up with their own little HCs on how that happened (And yes I will mention what my childhood interpretation was cause darn it I am actually proud of this many-year-in-the-making-theory that I keep adding on to and I refuse to be embarrassed about it any longer, heck maybe others thought the exact same thing too so I shall bite the bullet and be cringe as hell!) btw I divided this shit in case you just wanted to know why I thing the new enchantress was an asshat with her curse (The Nagging) or read the interpretation/theorizing I’ve been doing since I was a child (The Theory)

The Nagging half-

okay so first things first the new movie says that the beast would become a monster and the rest of staff living in the castle would also suffer the spell’s magic until the beast learned how to love and be loved by another, all before the last petal fell if not they would be stuck like this forever (except the staff, they’d become actual furniture and leave a mad beast all alone) mind you, ALL OF THIS was also taking into account that NO ONE would ever remember anyone that was inside this castle, including family members like spouses or siblings (heck even children or parents would forget)

Meanwhile the OG Disney movie said that the beast and those in the castle would fall for her spell until the beast learned how to love and be loved by another (same as always) BUT the last petal would fall on his 21st birthday, if he didn’t get his shit together by 21 he a monster forever.... and that was about it

Now that that’s out of the way, how is the 2017 movie’s enchantress nOT CONSIDERED A BIGGER ASSHOLE THAN THE OTHER ONE?! 

“Ah, yes! I will make you learn your lesson of compassion by making everyone that’s ever known of you forget y’all ever even existed even tho most of those villagers are your loved ones. I shall give you this magic rose whose petals will sporadically fall and you will NEVER KNOW which year will be your last of sentience. I will make you also stop aging while those outside (again, most are family members and friends) may age and die!”

and they DO outright state that MANY years passed with them waiting yet never aging, and judging by the villagers all living their life normally and having memories of time passing by I am guessing they didn’t get affected by that same magic (unless they are all trapped in a loop which is horrifying) 

“But wait!”

you may say

“Maybe that much time didn’t actually pass! all their family is there after all!”

My friend that means either the Enchantress gave the poor guy like 2 years to stop being an asshole and get himself a girlfriend somehow OR that those inside the castle felt time pass much much faster and both does scenarios sound hellish, actual faerie shit. 

How was this man suppose to do this??? Also the lady just sat there in the village waiting just for fun? to see if something did happen? Woman legit let a riot of scared villagers storm the castle of the guy she enchanted and let possibly kill/destroy a family member or friends THAT THEY DIDN’T EVEN KNOW EXISTED and did nothing until belle finally confessed her love for beast so she could walk in all casual and lift the spell. What if it was too late huh? just take the dead rose, tip your hat to the mourning woman and dead monster you cursed and walk away never letting go of the amnesia spell? MR POTTS COULD HAVE HIS GOD DAMN CHILD AND WIFE TURN INTO EXTREMELY BREAKABLE AND INANIMATE OBJECTS AND HE’D NEVER FUCKING KNOW

HOW IS THAT NOT EXTREMELY FUCKING MESSED UP?! FAE SHIT MAN I TELL YOU!!

She is somehow making the OG enchantress seem reasonable and that one turned a poor 11 year old who called her ugly once into a monster!

The Theory half- 

“okay smartypants, do YOU have a better idea?”

I DON’T KNOW BUT I CAN TRY!! I’ve had this cooking in my head since I was a kid so let me tell you what OG enchantress was doing and what was going on!

First point, yes I am a firm believer that the “Ten years we’ve been rusting” was not an exaggeration cause, at least in my kiddy mind, it made absolute sense cause it would explain why the beast was so nasty with Belle and acting like an animal, he’s lived like a beast since he was a kid! His table manners are absolutely the result of 10 years without needing hold a spoon to eat. The other thing that made me think he was actually a kid when he got cursed was the fact that he couldn’t read that well, he even admits that he knew little and that it was a long time ago since he had done so! Imagine being 11 and turning into a monster with your only guardians all becoming talking objects, don’t think anyone could really sit him down to help him read!  That and I remember watching a Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie years ago and believe me that prince does NOT look or behave a day older than 13 year old but that's mostly extra It could also explain why no one pay any mind to that weird castle on the hills. Admittedly I also thought as a child that the only logical conclusion was that the spell made everyone forget there was a castle with a prince nearby but after more thought (and falling out of love for the idea after considering the implications and how little that would actually help towards the beast since the curse was so he’d learn a lesson) it really doesn’t need such a specific or convoluted explanation like, if you see a big big castle that has no one going in and out for years you would assume it was abandoned and/or haunted right? most people would have stirred away from the clearly abandoned and creepy place! They were a tiny peasant village at the other side of the woods that was a day or so away from a cross road that either led to a main road towards more villages and the capitol or more woods and the lonely palace (judging by Belle’s dad’s navigating scene), and its also royal property so its not far fetched that most villagers wouldn’t be going anywhere near their so it makes sense the weren’t really up to date with the prince, do you know what your president, their brother or youngest son is doing right now and where they are living without using your phone, TV or newspaper? “okay but then the Enchantress was just legit evil, she saw some rude kid and cursed him! That was a kid!” Oh I am with you on that one but I can kind of think of her (fairy?) logic as to why she’d decide to curse such a young child. An old lady knocks at your door, it is a cold dark night, wolves are known to roam nearby, you know its about a day’s travel to the nearest village by horse how well would an old frail lady fair on such journey by foot? It’s a miracle she’s made it here and all she asks of you is a place to sleep for the night and in exchange she will give you her only possession: 1 single rose. Now imagine how self-centered and cruel the person must be to take a look at that person, scoff in disgust at how ‘ugly and old’ they are “how dare you ruin my evening!” and slam the door to her face. And somehow a child did that. Cared so little that they didn’t even let her sleep in the stables, didn’t even offer a scrap of food or a blanket, not even a “sorry but I cannot”, he scoffed, mocked her and closed the door, dooming the old lady to die in the cold or be eaten by wolves. How can a child this young already be this rotten? If this is his behavior as a child, what would happen once he’s an adult? No, he still has time to change and so she sets the curse, a curse that can only be broken once someone who’s never known love or been unconditionally loved must learn now before its to late, he’d have plenty of time to learn and reflect but if by the time he’s an adult he’s still the same cruel boy, then so be it. “okay but the staff! They also had nothing to do with this and she still turned them into objects, curse them by no fault of their own!” Yet they let the child grow ever more vain and cruel, fear his step and bend to his demands, he was a prince after all and a bratty one at that, obviously he doesn’t need adult supervision or help or love or guidance or sOMETHING. In the 2017 remake I felt bad for those in the castle who ended up turned into objects, their only sin was being at the wrong place at the wrong time while in the 1991 (and this realization started coming to me in middle school) they were put to serve and look after this young prince and somehow they let him become so badly behave that a literal magical being had to step up to stop this brat from becoming a monster, they were merely acting as tools, furniture, accessories to the prince’s palace. They were so afraid of a child they dare not anger him and let his temper go as wild as he pleased, so the kid less as an 11year old and more as just some prince that payed for their wage. The kid viewed them as nothing more than objects for HIS domain since that’s all they were good for in his eyes. And what if that was just the spell? To look exactly as how prince/the palace perceives you? The prince saw nothing but objects that’d always serve him so they became ageless objects while the palace saw nothing but a future monster so he became a beast (honestly the idea that everyone just saw this kid as a monster is pretty fucking sad) And it would make sense right? It makes sense the enchantress not only saw the child as a problem but also the servants, so she would cast a spell to show them all, now their lives are at the princes’ heart’s mercy, now they really had to step up and discipline the child if they wished to be saved from an eternal life as tools under the eyes of a monster

[redrain0o0]

Portal in Minecraft | Devlog 1: Not so fresh beginnings

Hey all! Red here. Welcome to my first Devlog! This will be a set of posts covering progress on my newest project; Portal in Minecraft! I'm trying to remake the entire campaign of Portal 1 inside of Minecraft + a few post launch bonuses (EG: a few popular mods, a chamber builder, some new game modes, ETC). I intend to make this a weekly/monthly thing, it really depends on how much I get done. Now, a few important things, I would foremost like to make it crystal clear that I own NONE of the copyrights to the Portal series, and this is a fan project. I don't intend on making any money off of this project, as this is a fan project to celebrate 20 years of Steam. I do not own any of the GLaDOS voice lines, songs, or other miscellaneous sounds in this project. If Valve wants me to remove anything, I am happy to do so and continue on with my own non-valve assets. It is not my intention to steal Valves sales on the official Portal games, but instead as a celebration of it's success. Now, with all that boring stuff out of the way, lets get into the cool stuff! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This project has already been going for a few weeks, so I decided to start a Devlog now, before it's too late. But don't worry! You haven't missed too much fun stuff. In this Devlog I'll be covering all the stuff I currently have, and in future logs I'll be covering any big things done.

The first feature I would like to cover is where every playthrough of Portal begins, the...

Title Screen!

Now, I know, it might not sound that interesting, but it's still necessary.

As you can see, the map is still very early in progress, but you get the picture. (Also don't mind the armor stands, I'll get there in a minute).

The second big feature is...

Portals!

(I know, the name of the game is the second feature mentioned, just stick with me here)

Please not that these portals are no-where near done, as they are hard coded in rotation for now. As soon as 1.20.2 drops, I'll be working on porting several things to macros.

(Please don't mind the video quality, my computer kinda sucks) (Also I told you we'd get there with the armor stands!)

The final big thing I'd like to show off is the (very work in progress)...

Grabbing!

This is one of the first mechanics you get introduced to in Portal, so it's kinda important to get right. There are still many things to do for it, (like throwing, proper wall collisions, ETC) but it works good enough for the current demo.

(Tumblr wouldn't let me post with the vid embedded, so just pretend please. Also note that most assets seen here are placeholders, don't bully me too hard)

One last thing, if you would like to see more immediate progress, there's a GitHub project page Here

Anyways, this has been devlog 1. Red out!

[a-student-out-of-time]

As they say Iroha ‘Pride before a fall’. Only when your parents fall it will be a Mt. Everest type of descent.

Hello, and thank you for waiting.

Ah, Tenmei-san. A pleasure to see you again.

You too.

So, what have you been up to?

Oh, y’know, still playing games, moving from career to career. Met a lot of great people in the process.

Ah, so you’re still spending time on some frivolous games?

But I was right, y’know! Games are a big deal these days!

How far the entertainment industry has fallen.

I mean, have you looked at some of the movies that’ve come out the last few years? How many of them are remakes of classics?

Either way, I was curious to know, based on your name...did you end up marrying that Nanami girl?

Yes, I did.

Has she cleaned up her act?

Emina-san, you know it’s been almost 30 years, right?

Of course, but you and I both know some people are simply destined to become dregs. They never have the drive or skill necessary to persevere.

Right...well, Harumi’s a nurse now.

Ah, now there’s a respectable career.

Disappointing I won’t get to speak to her again. Oh well.

I’m much more curious about you, child.

Me?

I’m Nanami Chiaki. I’m in Class 77-B at Hope’s Peak. I’m the Ultimate Gamer.

Hmm...Tenmei-san, does your wife work long hours?

Sometimes. Why?

Have you perhaps reconnected with Watanabe Hanami? You realize she’s also married, don’t you?

What’s that supposed to mean?

Need I spell it out? Your child looks more like your ex-fiancé than your “wife.”

Is there some story there you’d like to share?

Wh- hey! Dad would never cheat on my Mom like that!

I’m Nanami Harumi’s child, I swear. I just...ha-happen to look a lot like Watanabe-san.

And why do you think that is? You do understand how genetics work, don’t you? Assuming you don’t waste as much time playing ridiculous games as your father.

(I’m so sorry...)

Listen-

I mean, if we wanna talk about kids, you certainly seem a lot busier than us. How many have you got?

Three. You’ve already met my eldest, Hitaru.

Hello!

As for my other two, Jiro and Akemi, they’re talking with some of our fellow attendees.

Sounds like you’ve got quite a talented family.

Indeed.

So how’s Iroha-san?

Huh?

You said three, but I recall you once said you have four kids in an interview.

So how is she doing?

Ah, well...i-it was true that Iroha wanted to attend. She’s simply too unwell, though, so she hasn’t been able to make any public appearances.

Oh, so are you gonna livestream it for her?

Um...y-yes, of course.

Raising children can be so difficult, you know? Particularly when one is an invalid.

Yeah, I get that. Really seems like yours are dedicated to helping you with this.

Hitaru-san’s been signing people in for how long? She’s been working so hard, why don’t you take a break and hang out with us?

I mean, you can probably sign the others in, right? A lot of them are probably gonna be your old friends.

...

Very well. Hitaru, you may go.

Ah! Thank you, Mother!

Be sure to say hi to everyone for us!

(She doesn’t even have a clue...)