#this means i made mode than 50 characters???? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dazais-guardian-angel · 1 year ago

Text

Okay, a good amount of time has passed, and after having seen this post by @weretiger-be-my-horse , I've been turning it over and over in my brain going absolutely feral over this concept. I need to expand upon my thoughts on this idea and all the evidence there is pointing towards it, whether that be actual tangible things, or purely strong vibes I have.

First of all, full disclaimer: I did not like the season 5 finale, and how it wrapped up the DoA arc. To say that I "disliked" it is putting it extremely lightly, in fact -- I absolutely hated it, and I am still, to a degree, in disbelief that I actually even watched those 24 minutes with my own two eyes, and that it somehow wasn't a complete fever dream. While I'm not going to go in long-winded detail into all the ways that I feel like the finale almost completely bastardized all of its featured characters and destroyed any and all buildup we've had going on in this arc for 50 some chapters now, because that's not the main point of this post, I will not make any attempt to hide the fact that the theory-crafting I'm about to pose here is partly influenced and prompted by how much I hated the finale, and how much I desperately hope that it will not end up being manga canon. Therefore, if you enjoyed the finale — and that's fine! — and don't want to read any negativity about it, then I would not recommend reading any further (I mean, you've probably already left by this point, which is fair lol), While obviously it's important that I be as objective and unbiased as possible when explaining my thoughts, some of my negative feelings about the writing will be a part of this analysis, even if this isn't going to be a full-blown rant. Just know that if you proceed.

With that out of the way, let me continue.

So. In the aforementioned post, the theory presented is that the anime may be operating on an alternate timeline, and that this will become evident once we read the upcoming October chapter, wherein things will go completely differently post-chapter 110 than they do in the final episode — probably for the worse, with the s5 finale intending to lull us into a false sense of security and make us assume that everything in the manga arc finale will wrap up as smoothly and consequence-freely(? lol) as it did in the anime one. It also suggests that the Fukuchi we see at the very end that sskk are fighting came from the manga timeline, where he won, and that he used the Book to jump to a timeline where he lost, the anime one, proven by the fact that this Fukuchi is wearing a mask with the same design on it as the mask Fukuchi is wearing on the chapter 110 DoA color spread/title page.

First of all, I want to note the fact that it's not just the mask design that's the same: the entire outfit is roughly more or less the same as well. It's not completely 1-to-1, because the anime can never fully match the intricacies of Harukawa's beautiful outfit designs, and the Fukuchi in this scene has the kimono half-off because of the... super saiyan mode he's in, but most all of the main pieces of clothing are there. Any small inaccuracies could also be attributed to the fact that Harukawa probably didn't have this finalized art ready back when this episode was being made, so the animators wouldn't have had the complete design to work off of. But in general, because it's all so similar, I think we can quite confidently say that the ending episode Fukuchi is meant to be the one from this manga art.

Also, people have pointed this out, but it's worth mentioning that the mask Asagiri wore at Anime Expo in July was referencing this Fukuchi. It's not a crucial detail, but it just proves more that Asagiri is a gigantic fucking troll, and that he clearly wanted to draw attention to this Fukuchi design. It's important. He describes the mask here as made in the motif of an ellipses inside a speech bubble... could that perhaps be referencing meta aspects, like the Book?

Next, I want to talk about the even bigger elephant in the room, which to me is the most damning and undeniable piece of evidence there is of the anime operating on a completely separate timeline from the manga:

This Fucking Hand™️

As we all know, in the anime, Fyodor injures his hand when the password input device blows up, and as we all know, this does not happen in the manga. In the last episode, Dazai claims that the final nail in the coffin of his impromptu plan to kill Fyodor relied on this hand injury: because Fyodor couldn't pilot his escape helicopter himself, he would ask one of his Meursault vampires to do it for him, unaware that Bram and thus this vampire was now on the ADA's side, and said vampire could kill him while his guard was down.

Ignoring how utterly stupid and contrived this plan is when you stop and think about it for more than two seconds, the fact of the matter is that something that initially seemed like nothing more than an odd but inconsequential anime original addition ended up snowballing into being the entire reason one of the big bads was brought down. If Fyodor hadn't hurt his hand, he wouldn't have needed another pilot, and so the traitor vampire wouldn't have had an opportunity to get near him and kill him without him expecting it even though said vampire was presumably with him as they were leaving Meursault, and was probably already a traitor by then, so there was plenty opportunity for him to still die. not to mention by Chuuya's hands at literally any time he wanted to, because Chuuya was coherent the whole time. Also there's absolutely no way Dazai could have known exactly what Ranpo would do, no matter how smart he is and how much he trusts him. idk it's fucking dumb, just roll with it. Therefore, putting aside all other variables for now, we can conclude that, on the most basic level, this signifies that no hand wound = no death.

And let me tell you, this hand wound bothers me. It really, really does. Because they focus on it a LOT — they go out of their way to draw attention to it MULTIPLE TIMES, from the moment it first happens to the end of the season. Fyodor even talks about it to himself, about Dazai being able to cause him tangible, visible, bodily harm, (something that, again, as far as we've seen, has never happened in the manga). Hell, even after Fyodor's death, they're still drawing attention to it, because his right arm is all of him that survives, and Dazai picks it up and gives it to Nikolai to do his hilarious sad little gay fondling of it played completely straight even though there's nothing straight going on here at all! It's like it's a big red flashing sign at all times going "you see this injured hand? This is important. Are you picking up that it's important? Are you taking note of it?" Why is that? Obviously, it serves to give us the lore crumbs about Fyodor and "that man", but that's hardly the main, much more glaring reason, as I've already mentioned.

Fyodor doesn't hurt his hand in the manga. Fyodor won't die here in the manga. I am so dead serious by this point about this, and it's not just simply the fact that this was absolutely not at all the time for him to die, or the fact that his hand is the reason for his death in the anime in and of itself, but how much EMPHASIS they place on this, and on the hand in general. What would be the point of adding something like this, if it's not meant to alert us to the fact that it has a major impact on how the story plays out? We all know Bones: they struggle to get right and include everything that's already there in the source material; they would never go out of their way to add something this noteworthy if there wasn't a very good reason for it, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I've seen a few people bring up the fact that Fyodor gets shot in the shoulder by Sigma and that that could lead to the same outcome in the manga, but I disagree: although he has blood on his shoulder in the manga, it seems like the bullet just grazed the top of it, because his arm and hand appears completely functional afterwards (not hanging limp by his side or anything). But that doesn't even matter, because this isn't even about the semantics/logistics of how the hand wound caused Fyodor's death because again, it's a stupid outcome, or what could serve as a substitute in the manga — thematically, this is a textbook example of the butterfly effect. Countless parallel universes exist within this series, ones where even the most minute differences lead to a majorly different outcome: this just happens to be one of them. There's no reason to think it isn't, and there's no reason to not think that the anime wants us to clue into the fact that things only went as smoothly as they did on the Meursault side because of this wound; in other words, that things will go very differently in the manga thanks to the absence of said wound. They wouldn't have added it in the first place and put such clearly deliberate emphasis on it otherwise.

Things are going to happen very differently in the manga, at least when it comes to the Meursault crew (but then, if you assume that, you then naturally assume it all will be very different). This is the only conclusion one can come to with the presentation of this anime-only wound, combined with the fact that parallel universes are a very real thing in BSD.

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent, so bear with me. I play a lot of visual novels, and although such concepts aren't really as original now as they were a while ago, some of my favorite and some of the very best VNs out there are the ones that break the fourth wall and make the visual novel branching route format directly intertwined with the story: you know, the ones where the characters go "if only I had done things differently, maybe everything would have turned out better...!" in a wink wink nudge nudge moment, and the ones where the characters are aware of the different timelines, even, or even have the ability to gain information from their selves in said alternate timelines to influence events in their current one (I'm intentionally not naming the games I'm thinking of for the sake of spoilers, but if you know, you know lmao). It gets very meta in this regard, and this is how I started viewing BSD through the lens of ever since I first learned about Beast: like a visual novel with many branching routes, and only a few routes that feel entirely "right".

When I first read Dazai's Entrance Exam, I was struck by how unnerving the ending sequence in the abandoned hospital felt. Obviously, Kunikida's internal struggle over Sasaki's actions and motives is him still desperately clinging to his ideal world that does not exist, but the specific type of phrases he uses — "who is wrong?" "[who is] the cause of all this?" "there has to be an ideal world" "there has to be something, I'm sure of it" "There must have been something we could have done!" — and the framing of the scene in general, is eerily reminiscent of a bad ending in a visual novel, to me. There's a haunting, looming, bleak sense that a different outcome could have been achieved, if different decisions had been made, or if things outside of anyone's control had been different... and we know that this is true, because in Beast alone, Kunikida never goes through the Azure Messenger incident, because Dazai doesn't have his entrance exam. Hell, you could even consider the anime's version of the Azure Messenger arc an alternate timeline in of itself, if you really wanted to, long before we even arrive at season 5.

When it comes to Beast, this timeline has almost the opposite feeling of what I described above, that I've also encountered in visual novels: the idea of a "good route" or "good ending" that still doesn't feel quite earned, or as perfect as one would expect. Beast is presented as the "ideal" timeline purely for one sole reason: Oda is alive. It is the only timeline where he's alive, and keeping Oda alive is the ultimate goal Dazai wants to achieve, the only reason this timeline exists; therefore, disregarding all else, Beast should be the best timeline, because Oda's death is the greatest devastation in the series to date. We all want him to live, so why wouldn't the timeline where he does be the best one? And yet... of course, it isn't. Dazai is alone, and steeped in darkness and loneliness without Oda, and dies by the end of the story for Oda's continued living. Atsushi has Kyouka still, but he's suffering and more traumatized, and unable to heal while stuck in the mafia, and neither can Kyouka. Akutagawa is living a much better life in the ADA... but without his sister, and without what he has from his bond with Atsushi in canon, that isn't replicated in Beast. And Oda... Oda is alive, and he has his children and his novel, but there is a feeling that he is aimless, that something in his life is missing. He has everything he ever wanted, but all that means nothing without what he truly needs: Dazai, and his time with Dazai and Ango at the bar. In this way, things going well and us getting what we want — in this case, Oda living — goes against how it's supposed to be, the natural order, which is why it feels so hollow. In the specific visual novel I'm thinking of here as a comparison (again, shoutout if you know), there's an alternate ending that involves you inputting information you gain at the end of the game very early on in the game, wherein the protagonist now has memories of the future and is able to bypass and prevent all of the events that take place normally. This means that people who die or are hurt somehow in general are saved from that fate, and nothing bad ever occurs; everything wraps up neatly and nicely... but again, there's an undeniable, unsettling feeling of emptiness, of a victory that rings hollow, because what's the point if everything is simply handed to you easily, where's the sense of accomplishment, without any struggles to achieve said victories, or any growth along the way? How can it feel earned if one doesn't have to, in Dazai's words, "scream within the storm of uncertainty, and run with flowing blood"?

You can probably already see where I'm going with this.

This finale feels weird. Really, really weird. It feels too cheap, too simple, too unsatisfying. So much so, in fact, that for almost the entire runtime, as I was bombarded with resolution upon resolution one after another, I kept thinking "There's no way this can be real. Where's the catch? When is the "gotcha!" moment gonna happen? The "it was all a dream" reveal?". And this isn't just because I hated the writing, and that it really did feel like a fever dream watching fanfic levels of bad (actually, that's an insult to fanfic writers, tbh; they could do better) — no, it genuinely feels so incredibly fake. Even upon rewatching it and already knowing what happens, my brain still naturally keeps expecting some kinda of "sike, you THOUGHT!" moment to suddenly appear. It just.... feels "too good to be true". Dazai and Chuuya come out unscathed, and it's revealed that they were never in any real danger to begin with. Fyodor, one of our biggest threats, is dealt with supposedly for good (I say "supposedly" only because of the Jesus line, but if anything imo, I think that's just a hint that this won't be the canon ending in the manga, so in a sense he's going to "come back to life"), and Nikolai seems somewhat at peace with his death. The other biggest threat, Fukuchi, is also dealt with, and he and Fukuzawa get their final moment together of closure. Yes, Sigma is left in Meursault don't even get me started on how angry this alone makes me, and Fukuzawa loses Fukuchi, but overall, everything is portrayed in a positive light, and any negatives or losses are quickly glossed over. Everything is tied up nicely, neatly, and smoothly. ...And that is exactly what makes it feel so wrong, and hard to trust in.

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but to me, the finale is so incredibly poorly written that it almost feels.... intentional. It's so bad to the point of feeling self-aware in how bad it is, how unrealistically happy and convenient an ending it is. It had to end this neatly in order to rush to wrap up this arc for the season finale and not leave the last episode on a cliffhanger — which imo is chiefly the main reason it turned out this way, and, if this whole theory is true, Asagiri just used it to his advantage — and I'm not saying this was probably an effect Bones had in mind intentionally, I'm sure they just threw shit at the wall and went with whatever stuck, maaaaybe with some suggestions/approval from Asagiri, but the result is that you have a conclusion that contradicts so much of what was set up before and goes against so many character arcs, making some characters so out of character and even regressing in their development Dazai. I'm talking about Dazai abandoning Sigma, because he would never; hashtag #NOTMYDAZAI. Also Nikolai, Nikolai for most of that is so ooc I can't even begin to describe it oh my god. Everyone is OOC to a degree though lmao, and opens so many plot holes, to the point that it's impossible not to watch all that and get the feeling that it is subtly saying to you "did you really think it could be this easy? It feels wrong, doesn't it? It doesn't feel satisfying. It feels unearned." I find it incredibly interesting and suspicious in particular that they confirmed multiple theories people had about soukoku in Meursault: that Chuuya slowed the elevator's fall so that Dazai wouldn't die from it, that Chuuya slowed down the bullet so that it only penetrated Dazai's skin and not his skull, and that the both of them used Fyodor's camera angle to their advantage because they knew he wouldn't be able to see certain things from his view. I'm not saying that Asagiri trawled BSD twitter and tumblr after those chapters dropped for the most popular theories before the final episode was made lmao, there was no time for that (imagine though lol—), but I do think it's highly likely that he already had in mind exactly what theories would be made about these parts (I mean, the evidence for the gun scene was all there), and that Dazai rattling them off in his long monologue to Fyodor at the end is essentially him speaking to the audience and going "yeah, that's what you would predict, right? Those are the clichés, after all", much like him suggesting earlier that he can maybe bring Chuuya back to himself with a few moving words and the power of friendship, and Fyodor using the split personalities trope to fool Sigma. We expect these tropes to be true. Of course we'd fall for them, as Fyodor tells Sigma, especially if the evidence is right there. But Asagiri himself has explicitly said that he likes doing the opposite of what people expect. And so just because people predicted correctly with the three things I mentioned in this timeline... doesn't mean they'll be true in the manga's. Things happened how we wanted and expected it to, and everything turned out happily. So we can relax now, right? Everything will work out just as easily in the manga, right? Or... is the reason most of this finale feels so fake and unsettling and unsatisfying because it's meant to lull us into a false sense of security before all our heroes lose in the manga? Because deep down, we don't want an ending that's this simple, because we'd rather have a conclusion where our characters have struggled more and grown more and come out the better for it, and we know it?

After rewatching the episode a lot, and watching some other videos, and doing a lot of thinking, I am pretty confident in suspecting that the only part of this finale that is actually from manga canon, aside from Aya jumping off the building of course, is Fyodor and Nikolai's exchange after Fyodor leaves Meursault — specifically, them talking about Fyodor leaving Sigma behind, and their "new game" and Nikolai being excited at the prospect of it. This little conversation actually feels in character for them, and it's easy to tell this when contrasting it with everything that happens immediately after, wherein Fyodor is fatally stabbed, and Nikolai, completely at odds with what he was just talking about, just... stands there and watches Fyodor die while Dazai monologues lmao. I'm not sure if the helicopter is still a factor, but I would bet good money on Fyolai getting out of Meursault being manga canon, and that Dazai and Chuuya getting out as well and killing Fyodor + everything with FukuFuku, is part of the anime original ending, in order to wrap up everything positively. It makes much more sense if you think about, in reality (aka in the manga), Dazai and Chuuya still being left behind in Meursault (where they can eventually try to get Sigma), because none of it was an act and things did not go according to plan, and Fukuchi having an entirely different goal that doesn't feel so stupid and contradictory to his character, and Fukuzawa possibly dying — everyone seemingly loses, with Aya still being the last hope, perhaps by awakening her ability like we all speculated.

There's a youtuber I watch who covers BSD in-depth, despite being an anime-only (she reads the respective manga content after each season, though). Going into this finale, she knew about the fact that the anime had overtaken the manga, though she didn't know where the cutoff point was; despite that, however, she made predictions about what was from the manga so far and what was anime original, and it was almost entirely spot-on, based mostly on what she basically described as "anime original dialogue." She talked about how you can always tell when dialogue is veering into the realm of anime-original, because the sentences are very short, choppy, and slightly out of character, but generic enough to not be TOO out of character, and so that anyone can easily write said lines, even if they're not extremely familiar with the character like the original author would be. And when I heard this explanation, everything clicked — because so much of this finale has dialogue like that. The Fyolai scenes just feel peppered with it, around the lines I mentioned earlier, the Dazai dialogue does too, and ESPECIALLY shit at the end like Fukuchi and Fukuzawa exchanging the cliche death lines to end all death lines: "Are you there? I'm a little tired." "Rest up." That just isn't Bungou Stray Dogs. That isn't Asagiri. BSD is cheesy at times, yes, but it isn't like this; it's smarter. The dialogue is smarter, the explanations/plot twists are smarter, Asagiri is smarter, and the aforementioned youtuber I watched agreed. She's a pretty casual fan of the series, so if even she could pick up on these things, I think it speaks volumes.

I mentioned this briefly earlier, but this theory makes sense if you consider that this situation probably came about because of Bones wanting two seasons back-to-back when they did, and this arc being as long as it is. Season 3 aired in 2019, and I imagine Bones would have wanted season 4 in 2020, and might have then been willing to wait a bit longer for season 5 in order for more of this arc's manga chapters to come out — but then covid happened. Because of that, season 4 was delayed to 2023, creating the longest gap we've had between seasons, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the delay made them want season 5 right together with it, after getting so far "behind", so to speak. S4 was announced in November of 2021, and roughly around that time, Asagiri was finishing up writing the plot of the DoA arc. If Bones came to him sometime in late 2021 and said they wanted two seasons now (so basically, one giant two cour season), Asagiri would know that not only of course would this arc not be finished publishing in the manga for a very long time yet, but that roughly 20ish episodes would not be enough to cover it all to the end, with this arc being longer than any arc the anime has adapted to date. Because of all this, and the arc manga chapters being nowhere near fully drawn to completion, he'd have to make a decision about what to do, and what to give Bones. Without ending season 5 on a massive cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for years until an eventual season 6, the only other option would be to rush towards an anime-original ending for the DoA arc.... and for Asagiri to take advantage of that, and integrate it into BSD's lore. Thereby creating a truly unique cross-media experience that utilizes the different mediums to create multiple timelines, that could make both the anime and manga interact with each other and become part of a bigger picture (not that you'd need to see both to get the full experience, mind you, just that it'd provide a little bonus if you did).... and would without a doubt be Asagiri's biggest surprise yet.

...I feel like at this point I'm starting to ramble, and my evidence become more and more incoherent and less substantial lmao, so I should probably end this post. 💀 Thank you if you've read this far, and hopefully it made some semblance of sense, despite not being structured very well; I know I promised at the start to try to be as objective as possible and curb my negative feelings, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded in that regard. If it weren't for the Fukuchi thing and the Fyodor hand thing, I probably wouldn't take how wrong and strange and bad the finale feels to me as serious evidence about it being an alternate timeline, especially since I seem to be one of the only people who actually hates all of it.... but combined with everything else, I am just so convinced of this theory being true. It started off as pure copium, but as more time has gone on, I fully, 100% believe in my bones (ha) that there is no way that finale is the same Bungou Stray Dogs I know and love, for so many reasons. It just isn't. It can't be. I know BSD better than this, I know Asagiri better than this, and I know that it's absolutely in the realm of possibility for him to cook up this whole scheme to completely blindside us with in the upcoming chapters, because that's exactly the kind of shit Mr. "Please Be Surprised!" himself would pull. If I end up being completely wrong, I guess I'm wrong, and you can laugh at me all you want then.... but I just know that ages ago people were teasing the idea of the anime operating on a different timeline from the manga, and I truly do think that only now are we finally seeing that idea come to fruition, as a setup for Asagiri going full-bore insanity with the Book in the upcoming arc(s). if I and the OP of that theory end up right, this will be the wildest time in the BSD fandom's history.

Like. I cannot even emphasize how hard they are trolling us at this point. Something is going on. Something is being cooked over there, the likes of which we've never seen before... and I don't think any of us are ready for it.

Oh yeah, and one last thing of note: both Fyodor and Nikolai here have their right arms hidden from view. Is that alluding to anything? I'm not sure. I also think that since chapter 110 was so short, next chapter will likely be 110.5 instead of 111, and if that's the case, this title spread could still technically be associated with the next chapter... wherein we might see this Fukuchi, who ends up wreaking havoc, right before he jumps to the timeline in the anime, as we see him at the end of the s5 finale.

I guess we'll find out on Tuesday.

#bungou stray dogs #meta #bsd season 5 #bsd s5 spoilers #alternatively titled 'when you copium so hard out of stewing in your denial anger and grief that it becomes reality'#is it still copium if there's strong evidence for it? idk #i DON'T know what i'll do if the stuff in this finale ends up being canon :))) make no mistake about that #but until the very moment the schrödinger's cat box is opened and i am forced to acknowledge it with my own two eyes in chapter 111/110.5 #i am choosing to stay calm and rational and look at things with a sound mind... and acknowledge all the signs that are there #of which there are so many #Asagiri is a troll. he has always been a troll and this is more evident than ever lately #and he would know that everyone who watched the finale would take it at face value #never expecting it to go completely differently in the manga #and he's so much smarter than what was in that finale. he would never write those things. i would stake my life on it.#i don't care how many flaws BSD does have that i do acknowledge; he is a good writer in so many ways and he is so much better than /that/#i could fill an entire BOOK (ha ha) with all of the reasons why this finale does not work. seriously it is a never-ending can of worms #of ooc characterizations and plot holes and abandoned threads and straight up CONTRADICTIONS with what has been stated before in the arc #with fukuchi's motivations and presentation; with things that were happening in meursault; just.... so much illogical shit in general #THE MACHINE HEALED THEIR WOUNDS??? ARE YOU FOR REAL????#*sigh* but i said i wasn't gonna rant alskdjgfkdls #tbh though the only REAL thing i need to know that the finale was anime only was what the youtuber i watch pointed out:#that Bram magically regenerated all his clothes. because if it were Asagiri Bram would be naked from the shoulders down fjdkslsaskd #...anyway. This theory is real and true. I am manifesting it into existence 🙏🙏🙏#Asagiri my man...... you have never let me down yet in all the years I've known your series. Please don't let me down now.#I'm trusting in you more than ever right now...... and your ability to blow all our minds in the best possible way #(guys i'm really really really scared deep down; please hold me hahaha ahahahahaaaa- *cries*)#this would the coolest thing in the history of ever though if it happened though. I am SO EXCITED FOR THE POSSIBILITY!!!!!#ASAGIRI YOU SICK AND TWISTED MF; HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BEG FOR MY FAVES TO SUFFER JUST SO THAT THIS BAD WRITING DOESN'T BECOME REALITY!!!!!!#he knows exactly what he's doing *SCREAMS* :))))))))

75 notes · View notes

pudding-parade · 1 year ago

Text

Get to know you - Sims Style

@rstarsims3 tagged me for this a while back, and I'm finally posting my answers, which took me a while to compile because 1) Blabbity blab blab blab, as usual, and 2) Still needing lots of rest and stuff, so no sitting at a computer for hours on end.

But here we go! I'mma put my blabby answers and my tag list behind Ye Olde Cut.

What’s your favorite Sims death? What an odd question, especially to lead off… Well, I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the one from TS2 where cloudwatching occasionally brings a satellite down on the cloudwatcher's head. But generally, mine die of old age, if they manage to get that far. I play with long, but realistically proportional, life stages, mostly because I'm almost always playing "experimental" saves where I'm "road testing" rulesets and such, so I need a lot of time to work out kinks and test ideas and stuff.)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I land on a combination of more-realistic (but not ultra-realistic) stuff for CAS, but for everything else, like with furniture and deco and stuff, I tend to prefer CC stuff that visually fits in with the EA stuff in terms of style and textures and whatnot, so that the CC doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when combined with EA stuff. In fact, my "go-to" CC for build/buy is stuff that adds on to EA stuff, like more doors/windows that match an EA door/window.

Do you cheat your sims weight? What, to make the fat ones skinny? The skinny ones fat? The skinny ones buff? No. I don't see why I would. It's easy enough to make a sim gain or lose weight without cheating, which I'm assuming means just using the sliders.

Do you move objects? Is there anyone who doesn't? That's a serious question. Is there any one who doesn't? I want to know.

Favorite Mod? I'm leaving aside the NRaas mods because I don't see them as mods so much as things that are just essential to make the game playable in the often-weird ways that I play. There are others that I also consider just essential for when I'm playing in certain styles, especially for more primitive settings. But for ones that are optional and just pure fun, I'd nominate all of @thesweetsimmer111's baby- and toddler-related ones.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? I know for TS2 it was Seasons. For TS3…For a long time, I had just the base game, which I got when it came out, but didn't play beyond trying it out and then going back to TS2. Then, years later, I got a new computer and decided to give TS3 another try, but I couldn't find the CD or DVD or whatever it was, so I bought a combo pack with the base game, Late Night, and the High End Loft or whatever it is stuff pack, so I guess it would be Late Night. Other than that, I bought all the other TS3 EPs in one go when EA had them on sale for 50% off via Origin, which that combo pack forced me to install. (But which I am now free of again. 🏴‍��️)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? As aLIVE. Because that is when the game is live. Games do not live, but they can be live. See, this is one reason why English sucks.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Here's a thing about me: I don't really get attached to the pixel people. For me, they're just tools. I'm guessing it's because I'm not a storyteller when it comes to Sims, so I don't see sims as characters. Sure, sometimes I find one endearing for one reason or another. Usually, they have traits that make them assholes, and I like to watch them create chaos and ruin wherever they go. One of the founders of the Random Legacy that I will get back to one of these days is one of those. But I find I like other people's sims more than mine, though that's more of a testament to those simmers' story-telling skills than anything else.

Have you made a simself? Only by accident. A few times I've just been randomly moving sliders around and somehow I ended up with something that looked like me at some stage in my life. It stayed that way for a minute or three, before I yelled OH GOD NO! and quickly slidered the horror away.

But to be honest? I find the entire concept kind of creepy, at least in terms of putting a self-sim in the game and playing them as a character. That would just feel weird to me. That said, I suppose it might have been something that would have appealed to me if I had played when I was a kid, but the game didn't exist when I was a kid. Computers didn't exist when I was a kid, at least not in a form that regular people could own and that could fit on a desk. I was in my 40s when I started playing the game. My daughter played TS2 when she was a kid, and she had a self-sim inserted into the stories she would play, so…yeah. Maybe it's a younger-person thing. Or maybe I'm just weird. Yeah, it's probably that second option.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? Probably the black, but even with that I have to add some highlights to it because otherwise the hair just looks like a creature from the void eating the sim's head.

Favorite EA hair? None of them. They all need to DIAF.

Favorite life stage? I don't have one. I have a least-favorite, babies, because they're basically just objects, but once they're actually sims, I enjoy playing sims of all ages equally.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I originally bought TS2 just to build in it, and for a couple of years, that was all I did. I only started actually playing the game later. Now, I enjoy both building and actually playing the game, depending on my mood. Usually, I'll have a binge of building, but I eventually come to a point where I'd rather do anything other than build. Then I play the game. Then, eventually, the urge to build comes back. So it's a back-and-forth.

Are you a CC creator? I made lots of stuff for TS2, mostly object retextures/recolors. I've made a few minor things for TS3, and I retexture hairs and add preg morphs to clothing for my own use, but I wouldn't consider myself a CC creator for TS3. In fact, I'm actively resisting learning how to make stuff for TS3 because I really don't want to go down that rabbithole again.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? Friends in the sense of "people I enjoy talking to and sharing ideas with and sometimes arguing with here on Tumblr?" Sure. Are those the same as friendships that develop face-to-face in the real world? Nope. But, sometimes I like talking to my Simblr friends a lot more than talking to my real-life friends, so make of that what you will. Y'all are less draining sometimes. LOL

Do you have any sims merch? No official merch, but my brother-in-law is into making pottery, and several years ago he made me a big stoneware mug with a plumbbob on it. Which is ironic because when I play the game I turn off the plumbbobs because I hate them. LOL But I love the mug. It's heavy enough that neither cats nor wagging dog tails nor giant snakes (though he could do it if he focused all four of his brain cells on the task) can knock it off of tables, but not so heavy that I can't comfortably lift it. I use it for eating soup and the occasional mug cake, and also for drinking the awful herbal tea my husband makes me drink, though since the recent surgery, I don't have to drink that anymore! *dances* So now it will just be my soup or cake mug. Or one for tea that I actually want to drink.

Do you have a YouTube for sims? I don't have a YouTube for anything. Well, OK, I have a YouTube account for watching other people's stuff and making playlists of things I want to watch, but I don't post videos on it, and I don't really watch video game-related stuff on YouTube, either.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? It hasn't, really. I've pretty much always just come up with wacky scenarios to play and see how they go. In fact, for me, coming up with the scenario and figuring out how to make it work in the game and then inventing a ruleset to govern it is sometimes more fun than actually playing the scenario. LOL

And my Sims all look like the game made them because…the game makes all of them. I just poke the random button until it produces something that doesn't look too much like a freak of nature, then I hit up a couple sliders to remove or tone down any remaining freakishness. (Though I confess that I will spend an inordinate amount of time sculpting the titties of those who have them. Why? I have no idea, other than I just like me a nice pair of titties. Too bad there aren't any sliders for male titties…) Then I just slap on a different hair, maybe change the eye color, and slather on some makeup and facial/body hair and shit until they don't look too stupid, and then off I go. From there, they're all born in the game, and I just leave them as-is, mostly because I can't be bothered. "I can't be bothered" is pretty much my philosophy of life.

Who’s your favorite CC creator? I hate this kind of question. I feel like all they do is disappoint and discourage people if they're never picked. I refuse to do that over something so trivial. So, my favorite CC creator is you, the person reading this. Yes, you. Even if you don't make CC. It doesn't matter. You're the best.

How long have you had Simblr? I started my TS2 one in 2013. (I can remember that only because I know that I started it the same year I met my husband. LOL ) I started this one….2 years ago? 3? Something like that.

How do you edit your pictures? Other than basic cropping and resizing and maybe adjusting brightness/contrast a bit if the pic is too dark or whatever, I generally don't. I don't even use Reshade all the time anymore, only in certain situations, though I do have an NVIDIA profile for the game that adds ambient occlusion and better antialiasing and shit like that. Sometimes, though, I'll decide to photoshop scenery pics, and then I just kind of stab at it with various tools and filters and layer blends and shit until I like I how it looks. There's no actual process involved. I'm random like that.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite? I gotta go with World Adventures. Bits of it are a bit, shall we say, culturally problematic, but man, I never get tired of doing those stupid, stupid tombs. LOL Plus, I love that NRaas Traveler allows you to "travel" to any world, and I don't think that mod works without WA, so…. Yeah. WA.

Tagging: I have no idea who's done this, so I'll just tag a few random people, off the top of my head. Feel free to do or ignore, as you choose. No pressure from me! So...@nectar-cellar, @happy-lemon, @erasabledinosaur, @esotheria-sims, @lilleputtu, @littlefrenchsims, @anamoon63, @lazysunjade, annnnnnnnd @papermint-airplane.

#it's all about meeeeee!#memes memes glorious memes

26 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 5 months ago

Text

Okay, so I kinda stopped the live update thing with D23 since they pretty much moved past animation within 40 or so minutes...

I have several questions regarding... Well, that concept image of TOY STORY 5 revealed earlier in the night...

You'll notice Woody without Bo Peep, along with Buzz, and... Forky...

When does this take place?

Because, in TOY STORY 4, Bonnie made Forky during her kindergarten orientation and then the weekend right after... A road trip! The plot of the movie happens, Woody goes off with Bo at the end...

Given that the story also involves around 50 Buzz toys that are in "play mode" and will serve as antagonists, I doubt this all takes place in a day or two. Or maybe it does, I don't know. It seemed like the road trip just began RIGHT after Bonnie's first day.

So... Does chronology not matter and they're just MAD MAX-ing this? Is it a new Woody doll? Did Buzz get so lonely without his best pal that, in desperation, he somehow found another Woody doll and strong-armed him into being with the gang? That'd be a little different for sure.

Or, does Woody wake up and all of that road trip was just a dream? Complete with the laser-eyed giant Bunny and Ducky? That would be a HELL of a way to retcon TOY STORY 4's much contested (at least, online) ending. Sike!

I really do not know. Other than the basic gist of the movie (traditional toys vs. electronics/tablets/etc.), Andrew Stanton didn't reveal much... I'm sure something's at play here, or there's some kind of explanation. It would be unusual of Pixar, whose teams usually think these things through, to just have Woody there without Bo...

Now, ELIO... Whose major director shake-up *wasn't* announced at D23... And that it lost cast member America Ferrera as the voice of Elio's mom. Zoe Saldana joining as his aunt was the only thing revealed...

So, we knew from rumblings that ELIO was going to see some retooling after Pixar delayed the movie from its original March 1, 2024 release date to June 13, 2025... But, Pete Docter straight up took director Adrian Molina off the movie and reassigned him to a "priority project"... This tells me that this wasn't a typical Lasseter-style director banishment.

His replacements (!), curiously, are two women: Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian. Shi of course needs no introduction, the director of TURNING RED and also the short BAO, Sharafian directed the SparkShort BURROW, which would've run before SOUL in theaters in 2020 but instead debuted on Disney+ with the same day due to COVID.

Shi was working on an original of her own before she got put onto ELIO, and I don't think Sharafian was getting a feature of her own off the ground, so this is a great opportunity for her. It also means that Shi's sophomore effort, and not a picture she has taken over, will have to wait. Probably won't be out 'til 2028/2029 at this point.

This is very much like what happened to RATATOUILLE. In early 2005, RATATOUILLE's originator Jan Pinkava was taken off the film by the brass. Bird had just come off of THE INCREDIBLES, his first Pixar feature, and they asked him to take over RATATOUILLE. Shi came off of her feature debut, at Pixar no less, TURNING RED. Now, she has taken over someone else's film. A little over three years after her last one, and Bird got RATATOUILLE out 2 1/2 years after the release of THE INCREDIBLES.

Molina is still credited as director on an internal document, so I wonder if portions he directed remain in the movie next to the parts Shi and Sharafian directed. You would think this would be a much bigger deal, though! But I suppose at D23, it's all about sequels and synergy and such. Walt Disney Animation Studios head Jennifer Lee curiously namedropped an original set for fall 2026, but proceeded not to name it, and only spoke of fall 2027's FROZEN III after MOANA 2 and ZOOTOPIA 2 were covered.

Docter said in the interview for The Wrap, tucked away there, that a lot of the problems apparently concerned Elio's character in the first act of the movie. It happens sometimes, a director and team may struggle getting past the first third or so. I know I've had many issues like that writing my stories, so it's not uncommon. Ask any writer or creator, really.

Curiously, after Docter assumed his Chief Creative Officer position in mid-June, this is his first time taking a director off of a movie. ONWARD, LUCA, TURNING RED, LIGHTYEAR, ELEMENTAL, INSIDE OUT 2... all went through, unscathed. Night-and-day from Lasseter, who seemed to upend every 2010s movie that wasn't made by one of his favorites.

Now... INCREDIBLES 3 raises questions about Brad Bird's involvement. He's said to be "developing" it as of now. How's RAY GUNN, his $150m traditionally animated movie, going over at Skydance Animation? There had been rumors and rumblings about him having a hard time there, back with old boss Lasseter, but if $150m was already spent on this thing... Either it's actually far along and he's simultaneously getting INCREDIBLES 3 going, or... RAY GUNN is once again no more, facing the same fate it did at Turner/Warner Animation in the '90s.

Release dates...

Currently blank on the animation boards, title-wise, is a Pixar slated for June 2027...

INCREDIBLES 3 *could* debut in summer 2027, nine years after INCREDIBLES 2's summer 2018 release. Ten years would be another while, wouldn't it? Last time Pixar did sequels back-to-back was when INCREDIBLES 2 came out, followed by TOY STORY 4 in 2019. A repeat, imagine that, this time with the TOY STORY movie debuting first.

As for what was going to be Domee Shi's second film that was a creation of her own, I guess that'll come out in 2028 at the earliest if INCREDIBLES 3 doesn't nab that slot. Even if it does, musical chairs often happens at Pixar. INCREDIBLES 2 originally got scheduled for June 2019, and then traded places with TOY STORY 4.

So... ELIO, Daniel Chong's HOPPERS, Andrew Stanton's TOY STORY 5, INCREDIBLES 3... That looks to be the tarmac here, with Pixar. Of course, something else could sneak its way in or something moves back.

WDAS is ever vague, MOANA 2, ZOOTOPIA 2 (no director revealed or fully confirmed, apparently?), Untitled Original, FROZEN III, FROZEN IV...

ADD-ON... Hours later: Upon further inspection... In the TOY STORY 5 concept art, Jessie is wearing Woody's "Sheriff" badge... So, that kinda tells me, this is set after TOY STORY 4...

Curious and curiouser as to how Woody's back in the fold, and Bo's not present...

6 notes · View notes

elfdragon12 · 1 year ago

Text

Okay, so I think there may not be a better illustration of why I don't like Megatron's character arc in MTMTE than Dinobot in Beast Wars.

Megatron's just handed things without the audience really getting to see him put the work in. A good example of this is is how he decides being a racist towards organics is bad. In issue 43, he has a quiet realization that humans are "fragile, not weak". He hasn't had any interaction with real humans since returning to Cybertron and the Lost Light crew seems to be pretty dismissive of them (Rung is surprised humans have literature. Our heroes), so your guess is as good as mine as to how he figured this out. He takes a step back in issue 50 when he complains about Rodimus hiding the fact they were helping an organic race when he wanted to focus on mechanical races. However, in the next issue, he takes 50 steps forward and decides to be the stalwart defender of the comatose organics they found. Why? Here's the straight explanation:

I mean, this sounds all thought out and having thousands of screams piped directly into your head would certainly be A Lot™️, but I guess he immediately came to the right conclusion because this incident only happened, like, a few hours beforehand and they've had to deal with a mutiny and a full horde of back-up DJD members. He's not had a whole lot of time to really process it. So I would love to know when he actually took the time to do that. But no, Megatron got his required development and we're moving on.

Also... I guess the right way to hear the screams of people you slaughtered is funneled directly into brain rather then as ambient noise as you kill them.

To contrast, Dinobot's arc in Beast Wars.

Dinobot joined the Maximals in the second episode, however, he wasn't really a Maximal. He still considered himself a proud warrior of Predacon tradition. He manipulated Cheetor and Terrorsaur, constantly butted heads with the other Maximals, and tried to become leader the two or three times it looked like Optimus Primal had died... However, as the episodes progressed, you can see him changing bit by bit. A key episode for this development being "Gorilla Warfare", when Primal gets infected by a virus and goes into berserk mode and Dinobot tries to think like Primal. He failed and better valued Primal's mindset. Although we did have this development, Dinobot still wasn't really a perfect Maximal. He still butted heads and did not believe deep down that he had a place with them, as we see in the season one finale two-parter.

Then the second season re-introduces the Golden Disks and Dinobot was thrown into personal emotional turmoil as he remembered his impending death now he knows they landed on Earth. After this point, Dinobot made a lot of decisions, some good and some bad. He rejoined the Decepticons for a little bit. The writers show they understood the famous Hamlet soliloquy and he gives his own version of it. His relationship with the other Maximals becomes more tenuous and his biggest critic, Rattrap, gives his deepest barb by the fact that he couldn't tell where Dinobot stood anymore. The time comes and Dinobot knew he could change the future... But could no longer do it as now he was a Maximal in every way that mattered. Despite the fact that he knew he wouldn't have back up, he charged in to save the proto-humans and preserve humanity's place in the future. In his dying moments, he asks to be judged truly by his actions, good and bad, and "the rest is silence".

Dinobot's arc,rather than being a mostly straight line like Megatron's, has its ups and downs. Dinobot has struggles and, at times, feels isolated and confused. We see his friendships with Optimus and Rattrap develop, deepen, and be tested. Dinobot's lessons are earned and we see the steps along the way. Honestly, it's one of, if not the, best character arcs in the franchise.

Characters don't need to die in order to have an impactful character or redemption arc, but we do need to actually see them put the work in.

#transformers #critique #It's a little unfair because Dinobot is great

8 notes · View notes

rainofaugustsith · 2 years ago

Text

SWTOR.

So. About that news about SWTOR, that it is slated to be transferred to another company - yeah. Let's chat about that. Or I will. TL:DR version: The licensing agreement for SWTOR was set to expire this year. My own hypothesis is that the Mouse did not renew it and pulled the license from Bioware because they did fuckall with it. Also Bioware has been fumbling a lot of their other games. So this isn't quite a sunny transfer.

My final screenshot of Viri and Lana at home in Naboo (headcanon for the Alderaan stronghold), February 2022, just before uninstalling SWTOR. One thing I have not seen mentioned is the fact that SWTOR's licensing agreement with the Mouse was scheduled to end this year anyway. 2023. It's been said for some time. Is it really a surprise the Mouse would not want things to go on as they are?

Given the near complete lack of attention and care that has been paid to SWTOR for a good five or six years now, I can fully understand why the Mouse would not renew the licensing agreement. Onslaught and Ossus looked as though a fair amount of development money had been poured into them - Ossus, Onderon and Mek-Sha had the same sort of acheivements and datacron hunts you found on the OG planets - but they were bright spots in a very bleak period.

The amount of content released in a single patch of some other MMOs is more than the collective total of what was released for SWTOR in years.

The story was haphazard. The companion reunions had no continuity, with some characters not even recognizing NPCs they'd actually worked with before (Nadia Grell and Jaesa Willsaam not recognizing Lana, for instance) or behaving completely out of character (Risha being completely indifferent about the fate of her planet, for instance). The writers killed off almost every character that moved and pulled a "somehow, the Emperor survived" stunt (not with the Emperor). The head writer did not even know a timeline for the story and had to talk it out on the message board.

The devs tried hard to shove everyone into PvP (both ground and space) and Ops, while alienating other types of players, and made story content ridiculous. Known game-breaking bugs remained in the game for years.

There's been a lot of turnover in the dev team and numerous reports about management completely ignoring feedback from devs. A few devs were witnessed mocking players on dudebro discords, and the changes they made seemed to benefit a select group of players. A few message board posters were plants trying to deliberately provoke players into inflammatory exchanges or white knighting any and message critical of the devs. Or that criticism was removed outright.

Players who had invested a substantial amount of time and money into SWTOR and put a lot of effort into developing player guides and fan sites said "fuck this" and walked. The Steam charts show playership of about 3000K players per day. People stopped going to the test server because it became painfully obvious that the devs were completely ignoring most feedback. Problems and bugs test players pointed out made their way into the released patches anyway.

Meanwhile the staff of SWTOR was getting poached for Anthem and Dragon Age. Anthem failed. Battlefront II went into maintenance after only two years. The next installments of Dragon Age and Mass Effect were proving to be complete clusterfucks.

Is there really any reason the Mouse would have wanted to keep the license with Bioware?

I do think this is a way to get SWTOR into a safe place - away from Bioware - but given the profile of the new company, I doubt it means we're going to see a Renaissance. I think it means the game is going to have a safe place to continue in maintenance mode. That's how it is with two other MMOs they have. The number of devs, as someone pointed out, is going to be 50% of what SWTOR has now.

I do think they will keep it in maintenance mode as long as they can; as long as enough people keep subscribing to make that profitable. But I do think overall, this is it for SWTOR.

I have not played SWTOR in a year and a half. I uninstalled it on the day 7.0 came out. My characters are all parked in their favorite strongholds with their favorite companions. I headcanon the game itself cut from Ossus directly to Echoes, with the scene at the end of Echoes, with Lana and the PC literally flying off into the stars being the end of the story. I feel it's better that way. Given all that was happening with SWTOR I feel like this was inevitable, too. All the same, given the positives that SWTOR had - some of the gameplay and class stories, the rich lore, the planets, some of the characters - it leaves me bitterly angry and disappointed by the outcome. It's such a waste. An absolute waste of talent and time and people who were so totally invested in the success of this game. At the end, that's all there is.

Farewell, SWTOR.

#swtor #swtor critical #bioware critical #rain talks swtor

13 notes · View notes

paperw0rmz · 1 year ago

Text

How to use Pinterest, a tutorial by a kid who wasn’t allowed social media but was allowed Pinterest

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media platform where likes, followings, comments, don’t fucking matter which means it’s the best social media platform period.

How do I use Pinterest?

First make an account you fucking tard. Do it. It’s fuckinf 2023. Why don’t you have a Pinterest? Make one. Now. Do it.

Anyways

Once you make and set up your profile you will probably be forced by Pinterest to click on interests n shit that you like, you CAN do that if you want, but you can skip it too.

So after Pinterest takes your personal info you can now do the best thing which is starting F.R.E.S.H

First pins

Go look around now! Like cats? Look up cats! Want a recipe? Look up some food! I don’t fucking care! Search around and then click the little pin button which then saves it to your profile so you can check on it later you probably won’t ever look at it again

Reorganize

FUCK! You saved too much random shit and dell down the rabbit hole of pins. You have cats, grandma cookies, and old screen shots from tumblr with an ifunny logo in the corner along with outfits and hair ideas all cluster fucked on your profile! What do you do?

You make boards or even better sections.

A board is where you have basically like a cork board and you can pin certain shit to. So say you want a board for everything to do with Misha Collins, you create a board and then transfer all your saved pins that have to do with Misha to that board and BOOM! It’s organized now : D

Sections are even better!

To make sections you must first have a board, so say you want to then REALLY organize your Misha Collins board. You then press create sections and then label your sections! So say you want crying misha happy misha or mishapocolypse, all of those sections will now be saved in the Misha Board even MORE organized than before!

Expert Mode

Psssh Pinterest is easy anyone can do- wait, five quick and easy ways to turn an old T-Shirt new again? Wait, no hold the fuck on I need to try this. Wait so I just cut it here and then- wait so I tie it here? But how do they- am I missing a step??? That doesn’t make any fuckin- why doesn’t this look like the picture? I don’t get it!!! FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

Has that ever happened to you!? You see an idea on Pinterest and you then try it out and it doesn’t go as planned? No? It came out perfectly? Well you should go kill yourself actually. But before then there’s a really cool feature on Pinterest (that nobody uses anymore really) called Try it! Its a way to show that you attempted to make whatever the original pin made and is a great way to see if it’s actually humanly possible or if the instructions suck ass, also it’s funny to look at peoples failed attempts!

Shit my Pinterest is just misha Collins

Did your Aunt Barbra ask to follow you on Pinterest? Do you have nothing to show other than some Slavic mediocre looking man that you treat like a preteen girl? Post your own shit! Make a board and then sections in it for all photos you take!!! Literally!!! Please!!! It’s so cute to have a digital scrap book!!! I might kill myself if more people don’t show the mundane and boring parts of their lives!!! This is a cry for help!!!! If you want your pins to get noticed make sure you add generic shit like “twilight core Alex g” or “trans Fem robot bdsm” stuff that people just look up you know. Same with the discription, the first 50 words

are what pops up for other Pinterest users, so make sure to use those characters wisely!

Hurray

You now know how to use Pinterest! Congratulations! And of course don’t forget the other feature like:

Commenting on pins, hearting pins, staring pins, the inability to truly look up names so you are forced to send a link to your account instead for people to follow you, the useless QR code, linking in pins, store links in pins, and more!

In all, Pinterest is a very good website and app that allows you to just hoard images and then probably never look at again even though you tell yourself you will. It’s great for creatives, autistic people, and some other people I guess.

TLDR: go ape shit fam

#Pinterest #blog #txt post #this was for discord but I put effort so now it’s here

9 notes · View notes

sbrn10 · 1 year ago

Text

Post-weekend thoughts: 24/01/02 edition

1. I am back at work. This is the worst.

2. However, it's pretty slow today so at least it's not the worst. I am thus on tumblr on the company dime.

3. Bought myself a Legion Go as a self Christmas present: I can now play AAA PC games away from my desktop (for about 1.5 hours at a time if not near a power outlet, admittedly, but still!) which really means mostly on the bus to and from work, but given that this is roughly a 1.5 hour trip each way it works out fantastically. Also, since I have a trip to NY coming up next month I will take this instead of my laptop and it will be the best of all worlds! Yay capitalism.

General thoughts: It is pretty heavy - playing it in bed or on the go is a significantly less comfortable experience than something like the Switch. However, the screen is gorgeous and it plays the games I want to play on PC, so. Worth it.

The controllers are a little weirdly sized and shaped for my hands, but not terrible. Would say I prefer them over the Switch joycons but obviously normal Xbox controllers or DualSenses are superior if you have the choice.

The vertical mouse mode I do not think I would use for FPS games, tbh, but for general desktop use or less performance sensitive games that don't have good controller support it's actually pretty good.

So far enjoying it; ask me again in like 6 months.

4. Signed up for a month of gamepass (which I should have done AFTER I bought the Legion Go because it comes with a complimentary 3 month pass, but alas, planning was never my strong suit. The pass is claimable until some point in 2025 though so I can use it later.) and am going through a bunch of games I wanted to try but did not get around to:

5. Starfield: Finished with about 50-60ish hours.

The beginning is rough -- just the worst hook into one of these that I've seen in a while, mostly in the sense that the main plot surrounding the Artifacts is dogshit boring and the missions for the main plot are ALSO dogshit boring (the temples are fucking terrible and a waste of time).

The rest of the game also feels... mediocre in basically all respects. Like, not bad. Just mid. Nothing feels very new and everything that exists feels so... paint by the numbers. Like, here's a planet whose surface looks procedurally generated (I don't know whether it is or not, but it looks that way) -- it doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look all that good either. Here's some RPG skill progression, except there's no way to respec your character (it's fucking 2023, Bethesda, what the fuck?) and every suboptimal choice you made early on (because you didn't know what the fuck you were doing) makes you feel incredibly annoyed at the game. In particular, character is nonexistent -- all your companions feel incredibly boring, and I fucking married Sarah just to see what the romance was like. Like, coming off of BG3 this year (which, tbh, is also not the strongest cast of characters, compared to, e.g., the heights of golden age Bioware, but still very obviously has had a lot of love and care poured into the character writing) into Starfield is just... tragic. I think I spent the first like 5-10 hours mostly thinking "wow, I am so glad I did not pay for this game."

Sidenote: I did not touch the outpost or crafting stuff because guess what I didn't pick those skills in the skill tree :) But also remembering Fallout 4's base building part, none of that seemed particularly engaging. I built one outpost that was a couple buildings just to see what it was like and the building UI was so fiddly that I immediately quit that and never touched it again.

However, the UC Vanguard quest was actually really interesting (highly recommend beelining for this tbh) and once I got a little invested in that the rest of the major faction quests (Freestar Collective, Ryujin, and Crimson Fleet) were all interesting enough that I did not quit after 10 hours and did in fact finish the game.

tldr: 6.5/10, would not recommend unless you also have gamepass and are bored. That said, I did play like 50 hours of it, so. Make of that what you will.

6. Hi-Fi Rush:

I'm actually very bad at these type of combo brawlers (mostly because getting the muscle memory down for the combo variety just takes forever and I always default to using only a handful of moves, which makes me feel bad :( ) but enjoying the presentation and music a lot. It is the most anime, in the best sense.

Also, voice cast. Robbie keeps throwing me for a loop like, hey, I know that guy. Damn you, Critical Role, you have ruined games for me! (Shoutout: Aabria as a background NPC in Starfield - you were a highlight of the entire game, baby.)

Kind of bummed that I started this on gamepass honestly - I should've just paid for it on Steam so I could keep my stats and achievements and stuff. I mean, I COULD buy it on Xbox Windows but that app is garbage 🙃

Yet to finish - but 9/10 would definitely recommend.

7. (Not gamepass but from my winter steam sale haul -- yes, I spend too much money on games) Griftlands:

Klei does not miss. Very solid 10-ish hour game with really good character writing (hi, Bethesda, please take notes). I have beaten all three characters, with only two failed runs on normal difficulty so it's, you know, a decent challenge but nothing too difficult. Still going through and trying out other builds and choices. That said, I'm not usually a deckbuilder player so I couldn't tell you how it stacks up against other deckbuilders.

8.5/10, would definitely recommend on sale.

8. My general next to-play list:

On Gamepass so higher priority during my one month:

Pentiment

The Lamplighter's League

Against the Storm

Slay the Spire

Jusant

Cocoon

Like a Dragon Gaiden

Steam backlog (including things I bought like three years ago and still haven't played/finished...):

Life is Strange 2

Marvel's Midnight Suns

Tales of Berseria

Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

9. As you can tell, I did not do much of anything that was not gaming in the liminal period that is the last week of December. I had a brief thought that maybe I would write something about Laudna and Ashton and what the fuck is up with them during the 3 week BH break, but no, creative brain is out, mindless consumption brain is in! My god, there are so many games these days. I haven't even played Diablo 4, FF16, Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Bros Wonder or Spiderman 2 yet -- admittedly, I am unlikely to ever play Diablo 4 or Alan Wake 2 (I did not finish Alan Wake 1 -- at one point they turned off the lights and I put down my controller and said nope!) but I do theoretically want to get around to the others! Even FF16 which people have also said is mid, I still want to see its midness for myself! Yes, these are very first world problems.

10. Do I plan to do anything that is not gaming through any part of January? Debatable. Such is my life these days.

11. Anyway, happy new year to everyone. Hopefully 2024 is less miserable for the world in general.

P.S. Tumblr rich text editor's treatment of unordered lists and ordered lists is so fucking stupid.

#musings

3 notes · View notes

racke7 · 1 year ago

Text

Me vs Disgaea

So, a while back I finally beat D5 Carnage Baal (0*), and so a while after that I finally caved and picked up Disgaea 4.

The story was... mostly pretty interesting? Actually? I liked it. The various personalities and disjointed goals of the main protagonists was entertaining.

Then I hit post-game and started paging through how I was supposed to do things, and... I got very frustrated very quickly?

The Character-World works on Reincarnation, which is fine (it's actually a neat way to force players to actually use the Reincarnation-feature, which isn't really as much of a thing in D5).

The Character-World is also basically just an extension of the Item-World, with some added features to make it even more obnoxious. This is very much NOT fine.

The Item-World is... not something I'm looking forward to at all, because I miss my Sage and Comet-Asagi very blatantly, and it seems like it operates somehow differently to D5, and I feel like I'm staring at a learning-curve that I really don't want to touch.

EXP feels... hindered? I guess this is what happens when you can't simply have a character chug potions from lvl 1 to 9,999. But it's a bit annoying, and I'm not super-thrilled about it.

There are magic-skills going all the way up to Peta, instead of ending at Tera (like in D5), but outside of very specific Classes (as in, not even "Skull", but "Fire Skull" vs "Wind Skull") they can't learn anything higher than Omega? What the fuck? That's so obnoxious.

Upgrading the Skill also ties into its range and AOE? Which is a little bit annoying? Not the worst system, but I prefer D5's where range was "trained", and AOE and Power were separate.

The weird Cam-Pain map was... very frustrating? I'm very much missing the ease-of-use of the D5's Squads.

The Character-World and Cam-Pain being required for teaching others Skills, instead of just putting them in the Skill-Squad, or grabbing a Scroll from the Character-World to teach it to anyone at all? Also not great, in comparison.

Weapon-Mastery not being a thing that you can train, but instead an inherent trait in a character? Cursed. So fucking cursed. But okay, whatever, it's just going to make the Item-World so much worse (because I'd have to max-out more weapons), and that already sounds hellish.

But the Evilities man. Where are they? Why do I have this single slot for picking hundreds of fucking Evilities? How am I supposed to create incredible and interesting synergies with two fucking slots?

Which is why I picked up my D5-excel-sheet again, just to be able to min-max something.

And like... I'm kind of really annoyed at myself? Because for some reason my "15x Shamans"-build doesn't actually hold up? I don't know what the hell I had active at the time, but I can't get the numbers to be even vaguely competitive with Skull/Valkyrie/Pirate/Magic-Knight.

See, according to my damage-calculations, Shamans clock-in at around 48B dmg. The other generic build mentioned clocks-in at 54B dmg, and Zetta with an updated build clocks-in at 55B.

(Adell in Revenge-Mode blows literally everything else out of the water with 77B dmg, but that's because +200% ATK is bullshit.)

Somewhat disappointingly, I played around with some other unique-characters and:

Red Magnus + Goldion (Revenge-Mode): 52B

Rozalin (Revenge-Mode): 49B

Zeroken: 49B

Seraphina (with Killia, and attacking a male): 49B

Asagi (original, and attacking an "Overlord"): 48B

Etna: 44B

NISA: 43B

Girl Laharl: 42B

Fuka: 41B

Flonne (Revenge-Mode) + Salvatore (with gun): 40B

Interestingly? Bodyguards is required in only a few of these builds, which means that for a lot of them, they only care about the stat-boost from the Foot-Soldier Squad (they need 70% stat-boost, and can get 50% through Evilities).

Which of course made me rethink the whole set-up I've had with the Squads so far, as well as reconsider Salvatore and Goldion as surprisingly useful if you've clogged the Foot-Soldier Squad with better units. (Though why the fuck you'd need more than 20 dmg-dealers, when only 15 can fit on a map, I couldn't tell you.)

However, all of that thinking made me start looking at how I've built my Comet-Asagi, and... I feel like it kind of depends?

Like, Generic-Asagi gets +30% stats from the Asagi-Squad being filled, but that doesn't really matter long-term (aka, when they're already geared to max) because they'd still need an Evility to get up to 70% (the Squads only give 20%/25% respectively), and wouldn't get better stats if higher than that.

Also, there's the matter of Star-resistance in the enemies.

With 0% resistance, the builds shake out to:

Asagi-Generic: 33B (without Elemental-Force), 30B (with Elemental-Force), and 35B (with Elemental-Force and Star-resistance Curry)

Sage/Magic-Knight: 36B, and 41B (with Star-resistance Curry)

Which is... blatantly in favor of the Sage and Magic-Knight, holy shit.

And those same builds but with 25% Star-resistance in enemies:

Asagi-Generic: 33B -> 25B

Sage: 36B -> 27B

So, using the anti-resist Evility:

Asagi-Generic: 25B (without Elemental-Force), 24B (with Elemental-Force), 28B (with Elemental-Force + Curry)

Sage: 28B, and 33B (with Curry)

So... Sage (or Magic-Knight) wins basically every single time. As long as you have the stats/gear for it.

But obviously, you need the Asagi in order to get the gear that you want, so that's a bit... hmm...

(A Sage using Land-Decimator clocked in at 12B/atk and 3x attacks without extra-aid from Sage+Maid.)

And none of those stats are really truthful if you start using Angel-Leadership and other Support-Evilities on the map.

But, all-in-all, I can say that I'm honestly kind of disappointed in a lot of the things that I thought would be a lot stronger than they turned out to be.

(Like, who cares if a Unique-Character can almost match the Best-Generic-Build? Why do I need one of those, when I can have 15 of the generics?)

So, I went from "I finished D5, let's play D4" to "I finished the story of D4 and fuck these game-mechanics" to "let's see if we can min-max even more stuff in D5" to "I should rethink my entire collection of characters in D5".

As for Disgaea 6? Not touching that one. And Disgaea 7? Hmm... I'll wait for a sale, for now.

#am i ever actually going to do that and equip all of my characters with gear and-...? no probably not.#disgaea #video games #personal stuff #laughing #rants

2 notes · View notes

pikachu-deluxe · 1 year ago

Text

Ray's Guide to Advance Wars: Choosing a CO

Choosing a CO Before starting a game, you may wonder what CO (Your character, CO is short for Commanding Officer) you should pick. The answer is, it depends. COs come in Tiers based on how good they are, though you could use most COs without being at much disadvantage depending on player skill level. The highest Tier is Tier 0, which is commonly called the Broken Tier, they're usually banned in most games. Each Tier goes up a number, Tier 1 is worse than Tier 0, Tier 2 is worse than Tier 1, and so on. The lowest Tier is Tier 4. We'll be calling each Tier T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4 for short. When a game is made, you usually pick a Tier or the Tier gets picked for you, meaning that only that Tier and lower Tiers can be used. If Tier 3 is picked, you will be allowed to use T3 or T4 COs, but not T2, T1, or T0. While you can pick lower Tier COs than the highest Tier allowed, it isn't reccommended unless you really know what you're doing. Ultimately, your CO pick is up to preference. There isn't a single CO that's better than every other in every way in their Tier, but you need to know what every CO does before you decide to pick one. You can also see the Tier Lists here.

Orange Star COs

Andy (T3 in most Game Modes, T2 in High Funds) Andy is one of the most bland basic COs in the game, but if you want to be able to heal your units every once in a while or use his SCOP (Super CO Power) to push forward, you may want to use him. He's overall just good, just not great. You also might want to pick him if you think your opponent is going to pick Drake, Kindle, or Rachel (Or Sturm or Von Bolt in High Funds), as his powers counter any Mass Damage you may receive.

Max (T2 in most Game Modes, T3 in FFA/Teams) Max is a good CO to pick for his good offense compared to other COs in his Tier. He has better Direct Units, and gives them more mobility with his powers. If you like having those extra stats on your Direct Units, your best bet is Max. Though, keep in mind that Max's Indirect Units suffer in both Range and firepower. Generally, most people who play with Max don't use Indirect Units at all, instead opting for more Tanks and other Direct Units.

Sami (T2 in Standard, Tags, and FFA/Teams, and T4 in Fog of War, and High Funds) Sami is a weird CO. She isn't very strong with most of the important Units, other than Soldiers. You pick Sami if you're playing on a map where the HQ is unprotected and closer to the front, or in maps where you can gain an advantage by capturing important Properties before anyone can stop you. Because of Sami's +50% Capture Rate, you can secure Properties more easily. In Fog of War she's supposedly weaker but I honestly doubt that. In High Funds, higher funding means you get more Vehicles, which Sami isn't good with.

Jake (T4) You pick Jake if you want to have Range for your powers and more mobility for Vehicles. He's a pretty decently well-balanced CO for T4. He's one of the most common picks for T4 games. He also has a small offense boost on Plains that matters sometimes.

Rachel (T3 in most Game Modes, T2 in FFA/Teams) Rachel is a difficult CO to use to her fullest potential, and may require use of the Move Planner. Rachel is better the smaller the map is because of her SCOP. You pick Rachel if you think her SCOP can help you win, though you need to know how to use it effectively.

Nell (T1) Nell is the CO you pick if you want to use Soldiers more offensively. Her powers allow her to do massive damage to heavy Units with anything. Though, it's up to luck how effective your strike will be, from normal to great.

Hachi (T0) Hachi spends less money to buy Units, and can build Units on Cities he owns with his SCOP. This means he has better control if he can get Cities closer to the front, and keep deploying stronger and stronger Units closer to the front.

Blue Moon COs

Olaf (T2 in most Game Modes, T1 in High Funds) Olaf can slow down all other COs by using his COP (CO Power) or most commonly, save up for his SCOP to deal Mass Damage and change the weather to Snow. Olaf is unaffected by Snow, while everyone else slows down, but Rain cripples Olaf as Snow would for other COs. He's the most average CO out of the bunch in T2. A good solid pick for most situations.

Grit (T0 in Standard, Tags, and FFA/Teams, T1 in Fog of War, and T2 in High Funds) Grit has the best Indirect Units out of everyone. Better Range and firepower means he cares more about having Artillery and other Indirects in his formation than Tanks. He is very good at keeping threats out if he has enough Indirects, but he struggles if his wall is broken because his Direct Units are below average in firepower. Despite being in T0, he's nowhere near as strong as most of the other COs in that Tier. Personally, I allow Grit in Tier 1 whenever I make games, because Javier can counterpick him hard, and the other COs there can compete with him if they know what they're doing.

Colin (T0) Colin has weaker firepower, but has a discount on every Unit he buys. Though his real advantage, and what makes him broken, is his COP, which multiplies his money by 1.5 times what he has when he uses it, combined with his SCOP, which increases his firepower based on his money. You see the issue. He gets more money, then buys heavier Units that start out mediocre, or just decent, then turns them into a swarm that gets stronger the moment he uses his SCOP, though the more money you spend, the weaker you become, so be sure to use your money at the end of your turn. His SCOP also increases Soldiers firepower. It can get really stupid. The bigger the map, the stronger Colin becomes.

Sasha (T1 in Standard, Fog of War, and FFA/Teams, T0 in Tags, T3 in High Funds) Sasha is the CO you pick if you think the enemy will pick Hawke or other COs that depend on their powers. Her power bar is shorter than most below and in her Tier, meaning she can spam her COP to get rid of the enemy power bar, denying them their powers. She also has 100 extra funds per Property, so she gets +10% funds every turn, meaning she is usually the first one to build a Tank, putting her in early advantage. Other than that, she doesn't have much else going for her, but being able to block other CO's powers is a huge deal for those who don't have a good D2D (Day to Day ability).

Green Earth COs

Eagle (T2 in most Game Modes, T1 in High Funds) You pick Eagle for his SCOP. It lets him move most of his Units other than Soldiers again once they've been moved, so use it at the end of your turn always. This includes Units you just built, meaning you can move them after activating your SCOP, then buy more, just make sure to save up money to buy more so you don't leave your Bases without Units. Olaf counterpicks Eagle because of his Snow, making Eagle's SCOP not pay off as much as it otherwise would.

Drake (T3 in Standard, Fog of War, and Tags, T2 in High Funds and FFA/Teams) Drake can deal Mass Damage with his powers, along with draining half of the enemy's fuel. He's good to keep doing damage bit by bit, then exploit the gaps created by his powers. His powers are also good at dealing with Planes, because halving their fuel means they have much less time to be in the front before having to head back or spend money on an APC to refuel them.

Jess (T4) Jess is good with Vehicles, but has weaker firepower on every other Unit, including Soldiers. You usually don't pick Jess, but if you do, you have to focus on using your Vehicles well and making sure not to strike first with your Soldiers unless you have better Terrain defense than enemy Soldiers or have better Units to deal with them. Jess is tragically bad, but can be made to work if you're good.

Javier (T1 in most Game Modes, T3 in High Funds) The safest pick in T1, in my opinion (As long as you can capture a Comm Tower). You only pick Javier in maps with Comm Towers, otherwise he goes down to T4. His only D2D effect without a Comm Tower is more defense against Indirect attacks, but he gains 10/10 (Attack/Defense) stats for every Comm Tower he owns instead of the regular 10/0 stats every other CO gains. His powers double (COP) and triple (SCOP) the stats he receives from Comm Towers for the turn they're used. If he loses a Comm Tower, he loses the stats, so be careful. Most Javiers try to secure one as early as they can before combat starts.

Yellow Comet COs

Kanbei (T0) Kanbei has stronger units both offensively, and in defense than every other CO, but they have a 20% price increase. A single Tank from Kanbei can usually threaten two Tanks from other COs if he's well positioned. His Units overpower every other CO's. His SCOP increases his stats so much that if he stands on an HQ, he'll be completely invincible to anything other than Mass Damage, a Missile Silo, or a Black Bomb explosion.

Sonja (T4 in most Game Modes, T3 in Fog of War) Sonja has stronger counterattacks, a bigger Vision range that helps her a lot in Fog of War, and attacks with a chance of doing slightly less damage. Her SCOP is the only thing that really saves her, making her always attack first regardless of who starts combat, meaning she has the advantage when she can use it. Most people avoid Sonja for her bad luck making her attacks weaker at times, and her overall just okayishness, but her SCOP can really help push forward by putting your stronger Units at the front, forcing the enemy to move back or lose the confrontation.

Sensei (T0 in most Game Modes, T1 in High Funds) Sensei has insanely strong Soldiers and Copters, but his Vehicles are lackluster. He can spam his COP to build 9 HP Infantry on every City he owns for free every time he gets it. Having a short meter, he can keep building up walls of Infantry for as long as he likes. He can also spawn in 9 HP Mech with his SCOP, but you usually want to use his COP.

Grimm (T4) Grimm has excellent offense, but very bad defense. The Glass Cannon of Advance Wars. Only use him if you know what you're doing. If you expose yourself with Grimm, it leads to bigger losses than with other COs, but knowing when and where to strike leads to bigger rewards. His powers increase his firepower.

Black Hole COs

Sturm (T0 in Standard, Tags, and FFA/Teams, T1 in Fog of War, T2 in High Funds) Sturm is the CO you pick if you want to turtle your way to victory. His defense is second best out of everyone, but his offense is poor. His powers deal damage to the biggest concentration of enemy Units. His Units also move through all Terrain they can normally cross without slowing down, unless it's snowing. Also please, for the love of god don't play a Sturm ditto. You don't want that. Trust me. (80/120 stats vs 80/120 stats doesn't end well)

Flak (T4 in most Game Modes, T3 in High Funds) Flak, one half of the casino brothers, relies on luck more than usual for his attacks. While most COs only have positive luck, Flak has negative luck, which means he can strike for less damage than he should, as well as slightly higher positive luck than others. His powers increase his luck range, both positive and negative, meaning every attack could be extremely good, bad or anything in between. He's usually banned in competitive play.

Adder (T4 in most Game Modes, T3 in Tags) Adder is another very bland CO. He has no D2D, but his powers let him move 1 (COP) or 2 (SCOP) extra spaces, giving him an edge in positioning. One of the two most common CO picks for T4.

Lash (T3 in most Game Modes, T4 in High Funds) You pick Lash in maps with lots of heavy Terrain. The more heavy Terrain there is, the more Lash benefits. Lash's firepower increases by 10 for every Terrain star. Her SCOP is her primary tool, as it doubles her Terrain stars for the turn, meaning twice the firepower and defense. Her COP lets her move through Terrain without slowing down, but most people opt to save up for her SCOP instead, because it also has that effect along with what was already listed.

Hawke (T1) Hawke is a good CO, though he's arguably the weakest out of the T1 COs. He has better offense, but his powers take a long time to charge. His powers deal 1 (COP) or 2 (SCOP) Mass Damage, and Heal that same amount to his own Units.

Jugger (T4 in most Game Modes, T3 in High Funds) Jugger is the other half of the casino brothers. He's Flak, but more extreme on luck, both positive and negative. Also banned in competitive, like Flak.

Koal (T4) Koal is Adder but with extra charge time to his powers and an added offense bonus if he's standing on Roads. Extremely situational. Can be useful and better than Adder if used on a map with more Roads than average.

Kindle (T3 in most Game Modes, T2 in FFA/Teams) You pick Kindle in maps with tons of Cities. Her firepower boost on Cities is higher than Lash's, and she can deal damage with her COP to any enemy Unit on any Property that gives funds. Her SCOP is situational, but can increase her attack based on how many Properties she has. Her powers also increase her firepower boost on Cities.

Von Bolt (T1 in most Game Modes, T2 in High Funds) Von Bolt is the most common pick in T1 for his higher offense and defense than average. He enjoys higher stats at the cost of having a power that takes a long time to charge. He only has a SCOP, no COP. His power paralyzes a chunk of enemy Units for the next turn, allowing you to position yourself better and get rid of a good chunk of their army if used well. Like Rachel's SCOP, his has a lot of potential if you take the time to learn how to use it.

#advance wars #rgtaw #edit: forgot to add a read more at the start rip #added it in

6 notes · View notes

otakween · 2 years ago

Text

Digimon Adventure (Manga) - Vol. 1

This is the manga (or manhua) adaptation of the original Digimon Adventure anime. I got my copy from the library and you can borrow it for free on Archive.org!

Manga adaptations of anime are typically cheap money grabs that just copy-paste from the anime, removing some of the soul of the original along the way. As such, I'm not expecting much from this.

Notes:

Ch. 1

-You can almost always tell when a manga isn't drawn by a Japanese artist, it's just a certain vibe (I know this is technically a manhua). That being said, the art is competent enough. Yuen Wong seems to struggle most when it comes to faces. A lot of the faces look really janky and off model for both the digimon and the digi-destined. The only other thing that's kind of off is that the text boxes are very heavily lined and take up a lot more space than I'm used to.

-When Sora is drawn in chibi-mode she has the straps of her hat up like a rabbit. At first the silhouette was so unfamiliar that I had no idea who it was lol.

-So they covered two episodes in one chapter (up until the Shellmon battle). Let's see if the pace stays that way...

Ch. 2

-This definitely has a similar vibe to most manga adapted from anime that I've read. I wonder if it will diverge from the original material at any point, too soon to judge.

-Tai says to Agumon "I'll do anything but a teeth buffing" and I have nooo idea what that means? (Is he saying "don't eat me?") Also in chapter one Izzy said "baby blue, how emasculating!" when talking about the digivice. I don't think Koushiro would ever say that tbh. I feel like spotting these weird dialogue choices is going to be the most entertaining part about reading this.

Ch. 3

-I guess we're now going at a pace of one episode per chapter, which is fine. Somehow the content still seems a little condensed with a lot of the emotional beats cut out. I feel like the setting changes every two seconds which is giving me whiplash.

-Some weird quirks: the digi-destined call their digimon by their rookie names, even when they're in champion form. Also, the artist really really likes drawing smiley faces as stand-ins for the actual characters. That's like a step below chibification lol

-I think manga like this is perfect for if you wanted to watch Digimon Adventure 02, but you didn't want to catch up on a 50+ episode anime. It's a lot faster to read than to watch. (Although probably not as satisfying overall).

Ch. 4

-More cheesy dialogue. Izzy says "don't mess with an elite hacker" to Tai lol. Koushiro is way more likeable in the original Japanese because localizations loved to make nerds insufferable in the 90s.

-It's funny, I've never thought of Tentomon as robot-like, but in this chapter he said his parts were "short circuiting" and I was like "oh yeahhh...I guess he does have metallic features"

-Did we really need that close-up crotch shot of Andromon?

-You would think that the plot point of there being editable code laying around in random areas of the digital world would have come up again, but I can't remember another time it was really used to the kids' advantage.

Ch. 5

-This panel made me laugh:

(something about this phrasing and the expressionless chibis is so funny).

-And then Izzy never manually triggered a digivolution again...for some reason? (I feel like this was definitely explained in the anime, but I can't remember what they said).

-They didn't censor the poop this time! As usual, you can get away with more in print than you can on the screen B)

-They confirm that you can repel Numemon with sunlight...and then immediately the kids get attacked by more Numemon in broad daylight. Quickest continuity error ever!

-Another chuckle worthy moment:

Ch. 6

-Okay, but this one had me die laughing. Just a really good dad joke:

-Going from Adventure 02 back to the early Adventure days the stakes really do feel lower. No existential conundrums or human/humanoid villains to contend with. Just rampaging digis that can be easily cured.

Ch. 7

-Maybe it's just a translation thing, but sometimes the digimon act like there's one of each digimon species. Like Gomamon says "Unimon's a nice guy!" as if there's one Unimon in the world. Pretty confusing for kids. I wish mon series would just use names (they do sometimes, but it's not the status quo).

Yep, that was pretty generic. I wish they had thrown some more personality in there to make this a unique experience. I would have loved to read some final thoughts from the mangaka or to have gotten an omake of some sort. Ohhh welll...

#digimon digital monsters #manhua #manga #digimon

8 notes · View notes

rystonlentil · 1 year ago

Text

2023 Podfic Roundup!

(2022 here; 2021 here)

Ghost Town, by DustDragon39 The Magnus Archives original characters teen and up 18m 42s

I came home one day and it wasn’t home anymore. During a particularly bad storm, two archival assistants from the San Francisco Institute for the Unusual and Paranormal pick up a hitchhiker.

the less-than-careful years, by tigrrmilk Disco Elysium Kim Kitsuragi, Kim Kitsuragi’s parents teen and up 22m 5s

For his seventeenth birthday, Kim bought the first jacket as a gift to himself. It was the real thing — twenty years old, with a slash at the neck, and a stain inside that could have been blood, or mud, or even oil. “Did somebody die in that thing?” his aunt asked. A life, and memories of other lives. Hidden inside objects and matter and waves.

Reboot, by TheQuietWings Five Nights at Freddy’s Glamrock Freddy & Gregory, Michael Afton & The Crying Child general 15m 54s

Are you sure it is necessary to boot in [Safe Mode]? Y/N

Icicles (don’t soften when they die), by Taliax Deltarune Noelle Holiday/Susie teen and up 8m 47s

Sweat beaded on Susie's forehead as she brought the tip of her axe to Noelle’s finger. The ring dug in its thorns. Noelle and Susie's unseen conversation in the Weird Route.

Rot, by dearfriendicanfly Disco Elysium Kim Kitsuragi mature 15m 4s

INLAND EMPIRE — They opened him up and found nothing but the rot that ate up everything he was. And then they left the empty shell of him behind. VOLTA DO MAR [Challenging: Success] — Don’t think about that. Think of music shaking your ribcage. Think of a steering wheel under your palms. HALF LIGHT — Your red, red palms. Night one. Kim Kitsuragi has a nightmare.

Kitsuragi shuffle, by laughingpineapple Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi general 30m 8s

A Saturday in Jamrock. See the sights. Blend in with the locals. Just a pleasant day out ahead of the transfer, with no hidden hopes, none whatsoever. Kim Kitsuragi doesn’t do hope.

let’s spend the future talking about the past, by godsontheradio Disco Elysium Klaasje Amandou/Ruby mature 11m 4s

Ruby helps an on-the-run Klaasje dye her hair. What happens next is frustrating and inconclusive.

La Muerte Pálida (The Pale Death), by Lepak Disco Elysium Paledriver, background Klaasje/Ruby teen and up 14m 52s

The world hides you in her fog skirts. You row until you can no longer see land, til even its shadow has been swallowed and you’re drifting alone, the last person left alive in Elysium. Or perhaps the first ever made, floating in a wooden womb, amniotic fluid dewing on your thin coat. The Paledriver reminisces.

Even Disco, Baby (12 one-shots), by dearfriendicanfly Disco Elysium Harry & Smoker on the Balcony, Harry/Kim Kitsuragi, Harry & Judit Minot, Cindy the Skull & Harry, Annette & Harry, Harry & Dora Ingerlund, Harry & Tommy Le Homme, Harry & La Revacholière teen and up 2hr 8m 15s in total

A collection of dialogue excerpts that needed a home. Originally posted to even-disco-baby on tumblr, archived here.

He’s A Goldmine, Baby, by Red Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi explicit 41m 19s

Ok, so getting pissed on wasn't always a kink of yours. Now, however, it has definitely become a thing. Problem is, you don't know your mega-cool boyfriend will be down for it. No need to ruin a good thing. Best keep this to yourself, champ. On sex paperwork, ordinary life, love... and, well. Piss, of course.

Poems for my head’s country, by laughingpineapple Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois & Skills teen and up 6m 50s

Far away, the pale – le territoire, the great adversary, the western plain – roars into nothingness. Here and now, Harry finds a book in his apartment, a trace of his old life. Here and now, Harry finds a book in his apartment, a trace of his old life. Here and now, Harry finds a book-

Blood Like Wine, by Aria The Mechanisms Jonny d’Ville/Gunpowder Tim explicit 16m 35s

When Jonny said it, he didn't even really mean anything by it. He was running his mouth, paying more attention to the way it made Tim thrash under him than the words he was saying. Jonny leant forward, digging his fingernails into Tim's shoulder blades, and said, low and vicious, "I want to eat your heart."

Splat, by nevermindgrantaire Disco Elysium Cindy the Skull & Cunoesse teen and up 25m 43s

There’s a face, though, peering over the fence with eyes like scuttling black beetles. Topped with a matted thatch of red hair and a green knitted beanie hat. Red eyes and red nose, lines under the eyes that just don’t look right on a kid so young. It’s that girl- Cindy doesn’t know her name. The skinny little thing, all hunched and defensive, hackles raised. She clings to her friend like he’s a shield and normally she’s screaming slurs at anything that moves. It’s unnerving, seeing her quiet like this. Cindy casts an eye around the yard, towards the shed, looking for the girl’s persistent shadow. Cuno joins the RCM. Cunoesse gets left behind. Cindy wants to help.

A wreath of reeds, by laughingpineapple Disco Elysium Steban the Student Communist & Insulindian Phasmid teen and up 9m 27s

Steban, touch grass. Grass, touch Steban.

trial run, by Red Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi explicit 34m 59s

Your mouth keeps moving. "You're so desperate, Kim. Trying to ride my fucked-up dick..." Kim coughs, and shoots you a look. "I thought my opinion on your dick was clear by now."

Possession, by Red Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi explicit 14m 19s

"Disgusting," Kim breathes, smearing his thumb through his spit, rubbing it into your skin. Mine, that touch says. You close your eyes, dizzy, faint from his love.

A beast in the fog, by laughingpineapple Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois/Kim Kitsuragi teen and up 13m 23s

The lieutenant knows how to fend off the loneliness of the empty road. But the air is empty, too, and the coast is gone.

Delirium, by randomisedmongoose Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois mature 4m 50s

After the tribunal. Harry dreams.

Poem 53, by dearfriendicanfly Disco Elysium Harry Du Bois & Harry Du Bois general 5m 57s

From the collection “Poems For My Head’s Country.” Annotations by Harry Du Bois. (For/Inspired by laughingpineapple)

flight paths of migratory birds, by Ptolemia Disco Elysium Klaasje Amandou/Ruby mature 29m 45s

Ruby and Klaasje do take that road trip, after all.

The Orchard, by liesmyth Good Omens Aziraphale/Crowley mature 19m 22s

Crowley eats an apple, tempts an angel, and gets more than he bargained for.

Something Bigger Than The Sky (3/6 chapters), by Taliax Deltarune Spamton/Swatch teen and up 1hr 13m 46s

Swatch's purpose is to serve the Queen. Spamton's purpose is to make deals. By nature, any other passions between them are disposable. (Betrayal still hurts.)

do you have to call it a relationship?, by yewlojee The Murderbot Diaries Murderbot & Dr. Ratthi general 13m 51s

Ratthi stops at the closed door, and sends a message. I would like to talk about relationships. There is a pronounced pause. Is this some kind of reverse psychology shit where you are trying to get me to not talk to you actually?

an experiment in trust, by MercurialFeet The Murderbot Diaries ART & Three teen and up 22m 53s

Three decides it wants to try something. The Perihelion has a slightly more than scientific interest in the results.

#I have multiple podfics in progress right now but it is in fact December 31st!#so this is what I did this year!#podfic #the magnus archives #disco elysium #fnaf #utdr #the mechanisms #good omens #the murderbot diaries #430planets

1 note · View note

themattress · 2 years ago

Text

Because I’m in a Star Wars mood lately, and a Rise of Skywalker-y one in particular since it endlessly fascinates me, I just keep coming up with new thoughts. And here’s another one: The Rise of Skywalker is actually the ONLY new Star Wars movie past the Original Trilogy to match the Original Trilogy’s style, and a lot of the backlash to it (in addition to other factors like nitpicking, scapegoating, and general overreactions and whining) is because without the nostalgia factor at play fans and critics just don’t take well to the OT style in new movies.

Now, what do I mean by “the Original Trilogy’s style”? I mean the roller coaster ride style of fast-paced action -> slowdown exposition -> fast-paced action -> slowdown exposition -> fast-paced action -> more fast-paced action -> fast-paced action that combines exposition, and so on and so forth. This is literally how all three of these movies operated; it was part of their roots in the old campy film serials of the 30s, 40s and 50s. The Indiana Jones movies, also developed by George Lucas, are the exact same way. They’re spectacle-driven popcorn movies first and foremost - even the most sophisticated of them, The Empire Strikes Back.

Ironically, much of the flak the Prequel Trilogy caught was because they ventured way too far from this style, with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones being primarily made up of exposition, and with the few action scenes they do have usually not being particularly good especially as the CGI grows more and more dated. (Revenge of the Sith is often looked upon with more fondness, since not only does it contain superior action that ironically holds up because so much of the film is done in CGI so it all blends together better but its expository scenes are actually interesting and rooted in character, emotion, and easy-to-follow intrigue.)

The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi may return to the Original Trilogy’s aesthetic style (and in the former’s case, the exact story structure of its first act), but they’re paced out more like modern films. TFA’s opening action sequence lasts approximately 6 minutes, then it spends around twice that length in slowdown mode for exposition on the setting and characters. The movie then spends the next 30-so minutes in action mode with a few quick expository beats sprinkled in, then the next 20-so in expository slowdown mode. We then have around 10 minutes of action, followed by around 10 minutes of expository slowdown, and then the last half-hour being primarily action before settling into an expository ending. This is much the way you expect modern blockbusters to be paced out. TLJ is much the same, with the main difference being that due to its longer runtime it can afford its action mode and expository slowdown mode periods last much longer than TFA’s (from the 31 min. mark to the 1:31 min. mark - a full hour - the only action sequences are the brief Fathier escape scene in Canto Bight and the even briefer skirmish between Rey and Luke. The following near-hour left in the movie makes up for it by being primarily action-based.)

The Rise of Skywalker, otoh, does things the more fluid, back-and-forth way like the OT did.

Action: Kylo Ren on Mustafar - Approx. 1 Minute Exposition: Palpatine on Exegol - Approx. 4 Minutes Action + Some Exposition: Lightspeed Skipping - Approx. 3 1/2 Minutes Action + Some Exposition: Rey's Training - Approx. 5 Minutes Exposition: Resistance Base - Approx. 4 1/2 Minutes Exposition: First Order - Approx. 2 Minutes Exposition + Some Action: Pasaana - Approx. 6 Minutes Action: Canyon Chase - Approx. 3 Minutes Exposition: Underground - Approx. 5 Minutes Action: Vs. Kylo Ren (1) - Approx. 5 1/2 Minutes Exposition: Oochi's Ship - Approx. 4 1/2 Minutes Action + Some Exposition: Spice Runners - Approx. 2 1/2 Minutes Exposition: Babu Frik's Shop - Approx. 7 1/2 Minutes Action: Star Destroyer - Approx. 3 Minutes Action + Some Exposition: Vs. Kylo Ren (2) - Approx. 7 1/2 Minutes Exposition: Ocean Moon - Approx. 6 Minues Action + Some Exposition: Second Death Star Ruins - Approx. 5 1/2 Minutes Action: Vs. Kylo Ren (3) - Approx. 6 Minutes Exposition: Mourning - Approx. 3 1/2 Minutes Action: Kijimi Destroyed - Approx. 1 1/2 Minutes Exposition: Before the Final Battle - Approx. 10 Minutes Action: The Final Battle - Approx. 30 Minutes Ending: Rey Skywalker - Approx. 3 Minutes

Now, could some of these gone on longer, or maybe arranged somewhat differently? Of course, and I wish they did! It doesn’t change the fact that this sort of back-and-forth is the old-school Star Wars style of pacing. J.J Abrams and Chris Terrio knew what they were doing; by their own admission they wanted to end the Skywalker Saga in the same style it began in even if that didn’t quite fit the prior two installments of the Sequel Trilogy. It was a risk that certainly didn’t pay off with a significant amount of movie critics, but I agree it was the right choice to make. The original vision behind Star Wars was honored, in all its good and its bad.

#Star Wars #The Rise of Skywalker #Analysis #Comparison #This has been a PSA

4 notes · View notes

lyrker · 2 years ago

Note

1 n 3 n 19 n 31 n 50 for the oc asks !!!!

THIS GOT SO LONG IM SO SORRY HAVDJVS

1.First oc ever ?

I’m gonna have to pass this one to good ol’ Leader Decrose. I REFUSE to get into the backstory of how he came about, but in this old world I never dive in anymore, he’s like ? A refuge i suppose ? A set of four characters (including my self insert) were based on cards and his was the diamond.

3.Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else ?

Odd situation but I GUESS ?? There’s a few but one I like is named Polaris and they’re like. a dying star. And their big brother figure is Cyrus, aka cc who thought the key to transitioning was dismembering yourself and using dark magic on a lifesize frakenstein doll he made.

They work in a fucked up lab but like, fucked up as in goofy as hell. They’re so silly (:

19.Introduce a character that means a lot to you and why

*SLAMS JACE IN FRONT OF YOU* I love him an insane amount.

Jace Luong was away when the apocalypse striked, lost his daughter thag he blames himself for (but he could never save her anyway), accidentally shot a guy and had to step down from his military position, more for his mental sake than anything, ended up using his best friend, and that last one sounds so bad. and it is. But it is for this Reason that makes me shake him like GRRRR I LOVE YOU. WHY DID YOU DO THAT oh yeah i’m the author loll !!

Because the point of Jace is that. He wants to help so fucking bad but he keeps Messing It Up. He is not evil and I cannot say that enough—he is very “the means justifies the ends” but that does Not mean he doesn’t feel bad for using Noah as a lab rat. When Noah came back to KILL HIM he cried because someone Came Back For Him, even if it was to kill him.

I don’t wanna take up too much space but it’s because he’s not evil just severely fucked up from losing his daughter and the life of being in a world filled with zombies that he’s trying to rush to make some sort of cure, so he can save people, so that people can live again instead of just survive, but he goes about it in a horrible way that, honestly, was probably inevitable.

He’s special to me because he’s a fuck up, but he’s genuinely really really trying. He is not a good person, though.

(also if he was a tma avatar he would be of The Lonely or Eye and that’s so silly)

31.Pick an oc and explain what their Tumblr blog would look like.

I’m going to go with RAYNE because he probably DOES use Tumblr, knowing him. His layout is green but also he’s probably using the Goth/Rave color pallet because he thinks the colors are nice and he’s a 3 am user so that dark mode comes in handy. His pfp is like, his favorite pokémon but with a ditto face.

He reblogs pokemon stuff—screenshots, fanart, memes, etc and he’s Definitely gotten into discourse abt the best game. Also he’s totally a Nightvale listener so throw in some Nightvale posts. I think he reblogs a lot of shitpost art but also just art in general.

And of course, the occasional cat photo and tumblr trademark textposts.

50.Give me the good ol’ oc talk.

I WAS GONNA TALK ABOUT NOAH & CO. BUT I ALWAYS TALK ABOUT THEM so here’s the MoMOF crew, named after the lemon demon song “Mask of my Own Face”

It’s a classic high schoolers sci fi horror story, think stranger things except without mike bc i hate him (did not finish watching stranger things)

Basically, six kids, Rayn, Rowan, Alex, Ash, Zach and Winston are friends ! Yippee ! Average middle/high schoolers.

And one night, Rayn and Rowan (dating) are just hanging out. Rowan is conked the fuck out at Rayn is gaming on his DS, and then he gets a text from Alex saying “Dude, why tf are you outside it’s like 2 am ???” and Rayn is confused outta his mind.

“Wdym i’m literally at home rn.”

Alex attaches a photo, a shot looking thru the blinds of their window of what looks to be Rayn.

Rayn sends a selfie back of the Charmander he just leveled up and Rowan fast asleep.

And it Can’t be him if he just sent that photo, because the beanie he always wears was handmade by Asher himself—whos this guy ?!?

naturally, they text everyone, everyone’s yelling in a vc and was NOT asleep like they should be, and Rayn gets the FANTASTIC idea to go and see who the person is. Alex is yelling that they will personally stab Rayn if he does.

He does anyway.

and they’re too far away now for Alex to see, but they’re watching their phones and when Rayn finally approaches the other Rayn the camera flips and it is missing Half Of It’s Face and then Rayn hangs up.

And they Cannot Find Him.

So for weeks they are searching for Rayn and are scared out of their wits about Why there were Two and they told the police, but they don’t believe them all too much.

But Rowan finds him one night, at the edge of the forest. Half of his face looks tk have been torn away and his hat and coat is gone and he looks run ragged but oh. Oh no.

That’s the real Rayn.

And it turns out, the Rayn they’d been staying with recently was a clone.

And he’s babbling about something, saying they “Can’t trust Winston”

And at the same time, Rowan gets a call. And Zach sounds like he’s running for his life, because Winston cannot talk, let alone sing, and Zach heard them whispering the lyrics to a song he doesn’t know, and ran for it.

So, while they found Rayn, they now don’t know where the real Winston is. And it’s kinda all about not trusting each other but also wanting to stay together because What If Someone Else Gets Taken, and they can’t trust anyone at All because they won’t believe them, and they could be more clones.

Other stuff happens; Ash is going kinda insane, Alex, as the eldest, feels like they have to be the parent of the group because god they’re falling apart and they can’t stand to see it, Zach doesn’t know if the things he’s catching on camera are real or not, and there’s also an almost murder and also arson !! Both by the kids (:

It’s a fun world i like to play around with because the kids dynamics are all super fun <3

#this got so long 💀#jace is my residential wet cat he IS my favorite oc sorry i play favorites #but the MoMOF crew is so silly too (: i don’t indulge in them nearly as much tho #thank you for the ask !!!!!#oc #ocs #oc ask game #yetanotherOCmeme #I FORGOT TO ADD TWS #tw death #tw child death #tw murder #tw mild gore #tw violence

1 note · View note