#we need and want more girls in Tekken says everyone with me

[niuniente]

Since we already have a Swedish man and a Russian man in Tekken, we clearly need a Finnish woman in Tekken.

In the middle. Because Finland is in the middle.

Between those massive man tits.

[tamtheshihan]

Jin & Xiaoyu in Tekken 8

This is a couple I’ve wanted for years and its safe to say Tekken 8 may just give them the room to be an actual couple once and for all. If you are obsessed with this fighting game franchise as much as I am and have been waiting as long as I have, Jin and Xiaoyu are a ship that in my opinion should have sailed loooooong ago. Xiaoyu is the sunshine and Jin is the one in need of that sunshine.

Their relationship seems to be more grounded and cohesive this time. No longer the delusional and obsessive teenager chasing the handsome and mysterious bad boy, but now as two young adults who respect one another whilst realizing and understanding underlying feelings and the role each plays in the other’s life.

Now before I get to it, I am fully aware that there are millions of people who are against them being a couple. “Oh Xiaoyu’s annoying, Jin doesn’t care for her, JinXiao shippers are delusional”, YADA YADA. Be that as it may, I am 100% behind Jin and Xiaoyu. This post is not for you!

Its shaping up to be Jin and Xiao as endgame and here’s why… Get comfortable because it’s a long one…

Starting off, Japanese men are not the most romantic and are considered shy in those kinds of contexts- as most Japanese people are. Japanese people are not big on pda and being straightforward. Commonly seen in manga and anime. Protagonist in most cases will literally do everything else in a story before worrying about their relationship- telling the girl or guy how they really felt. And it is usually the very last thing we get, if we get it at all. Creators/writers will hint at certain things subtly and you usually have to be aware of it. It’s a staple in Japanese storytelling and Tekken is no exception. It’s a fighting game people, so fighting is the main focus while something like romance is typically placed on the backburner.

With that said, Jin is yet another example of this. He crosses me as the type to be very loving but not in a showy kinda way. I’m certain Jun showered him with love and affection. Her very existence is love and affection. She is mama Kazama- Jin’s whole heart which was taken away from him very early. So being caring and affectionate is something we all know Jin is capable of doing. It’s just that his life took a course that changed him in a way that he needed to adapt to. The mishimas and the devil gene are no place for the kind boy who was raised on the almost remote island of Yakushima. Never having to deal with anything even close to his life after meeting Heihachi. I say this to not right any of his wrongs but to say that you can become a product of the things you go through in life.

Jin is capable of a lot but had to put a lot on the backburner because he was dealing with a situation that was thrown onto him. He didn’t ask for any of it but it was time for a boy to become a man. He no longer had Jun’s kind and touching words, but rather memories of her precepts and warmness to guide him, a grandfather whom he became to trust betrayed him in the worst way, and a father who could care less of his existence.

Xiaoyu on the other hand, a cheerful and caring young lady who wants nothing but to be there for Jin- someone she seen the good in and became a close friend to. She knows that Jin has only become the way he did to cope with the never ending pain and sadness, having to force away everyone and everything he cares about because he fears he would bring them nothing but harm. Jin was once a kind and sweet guy as Xiaoyu stated. Jin cares for Xiaoyu. He cares A LOT. I feel that he cares as much as he can in a way that he can given his situation. I don’t think I want the person I truly care for to be around me in moments were I lose control of myself either. Trust me, Jin has all the emotional components as the next person, he just doesn’t have the space to show it.

Xiaoyu isn’t an idiot. She understands this and catches what Jin throws. Jin’s life was a hard contrast to Xiaoyu’s fun loving, amusement park going life. Sometimes the best way to get through to someone is to communicate in a way they can understand and this time around she knows what has to be done.

And there are things that Jin is fully aware of. He knows that Xiaoyu will follow him to hell without a second thought. He knows she will come looking for him at the drop of a dime and wouldn’t even consider the harm she would face in pursuing him. HE IS FULLY AWARE of how much he means to her. Which is why he puts that distance between them. Why he disappears without a trace, why he keeps his hardships to himself. He knows Xiaoyu will go to bat for him quick. But he cares for her so much that he doesn’t want her getting caught up in his mess. Jin believes that he doesn’t deserve the love and consideration Xiaoyu gives him but he still cares. His self-hatred is what holds him back from believing he’s a proper member of society. The devil gene thoroughly labels him as an outcast who doesn’t deserve a second shot at life and he doesn’t try to hold onto that hope. So something like a relationship or friendship means nothing if you can never truly have it-and to him- as long as the devil gene exist, none of those things could ever be.

He feels as though he has to deal with everything on his own- end his family’s mess and end the bloodline. Jin always seems ready to give his life away because he feels the world would be better off without him. He looks at himself as an abomination, an existence not of this world. He invalidates how he really feels for what he thinks is appropriate for the situation. He calls it like it is. How can you smile, be a friend, or even have a relationship when you are a ticking timebomb and could ruin everything in the blink of an eye?

He's aware that Xiaoyu is going to give it to him straight, cut no corners. He knows she wants the best for him. He knows she’ll tell him that what he thinks of himself isn’t true. He knows that she can read him like a book. He knows she truly cares.

Their special interaction in Tekken 8 is long overdue. It shows exactly what their reunion should be. An abundance of emotions that look almost impossible to interpret. Xiaoyu- happy, relieved she found her man, but also with restraint trying to approach the situation another way, and there’s Jin- sheepish, unable to face Xiaoyu, not sure how she feels. Awkward but both push forward to paint a better picture together this time around. He knows she knows all the things he’s been doing and she knows that he knows but wants to move forward and be able to aid him in the fight. He’s always been much more softer in tone and demeanor with Xiaoyu. He calls the girl “Xiao”for goodness sakes, and in Japanese society people don’t usually do that unless they are really close and have a bond. She calls him “Jin”, no suffix just Jin. She even came out and said that "an exchange of blows can be revealing". Now if that's not obvious...

Sometimes love comes at the right time, and you have to be ready. The love was definitely there, feelings were definitely mutual, they were just shown very differently. In a lot of ways they just had to get themselves together and figure some things out. Besides the romantic part, Jin and Xiaoyu did a lot of growing up. I mean a lot. Look at those two. Xiaoyu LOOKS more mature. SHES A WOMAN NOW. Jin LOOKS certain in his actions and seems to have much more confidence and resolve. This is a man and a woman. I believe they are ready this time.

In a lot of ways Xiaoyu is what Jin needs- that reassurance, that support, that sunshine, that stick beside you type of thing.

And with Jun officially back, Jin’s life will definitely brighten up but with Xiaoyu included… That’s the ideal situation for me!!

I can go all day on these two but in conclusion, Jin and Xiaoyu are a pair that is definitely hard to come by and one of my favorites especially in games. It doesn’t make any since how long I have waited for an interaction between these two where they finally appear to be on even footing, on the same page, and know what they want.

[demonsfate]

🔥 I had to~ I always appreciate your level minded takes~ I honestly don't think that Jin or Kazuya will ever get the redemption arcs they deserve. Thoughts?

unpopular opinions from the mun // accepting !

Most people say the point is Jin's not supposed to have a redemption arc in TK8, the point was him just moving on and learning to live with his sins. Which yeah, may be it, but most people still see it as a "redemption arc" when the Bad Guy is Good, and everyone's just friends with him now.

But you already know how I feel about Jin's characterization as a whole. When it comes to what he deserves, Jin should've never had to need a redemption arc to begin with. However, they definitely went about it wrong in T8. Which yes, again as I said above, technically Jin's story wasn't a "redemption arc". But we still had characters acting far too forgiving toward him when they shouldn't be. Jin asking, "do I deserve the right to desire life?" is sweet in the context of T8, but in the context of T6, it just makes you think "well buddy I'm sure those thousands you've killed also desired life, too." And again, you also find yourself questioning why this matters so much to Jin when it clearly didn't matter much to him in T6. I barely consider T8 to be Jin's "development" beyond him not wanting to die anymore, but instead just a return to basics (how he behaved in T3-T5) But Jin's arc of dealing with his T6 actions is over and I don't think they're really gonna revisit it again unless Miguel pops up and says "you killed my sister" and Jin says "sorry" and Miguel goes "oh right. Okay then."

As for Kazuya...

The problem is, I'm a very critical consumer. In fact, it's a surprise I haven't tried to become a more "professional" critic. I'm also a no-nonsense writer. When it comes to villains and if they're redeemable, I think there is a certain line they can't cross. Killing thousands of innocents, some potentially being children, is that line. However, clearly this works differently in Tekken. In Tekken, terrible actions aren't treated with the same weight that they're treated with in other stories or real life. Sure, nobody forgot what Jin did, but they also didn't exactly treat him like a mass murderer who's killed thousands, potentially millions. Lars doesn't act like Jin got his best friend (Tougou who?) killed, along with giving him and his girl PSTD, along with forcing his girl to fight her and "killing her", along with all the disrespectful, nasty things Jin said to Lars and the others.

I do think it's a high possibility Kazuya will be "redeemed" in T9, that we might see him and Jin make amends with each other. But I just don't think it's gonna be satisfactory to me. Canonically, both Kazuya and Jin's actions weren't worthy of a redemption that either didn't involve their deaths or them being virtual "outcasts" from society. I've had people try to argue with me, saying "but what about Vegeta from DBZ" - and it's like that's the thing. I don't really care for many animes or their tropes. Now, there are some animes I love. But... the majority of tropes and how it handles these villains is something I don't care for. So, if I watched DBZ, I'd probs be critical of that aspect, too, lol. Darth Vader is a character that comes to my mind because he was also a war criminal who killed millions, including children. He was redeemed, but only through death.

It's just hard to imagine Kazuya or Jin getting to live out happy, domestic lives after they've ravaged the world and ruined so many other lives. Of course, it's something I want more for Jin just because of the bad writing. Kazuya was always meant to be a villain or antagonistic character. He's been this way since T2. Jin, however, wasn't. Jin was only turned into this character in the 6th game after Harada insisted on it. But like, when the games tried to continue going with "Yah Jin did all that, what of it?" Then... yes, it is hard to imagine him living out a normal happy life with his only consequences for his many murders is just he felt bad about it and his daddy beat him up a few times.

T9's Kazuya will probs be a "slower" process than Jin, but in the end - he'll probs be redeemed by Jun's love, say "I won't try to kill our son anymore :3" and then help Jin defeat Reina.

So yeah. I just don't think neither will get a truly deep redemption arc, but honestly? It's about time where that much depth and consideration should be expected from the writing.

Also I guess an unpopular opinion of my own regarding Kazuya is that... I don't care if he gets redeemed honestly. As heartwarming as it is seeing the what ifs and him, Jin, and Jun being a happy family. I also just don't care if that happens or not. After all, not every villain needs a redemption arc. And with Tekken? We're at the point where they've been trying to convince us that Heihachi isn't that bad, and then they're trying to convince us that the motherfucking DEVIL cared about Jin and was actually good in a way. So like, not every character needs to be redeemed or needs a "oh wait, they're not as bad as you think!" As I said, it mattered so much with me about Jin because Jin should've never been depicted as a villain - it goes against his entire character and why I loved him. But Kazuya was always conceived as a villain. Therefore, the push for him to be redeemed just isn't as strong regardless of his tragic backstory.

And I mean that in all seriousness. Kazuya is a tragic character, but he's intentionally written as one. Not tragic because the writers did him dirty. Villain characters often are tragic and surrounded by tragedy. Because tragedy and trauma is what shapes many bad guys into the person they are. Not every villain with a tragic story needs a redemption arc - even if he does have loved ones, too.

Of course, this isn't to say I'm against Kazuya's redemption. I'm just explaining why I wouldn't care if it didn't happen.

[maguro13-2]

Club FIRESTONE : Reopen Pt.3

Kohaku : So you see, Tamaki. Senku's doing a project with someone named Julia Chang.

Tamaki : Julia Chang, that Native American Chinese fighter girl from Tekken? Senku doing a project with a fighter from Tekken? I never thought she would be so concern of having a forest in Arizona to be in danger of the encroaching desert, wasn't exactly the idea of how America and other countries consumed by agriculture?

Kohaku : Probably the only things that you a Firefighter who was trained of putting out fires and get everyone safety had something with that pyrokinesis ability, correct?

Tamaki : Correct.

Kohaku : Yeah, so don't get hazing on Senku's project. I wonder what's currently working on today?

[Cuts to show Senku and the guys next to the catapult]

Senku : For the last 3,700th time, we did not ordered a Catapult!

Ginro : Oh come, Senku! You said you want a cheaper invention to buy with. So we decided to order one with tons of money.

Senku : That was the college funds that you spent on! What makes you think that ordering a catapult was seriously a good idea!

Suika : Why don't we just put something on it and launch it somewhere else, maybe that would be considering the dumbest idea around here. Too bad, Kohaku isn't here to see this incredible invention.

Kohaku : Hey, guys. I heard you were going to invent something cool. What are you planning on doing with the Tongass National Forest being restored with some kind of "Data Disk"?

Senku : We're gonna show this to the whole world with this (shows the Tongass Rejuvenation Data Disk) We will give this Julia Pronto and show the world the Tongass would be rejuvenated in no time. We took samples from it's to gather it's DNA and once we put that little DNA into the ground, boom! The Tongass National Forest would be restored at peace once more.

Kohaku : Wow! You mean you can really do that?! With somebody perfect of saving a forest!? That's an amazing way something like you should know about helping the forest to keep the planet strong. But the planet kept on getting weaker after that.

Senku : True. Humans are so greedy and arrogant they want money to turn those trees into paper. If people know about the sin of greed, we would also giving them the greed if they want. That president Trump is such a dork, knows nothing that he would destroy a beautiful forest in Alaska's Panhandle.

Kohaku : "Trump"? Did you say "Trump?

[Mistery - Seirou Okamoto]

Senku : Yeah. You know him?

Kohaku : Trump is officially the worst president of the country ever to be elected. He orderded the people to build a wall over Mexico and the states of the west and pacific, including Texas and California. Rumors believe that the president is making a logging order which deceives the Tongass National Forest, making it his "only" target. I can't forgive that stupid president for attempting of destroying an entire forest like that. We gotta do something about this!

Senku : You're right, but we can't just monkeying around like this, it's time that we need attention to the people to heed the warning about the Tongass being destroyed. We must be prepared in action.

Kohaku : I better tell Tamaki about this and to make sure that...(notices Tamaki went into the shack, realizing) She just went into the shack, did she? I better go talk to her if she's okay about the forest. (Walks to the shack)

Ginro : What's she worried about?

Kinro : Probably having a feeling with some girl talk to that cat-girl. Seriously, what's with Kohaku and her friends that is a cat girl?

Ginro : Beats me. She's Kohaku and being called Gorilla is no problem. Or at least.

Senku : What are the odds having Comfort for that Fire girl meant for her? [Thinking] Hmmm...

[Cuts to Kohaku and Tamaki inside the Shack]

Kohaku : Hey, Tamaki. What's wrong? Is there something the matter?

Tamaki : Kohaku. We need to talk.

Kohaku : What is it?

Tamaki : It's about my past. And you're not going like this one.

Kohaku :(in shock) "Your past"? ...No way.

~ The Sad Story of Tamaki Begins ~

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #788: After a Cliff Falling Experience (SSBU X Persona 5)

3:40 p.m. at Smash Mansion's Living Room.........

It was a relaxing, peaceful day at the mansion for the Phantom Thieves (Shiho and Lavenza included) as they watch some TV together. That is until......

'Door Open'

Pit: (Weakly Made his Way to the Living Room While Being Covered in Ashes) I'm.....hoooooome......(Fells Down on the Floor in Exhaustion)

'THUD'

Phantom Thieves: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock Once They've Seen Pit Lay on the Ground) PIT!?

Makoto: Oh my god! (Immediately Makes her Way to Pit Along with the Others) Are you okay!? (Starts Helping Pit Back Up With Ren's Assistance)

Pit: ('Groans a Bit in Pain') Yeah......I think so....

Futuba: Dude, what happened to you?

Ann: Yeah. And why are you covered in ashes?

Lavenza: Were you hit by a nearby fire perhaps?

Pit: Not exactly.....I was uhh....(Starts Rubbing the Back of his Head Back and Forth While Chuckling a bit Awkwardly) Kind of, sort of got thrown off a cliff......

Phantom Thieves: You WHAT!!?

Yusuke: Who on Earth would do such a thing!?

Pit: I dunno....Some guy name Kazuya or some-

Ryuji: Waitwaitwait! You said Kazuya?

Shiho: As in THE KAZUYA MISHIMA!?

Pit: Uh....I think that's what his me is, yeah.

Ryuji: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock as He's Almost Speechless) Holy fucking shit.......

Shiho: (Covers her Mouth in Complete Shock) Oh my god.....

Ann: (Turns Ryuji and Shiho in a Not of Confusion) You guys know him or something?

Ryuji: KNOW HIM!? That's the guy from Tekken!?

Shiho: He's the guy with literal devil powers!!!

Lavenza: (Eyes Widened in Genuine Surprise) Oh my.....

Ren: Ah yeah.....Tekken. (Turns to Ryuji) I remember you telling me about it that time school. (Turns to Pit) What makes you wanna go after that guy?

Pit: Well, for starters, we really haven't heard from Ganondorf all day yesterday. So Kirby and I decided to look for him all night. Once we eventually arrived at this....Volcanic Mountain looking place, the first thing we saw was that Kazuya guy carrying Ganondorf to a cliff and throwing off there.

Ryuji: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock) FOR REAL!?

Haru: (Couldn't Believe What She's Hearing) I-I don't understand! Why would he do such a thing!?

Pit: I'm not entirely sure myself, but he did say something about wanting to fight worthy opponents or whatever.

Yusuke: So he's like Ryu then?

Ryuji: Yes......

Shiho: ......And no..... He's way more cold and ruthless than Ryu is in his Messatsu Form.

Ryuji: And that's all because the whole Mishima Family in general was messed up from the start.....

Ann: (Turns to Ryuji and Shiho) How do you two know all of this?

Ryuji: Shiho and I used to play a lot Tekken growing up.

Shiho: (Smiles Softly at her Girlfriend) You should play it with us sometime, Ann. It's really fun.

Ann: (Shrugs While Smiling at her Girlfriend) Sure. I'm down.

Makoto: Guys, we're going off topic here! (Turns Back to Pit) How exactly did you gotten yourself like this? Did you.....

Pit: Yeah....I tried to fight myself, but...beat me to the punch. (Winces a bit in Pain While Placing His Hand on his Stomach) literally.... And then after that, he tries throwing Kirby off the cliff too-

Everyone: He WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?

Pit: (Gets Startled by Everyone's Sudden Outburst Before Speaking Again) Y-Yeah. After I got beaten up and thrown off a cliff, he immediately grabs Kirby by the head and threw him out there too!

Futuba: (Had Enough) OKAY, SERIOUSLY!? What is with this guy and throwing people off CLIFFS!!!?

Pit: That's what I wanted to know!! It's like he has some kind of sick, twisted enjoyment out of it too! I even saw a glimpse of him smirking while I was falling!

Ryuji: I mean, he was thrown off a cliff when he was six. So.......

Futuba: (Starts Pinching her Nose in Disbelief) Oh my freaking God........

Makoto: (Turns to Pit) Pit, do you have any idea where Kirby must've fallen down to once you were on the ground?

Pit: I.... can't say that I do really. All I remembered is seeing was Kazuya preparing to toss Kirby off there with me. After that, I blackouted....

Ren: Wait a minute. Couldn't Kirby fly or-

Ann: I'mma kill him.

Ren/Makoto/Pit: (Slowly Turn their Heads at Ann with a Surprised Look on Each of their Faces) What?

Ann: (Turns to the Trio With Anger in Her Eyes) You heard me. I don't know who this Kazuya guy is and I don't care at this point!! I am going to find the jackass and pulverize him myself!!

Shiho: (Turns to Ann with a Determined Look on her Face) I'll go with you.

Ann: (Gently Grab Both of Shiho's Hands) No, Shiho. I don't want him to hurt you.

Shiho: (Gently Squeezes Ann's Hands) It's okay, Ann. I may not have Personas like you guys, but I've been training for a while now. I can fight too.

Ann: ('Sighs in Defeat') Fine. But you are staying right by my side in all of this, alright?

Shiho: (Nodded in Agreement) Right.

Ryuji: (Turns to Girls With Anger in his Eyes as Well) I'm going too! I don't give a damn he has crazy devil powers! Ain't no way I'm letting him get away with hurting our friends like that!!! And maybe even Ganondorf!!

Yusuke: You know.....(Puts on a Dark Look in his Eyes) It has been a long time since I've used my blade in action.....

Haru: (Has a Darken Look on her Eyes as Well) Couldn't agree more.....My axe has gotten quite dull as of late.....

Morgana: Normally I don't join in on the violence bandwagon immediately....(Puts on a Anger, Determined Look on his Face) But patience be damn! That devil's paying the piece!!

Haru: Well said, sweetie!!

Morgana: (Turns to Lavenza) Lavenza, you're coming with us?

Lavenza: (Already Has a Darken Look on her Face as Well) Of course.....I will punish thee for his cruel and thoughtless actions that was stow upon our two companions. And I will not hesitate to use my full potential in the process. In other words.....(Summons a Blue Colored Chainsaw on the Palm of Her Hands With a Loud Ripping Sound to Boot) The bastard will pay.

Futuba: (Angrily Pumps her Fist Up in the Air) AH YEAH! Let show that punk who's boss!!

Morgana: (Turns to Futuba) Futuba, you don't even know how to fight.

Futuba: (Pours at Morgana) Oh yes I do! Big sis Sae has already taught me the ropes of Self Defense and everything!

Ryuji: We can talk about that later! Right now..... (Points at the Front Door Fiercely) LET'S GET HIS SORRY ASS!!

Everyone: YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Makoto: THAT'S ENOUGH!

Makoto stomps her feet to the ground loud enough to get the rest of the Phantom Thieves' attention.

Makoto: ('Sigh') Calm down and think rationally on this, people! We can't go out there and recklessly fight him like that! He could be powerful enough to stop ALL OF US for all we know!

Ren: Makoto's right, guys. And fighting him is not our main focus at the moment. What we need to do right now is find Kirby and bring him back home.

Lavenza: (Stares at the Couple for a Brief Second Before Sighing in Defeat) The Joker and Queen are right....(Makes the Chainsaw Magically Disappear Out Thin Air) It would be foolish of all of us if we rush in without a proper plan of some kind. We must find Kirby at once.

Ryuji: But how are we gonna him in a huge ass town like this? He could anywhere for all we know!

?????: Poyo!

Ryuji: Hey, Kirby. But as I was saying, I- ('GASPS')

Everyone in the room immediately turns around and sees Kirby happily waving at them.

Kirby: Poyo! Poyo!~

Everyone: (Smiles Brightly at the Smiling Pink Puffball) KIRBY!!~

And with that, everyone (with the exception of Ren, Makoto, and Pit) immediately rushes over to Kirby and express how worried and happy they are about his whereabouts and return.

Makoto: (Watches Everyone in the Background While Sighing in Relief) Well....at least Kirby's back home.

Ren: (Smiles Softly) And not a spec of ashes in his body.

Pit: ('Sighs in Relief and Happiness') I'm so glad......I thought I would actually lose him forever. I would've been really pathetic if that were to happen....

Ren: (Eyes Widened at What Put Just Said) You would've been what now?

Makoto: (Turns to Pit with Worry in her Eyes) Pit, what are you talking about?

Pit: Oh....Well, before or....maybe after Kazuya threw me off of a cliff, he...calls "pathetic".......(Starts to Frown Sadly) And I'm starting think he's rig-

Ren/Makoto: NO HE'S NOT, PIT!!

Ren: Don't believe a SINGLE word from his mouth!!

Makoto: You are NOT pathetic, Pit! And you never will be!

Pit: B-But I lost a fight against him! A-And I wasn't even strong enough to protect Kirby.....

Ren: But Kirby's fine now. He knew he was able to float and use that opportunity to fly away safely.

Pit: I-I mean.... You're right, but-

Makoto: (Gently Place her Hands on Pit's Shoulders) But nothing, Pit. We know what happened to the both of you last night was terrible, but you still did everything you could to stop that man regardless of how strong he was at the time and we couldn't be anymore proud. So please.....(Gently Hugs Pit Lovingly) Don't ever think that way about yourself again.....

Pit: (Almost at a Loss of Words) You guys.....(Tears Starts Falling Down From his Eyes) ('Sniff') I'm sorry.....('Sniff') We didn't mean to worry you....

Ren: (Joins in on the Hug) Hey man, you have nothing to apologize for here.

Makoto: Ren's right. We're just happy that you and Kirby are back home safe.

Ren: We love you, Pit. (Kiss the Top of Pit's Head) Always.

Pit: I....('Sniff') (Gently Hugs Ren and Makoto Back) I love you guys too.....('Sniff') So much.........

@keyenuta

@princekirijo

@caleb13frede

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@albion-93

@ma-lemons

[popculturebuffet]

Prince of Wishful Thinking (Tom Retrospective): Tough Love or The True Monster

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Prince of Wishful Thinking, what is usually my look at the life and times of Tom Lucitor but since I NEED to cover the season 3 finale as vital part of Tom’s story, we’re taking one last look at the tragic tale of Meteora Butterfly before the finale sends these two stories hurtling together. You’d THINK this would be the last detour of this already sizeable arc.. and you’d be wrong as i’ll also be covering Kelly’s World, as I feel it’s vital for both “Curse of the Blood Moon” and “A Boy and his hard to remember title”, as it provides extra context for Marco’s anguish in the former.. and provides extra evidence for why a CERTAIN MOMENT in the latter pisses me off to no end.. seriously even when as universe dies and the only people left are Frankllin Richards and Galactus, there will still be a little note reading “Fuck how they treated Kelly” written in all caps so Galactus remembers to yell it. 

So sadly that DOES mean it’s been three entries in this retrospective in a row that either haven’t feature Tom at all or in the case of the last episode only had him in short cameos. I mean we did get his love affair for pie but we also got a creepy goblin man forcing his girlfriend and best friend to kiss each other, his best friend being WAY to eager to jump to that conclusion, and neither considering using Marco’s Scissors because the writers only remember he has those half the time in Season 3... and clearly I ddn’t either as I forgot to mention that plot hole, something @jess-the-vampire​ brought up to me. Sadly I DID forget to consult on this when we talked earlier this week , and she’s not online as I write this so I won’t have her insight for this one. 

But if you want some Tom content, i’m happy to share my crossover ship for the boy with you. I’ve been shipping him with Octavia from Helluva Boss lately.  Because of course it’s Helluva Boss, i’ve not been at all subtle with my obession with it and much like Letterkenny, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z Abriged it is a love I never plan to be subtle about. 

But I just think they compliment each other well: They have contrasting atittudes, and tastes in music, but seem like they’d share hobbies. Like taxidermy.. I could see Tom buying this... demonic combination of a badger, a skunk, a deer and my nightmares Octavia is preciously holding up.

Granted I also feel tom would both animate them with their dead souls.. and then use his new woodland friends of the dammned as a chorus to sing “Can You Picture That” from the Muppet Movie, because that’s what my mind does on a regular day. I think the contrasting attitude creates great chemstiry and it made me also realize I have a thing for ships with directly contrasting home lives.  Tom has two loving decent parents who deeply love one another and at worst simply didn’t reign in his worse behavior because it was standard for demon stuff. Octavia in contrast simply has two parents, one who DOES love her and tries his best, but his best includes calling his side piece “My big dicked blitzy” right in front of her and hiring said side piece to guard them, and her mother who clearly thinks so little of her daughter’s emotional well being she hired a cowboy to shoot her daddy dead in the middle of a large crowd. The point is I think they’d be adorable and they both badly need to be happy after being emotionally fucked over by people they care about. 

But  alas my new ship will have to wait as we marginally important things to get down too.. things that will impact both this season and the next’s endgame and utterly destroy Eclipsa and Moon’s relationship for good. Sound fun? Well if so join me under the cut won’t you?

We open in the Pidgeon Kingdom.. and things aren’t exactly great.. and by that I mean Meteora stomped a hole through it and ravaged the place and Rich demands blood.. and vengance.. and possibly blood vengance. But not Tekken Blood Vengance.. he already has like 5 copies of that on dvd. Still needs it on Blu Ray though, hook him up if you got it. 

So Moon and Eclipsa are trying to smooth this over/find out which way did she go George which way did she go, and are angrily dismissed after they try Rich’s patience, not helped by Eclipsa not being familiar with the Pidgeon Kingdom because they hadn’t slaughtered everyone who used to live there yet. Look that’s what happened, Star outright mentions in the Big Book of Spells that htey suddenly sprung up where another kingdom was and no one knows what happens. There was some bird murders up in that place.. or birdur if you will. Some birds drank some human blood. This is what Alfred Hitchock tried to warn us about with his film built on horrifying actress abuse. 

The point is with some more pidgeon-led murder stabbings on the cards our heroines are trying to find her since their attempts to convince Rich not to go on an Archer Style Rampage fell on deaf ears. 

But it’s clear from the second the two are alone both have diffrent priorties: Eclipsa desperatley wants to find the daughter she lost and talk her down from what sh’es become, help her become better and hopefuly heal from the pain she’s been in. She’s lost her husband, her kingdom and centuries. She can’t loose her baby girl too.

Moon on the other hand... clearly has no intrest in helping Meteora or stopping this peacefully. Her first thought is stopping Meteora. Her living through it is not necessary. It’s also clear her racisim isn’t REMOTELY gone depsite Buff Frog and Star’s best attempts and despite learning just how deeply and horribly Mewni’s engrained racism has hurt eclipsa and destoryed Moon’s own family history. To Moon this is just a big monster to fight.. i’ll dive into this more in a bit.

For now our heroines encounter an angry mob. This time their not here for Homer Simpson, but for Meteora as her rampages have destroyd their towns, livelehoods and given some weird guy a hat. It’s the best bit of the episode and i’m embarassed I forgot it happened. 

So with them being no help our queens back out but end up finding some actual help: Eddie! You know the guy from the episode I skipped over... River’s cousin or something like that. He dosen’t have a wiki entry, I do not know why. He’s voiced by Rhys Dharby of Flight of the Conchords Fame whose since made quite the career as a voice actor. No major roles yet that i’m aware of, but a lot of delightful minor ones like this. It’s good to see him he was one of the highlights of that show and not just because he sang this..

Eddie showed up in the Bog Beast of Boggabah and I honestly forgot he was in this episode.. but again, it’s Rhys Dharby. It’s not like suddenly finding out “Aw god dammit Pauly Shore is in this”. So Eddie agrees to help as he’s been tracknig Meteora.. and we find out something troubling: Meteora is getting BIGGER. Gradually, to the point the bog from said episode Is skipped over is drained because she DRANK IT. We also get a great exchange “I’d hate to see the size of her mother” “Actually her father more than helped with that”

Awwwww.... seriously Esme Blanco is a national treasure and has some great deliveries in this one.. and some heartbreaking ones. But before we can get to that it turns out Meteora sucked the powers out of Eddies family.. who he misses..e xcept one guy> That guy can fuck right off. Seriously Eddie is also a national treasure and I wish he’d shown up in season 4. I mean he couldn’t of HURT it. For one it’s Rhys Dharby and for another that season shot itself in the face, both feet, the groin and then the face again enough that I don’t think anything could hurt it as bad as the writers already did. 

But sadly we say farwell to Eddie as he goes out how men have since the begining of time.. deciding to poke a strange creature till it murdered him. Or took his soul out in this case, speaking of which...

Yeah while I couldn’t get Jess in time for this review, she did bring this up in the past: Meteora’s ablility to pull a 

Comes right the fuck out of nowhere with no build up and no explination for it. She DID drain personalites and according to this episode youth.. but that was with a big ole machine. It MIGHT have been intended to be one of Globgor’s powers.. but that makes zero sense, as if he COULD do that, as we saw with Toffee last season when he had that power, also out of nowhere but at least it made a touch more sense given his power was draining magical energy anyway at the time, so adding souls to that isn’t a huge stretch, but as we saw that would’ve been game over for the comission, especially since we DO see him fighting them one on three next season. If he had this power, he wouldn’t be in crystal and I think they realized that, but just tried to act as if his daugther COULDN’T do that and assumed everyone would casually forget. And I get not accounting for me writing about this years later, even I wouldn’t of thought that, but not counting on fans both young and old to latch onto a continuity error? Have you met fandoms Disney, have you? It dosen’t bring the story down entirely and I get WHY ti’s there, so she can nonlethally kill people so we’re not down most of the cast for Season 4, but it feels like an easy win button and one she barely uses despite it being eye beam activated. It should be easy enough to pull, boom, soul suck, win, rinse and repeat. It’s okay to have uber powerful tequniques but they have to have a drawback. For instance the Kaioken from DBZ. It’s a really damn cool technique that gives the user a neat red aura and amplifies poewr.. but the more you amplify the more strain it puts on your body and the more likely you’ll die, and Super later creatively explained why it hadn’t been used since Super Sayian was introduced because said form would’ve sped it up so much it’d be too much for a body to take. Here whie Meteora dosen’t use it in EVERY fight, she uses it enough that it makes no sense this isn’t just her first move for every fight she gets into, mental breakdown or not. 

That being said Meteora’s current mental state as she talks to her mother, having regressed to talking in only a few words and acting like a child, makes perfect sense. Henious already wasn’t in great mental shape to begin with, having a slow sustained breakdown since Marco overthrew her. and now on top of this she remembers her whole life has been a lie, starts to mutate into her natural state at a rapid and likely unehalthy pace, and then finds out on top of all of this Mewni is rightfully owed to her. Given she ended last episode blowing a guy up for rejecting her, it’s not a stretch that given even more power and no time to process anything, Metora would deteroate further. 

Esme and Jessica really knock this scene out of the park as Eclipsa presents Metora with her old doll Bobo and gently trying ot talk to her.. but you also get the fear Eclipsa feels as she tries to awkardly manuver around the fact her daughter is far more unhinged than she was prepared for, even threanting Eclipsa simply because Eclipsa wanted to be called mother instead of mommy. But despite this fear.. Eclipsa wants to help and Walter beautifuly captured metoera as a hulk like tragic figure:a being with low sanity and too much power desperate to be loved by the one person it cares about. And it makes it even more heartbreaking as Eclipsa explains what happened: bad people trapped her , a disfunctoinal society with a racist queen and even more racist subjects has taken hold in her absence... and it’s clear both want opposite things: Meteora wants what sh’es owed, her family back on the throne and Mewni back in her graps, but has lost herself so much to rage, anger and insanity she can’t see it’s not hers to take, while Eclipsa.. just wants her daughter back. She’d be happy just settling down with her and having a LIFE after hers was taken away. Eclipsa just wants a chance to be with what family she has left. It just HURTS to know that despite RIGHTFULLY hating the comission, despite having eveyr reason to take the crown from Moon by force and make the world better by force.. she dosen’t want that. She just wants some peace. It’s selfish... but it’s hard not to be when you havealmost nothing to hold onto. Eclipsa has lost her legacy, her husband and her crown... Meteora is all she has and all she wants and sh’ed of been happy if she just accepted that. If that was enough. 

But the real telling part, and the thing that ultimately makes this go as bad as it does.. is Moon’s reactions to all of this. Sh’es CONFUSED by Meteora having a toy as if that’s foreign to her a monster would, and she’s cleaerly livid , if restrianing it, at both Meteora’s deire for the crown and Eclipsa RIGHTFULLY calling out the state of how things are, and mildly at that. Despite seeing how much damage Mewni’s inherent racisim has done, how it lead to her living a lie, ruined Eclipss, Globgore and Metora’s lives, despite how DESPERTLY her daughter struggles to fight against it, despite seeing firsthand that Monsters can have famiies and lives... she can’t let it go. She can’t see monsters as people. SHe dosen’t see a flawed person who was turned into a metpohrical monster by years of brainwashing and abuse and is slowly unravling under the weight of her true self.. she just sees a threat to her kingdom. She dosen’t see her kingdom as racist, just as it should be. And she dosen’t see herself as stepping down like hse damn well should’ve the MOMENT she found out everything. Because at her heart Moon can’t accept the truth and clings to her racisim. 

And that my friends.. is what ultimately leads to Tragedy. Not Meteora’s unraveling mental state, not Eclipsa’s naitvite. What happens next is ENITRELY Moon’s fault. Whle Eclipsa was failing to get through to Metora, she was trying her best and might of gotten somewhere.. but Moon was already settling to attack.. and does so, making it look like Eclipsa set her own child up. 

A fight ensues, a suprisingly even one... but Eclipsa breaks it up and PROVES her way could’ve worked. In one of Esme’s best performances sshe tearfully tells her daughter she loves her.. that ALL she wants is time with her to make up for what she’s lost.. she dosen’t need a kingdom or her crown or her wand, all things she DESERVES... she just wants her daughter. She just wants to help her baby girl before she goes so far down this path of hatred and vengance she’s alreayd well trod upon there is no point to return to. 

It gets through to Meteora, makes her stop... and Moon TAKES ADANTAGE OF THAT. She then restrains metoera with a magical rock barrier and starts palpatineing her to death. It’s a horrifying moment that ultimately shows who Moon really is.. that when given the chance to let Meteora go, let her CHANGE and grow as a person and help the kingdom.. she instead tries to kill her. When she’s no longer a threat,  hasn’t seriously hurt her in their fight, and could use her power to RESTORE the damage she’s done, fix what she’s broken and help the kingdom grow and mend the bridges racisim has torn down. But all she can see is a monster, and something to destroy.. not someONE to save. 

So Eclipsa does what Moon would do if it were star about to die and saves her daughter, desperatly trying to stop mooon.. and allowing Meteora to get a clear shot and take half of moon’s soul. While Eclipsa is able to stop her from taking the full thing, Moon is left disoreinted and half alive and leaves on insticnt to parts unknown while Meteora escapes. Eclipsa is left alone, devistated and with her daughter truly lost. And the worst is truly yet to come. 

Before we get into final thoughts i’d like to talk about how this scene impacts Moon’s betryal later. To me having rewatched this scene.. it only makes it work MORE making it clear Moon simply can’t fahtom racial equality and that she can’t fahtom that eclipsa had very good reason for doing what she did ... to me it comes off as her using Eclipsa betryaing her as a very flimsy justifcation to not validate her rule and to first retire and then try a coup. That “Well she “BETRAYED” me so i’m fine. “ But in truth... she betrayed Eclipsa first. She attacked her daughter TWICE when Eclipsa was close to getting through to her Her reasons are flimsy.. because i’ts not ABOUT eclipsa, but what eclipsa represents: equality with a race Moon dosen’t see as people. It’s about Moon’s racisim coloring everything tills h’es truly blinded and should have lost everything She didn’t because the ending is a fucking disgrace, but we might get to that at some point, the point here is for all that disgrace’s faults... it did get it right here, and Moon was always portrayed as being unable to let go of her racisim no matter what it cost her or how much her daughter despteratly tried to change her. Trust me as someone whose Dad used to argue that gay marriage meant he should be able to marry his cat, and who still argues against trans people using the bathroom of their choice, I get trying desperatley to change someone who don’t wanna. “Sigh”. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is truly excellent. The writing is top notch as is the voice acting for all involved and the climax isa true, well led up to tragedy. The animation is also on point, with the characters emotions on perfect display. This is an episode I now realize is one of the series best and worth ar ewatch if you haven’ts een it. Truly amazing stuff that gets me pumped for the finale.. and disapoints me in how the series could reach these highs for one finale.. but would sink to it’s lowest point for next seasons.  Next Time on Prince of Wishful Thinking: Star tries depseratly to find her mom, while Marco, Tom and a motely crew of misfits try to take down Meteora and Tom learns the awful truth from the photo booth and wears a zuko ponytail which weirdly looks good on him. That boy can rock anything let me tell you. 

If you enjoyed this reviews, please consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As mentioned my 30 dollar stretch goal includes a review of the cluster fuck that is the series final arc, and the goals up to that , me making 20 and 25 dollars a month repectively, have their own nifty rewards: At 20 i’ll review Darkwing Duck once a month, the two remaning Ducktales 87 mini series I have not covered and the Danny Phantom film The Ultimate Enemy. 25 meanwhile gets you reviews of the Proud Family Movie, the theatrical recess movie and the Kim Possible almost finale movie so the drama. And 30 also gets you reviews of every episode of gravity falls season 1 at least one a month till I finish it at some point, so as you can see you get a lot of bang for your buck and these reviews will be public for everybody. Not only that but joining my patreon gets you a review a month if you pitch in 5 dollars and evne if you can’t swing THAT much just 2 bucks gets you access to my discord, a guarnateed pick in my shorts, votes for patreon exclusive reviews, and SAID patreon exclusive reviews. It’s a lot of bang for your buck is what i’m saying so please help me out so I can make a living off this and sign up today. I even JUST ADDED an exclusive and utterly insane scrooge mcduck review, The Great Wig Mystery. So throw in a buck to check that out. 

And if your intrested in Tomtavia... please hit me up. I’m really proud of it and until then... i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[vantaenims]

chocolate milk | jungkook

pairing: jungkook x reader

genre:  childhood friends au | fluff, humor

word count: 6.8k

warning/s: smoking and jimin’s younger than jungkook here lol.

summary: You never planned to catch some feelings for Jungkook but you didn’t know that he’s the mastermind of all these fickle thoughts. It’s all thanks to Psychology and Human Behavior.

masterlist 

all rights reserved © vantaenims - do not repost, translate, or claim as your own.

--

 Every year you and your family go to the Jeon’s rest house for your annual summer vacation along with the Kims. Your mom is best friends with Jungkook and Taehyung’s mom ever since they were in high school – soul sisters, as they like to call themselves.  So it left you no choice but to also form the same kind of friendship with their sons whom you practically grew up with.

 The tradition started when you were eight when the rest house was completed the year before. Jungkook’s mom invited your family and Taehyung’s to spend the summer there.  You’re in awe as soon as you stepped inside the premises of the newly built house that you thought you were in paradise.

 You remember that summer clearly, your eyes immediately landing on the swimming pool where you can see Jungkook refilling his water gun as he shoots you with it, the moms singing along to the 80s music playing in the background, the dads making barbeque as they set up everything for lunch, and Taehyung putting on a sunblock on Seoyun, her little sister, inviting you to swim with them as soon as he saw you arrive.

 It was supposedly meant to be a one-time thing until you pestered your mom every single day of that summer with questions like ‘are we coming back here next summer?’, ‘can we live here?’, or even a bratty remark like ‘I’m gonna cry for the whole year if we don’t come back here.’

 It was insufferable considering Jungkook and Taehyung decided to join you in consistently pestering their moms too. Looking back, it’s funny when you all screamed with joy when all of your parents agreed to come back here next summer thus marking the start of the annual summer vacation in the Jeon’s rest house.

 You and Jungkook are in the kitchen, assigned to cook and prepare for today’s dinner. Jungkook instructed you to chop the necessary ingredients needed for the meal as you can’t cook to save your life.

 “You nervous for the grades?” he said, stirring the pot filled with kimchi stew.

 You’ve gotten in the same university as Jungkook’s, with you majoring in Finance while Jungkook majors in Psychology.

 “Kinda” you exclaimed with a huff, sitting yourself on the kitchen counter after you’ve done everything he asked you to do. The grade results will be out next week and the achiever in you can’t wait to see how well or bad you did for your first year in college.

 “Don’t ponder too much about it” he said, motioning for you to get the bowls for him. But knowing you of course it’s been on your mind 24/7 ever since the finals ended, you were one of the top students in high school after all.

 “College made me feel so mediocre” you frowned.

 “Said every freshman ever” he laughed, pouring a generous amount of stew into separate bowls.

 He messed your hair after he looked up to see you still frowning, “I believe in you.”

 --

 You remember two years ago when Jungkook came into your house unannounced even though his dorm is approximately an hour away from you just because he wanted to rant how he can’t handle the amount of work load he has, saying that he’s not good at multi-tasking.

 He brought his backpack with him as he entered your room, sitting at the floor beside your bed, asking if you could help him do some of his homework or requirements.

“Jungkook, I’m a senior student in high school. How am I supposed to do a college homework?” you looked at him if he’s being really serious. “Couldn’t you ask some of your college friends to help you?”

 “Well, I’m a freshman who clearly doesn’t have enough friends yet so can you please help me?” he sighed, pleading at you with those big doe eyes. “Plus you’re smarter than me anyway, I believe in you” he said winking at you.

 “Fine” you said, rolling your eyes. He took out his laptop and passed you a pad paper and his thick textbook in Developmental Psychology.

 “I’ve already written the questions there, I think the answers are in Chapter 3 and 4” he peered at you, a discontented look displayed on your face but he knows how you can give in to his request, he took out a box of your favorite chocolate milk and placed it right in front of you.

 “Got it Sir!” you said a little too enthusiastically as you grab the paper and textbook from him.

 --

 Jungkook called everyone to come down after you finished setting down the dish and plates in the table. Situating yourself in the middle of Jungkook and Seoyun. You looked at the empty seat next to Jungkook. Taehyung was supposed to seat there but he’s not here

                                                                                                               “Will Taehyung be coming here?” you asked Taehyung’s mom just to make sure. You messaged Taehyung when you noticed his absence right after you arrived in the house but he hasn’t replied to you yet.

 “He’ll be coming here on Monday” she informed you. “He went on a trip with his college friends.”

 As soon as she said that, your phone buzzed. You checked to see that it’s a message from Taehyung.

 [Sat, June 13, 12:38 PM]

 Taehyung: hey Y/N! Sorry I can’t reply awhile ago, signal’s weak here. Don’t be sad, I’ll be coming there on Monday. I know u and Jungkook miss me already ;)

 You: where did you go?

You: shut up we don’t miss you

 Taehyung: Japaaaaan!

Taehyung: that’s too bad I was about to buy some green tea chocolates for u but ok

 You: I miss you!

You: we miss you our handsome kim taehyung!

You: haha anyways, enjoy!

 “So Y/N” you chucked your phone away in your lap as you glanced at Jungkook’s mom. “I heard you had a boyfriend.” You’re confused to say the least, brows furrowing with the sudden ridiculous information. You didn’t even know you had a boyfriend until this point.

 “Your mom told me a certain someone frequently visits your house” your mom laughed as he slapped the arm of Jungkook’s mom, shushing her.

 “I think she’s keeping it a secret for a while, don’t push her” your mom whispered as if you were not there in front of you to hear it. Rolling your eyes, you know who that someone is but her assumptions are wrong.

 Your mom always assumes that every boy – except Jungkook and Taehyung – who comes into your house is your boyfriend considering the fact that you studied in an all-girls school from nursery to high school.

 That someone she’s referring to is Jimin, a fellow freshman finance major who you’ve become good friends with. Upon knowing that Jimin lives in the same city as you, you’ve mutually agreed to accompany each other every time you return home weekly to make the one hour trip less boring.

 But she was totally convinced that Jimin is your boyfriend after your mother saw him dropping you off for the fifth time, giving you a knowing smile once you entered the house. An impassive look on your face as you told her that he’s just a friend.

 “You have a boyfriend?” Jungkook turned his head to look at you with wide eyes.

 “I don’t!” you whispered shout, “And if I do why is it such a big deal?”

 “Because you’ve never had a boyfriend” he said like it’s a common knowledge for you all.

 “And you’ve never had a girlfriend either so”, Jungkook was about to retort something when his father asked him to get the fruit salad they made in the refrigerator for dessert.

 He stood up, albeit reluctantly, as he squints his eyes at you, “We’re not done yet” he mouthed while you childishly stuck out your tongue at him.

 --

 You thought catching feelings for Jungkook was out of the question but you were wrong. It started when he’d always invite you to study with him and he would always give you your favorite chocolate milk. You appreciate the gesture but you set aside those funny feelings, thinking you’re just happy to see him. A happy crush is what you’d like to say it is.

 Not too long, you confirmed your feelings for Jungkook is dangerously heightening after you saw what he looked like on your sister’s wedding a year ago. A black suit paired with a neatly white polo tucked in his slacks, his hair swept to the side.

 It bothered you how he suddenly looked different, actually ten times more attractive. You just saw him as this cute annoying boy but tonight he switched to be a fine looking man. Jungkook caught you gawking at him, a smirk displayed on his face as he watched you scramble for your phone to make it seem you were busy with it.

 Panicking, you started to video the wedded couple’s first dance until Jungkook blocked your camera. Asking if you want to dance with him as he held his hand to you, leaving you with really no choice but to accept the offer.

 Suddenly, you felt awkward as you don’t know where to put your hands until Jungkook guided you to put it around his neck whilst he put his hands around your waist. Eyes avoiding his as you try to get a hold of yourself.

 “Why are you shaking?” he laughed, sensing your nervousness.

 “It’s cold” you lied. He’s too close for your liking hence you can see the scar on his right cheek and can smell the cologne he only uses on special occasions.

 “Is this better?” he asked, leaving no space in between you as he reeled you into him, slow dancing in a hugging position. Shock overcoming you though this is not something new between you two, it’s normal for the both of you to be openly affectionate but it’s incomprehensible why you’re suddenly feeling butterflies in your stomach.

 In conclusion, you’re starting to fall for Jungkook.

 --

 After taking a shower, you descended down the stairs to see Jungkook and Daecho – Taehyung’s younger brother – playing Tekken on the Playstation. Smiling to yourself as soon as you saw how cute Jungkook looks in a matching gray hoodie and shorts, eyes wide and mouth agape as he concentrates on defeating Daecho.

 Opening the kitchen cabinet, you got yourself some potato chips as you sit cross legged beside Jungkook on the couch.

 “Can I have some?” Jungkook asked, eyes still glued on the screen. You reached the bag of chips towards him, nudging your shoulders against his when he made no movement to get one. He opened his mouth towards you, waiting for you to feed him.

 “I’m playing” you rolled your eyes but feed him anyway. Daecho also chiming in if you could feed him too, making you their servant.

 Soon after, Daecho was called by his mom to go upstairs telling him that he should sleep since it’s late. Grumbling, Daecho stood up and bid good night to the both of you before ascending the stairs. Jungkook turned off the console and switched the television to Netflix.

 “Pick what you want to watch”, he tossed the remote control at you, standing up to go to the kitchen.

 You scan over the wide selection of movies until your eyes landed on your favorite anime film, “How about Spirited Away? For old time’s sake.”

 “There are Studio Ghibli Films now on Netflix?” he jogged back to the sofa to look at the screen while he hands you the uncooked pack of popcorn. You laughed as you grabbed it, finding it hilarious how he’s still scared of the microwave.

 It all started when he was 10, he grabbed the leftover chicken wrapped in foil in the refrigerator and put it straightaway in the microwave. Taehyung entered the kitchen just in time to see the ruckus, unplugging the appliance right away when he saw Jungkook just standing still and not moving from his spot as he watched the foil sparked into a fire.

 Taehyung scolded Jungkook for almost destroying the microwave or even almost causing a fire but immediately felt bad when he suddenly saw the younger one bursting into tears, thinking that he was about to die from a microwave explosion.

 Laughing at the memory, you walk and sat back into the sofa as you share the bowl of popcorn with Jungkook who’s laying down, placing his feet on your lap. The screen showing the scene where Chihiro and her parents enter the tunnel.

 “I still remember that one summer when you would watch Spirited Away every single day because you have a cartoon crush on Haku” he said as you threw him a popcorn to shut him up.

 Jungkook laughed as he eats the popcorn that landed on his chest until he sat up to remove the bowl of popcorn from your hands to place it in the table as he plopped his head on your lap. As an instinct, you ran your fingers into his now long wavy hair.

 “Your hair’s long” you said as you mindlessly braid strands of his hair.

 “Do you like it?” he’s touching the braids you’ve made, his hands almost touching yours before you move it to the next strand of his hair. You hummed, loosing his braids to undo it. He grabbed your hands as he sniffed it.

 “Why are you sniffing my hand idiot?” you laughed as you booped his nose with your finger.

 “It smells nice”

 “It’s the strawberry body wash you got me for secret santa last year” you said as you watched him play with your fingers and even giving you a hand massage.

 “Do you really have a boyfriend now?” he asked out of nowhere.

 “No” you firmly said, annoyed once again for what your mom said. Jungkook whined as he put a hand on his side of the head where you unconsciously tugged his hair a bit too strong. Laughing as you apologized for taking your annoyance out at him.

 “Who was she referring to?”

 “It’s Jimin” you said, “You know how we always go home together.”

 “You’ve never told me that” Jungkook turned his head to look up at you, “Besides, isn’t Jimin the guy who you had spent time that one Tuesday night right? The one when you stood me up”

 Jungkook was being petty once again, he had brought this topic too many times for it to be annoying by now but you can’t blame him though since you’re the one at fault in the first place.

 Tuesday and Thursday nights are meant for study dates with Jungkook in a café but you had spent one Tuesday night with Jimin in the library because you had to do a paper with him that is due for submission that night at 11:59 p.m.

 But you were so busy that you forgot to message Jungkook that you wouldn’t be able to study with him. You only realized it when you checked your phone in bed, ready to sleep. Your lock screen is filled with missed calls and messages from Jungkook.

 “Hey, I at least rushed to the café to still meet you” you said, pushing his head to the side.

 Jungkook was thankfully still in the café by the time you got there. You sat in front of him as you try to explain and apologize but he just blatantly ignored you until you stole his pen from him to write ‘I’m sorry :(‘ in his notebook.

 “I could drop you off at home you know” he said, eyes focusing on the television.

 “I live farther from you, Jungkook” you reminded him, fingers making it’s way back from his hair again as you massage his scalp. The action made Jungkook close his eyes, humming at how relaxing it is.

 “If it’s you, I don’t mind” he whispered. You stared at him because he doesn’t know he could make your heart race just by saying that, he doesn’t know that you have developed feelings for him and you know It deep inside that it’s a case of unrequited love.

 You reminded yourself that he’s being like this because he’s older than you which could mean that’s he’s only just being protective but times like this you’d think that Jungkook might possibly have feelings for you.

  --

 “Do you have the list with you?”

 “Yeah, I got it” you said as you enter the car, situating yourself in a comfortable position while you buckle your seatbelt. You forgot the grocery list in the kitchen so you made a run for it while Jungkook stood by in the car.

 Switching the gear to reverse, Jungkook looked back with his hand steering the wheel while his arm is placed behind your seat as he fully backed the car from the garage to the driveway. Oddly enough, the view of Jungkook reversing the car with that arm position is inexplicably attractive.

 “It’s weird, we’re now assigned to do the grocery run” you said in kind of a rush to cover yourself after Jungkook noticed you’ve been staring at him, causing him to shoot you a playful smirk.

 “Isnt that fun? We get to be the older ones now” he said albeit enthusiastically.

 The grocery runs were usually done by your older sister and Jungkook’s older brother every sunday but they’re both absent for this year’s summer considering your sister is on a vacation with his husband while Jungkook’s brother is in America for an internship.

 You propped your elbow on the window, placing your chin in the palm of your hand. “Yeah but you know the older we get, the lesser we are in the house”, you frowned in disappointment.

 “Taehyung’s not even here”

 “He will be here tomorrow though”

 “But you know I think I just get attached to the idea that I spend every summer with you guys then for it to be gone one day”

 “We still do exist in autumn, winter, and spring you know” he said trying to cheer you up as he pets your hair, “plus you almost see me everyday now that we’re in the same university.”

 “Yeah, right” you chuckled. Ever since you started college, it’s been kind of a routine to spend at least once or twice a week with Jungkook in a café nearby your dorms to study and possibly hang out.

 You’ve basically camouflaged yourselves to be one of those college students dressed unapologetically in their hoodies and pajamas with their textbooks, highlighters, and laptops sprawled out on the table while you’re both focused in your own worlds.

 Jungkook would casually get your post it notes to draw something random like a dog or a flower but he would mostly draw your eyes, even captivating every single detail of it. He’d stick it to your book, laptop screen, or wherever your attention is. In fact, you had collected every single drawing of his as the sentimental person you are.

 Your thoughts are quickly interrupted when the car engine was turned off, looking around, you didn’t notice that you were already in the parking lot of the supermarket. You opened the door as you walk to the entrance.

 Grabbing your arm, Jungkook stopped you as he waved at the camera placed at the entrance of the supermarket encouraging you to do the same thing. Laughing as you watch yourselves being childishly silly.

 “You know, sometimes I think you’re actually younger than me” you said as you grabbed a push cart and head to the dairy section.

 “Hmm you wish” Jungkook hastily put his arm around your shoulders, ruffling your hair. He maintained his arm around yours like that, telling yourself to pay no mind to it and that it’s a casual thing to do.

 To calm yourself a bit, you brought out the list and handed it to Jungkook, instructing him that he’s in charge of getting the items while you’ll be pushing the cart around. You let out a breath you didn’t notice you were holding when he detached himself from you.

 --

 “Do you want to play for a while?” you pointed out to the arcade as you exit the supermarket.

 Jungkook turned to look where you’re pointing at, “Sure, it’s been a while” he smiled, grabbing the cart from you, telling you he’ll follow soon after he unload the groceries in the car.

 As soon as you entered the arcade, you were hit with a sense of nostalgia as you remember when you would always tail with your sister and Jungkook’s brother for their grocery run so you, Taehyung, and Jungkook could play in the arcade while you wait for them to finish.

 You brought out the old arcade card you unnoticeably still had in your wallet as you gave it to the staff to load it.

 “You still have that?” Jungkook’s sudden appearance made you jump a little as he laughed at you when you placed a hand on your heart. “Disappointingly, I misplaced mine it was even a limited edition Pokemon design”, he said frowning.

 You laughed at his bummed state, nudging him what would he like to play first. He looked around, eyes widening at his sudden idea, “How about we make a deal? Loser gets to do whatever the winner says.”

 You squinted at him as you contemplate if it’s a good idea to take the deal because there’s a high probability that Jungkook would win anyway. “Okay, deal” you laughed, shaking his extended hand.

 For the first game, you chose to play the car racing game where you surprisingly defeated Jungkook thus making him more competitive as he is. He chose to play a round of basketball for the second game wherein he won by five points ahead of you. It is now up to the last game to determine the winner.

 “We should pick something we have never played before so it’ll be fair” Jungkook said, his eyes landing to a group of kids cheering for their friend whose holding onto two metal handles in front of the hands of a gorilla. It’s called Raging Ape as he read the sign above.

 Jungkook tugged you towards the game after the kids left, “Have you played this before?” you shook your head to say no. After observing the kids, he informed you that the game is all about hand hold strength basically you just have to hold onto it as long as you can while the vibrating frequency increases.

 There are three buttons; low power, med power, and high power. Jungkook volunteered to be the first one to try it as he swiped the card through the slot, pressing the high power button.

 “Does it shock you?” you said, noticing the lightning drawing patterns.

 “I don’t know, let’s see” he grabbed the metal handles as he waits for it to start. The machine emitted a low whirring sound signaling that the game has started, sound and vibrations increasing by the second. Jungkook turned his head to your side as he scrunched his nose when it got to the highest intensity.

 “I can’t feel my hands” he laughed as he successfully held into it the whole time, shaking his hand to get rid of the numbness. Jungkook swiped the card right away, not even giving you time to get ready.

 You hesitantly put your hands on the handle, nerves quite going up. “Does it hurt?” you peered at Jungkook for some assurance, “A bit but you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, no pressure” he teased but you can also be competitive just like him so you ignored his comment as you went with it.

 It made your hands feel ticklish and tingly at first but then as the intensity escalated it became more unbearable. You yelped making you loosen your grip around it as you felt a shock coursed right through your hands.

 You rub your hands together, looking at Jungkook as he excitedly points at himself proclaiming that he’s the winner. “No, let me do it again”, you protested.

 Jungkook crossed his arm while he put his fingers in his forehead, eyes closed as if he’s deep in thought whether he should give you another chance but of course he wouldn’t – not when he’s already the winner.

 “No, let’s go” he said making you sigh as you thought so. He grabbed you by the wrist as you exit the arcade, his hands momentarily sliding down to your hand, fully taking a hold of it. You stared at your enclosed hands, a different wave of shock surging in – a much stronger one than the game.

 --

 You situated yourself on the lounge chair beside the pool, eyelids drooping from the late afternoon breeze. You placed your phone you’ve been scrolling through out the afternoon in your stomach as you closed your eyes, lulling your head to the side.

 “I’ve made you a mango juice” you opened your eyes to see Jungkook’s mom propping herself on the chair as well placing the shake on the table between you two. She apologized when she noticed she must’ve woken you up but you dismissed her saying that you’re hungry anyway.

 “How’s the first year of college for you dear?”

 “It was great, I’m glad Jungkook’s there for me” you smiled at her.

 “I told him that he should always look out for you” she said while she sips from her juice, “Does he always check on you?”

 “Don’t worry, we make sure to see each other every week” you informed her, “Ah I forgot to thank you for the Chicken Pesto Pasta.”

 She looked at you as if she’s confused, “It was during my birthday, Jungkook told me you made it for me”, you reminded her.

 Sleep. That was how you plan to spend your birthday after your class ended for the day, you have no energy in you anymore to bother going out for your birthday not after taking an all-nighter the day before for a presentation.

 Not until Jungkook invited you at his dorm the night of your birthday, telling you that his mom had sent you a meal. He begged you to come by telling you he would go to your dorm if it isn’t an all girls’ dormitory. So you spent your birthday at Jungkook’s dorm, eating the pasta in a microwavable container in his bed as you watch About Time in his laptop.

 “Did I?” Jungkook’s mom questioned as she tried to remember but nothing came to mind however she did recall when Jungkook called to facetime her, asking her to stay in the line while he cooks the pasta and listens to her instructions.

 “Oh yes, did you enjoy it?” you nodded eagerly, “I think it was the best one you’ve ever made yet.”

 She chose not to mention that it was Jungkook who made that for you, already taking the hint why his son hid the fact that it was him who prepared that.

 “Dinner’s ready, let’s eat” you turned around to see your mom’s head peeking out the sliding door. You stood up, taking the two empty glasses in your hand as you made your way inside.

 “Y/N can you call the kids upstairs?” your mom said, taking the glasses from you.

 You went up as you quickly knock on the doors of Daecho, Seoyun, and Jungkook, shouting that dinner’s ready. Skipping down the stairs, you sat on your seat after calling them too lazy to check if they’ve heard you but you munched on your food right away as soon as you saw Daecho and Seoyun going down.

 “Y/N, did you call Jungkook?” your mom asked while you looked at her with your mouth full, nodding to say yes, “Can you call him again?”, putting the chopsticks down, you stood up, grumbling quietly as you made your way up.

 “Jungkook, dinner’s ready” you knocked on his door ready to go downstairs again but then you didn’t hear any answer from him. Growing impatient, you twisted the door knob as you entered his room.

 “Jungkook, wake up dinner’s ready” you stood at the end of his bed, annoyed at the fact that he probably wouldn’t wake up just yet as the deep sleeper he is. You grabbed the blanket and tossed it on the floor, revealing his weird sleeping position – crossed legs and arms.

 “Please, I’m really hungry, just wake up” you pleaded as you threw a pillow on his chest. Jungkook groaned as he hugged the pillow closer, you tried to pry it away from his but his grip around it is too strong.

 “Jungkook!” you dragged his name in a deep voice deciding to seat at the side of his bed.

 He finally opened his eyes, laughing at how you look so annoyed. He rubbed his eyes as he gently grabbed your arm that is placed on his bed, sitting up in a position where his elbows supported his upper body weight.

 You’re once glaring eyes then turned into wide ones at how close his face is to yours – it’s not that actually close but it’s enough to make your heart race. Also, it isn’t helping how his half closed eyes and long fluffy hair made him look cuddlier but you wont let him know that.

 You’re just friends, that’s it. You repeated to yourself but his intense stare – you’d like to believe – says other wise. You wanted to break away from his gaze or say something but you found yourself to be stuck in a trance until you heard your mom calling for you and Jungkook to go down.

 “Let’s go” you stood up, maybe a bit too fast as you exit his room while Jungkook laid down again, smiling that maybe his plan is coming to fruition.

 --

 All those all nighter in college changed your body clock. It’s 2:30 a.m. and you’ve done everything like reading a book and listening to your sleep playlist in order for you to sleep but you still found yourself wide awake.

 Staring at the ceiling, you thought that maybe if you do something tiring then it’ll be easier to sleep. With that thought, you stood up as you made your way to your drawer, taking out your one-piece swimsuit you used to wear during your varsity swimmer days in high school.

 You made your way down as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake anyone up at this hour. Sliding the door, you made your way outside as you lay down the towel in the chair and slipped your flip flops off.

 Being in the water feels like a second nature to you, you’ve been swimming since you were seven. Swimming was fun but then it’s more of like a hobby rather than a dream, that’s why you decided not to partake in the university’s swimming team so you could focus on your studies.

 With your hands on the gutter, you pushed your feet against the wall of the pool as you do a freestyle. You tried to follow one part of your old training routine which is doing 15 laps of freestyle.

 After completing the set, you evened out your breath by bubbling five times underwater. The freestyle was supposed to be followed with laps of 15 backstrokes, 15 breaststrokes, and 15 butterfly strokes but you think it’d be impossible to do more at this point.

 “I’m not good anymore” you mumbled to yourself, eyes closed as you rest it on your arm that’s placed on the gutter, feeling exhausted but also disappointed because you’re clearly out of practice.

 “Your Olympic tumble turns are great though” you were surprised to say the least once you heard Jungkook’s voice. He’s sitting on the lounge chair as he laughed when you splashed him bits of water for scaring you.

 “What are you doing here?”

 “I could ask you the same thing” he raised his eyebrows, cunningly smiling at you.

 “I couldn’t sleep” you said, retreating back your head to position it once again on your arm.

 “Well then, that makes the two of us” you looked at him then your eyes flickered at his hands, you come closer to the side of the pool just to make sure if you’re eyes are deceiving you.

 “Is that a cigarette?” you looked at him but he’s looking at the ground as he hid the cigarette from you, avoiding your stare.

 “Can I try?” you managed to say after he chosed to ignore you, his bewildered eyes immediately looking at you.

 “No, it’s not safe Y/N” he said in a hushed stern voice. You were just messing with him, of course you wouldn’t even try but it’s the only way to catch him off guard.

 “When did you start smoking?”

 “Just this year” he looked at you but you were giving him a look as if you want him to explain further, “My friend asked me if I want a hit so I tried until I asked him for one”, he said as if he’s disappointed in himself, you did remember when he said he doesn’t like it when his dad smokes.

 “Don’t worry I just smoke occassionaly though, I’m trying to stop before it gets worse” he assured you, putting the cigarette out even though it’s not yet close to being finished. You nodded, relieved that he’s at least trying.

 An idea must’ve been popped into his mind as he stood up to get the kickboard, “Let’s do the kickboard stand.” You rolled your eyes as he tried to change the subject but you let him have his way.

 You, Jungkook, and Taehyung invented this game wherein you all stand on the kickboard as you push yourselves further to the deepest part of the pool. It’s all just about withstanding the kickboard from surfacing until you lose balance.

 Suddenly, Jungkook took off his shirt and threw it on the chair. You can’t help but stare at his defined body, you’ve seen him shirtless a lot of times but this is the first time you became flustered about it.

 He threw the kickboard in before he dipped himself in the pool. As instructed, you sat yourself on the ledge while you placed both of your feet on the kickboard, standing slowly while Jungkook pushed it down with his feet.

 The distance between you two is close to being non-existent given that the kickboard is small. You tried to balance on it while Jungkook pushes the board into the deeper part of the pool.

 As it almost reached the end, you felt the board move a bit. The movement made you hold on to Jungkook’s shoulder so you could steady yourself, you both chuckled as he reached down to your elbow to keep you in place.

 You looked up at him see the moonlight reflecting on his face, making him more ethereal. He’s looking down as he tries to focus keeping the board from emerging. It’s one of those times where you unnoticeably get lost just by looking at him.

 Unable to resist, you swept his hair that made it’s way down to cover his eyes. The action made Jungkook quite surprised as you both silently stare at each other like what just happened back in his room.

 You were about to break the silence not until you saw Jungkook glancing at your lips which made you do the same. He gently tugged your elbow towards him as he slowly lean towards your face only for it to be ruined as you both lose your balance on the board.

 The kickboard aggressively rocketed on your face before you toppled and submerged. As soon as you surfaced, you saw Jungkook laughing his heart out, embarrassed you splashed him a water as you made your way to the ledge of the pool to sit.

 You tasted something metallic in your mouth, putting a finger on it you saw blood. “I busted my lip” you frowned.

 Jungkook tried to contain his laughter as he came closer to you, inspecting your lower lip with his fingers on it. Your heart’s beating erratically with how he’s touching your lip and him being in between your legs.  

 “Wait” he said as he got out of the pool, muscles flexing when he pushed himself up through the gutter.

 Stop thirsting over Jungkook, you reminded yourself.

 He hurriedly came back with a chocolate milk in his hand and got in the pool. He was about to place the box of milk in your mouth until you stopped him.

 “Jungkook, why would you put that in my mouth?” you ask him confused as to why he thought of this as a remedy for your busted lip.

 He chuckled, putting it to your mouth anyway, “It’s the only thing that is frozen, there are no ice cubes unless you want me to put a frozen chicken in your mouth.” He figured that you must be thinking why it’s frozen so he explained that he plans to eat it as an ice cream.

“Are you okay?” he said, stifling a laugh as he remembered the look on your face.

 You shoved his shoulder, glaring at him, “This was your idea.”

 “I know, I’m sorry”

 Your mind is going crazy again as you noticed your back in the same position before he got out of the pool – you sitting on the ledge and him in between your legs. Also, you remember when he started leaning in towards you before the incident.

 “I like you” you mumbled but quickly covered your mouth after you realized you voiced out your thoughts.

 Jungkook looked at you with wide eyes but was quickly replaced with a smirk, “I know” he said as he placed back the box of milk to your mouth.

 “What? What do you mean you know?” you’re curious if you were really that obvious.

 “I liked you first before you even like me” his confession was a surprise to you though it’s somewhat not the answer to your question.

“Okay? Congrats?” you’re confused as to what he meant.

 “I learned Pavlov’s Theory of Classical Conditioning in class and decided to test if it works” now you’re even more confused whilst he chuckled before continuing, “To explain it, he theorized that a dog salivates whenever he sees food. The salivation being the unconditioned response and the food as the unconditioned stimulus. So he-“

 “Jungkook, why are you telling me this?” you said, cutting him off.

 “Let me finish, you’ll know later”, he chuckled as he squeezed your knee, “So he introduced the bell, he rings it just before he gives the food. After a while, the dog now associates the bell with the food thus making the item a conditioned stimulus. In conclusion, the dog salivates whenever he hears the bell because he associated it with the food.”

 You blinked slowly at him, “That’s nice to know but what?”

 “This is your favorite right?” he referred to the chocolate milk, you nodded your head to say yes, “And what do you feel whenever you see one?”

 “Uh happy?” he clicked his tongue, winking at you. “Right, so I kind of conditioned you to feel happy whenever you see me because you associated me – the conditioned stimulus – to this milk.”

 It finally made sense now, Jungkook does always give you chocolate milk whenever you do your weekly study dates. The gesture made you feel happy but then you remembered that one time he didn’t gave you one, it made you feel very confused why you’re all happy to see him; you called it a happy crush after all.

 Smartass.

 “What am I? A science experiment?” you shoved him albeit playfully.

 “The theory worked anyway” he shrugged as you rolled your eyes at him. “As the winner of the game, I could do what I want right?” you nodded.

 He removed the box on your mouth, his hands had made its way to your cheek as he takes in your beauty before he gently grabbed your chin to lean you towards him.

 “May I?” you smiled as you nod your head. Jungkook finally pressed his lips with yours, can’t believe you’ve been waiting for this moment just as him. You reeled him further into you by placing both of your hands around his neck whilst his hands travelled down to your waist.

 “Ow it hurts” you hissed, pulling back as you placed your fingers on your lips, “I don’t think I can kiss you right now” you mumbled as you try to hide your smile, shy at what just happened.

 He smiled as he gently lifted your chin, kissing the corner of your mouth then moving to your cheek and jaw until he rested his head on your shoulders, placing you both in a hugging position.

 You stayed like that for a while as he traced different shapes on your back with his fingers, his head moving further in to the crook of your neck. Giggling as you felt his breath tickling you a little when he kissed your neck.

 Smiling, you rested your head against his as you stroke his wet long hair along your fingers. Thinking how you never expected your sleepless night to go like this but you wouldn’t have it any other way.

 --

A/N: Here’s a Jungkook one shot for you to read while we’re all in a quarantine or lockdown lol. Hope you liked it! Stay safe and be healthy! 

[aion-rsa]

10 Best Fighting Game Movies

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Once upon a time, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly, and John Saxon visited a crime boss’ private island to compete in a fighting tournament and it was awesome. The 1973 movie Enter the Dragon is basically the prototype for the fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. And when those fighting games became popular, they inspired their own movies that either tried to emulate Enter the Dragon or do something completely new.

The ‘90s gave us the cheesy live-action fighting game movies from Hollywood and the animated movies from Japan. There have been several live-action Mortal Kombat movies as well as a few animated ones. There have also been multiple Street Fighter movies, four attempts at Tekken, a trilogy of Fatal Fury films, and more.

Are most of them bad? Yes. But did we pick our 10 favorite fighting game movies anyway? You bet. Here are our picks:

10. ART OF FIGHTING (1993)

Eh…it’s harmless.

The Art of Fighting series is mostly defined by the twist that the first game’s final boss is the main character’s father and the second game’s final boss is a younger incarnation of the villain from Fatal Fury. Take away those aspects and you’re left with a rather lowkey storyline for a fighting game where a teenage girl is kidnapped by a mobster and is rescued by her brother and her boyfriend.

Wait, I said that weird. It’s two different people, I swear! Except in Capcom, where Dan Hibiki is literally both of them merged into one character.

In the 45-minute Art of Fighting movie about Ryo and Robert, who are like chiller and dopier versions of Ryu and Ken, we watch as the duo gets sucked into a plot about stolen diamonds, martial arts criminals, and angry police lieutenants. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s a fine, breezy watch.

Ryo’s incorrect hair color kind of irks me, though.

9. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA: THE ANIMATION (1999)

This movie suffers from the same problem as Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. It features a cast of heroes from a fighting game taking on a villain created for the movie instead of the villains we actually give a shit about. But the movie does also have some brief but awesome cameos (Kim Kaphwan and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury and Dan Hibiki and Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha) to brighten up a less-than-stellar plot.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation does at least get by because the original characters play up Ryu’s whole fear about being overcome by “the Dark Hadou.” This leads to some cool animations where Evil Ryu looks like a mindless, shambling zombie but also an unstoppable fighting machine.

The movie’s main storyline is about a kid named Shun who claims that he’s Ryu’s long-lost brother. He too is a fighter cursed with an inner dark side, which is used as a red herring to suggest that Shun’s father (and presumably Ryu’s father) is actually Akuma. That ends up being bupkis and Shun is just linked to some scheme by a mad scientist or whatever.

Probably the funniest thing about this movie is the directors’ infatuation with Chun-Li’s midsection. She’s wearing her form-fitting Street Fighter Alpha costume and there are dozens upon dozens of random close-ups to her lower torso from the front and back. If this were a drinking game, it would kill you.

8. FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE (1993)

Of the Fatal Fury movie trilogy, this one is easily the best, even if it makes all the good guys seem like a bunch of overly-serious crybabies. The basic story is that after having avenged his father’s death, Terry hits rock bottom, dusts himself off, and comes out the other end stronger. Good, good. Going Rocky III is the perfect direction for a follow-up.

The problem is that Terry comes off as a bit of a whiner and the other heroes try way too hard to vilify the movie’s main antagonist, who hasn’t actually done anything that terrible. Krauser shows up one day, challenges Terry to a fight, wins, and says, “Okay, when you get better, train and fight me again.” Krauser isn’t trying to take over the world or murder orphans or whatever. He’s just a dude with huge shoulder armor who wants a good fight.

But everyone acts like Krauser’s the absolute worst. Terry starts drinking and falls to pieces while his buddies hope to get revenge. What a bunch of jerks.

While a fun romp, the worst thing about this sequel is how they redesigned Krauser. Gone is his mustache and forehead scar for the sake of making him seem younger. Kind of a bullshit move, considering he’s supposed to be the half-brother to middle-aged Geese Howard.

7. TEKKEN: THE MOTION PICTURE (1998)

This hour-long anime is almost great but just can’t stick the landing. It runs into the same problem as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation where the game series tells a specific overall story but the movie cuts corners to tell the same story. Tekken: The Motion Picture covers the first Tekken while setting up Tekken 3 and skipping Tekken 2 completely.

It means that everything’s well and good until the confusing and rushed finale. Otherwise, the movie is a fine use of the Enter the Dragon formula. Heihachi Mishima has a special island fighting tournament and the entrants include his vengeful son, a couple of cops investigating the situation, a gigantic robot, an angry Native American girl, two feuding assassin sisters, and a bunch of awesome characters who only get about three full frames of appearances each. Really would have liked to see something from Paul, King, and Yoshimitsu, though.

Other than Kazuya being pissed at everything, the best scenes are the over-the-top ones. When Jack does crazy robot stuff, when dinosaurs show up and start eating people, and that memorable sequence where Heihachi catches a hatchet with his mouth and then shatters it with his jaw.

6. STREET FIGHTER (1994)

I know this movie is just a GI Joe script with Street Fighter names pasted over it. I know it’s a cheesefest of dopey ideas and Belgian accents. I’ve long accepted that. Thing is, the movie is still a total blast to watch. What it lacks in faithfulness to the source material, it makes up for with pure camp and ham.

The 16 characters from Super Street Fighter II are represented here, except Fei Long is replaced with the forgettable Captain Sawada. How ironic that the movie star character isn’t even in the movie!

In general, the movie features some head-scratching depictions of classic Street Fighter characters. All-American Guile is played by Jean Claude Van Damme, Charlie Nash and Blanka are the same character, Dee Jay is an evil hacker, Ryu and Ken are comedic conmen, and Dhalsim is a frumpy scientist.

It’s Raul Julia’s M. Bison who keeps this guilty pleasure afloat. He’s to Street Fighter what Frank Langella’s Skeletor was to Masters of the Universe. He gives 110% and his performance is easily the best reason to watch this movie. It’s truly a wonder to behold.

Read more

Games

The Forgotten Fighting Games of the 1990s

By Gavin Jasper

Games

King of Fighters: Ranking All the Characters

By Gavin Jasper

The movie is infamous for inspiring a fighting game based on it, but you know what nobody ever talks about? The Double Dragon movie also had a fighting game based on it made by Technos and released on the Neo Geo. And Double Dragon wasn’t even a one-on-one fighter to begin with!

Anyway, if you intend to sit back and watch Street Fighter, make sure to add in the RiffTrax commentary.

5. DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (2006)

Enter the Dragon meets Charlie’s Angels is a heck of a concept, but DOA: Dead or Alive is so confidently tongue-in-cheek that it succeeds as an action comedy that’s way better than it has any right to be. Part of why it works is that Dead or Alive has never had much of an overarching storyline, but is more defined by the individual characters (plus, you know, all the cheesecake). Enough of those characters appear in what’s your regular “fighting tournament on a mysterious island” setup.

The whole thing moves with such energy that it’s easy to get sucked in. It’s the opposite of the live-action Tekken movie, where even though the film features accurate versions of all the characters, everything is so drab and lifeless that you just can’t wait for it to be over. In DOA, the combatants spend their downtime playing cartoony action volleyball with Fake Dennis Rodman on commentary, while in Tekken everyone mopes about dystopian capitalism.

Other than Helena’s character being “important dead guy’s daughter,” most of the main characters are charismatic enough to keep your attention during the 3% of the movie when fights aren’t happening. It must suck for Ninja Gaiden fans that Hayabusa is depicted as a total dweeb, but he at least gets to do some cool stuff here and there.

The movie also has Kevin Nash playing a character based on Hollywood Hogan and he’s so likeable that I’m genuinely bummed that he peaces out about halfway into the movie. Luckily, the movie is entertaining enough that I didn’t even notice until after it was over. It helps that during that time, we get more of Eric Roberts, his amazing hair, and his special sunglasses that turn him into the ultimate martial arts master.

Spoiler alert, but the secret to defeating him is, get this, removing his sunglasses!

4. MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SCORPION’S REVENGE (2020)

It took a while, but Warner Bros. Animation is on fire these days. After that Batman vs. TMNT movie and Teen Titans Go vs. Teen Titans, the studio appears to be hitting more than they miss. That’s exactly the kind of team needed to put together the latest animated Mortal Kombat movie.

This is the umpteenth retelling of the first game’s story. Not only does it have to compete with the first live-action movie, but also the events of Mortal Kombat 9, which depicts the tournament in cutscene format. Fortunately, Scorpion’s Revenge has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, it puts Scorpion in the forefront as the protagonist. He was barely a character in the original movie and the game just had him kill Sub-Zero and feel bad about it for the rest of the story mode. Now he feels like a character in a crossover, making a mark on the original story instead of being put in the sidelines.

We also have the wonderful stunt casting of Joel McHale as Johnny Cage. More importantly, Jennifer Carpenter plays Sonya Blade, which is such a step up from Ronda Rousey’s voice acting in Mortal Kombat 11.

This cartoon has a very hard R when it comes to violence. From the very beginning, Scorpion’s origins are gruesome and grisly. Once Jax is introduced, it doesn’t take long until we realize, “Oh, that’s how they’re dealing with THAT plot point in this continuity.” Then there’s a surprise villain death late in the movie that not only comes as a shocking development, but it’s so graphic and nasty that you can’t help but be taken aback.

Scorpion’s Revenge is a fantastic first chapter of what is hopefully a series of animated movies, but it does have its pacing issues. Scorpion being the protagonist may be a welcome change, but at times it does feel like a square peg being crammed into a round hole.

3. TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE (2011)

One of the best things about the Tekken series is the endings. While the cutscenes from the first couple games haven’t exactly aged well, these CGI epilogues have become a staple in nearly every installment. What better reward for your time and success than watching a rocking action sequence with Yoshimitsu and Bryan Fury killing each other in the jungle?

And so, to play to the series’ strengths, Bandai Entertainment released a Tekken movie that’s really just one big ending cutscene. It’s not canon, but it feels at home with the games.

Since Tekken’s main conflict is with two ruthless megalomaniacs (Heihachi and Kazuya) and a disgruntled nihilist (Jin), it’s hard to treat any of them as a real protagonist here. Instead, they go with Ling Xiaoyu, who is portrayed as the person who sees the good in Jin and wants him to see the light. She’s given a robotic BFF in Alisa Bosconovitch because Xiaoyu is kind of a tame character and needs someone with chainsaw arms and a jetpack to liven things up.

The first hour or so is good enough to keep your attention and its lightened up by a couple appearances by Tekken’s best character, Lee. But once it gets to the third act, it just becomes a completely awesome Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin fight, with Xiaoyu taking a backseat to watch all the crazy shit going on. It’s a full-on fireworks factory, as we not only see Devil forms of Kazuya and Jin but a very special final form for Heihachi that’s a true delight for Tekken fans.

2. STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE (1994)

Let it be said that for someone who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, finding a faithful cartoon adaptation of a video game property was not easy. Link and Simon Belmont were unlikable sexual harassers. Mega Man was a more annoying sidekick than Scrappy Doo. Mario and Luigi teamed up with Milli Vanilli. Power Team was…a thing. When we got an animated movie based on Street Fighter II, it was mind-blowing. This was a movie where the very first scene was Ryu tearing Sagat’s chest into a bloody gash thanks to a well-animated Shoryuken.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, but at the same time, nothing is going on. By this point, there were 17 characters in the various Street Fighter II games, and outside of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Akuma cameo, it feels the need to include every single one of them. Some get minor roles, like Cammy and Dee Jay. Then there’s Zangief and Blanka, who fight each other for no reason other than for the sake of giving them something to do. Even Ryu vanishes for a huge chunk of the runtime.

Once everything funnels into the third act, this movie is great. And the earlier fight scenes are straight fire too, including the memorable Chun-Li vs. Vega brawl. Even though the movie already feels true to Street Fighter II, it’s even better when you realize that it’s all supposed to be a prequel to the game itself.

Or at least I hope so. Otherwise, all Sagat gets to do is get his ass kicked by Ryu and get chewed out by Bison.

1. MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

The stars truly aligned for this one. Mortal Kombat Mania was at its peak, so it makes sense that this movie was a retelling of the first game’s story with added aspects from the second game, all while hyping up the arcade release of the third game. CGI was such a novelty in Hollywood in the ’90s that even if it looked primitive, it still looked cutting edge at the time. It was the perfect time to release this movie.

But Mortal Kombat isn’t perfect. Reptile is embarrassing. Scorpion and Sub-Zero being relegated to goons still stings. I still roll my eyes at the part towards the end where Sonya is suddenly the damsel in distress and Raiden flat-out verbally buries her by saying she couldn’t beat Shang Tsung in a million years. Otherwise, it’s the perfect storm of ‘90s action garbage.

There are so many over-the-top and charismatic performances here. Johnny Cage, Raiden, Shang Tsung, Kano, and even Goro are a blast to watch. All 10 characters from the original game are given something to do and, most importantly, they realize how uniquely weird the game’s story is and actually dive headfirst into it. The movie isn’t embarrassed to be a Mortal Kombat movie but handles itself well enough that we aren’t embarrassed to be watching a Mortal Kombat movie.

Even with a PG-13 rating, the movie was violent enough. Kano talked up seeing a pile of frozen guts in the wake of a Sub-Zero fight, Scorpion got his skull sliced apart with demon brain goo spewing all over the place, and Shang Tsung got impaled to death.

With the reboot being rated R, going for the gore could very well be the right route to go, but for the love of the Elder Gods, don’t forget to have FUN. All I’m saying is, if even Johnny Cage isn’t hamming it up, then what’s the point?

The post 10 Best Fighting Game Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[jflashandclash]

Tales from Mount Othrys

Alabaster: The Delicate Dance of Chance II

 Author’s note: Are you ready for fluff??? ALL THE FLUFF?! And some angst—BUT MOSTLY FLUFF!?

              Alabaster didn’t remember much about getting off the stage. He did remember shaking so violently that he feared missing a step on the side stairs. When the crowd swarmed them, he was vaguely aware of Pax warding them off and navigating them through the mass of people.

           Axel made some announcement about taking a girl for the first dance and snatched the hand of Charlie—their five year old mascot—who giggled with glee. This caused an uproar—both that Axel was dancing and that he’d picked Charlie as his first partner. Alabaster could practically hear Lucille’s future squeals about how cute it was.

           But, that’s all he could recollect. There was a blank spot, where Alabaster must have shut down from the humiliation and horror of being on stage without any warning. Coherence came when Pax shoved Alabaster to the punch table.

           With a few comments that Alabaster didn’t hear, Pax diverted the remaining admirers. Several monsters and campers were still glancing their way, and a few of his siblings waved at him enthusiastically. But, this was manageable. This was distant.

           Pax shoved a plastic cup of punch into Alabaster’s trembling hand. His touch lingered over Alabaster’s fingers for a moment, likely noticing the quiver. Pax went on his tiptoes to whisper in Alabaster’s ear, as quiet as he could while still being heard over the music. “Your Mist show was amazing.”

           Alabaster jerked back.

           He wanted to hit Pax. Though, he knew it was misdirected anger. Who he should be hitting was Matthias or Jack, who likely planned the grand entrance on stage. Or—

           The music increased in volume, encouraging shouts of delirium. Monsters and campers tangled on the dance floor. Alabaster had never been to a school dance, but this looked like the nightmare version of what he assumed one would be. They were in a gymnasium with a stage on one end. Tables were scattered along the walls for food, drink and loitering. The back had interactive games, like Pin the Sword in the Demigod: Camp Half-Blood Edition. The center was reserved for dancing.

           And, in the middle of that dance floor was Axel Pax, bowing to a thrilled, giggling five-year-old. He handed Charlie off to Chris (likely with strict instructions to escort her off the dance floor, least she be crushed by mingling Cyclopes). Then he turned a smile to Lucille. With the smooth demeanor of a vampiric count, he transferred into the next dance. No one was going to say no to the attractive, typically reserved, stoic and heroic character.

           The reserved, stoic and heroic character that caused that nonsense on stage. While Alabaster wouldn’t have been up there if it wasn’t for Jack or Matthias, Axel had forced him into panicked improvisation and showmanship.

           “I must disgrace Axel Pax,” he growled.

           Pax startled. Over the edge of his plastic cup, he said, “I’m not sure what maniacal soliloquy you had internally, but the rest of the audience is still confused.”

           Alabaster snorted. “I’m going to punish your brother. Maybe I can tell Lucille to spread the word that he’s looking for a male partner.”

           Pax laughed. He set his cup back on the table and drummed his fingers beside it. “Oh, dancing with boys won’t bother him.”

           Axel paused twirling Lucille in front of her girlfriend, Echidna. Echidna wasn’t the daughter of Summanus’ (the god of nocturnal thunder’s) real name, but Pax’s nickname caught because of her prickly personality. Despite this, when Axel offered, and Lucille shoved Echidna towards him, she begrudgingly accepted the dance. She shot a quick glance at Charlie. This was incredible progress—she couldn’t get within ten feet of men a year ago or be separated from Charlie for more than a few seconds.

           Alabaster tore his eyes from Axel and examined Pax skeptically. From what he’d seen, Axel had all the traits, and the cultural background, to be homophobic.

           The thirteen-year-old shrugged. “This isn’t exactly a no dancing with people wearing the same underwear kinda place.”

           A preliminary glance around proved there were girls dancing with girls and boys dancing with boys. It was with such commonality that the gesture seemed to mean nothing about their inclination. Alabaster wasn’t sure how that worked here, since that would have been a social taboo in his Cotillion classes.

           Pax’s smile became distant and sad as he watched Axel save Echinda from tripping all over herself. Pax leaned against the drink table. “Besides, between the circus and our sister, he had to learn not to care. She was a crossdresser and made sure we were comfortable with all sorts of people.”

           Opening up twice in one night, Alabaster mused. They hardly spoke of their siblings, other than that Pax missed them. Their near death experience must have made Pax feel more relaxed around Alabaster. The younger boy seemed to have something on his mind recently. Alabaster often caught Pax zoning out in the laboratory, staring at Alabaster’s sleeve or spell book. Alabaster had wondered if it was for a prank.

           The smile on Pax’s lips quirked into a smirk. His eyes focused back on the present. “Axel doesn’t favor dancing with boys though, unlike me,” he said, giving Alabaster a wink.

           Alabaster snorted. “Stop messing around.”

           Pax looked away and popped his cheeks. He straightened his posture, released the table, and turned towards Alabaster. “I want to have fun at this party. Your whole vengeance on my brother for ambiguous reasons—”

           “Humiliating me—”

           “--that’s villainy and great and stuff, but I don’t want you on it all night. You’ve got his weakest link right here.” Pax pointed both his thumbs at himself. “But I’m not going to help you brainstorm ideas unless you really try to have fun tonight. Now let’s go stuff our faces with Nachos and show Morpheus how to really dance.”

           Alabaster stared at him. “We have two different definitions of ‘fun.’ The most probable outcome to incur enjoyment is seeking vengeance.”

           Pax pouted. He glanced down the refreshments table. “You’re my babysitter. I going to make a  bee line to the first nut-based desert I see and shove it into my mouth if we don’t go play on Matthias’ Wii , and it’ll be your fault.”

           “I won’t save you from anaphylactic shock if you do that,” Alabaster said. He frowned. Pax would be integral to bringing Axel down. And they were stuck here for at least another hour-and-a-half.

           “What’s the best game on Matthias’ Wii ?” Alabaster asked.

             ***

             Alabaster wanted to complain about Mario Party’s reliance on a random number generator and how it devalued the skill level of the player, but that would require him to admit he relied on that random number generator to win. When playing against actual gamers like Matthias and Chris, he knew there would be little hope in him winning in something like Super Smash or Tekken.

           Out of the games they played, his favorite was poker. All magic was legal. He won Pax ten Reese’s Sticks before Prometheus came over and threatened his reigning championship. Alabaster’s “pallor tricks” didn’t seem to work as well on the Titan and Prometheus’s bluffing skills were godly. Well, titanly.

           Pax decided Prometheus’s impending win meant he needed to eat all of his candy at once, something Alabaster suspected he’d regret in about ten minutes.

           Once the Cyclops bouncer wrestled the last six Reese’s Sticks from Pax, he hopped to Alabaster’s side. His brown and hazel eyes twinkled while he rubbed the chocolate and peanut butter off his chin.

           Alabaster didn’t realize he’d been smirking with each his wins. Between Pax’s excitement and cheering and Alabaster’s strategizing, he’d forgotten where they were.

           Pax snagged Alabaster’s sleeve. “Come on!” he cried before Prometheus could gloat. The tuxedo-wearing Titan spread his long, thin fingers over the cards as Pax dragged Alabaster away from the table.

           Once they stumbled from the game sector, Pax stopped short. He gave Alabaster a huge grin, pulling up his shirt to reveal two Reese’s Sticks hidden along his beltline.

           Alabaster snorted. “I’m surprised you didn’t steal more.”

           Pax winked and dropped his shirt. “We could go back for round two later. For now…” He took a few steps further onto the dance floor, tugging Alabaster’s sleeve again.

           Alabaster’s tranquility shattered. He stared at Pax, listening to the thud of the subwoofer and watching the mass of bodies moving behind the Belizean boy.

           Alabaster hadn’t realized it, and he would never admit to it, but he’d been having fun. At the thought of merging into that flowing blob of people, monsters, sweat, and social anxiety, fun evaporated. Cold sweat formed on his brow.

           “No,” he said, yanking his arm back from Pax.

           The younger boy’s pout returned. “I’m going to make you a shirt that says that.”[1]

           They stood there, others swirling around them. Someone bumped their shoulders while running by, shouting, “Don’t be lame and have no shame! Warlock, creep out of your lair, dance, and have fun!”

           His face went hot with humiliation. When Alabaster raised his wrist to check the time, he found his fist clenched. An hour had passed while they were playing games. Had the passerbyer’s mockery not bothered him so much, he might have marveled over how fast the first hour went. He assumed it would be agonizing.

           But, he could tell the next hour would be much worse. He thought about his laboratory and how much he could get done while everyone else was out. After the Roman attack, everyone should have been working to move and restore the building, not throwing a party “in their honor.”

           “This is just a thinly veiled excuse for everyone to feel good about acting like idiots,” Alabaster said. “And a waste of time.”

           Alabaster couldn’t remember how Pax got him to play along with this stupid party. Then, it came back: Axel forcing him into showmanship. The humiliation turned to anger. He didn’t need the younger Pax brother to concoct something against Axel. “I’m heading back to camp,” Alabaster said.

           He turned to leave. Pax frantically grabbed his arm. “Wait!” Pax shouted. “Wait—we were having—you’re my babysitter!  I’ll choke on tree nuts and get kidnapped by bad guys if you’re not around!”

           Considering Pax’s ward, Jack, was a schizophrenic with a history of attacking his family, Alabaster thought his concept of “bad guys” was a bit skewed.

           Alabaster scowled. “Ajax, you’re thirteen. You’re too old for a babysitter. Grow up.”  

           Pax’s eyes widened. The rims reddened. He blinked rapidly and looked away. “We don’t have to dance,” he whispered.

           Alabaster yanked his arm back again. “This isn’t dancing. This isn’t music. This is a group of unskilled buskers following a formula to produce ‘musical’ garbage because people don’t know how to express their hormones without it.”

           Shock wove their mouths shut.

           Musical garbage.

           Someone else had said that around Alabaster. He remembered sitting in the back of the family’s Mercedes Bends, visiting his father in the hospital.  The chauffer cheerfully turned on music for them. His grandfather fired the chauffer, saying what Alabaster had said: that this type of music was a cheap replica of what real musicians could create.

           Just like his grandfather thought Alabaster’s magic was a cheap replica of science that couldn’t save his father.

           Alabaster couldn’t believe he’d quoted that horrible man verbatim.

           At the “buskers” comment, Pax flinched. Although they’d never told Alabaster directly, Alabaster had guessed that Axel and Pax busked, or illegally street preformed, to get by before Camp Othrys. And Alabaster just used it as an insult.

           “Ajax,” Alabaster unfroze his tongue, “I’m sorr—”

           Pax turned and bolted into the mass of dancers, towards the stage. A couple nearby exchanged a confused glance at his passing and looked over at Alabaster.

           “Ajax!” Alabaster called. Although every cell in his nervous system wanted to reel backwards, he shoved past the couple to go after his friend.

           After taking ten steps forward, Alabaster realized that finding Pax would be impossible. There were too many people, too much movement, and Pax was too small and conniving. Considering how many monsters and demigods were over six feet tall, the five-foot-nothing demigod could vanish.

           This was irrational. Alabaster shouldn’t worry. Pax was in a safe environment, surrounded by friends, and didn’t actually need a babysitter. They would meet back up later, after both of them had time to let off some steam, and Alabaster could explain that he didn’t mean what he said and that Alabaster had only said those words because he… because he…

           Is so incompetent at relaxing, I couldn’t rationally explain my anxiety before snapping.

           Alabaster didn’t want to wait to check up on Pax. He despised the thought of making someone feel the way his grandfather used to make him feel. Worse for Pax: what if his and Axel’s father didn’t approve of their street performance? Alabaster didn’t know what nerves he’d struck, and not knowing meant he couldn’t mentally prepare for what damage he’d done.

           There were too many people, too close. The music had grown louder as Alabaster made his way towards the stage. The subwoofer rattled him internally. Alabaster felt clammy. With all the laughter and joy whirling around him, he felt isolated and sick. Especially with the stares of confusion at his rushed passing.

           A sense of hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him when the music quieted.

           With the weirdest transition he’d ever heard, the thud of electronic wound down, like the music itself was dying. The DJ, a dark-haired Titaness wearing a modernized toga-dress, cleared her throat in the echo of the mic. The Eldest muse—Mnemosyne’s voice was silky. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Monsters and Ghouls, we have our first good request of the night!”

           Pax withdrew from the raised DJ booth and hopped back to the floor, only three yards away.

           After the chime of bells, the calming sound of a stringed orchestra flooded the speakers, soon accompanied by a wind instrument—probably a flute.  

           Several demigods groaned. One or two whined. Alabaster was horrified at what Pax had done to the rest of the party’s occupants and whether or not Mnemosyne had been mocking him.

           Then, all the monsters cheered.

           “I love the oldies!” Dr. Thorn, their local manticore, exclaimed. He ejected two spikes into the air in celebration, grabbed a Scythian dracaena, and began the elegant twirl of the waltz. Alabaster didn’t want to know where those spikes would land.[2]

           Alabaster would hardly call Tchaikovsky an “oldie” but he marveled that these monsters were eternal and their concept of time differed from their own.

           While several half-bloods exited the dance floor, a flood of monsters entered. Jack dragged a rather inebriated-looking Luke out to spin with him. Chris and Matthias hopped by, paused, grabbed hold of each other with mock-serious expresses on their faces, and began a goofy, sloppy shamble.[3] Prometheus ruffled Pax’s hair and said, “Good choice,” before bowing to Mnemosyne.

           Their DJ grinned, set her headphones to the side of the sound table, and hopped down from the booth.

            In an empty space of floor, Lucille giggled. She kicked off her high heels, hopped up to her toes, and began to dance point, her flowy skirt mimicking the motions of a ballerina’s tutu.

           Near the food tables, where most of the confused demigods had gone to stand, Axel bowed to Mercedes, offering their Spymaster his hand. Mercedes tucked her embroidered hijab tighter against her chin. She gave Axel a coy smile and flicked him off with her other hand.

           Axel must have just finished dancing with Lou Ellen. She stood beside Mercedes, still bright red in the face from the dance. Alabaster was already annoyed with the inevitable week of Lou Ellen’s squealing. She glanced at Mercedes, glared at the older girl—from jealousy or aghast at Mercedes’ refusal, Alabaster couldn’t care to tell—and shoved her forward, hard.

           Mercedes stumbled forward into Axel’s arms, adding a second forced dance to Axel’s count for the night.

           With all the commotion around them, Alabaster approached Pax. He paused a foot away from him. “Why’d you pick this song?” he asked.

           Pax rubbed his face against his forearm, sniffling back the last of his choked tears. “You—you play it a lot when you think other people aren’t around.”

           Alabaster unclenched his fist. “It was my grandmother’s favorite scene from Swan Lake.” One of his favorite memories: when she was alive, she would hum along as she stained glass in the piano room. His grandfather hated that she used the room like that, but she claimed it had the best lighting.

           “If you were going to leave, I wanted to make sure you at least liked the last song playing before you left,” Pax said. He looked away, hugging himself.

           All the tension eased out of Alabaster. He sighed and wasn’t sure if he was more relieved that Pax had stopped crying or annoyed that Pax had beat him—Alabaster couldn’t leave with such a considerate act.

           “How many people know how to waltz here, you think? That aren’t monsters, I mean. It might be hard to find a partner,” Alabaster said.

           Pax took a step closer. He puffed up his cheeks, popped them, then quietly said, “I know how to waltz.” He offered a trembling hand out, palm down in the female partner position, to Alabaster.

           Alabaster stared. Slowly, he glanced to where Jack and Luke were dancing and Chris and Matthias were… he refused to call that a dance, but awkwardly shambling. It wouldn’t be too weird, right? Everyone knew Luke was a ladies’ man, and Jack and Flynn were a “thing,” and Chris and Matthias were just joking…

            And Lucille, after all, was doing a ballet pas seul with a cheering circle around her like she was break dancing.

           Alabaster exhaled and took Pax’s hand. He slipped his other hand under Pax’s arm, and positioned it on Pax’s shoulder blade. Pax violently shook as he lowered his free arm atop Alabaster’s. Pax was the perfect height for this, being a foot shorter than Alabaster.

           That busker comment must have stung Pax worse than Alabaster thought. To have him shaking like this? He frowned, taking a slow step forward with his left foot. He expected Pax to stumble and mix up his footing. Instead, Pax flawlessly stepped back with his right foot.

           They started with a basic box step. He wasn’t sure how much Pax would remember from his Cotillion classes or how easily Pax would be able to reverse the footwork to follow instead of lead. When Alabaster added in a rotation to their box step, and then lifted his elbow and their hands to properly shape their posture, Pax continued perfectly. When Alabaster began to go up on his toes for the “2 and 3” count of the waltz, then down onto his heels for the “1,” to give the rise and fall effect of the dance, Pax mirrored the footwork. By the time Alabaster added in the swing and sway to make the dance have a rolling effect—raising his rib cage when they went to the side, or tilting his body when they went forward or back—his curiosity had peaked.

           “You know how to follow really well,” Alabaster observed.

           The fluid and repetitive movement of the dance calmed Alabaster. This was a familiar environment. The only unusual part was dancing with a boy. Though… he supposed he’d danced with his male instructor when he was learning.

           Pax had stopped shaking. Now that they were in a rhythm, Alabaster could glance down to see if Pax still had tears in his eyes.

           The younger boy was staring at Alabaster’s collar—the only part of posture he wasn’t doing correctly. His cheeks were flushed with the movement and, likely, his prior tantrum. A little grin touched his lips at Alabaster’s comment. “Thanks. You’re really good at leading.”            Alabaster raised an eyebrow at him. He’d been expecting some stupid, witty retort.

           Pax glanced up. His blush deepened and his eyes shot back down to Alabaster’s collar. “Oh! Um—Lapis and I—my sister—we used to switch places on our Cotillion teacher. Axel, Hiro, and Kouta would play along, altering our names and pronouns to fit according to the day. The instructor never knew if which one of us was a guy or a girl, and she was too scared of getting in trouble for mixing it up to ask Dad. As long as we learned both parts, she didn’t care.”

           That sounded exactly like something the Pax brothers would do.

           Examining Pax’s facial structure, Alabaster could see how the instructor could mistake Pax for a girl. He had all the features to make a convincing crossdresser: with Pax’s wild, raven hair spilling all over his shoulders, his rounded face, button nose, wide eyes, squishy cheeks, and full lips. He was a little too muscular to pass for the average woman, but Alabaster had seen some ripped female demigods and wouldn’t be shocked if Pax’s sister—Lapis?—were similar.

           With the baggy, punk-style jacket he wore, Alabaster could easily imagine Pax as some flat-chested girl half-drowned in her friend’s borrowed clothing.

           And with the thought, Alabaster felt his chest constrict. For some reason, he felt horrendously uncomfortable.

           Alabaster spun Pax out for an underarm turn.

           Nothing would change if Pax were a girl. Then, she would just be Axel’s annoying little sister, instead of an annoying little brother—one that followed Alabaster around the laboratory, cheered when he succeeded in one of his experiments, made him hand-crafted presents, and was always ready with a goofy, lame joke to try to make him laugh.

           Why couldn’t Alabaster shake the idea that something would be different?

           The song would come to an end soon. Alabaster recognized the crescendo. He hadn’t realized until then that they’d danced through two songs—now it was the Waltz of the Snowflakes. Mnemosyne must have a Tchaikovsky Waltz playlist.

           Although the last two songs had been relaxing, Alabaster was eager for the end. Something felt off and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t the same anxiety as before. No, he’d almost forgotten about the others—

           Alabaster glanced around, finding Jack had stopped dancing to watch them.

           Alabaster released Pax’s hand and took a step back half-a-second sooner than he should have according to the music. Pax stumbled, not ready to stop following.

           That goofy smile on Pax’s face widened. “It’s okay. I also get distracted thinking about life, the universe, and everything, and forget how to end a dance.”

           “Nice song choice, Ajax,” someone said beside them.

           Alabaster jumped, having forgotten how many people were around them.

           Mnemosyne climbed back into her DJ booth. The throb of electronic and modern pop thudded back into the gym. Bored demigods cheered. Dancing monsters grumbled.  

           Axel stood near them, one hand still on Mercedes’ shoulder blade. Although he’d lowered their hands from the dance, his other hand still held hers. He continued talking to Pax, giving Mercedes a half-smirk that would have made half the girls in the gym faint. “You helped me find the best dance partner in Camp Othrys,” he said.

           Mercedes did not look amused. Her expression was as deadpan as ever. A lock of curly black hair had escaped the corner of her embroidered fabric. He had to wonder if Lucille forced her into some makeup. Mercedes typically wore the simplest, plainest, and most practical clothing she could, without make up or hair accessories other than her veil.

           “Pax One,” she said to the older of the two, “you found a temporary victim of circumstance that is now going to ruin Matthias’ life in Tekken. If you’ll excuse me.” She bowed her head, as though about to vanish into shadow after a spy mission. For a split second, he thought she frowned at Pax.

           “Uh-hu,” Axel said. As soon as she removed her hands, he took a step after her. “If I win a round of Tekken against you, I win another dance.”

           Pax stared at his older brother. “Axel, you’re awesome and everything, but you’re going to get obliterated.”

           Mercedes’ head didn’t move as her eyes shifted between the two brothers. “Listen to Pax Two. He is wise… unless you’re willing to gamble information on this game.”

           The offer sounded like a threat.

           Alabaster saw a minor opportunity unfolding.

           “If you’re going to do that, you should keep Tran around,” Alabaster suggested, smirking at Axel. “Least someone consider lying.”[4]

           Mercedes let a tiny smile slip. “The child of Aletheia, Goddess of Truth. Thanks, Torrington.” She nodded her appreciation. “Are you feeling lucky, Pax One?”

           Axel shot Alabaster a glare.

           At least he’d successfully started his revenge on the older Mayan.

           Pax tugged on Alabaster’s sleeve. “We can worry about Axel’s downfall later. Let’s get some punch and go for a walk!”

           “My downfall--?”

           “Come on!”

 ***

In two weeks (hopefully) are you ready for MORE FLUFF!?! …. And angst. AND MORE FL—oh, oh, next week is more on the angst side. *ehem* I see.

I hope you guys enjoyed! Thank you for reading :D

***

Footnotes:

[1] And thus, Grumpy Cat was born.

[2] Technically, our spiky friend should be dead by now, but I didn’t know that when I originally wrote this scene and I enjoy having random spikes reigning on this parade.

Also, this was written to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20a, TH 219: Act 1: Waltz.

[3] Okay, I’ll finally admit it, my representation of Chris and Matthias’s whole character are based off family members. <3 you guys.

[4] Call out to my home boy, VCRx.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles About Fighting Games

I... honestly don’t know where to begin with this Rambling. I’ve been trying to think of a decent intro for over a week now and I just can’t be bothered to write a hook.

I guess I should start with myself.

Hello folks, I am Allen X. I do opinion pieces on the internet that I call Ramblings, write silly fanfictions about cute girls punching things, attempt to write original fictions about cute girls punching things, and very occasionally write fan lyrics to video game OSTs. And today’s Rambling is about fighting games and my current thoughts on them as of late. 

I’m a huge fan of fighting games, been playing them since Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur 3, the latter being one of my favorite 3D fighting games period. After that I got into Blazblue around the time Continuum Shift came out, and I’ve played every game in that series since, becoming a massive fan of Air-Dashing fighting games. 

I’m not a huge fan of ranked listings, but here’s a quick list of my 5 favorite fighting games just so you all understand where I’m coming from. So in no particular order:

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

Blazblue Chronophantasma

Soul Calibur 3

Dead or Alive 5

Under Night In-Birth Exe Latest

So with that list I hope you understand I’ve played a lot of fighting games in my time. That list is just a fraction of the games I’ve played over these last ten years.

And folks, I don’t know how to feel about modern fighting games at the moment. 

I think the current games out are fine, but as a fan of fighting games since the early 2000s they just don’t scratch a certain itch. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but nowadays fighting games just feel very bare-bones. Most of them only have an online mode, a training, maybe a combo/mission mode to help learn combos, and then maybe an arcade/story, with that story mode being bare in some way, shape, or form. It’s just feels empty nowadays.

But... I think I should give an example before going further. And I think the best game that shows my... conflicting feelings is Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. 

And where to begin with Cross Tag? This was a game that literally came out of my dreams and into reality. An actual pipe dream that I and many other fans of Arc System Works games jokingly wished for. Under Knight In-Birth, Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue, all in one game. It sounded like the wildest of wild dreams.

And then this trailer dropped. And I lost my shit. I think everyone lost their shit. 

I screamed.

I jumped out of my chair.

I nearly broke my damn tablet in shock seeing this trailer. 

And Ruby Rose was being added? Something that Mori and Ishiwatari had only teased about in passing? 

I... I needed some air after watching that trailer.

I needed a drink and some food. 

I’m pretty sure I lost three pounds from that trailer, and I’m barely 115 pounds, I need to keep all the weight I can put on. I was so excited to play that game after that. A crossover of three of the best 2D fighters in the 2010s and one of the most popular niche IPs of the 2010s, all together in one game, with unique character interactions. And an English Dub. Finally, a chance to hear Patrick Seitz, Cristina Vee, David Vincent, and more back where they should had been in Central Fiction. It was just... a magical time to be a fighting game fan.

And then I actually played the game... and boy did I have opinions on it.

I did a Rambling about this game last year after playing a bit of the beta. My overall thoughts, aside from my gloating, were that I felt it was lacking in complexity, but had potential to maintain my attention if they could meet a few of my expectations. And not much of my opinion has changed since then. If anything, I honestly wish I got off my butt and wrote more about this game while it was still fresh in my mind. 

But, back to my original point, this game is a good starting point in a lot of my conflicting feelings about fighting games nowadays, and I think I should start by discussing...

My Expectations

Last year I had three main expectations for Cross Tag. Those being a story mode that was more entertaining than insightful, free DLC of some kind, and a fulfilling single player experience. These are the three main things I want in most fighting games, as I’m not into the competitive seen outside from online get-togethers nor do I have a positive opinion of the competitive side of the FGC to begin with. So, how did Cross Tag stack up?

Well, I can happily say that at least two out of three isn’t bad. 

But I should probably break this down a little, as again, these three points are what I look for in most fighting games.

The Story Mode

Much like I hoped, the story modes were relatively simple and didn’t get too deep into everyone’s lore and backstory, which is honestly for the best. I’m a fan of Blazblue’s story, I really am, but I wouldn’t wish for that encyclopedia of lore known as the Blazblue world-building and the mini encyclopedia of lore that is Under Night and RWBY world-building mashed together. A fan of all these series I am, but that would had been much.

That said, the story modes were great. I was cackling at almost every interaction. Ragna squaring up to Kanji and Wald, Ruby being an absolute weeaboo when she confuses Yosuke and Yukiko for a ninja and geisha respectively, Ragna being surrounded by all the robo-girls save for Labrys, Hyde just... dealing with everything in his story mode, Weiss and Orie teaming up to take down Ragna in the name of justice. The list goes on, but the point remains. I loved a lot of this mode, my only real wish being that it was a little longer and didn’t focus solely on the main character of each series. I was also hoping for something a little more... grounded. Well, not something so ridiculous as some weird AI/Goddess controlling everything behind the scenes and forcing everyone to fight anyway. I know with the Cross Tag 2.0 update coming there’ll be a new story mode, and I hope it’s a little more inclusive than this one. I’m also hoping for a bit more replayability too. This story mode was fine, but I’d like to see something I could come back to and want to come back to. 

To give an example, I think Continuum Shift Extend had the best story mode of any fighting on pure replay value. There are at least 20 didn’t character perspectives in that mode with alternate endings and gag endings included. Each character has a decent arc and narrative, they occasionally run into other named characters and have their timelines mix, and there’s even a retelling of the previous game with some added bits thrown in. I know I said Chronophantasma was my favorite of the Blazblue series, but Continuum Shift had the most love put into it. I’m not expecting something of that extent in Cross Tag 2.0, but something at least trying to reach that would be great.

Ah, but moving on.

Free DLC

This one’s a real technicality and I’m tempted to not count it, but for the degenerates like me that bought the original season pass, we also got to enjoy Seth, Heart, Teddie, and Naoto K. for free. That’s... not exactly what I was hoping for in my old post, but we did get something out of it. In the future I hope that Cross Tag will follow something a little closer to how Samurai Shodown handled their season passes, letting early adopters download it for free on the first day or week before charging as a reward for those giving it a chance... or at least running the the store page quick enough. 

In all seriousness, I do hope for something to the effect of the reason of Season 2′s characters being either cheap or free for the first few days before charging whatever retail price they set it to. It’d just give some incentive to stay up to date on the game and encourage people to actively play it.

But sadly, two out of three meant I didn’t get the main thing I wanted, which was...

A Good Single Player Experience 

I had mentioned I wanted something akin to Chronophantasma’s Abyss Mode or Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’s Golden Arena Mode. Something with a leveling system or that had some replay value to it for the single player folks. Sadly, I didn’t get that. Like many current fighting games, Cross Tag is rather bare-bones with the content. There’s not even a basic arcade mode, a staple in every ASW fighting game. I’m... disappointed by that. And this isn’t the only game either. I believe it took Street Fighter V an entire season to get an arcade mode. Tekken 7, a series known for its wild mini games, barely had anything beyond a story mode, a very bare bones arcade mode, and a treasure mode that... just didn’t feel fun to play. This is from a series where the last numbered series had an expansive 3D-esque brawler mode for it’s story mode with special items and costumes that gave some really wild effects. Soul Calibur 3 had a mini Fire Emblem-esque strategy game with Swords and Soul Mode where you got to create a character with a pretty original moveset all things considered, several movesets in fact. But sadly... a lot of that is starting to go away.

I just feel like with the push toward competitive play a lot of fighting games aren’t bothering to keep in mind casual players, and that saddens me. I don’t play too many fighting games for the sake of getting better, but that’s where we’re going. I want to say that’s bad for business, but Street Fighter is pushing out season 4 and EVO is still one of the biggest and most marketable events in the FGC. Maybe I’m just being an old man yelling at those darned kids and their bare-bones gaming content. I’m willing to accept my 25-years-old mindset is a bit old fashioned in the year of 2019 where time and technology is blitzing by and those in our mid-to-late twenties who have been playing games since the 90s are seen as the old men in the gaming community, but I just had to get my thoughts out. ...

...

...

God, I miss the line breaks Tumblr use to have, makes these closing statements a lot easier.

Anyway folks, with all that said I think I’m going to call it here. For those expecting the Weekly Update it’s been a real slow week, so not much to report. Consider this Rambling my update. I’ve finally gotten through the first chapter of Arifureta and honestly that’s all I need to read to get an idea on the Rambling I want to do for that series. I bought 6 volumes of Tokyo Ghoul:re against my better judgement, so expect me to talk about that next week. And slowly but sure I’m getting some notes together for the Taboo Tattoo Rambling. So look forward to all that and I’ll see you all later.

[javis-beretta]

Sigh Not So

this was not requested, but i missed my boy race, so here’s a (long) fic based on my favourite scene from much ado about nothing, which is my favourite shakespeare play. it’s also heavily inspired by a modern re-imagining of the play, which i am in love with, called nothing much to do. 10/10 would recommend watching, even if you’re not an english lit nerd like me. enjoy! <3 (PS if u can spot the quote from the original that i squeezed in near the end, then you’re legally required to marry me, sorry i don’t make the rules) (also the title is a ref to a quote from the play, i’m a nerd sorry)

It felt a bit melodramatic to call Race Higgins your enemy, but it was near enough to the truth. The truth was that you had liked him, once, maybe even more-than-liked him, but, as you grew older, the qualities you had once liked in him became obnoxious. It used to loosen you up when he made stupid jokes about whatever was happening, but now he was little more than a class clown who couldn’t take anything seriously. As you grew up, friendly roasts began to sound a little more serious, and, by the end of high school, he was the nearest thing you had to a sworn enemy.

You managed to fight with him about anything, from the correct translation of your Latin homework to the DC and Marvel cinematic universes. It was fun, sometimes, but mostly just exhausting. Sometimes, you wondered if it wouldn’t just be easier to get along, for your friends’ sake, if not for your own, but then he would make some ridiculous comment about how Parks and Rec was better than The Office and you would remember that he was the worst.  

He was annoying at track practices, when his hair was impossibly curly, and his eyes glittered with happiness, and he insisted that his team needed half of your soccer pitch to practice for field events. He was annoying in class, when he argued with the teacher about the underlying racism in Anthony and Cleopatra and, sure, he may have been right, but who cared about correctness when you went about an argument in the completely wrong way.

(“You,” Katherine would say every time that you brought this up. “You care about correctness, especially when it’s opposing Shakespeare.”

You ignored her. What mattered was that it was Race arguing with the teacher, and he was always wrong, even when he was right.)

He was especially annoying at parties, when he’d flirt with anyone who breathed – except you, of course. The way he nonchalantly joked with everyone else, and pretty much ignored your existence, except to tease you about your hair or something you had said, made your blood positively boil.

(And, Davey was wrong: you weren’t jealous of anyone, not even a little bit.)

He annoyed you at parties, but his absence from Jack Kelly’s annual Halloween party left a gaping hole. You were dressed as Jim Kirk, from Star Trek, and you had expected him to tease you as soon as you got to the party, insist that you had yourself pegged wrong and that you were definitely more of an expendable red shirt, than a royal yellow. You would respond in kind, with a snarky comment about how he had less personality than a Vulcan commander and all would be right in the world.

But, he didn’t show. Or, if he did, he managed to keep quiet the entire night which, considering who you were dealing with, just made the former more likely. Towards the end of the night, you found yourself leaning against a wall in the living room, talking to a girl that you kind of knew, dressed as Wednesday Addams, and a boy that you didn’t recognise, in a full Batman costume, face-covering cowl, and everything. Maybe, you had had a little too much of the definitely not kid-friendly punch that Romeo had whipped up, or maybe you were just tired, but, when the conversation lulled, Race popped into your mind.

“Hey, you haven’t seen Higgins around tonight, have you?”

“No,” the boy answered, clearing his throat. “I mean, no, I haven’t. Why?”

Maybe it was the alcohol, but you were almost certain that his voice was pitched a little lower than it had been earlier in the conversation. You frowned, it was probably the alcohol.

“No reason, I just feel like everyone’s here and he’s, like, not. It’s weird. And, it’s so uncharacteristic of him to let a night go by where he’s not the centre of attention.”

You winced a little at the harshness in your tone, and the boy must have picked up on it, too.

“You’re being kind of hard on him, don’t you think?”

You rolled your eyes.

“No, I’m giving him the same treatment he gives me, all the time. And, besides, it’s not like I haven’t tried to get to know him – it’s not my fault he’s the biggest douche canoe this side of Canada.”

You couldn’t see the boy’s face in his costume, but you thought that he might have been frowning.

“What do you mean ‘tried to get to know him’? From what I’ve heard he’s a pretty dope guy.”

You scoffed. Did people still say dope?

“Dude, I think I would know. We used to be really good friends, like, maybe even best friends when we were in middle school, and then I guess he just lost interest, like he always does. He’s got the attention span of a studious gold fish, I swear.”

“Well, did you ever talk to him about it? Maybe, it was just a miscommunication kind of thing.”

“Ugh, as if. If he stopped talking to me, it isn’t my job to figure out what his issue is. I just,” you huffed in frustration. “We’re all here, having a good time and making fools of ourselves and he’s just missing in action. Although, I bet if he did come to this party, he’d be dressed as Peter Pan, the boy who never fucking grows up.”

The boy flinched, and you wondered for a second if you had gone too far.

“That’s harsh. You should try to give him a chance, maybe he actually wants to try to get to know you, again,” he said, before drifting off like some mysterious faerie. You weren’t sure when during the conversation the girl had left, but, soon, you were standing alone. You stood there for a moment longer, wondering idly about who that guy thought he was, anyway. You finished the drink in your cup and sauntered off to find some more of that magic punch, not giving the boy in the Batman costume a second thought.

The conversation only drifted through your mind again the next morning, when you woke up, groggy and confused, on Jack’s couch. Maybe you were a little harsh, but you had given Race the benefit of the doubt, once upon a time. He had been one of your closest friends, once upon a time.

You still remembered the last proper conversation that you had had with him. You were twelve, sitting in your bedroom and playing video games, when he paused the screen and turned to you with an oddly determined look on his face. He asked if you had heard the rumour that someone was spreading around school, that you and he were dating. You said you had, still a little confused,  and he gave you this intense, unforgettable look, before asking what you thought of it all. You laughed at the idea, telling him, perhaps a little dishonestly, that it was super gross. He was like your brother, you said. You didn’t think much of it, at all. Why would he care, anyway? He had that pretty girl, Zoey. Finch had said that he had seen them holding hands at Sarah J’s party, so you didn’t want to ruin anything for him by admitting that you sometimes wished that the rumours were true. You pressed play and kicked his ass in Tekken. 

The next Monday, at school, he acted like nothing was wrong, but, after that, the pair of you started to drift apart. You stopped playing video games together, playful barbs became antagonism and, by the time you reached high school, you had nothing left of the friendship that you had once shared. It was sad, sure, but you weren’t a chaser. If Race didn’t want to be your friend, then so be it.

You didn’t think again about the conversation with Batman boy, or what you might have done wrong to get Race to hate you, until a few nights later, when you were sitting at home alone. You were trying to convince yourself to get up and get something done, maybe cook dinner or do your homework, for once, but, instead you were scrolling through your unexciting Instagram feed. You idly double tapped on a few photos, exhaled out of your nose in lieu of laughter at some stupid memes, and then you reached a picture that Albert had posted, from the weekend’s party. It was him and a couple of other boys grinning at the camera and you were about to scroll past, when you saw a familiar costume. It was yellow and black, with the tell-tale Batman logo on the front, but, this time, the wearer had the hood off. Shit. Shitshitshit. There, in the Batman costume was Anthony Higgins. You had accidentally complained about him to him. Sure, you and Race weren’t the best of friends, but you didn’t want him to think you were an asshole.

You fumbled to your contacts app and called Katherine. She’d know what to do, you were sure of it. After she had got done laughing at you, she offered you a solution: Talk to Race and apologise for what you had said. You knew, logically, that that was your only option, but you really wished that the world would end before you had to apologise to Race Higgins. You couldn’t stomach texting him and figured that you could just grab him after school the next day.

The day went by a little too fast, and, before you knew it, the bell had rung to signal the end of your last lesson. You resigned yourself to your fate and made you way to Race’s locker, which was just a few doors down from yours. He was alone, thankfully, and looked more than a little surprised to see you heading his way.

“Hey,” you tried to smile when you reached him, but you were sure it came across as more of a grimace.

“Hi,” he answered, barely looking at you as he moved books from his locker to his bag.

“Race,” you tried again, putting a hand on his forearm to stop his fairly violent rifling. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” He glanced down at where your hand touched his arm and sighed, turning to you, looking a little deflated.

“Fine. What’s up?”

You took a deep breath.

“Look, I didn’t know it was you that I was saying that shit to at Jack’s. And, I know it was shitty of me to be saying that to anyone, but I didn’t mean most of it. You’re on my nerves half the time, and making fun of me the other half, but that was mean. I’m sorry.”

He looked shocked, and a little pensive.

“It’s, um. It’s okay, Y/N. It just made me kind of sad that we aren’t friends anymore. I mean, we were good together.”

He met your eyes, and you were struck by how much you had missed the way they shined when he was being sincere.

“Yeah, uh, me too. We made a good team. I miss that.”

He looked like he was going to say something else, when Albert came up behind him and put two hands on his shoulders.

“Race and Y/N? Having a civil conversation? I’m entering the lottery on the way home, because today is a day for miracles.”

Race rolled his eyes at you and you laughed.

“Fuck off, DaSilva, you’re not even old enough to get a ticket,” he said jerking the boy’s hands off his shoulders.

“Yeah,” you agreed. “And you waste enough money buying coffee to flirt with Elmer at Jacobi’s.”

“Nice,” Race laughed high-fiving you, and Albert stuck his tongue out at you, before stalking off because he didn’t have a good comeback to dispute the truth.

There was a beat of silence, and before it started to get awkward, Race spoke again.

“Uh, if you’re serious about being friends again, we should hang out some time, maybe go to the arcade?”

You smiled at him, brightly.

“You sure that’s a good idea, Higgins? I’ll smoke you in ice hockey, like I always used to.”

“Uh, you wish. I’m the ice hockey king, baby.”

You punched him in the shoulder and made plans for that weekend. That had gone better than you had expected.

It wouldn’t have been true to say that you had changed your mind about Race right away. You had fun with him, from that first day at the arcade, onwards. It was still a little awkward and there was always a little tension in the room, but you worked through it. You were seniors, you could be mature, if you tried.

(Although maturity certainly seemed to be in short supply when you and Race giggled, together, at the matching sixty-nines that you got on your history pop quizzes, or when he whispered “that’s what she said” in your ear at almost every sentence that came out of Mr Bunsen’s mouth in bio.)

You didn’t hate him, not that you ever really had. You hated that, now, his stupid jokes made you laugh, because you were included in them. You hated the warmth you felt in your chest when you said something that made him laugh, and you especially hated that crinkle at the corner of his eyes when he smiled at you, sincere and earnest.

You, realised, gradually, that you and Race had never been enemies – you just responded to what you thought was his hate in kind. It was easier to keep roasting one another, when neither one of you broke the cycle. That conversation at the party had been a turning point, for both of you.

Although, you still seemed unable to talk about the elephant in the room. You and Race never discussed how the animosity had begun between the two of you. Bringing it up would force you both to admit how stupid you had been, and neither of you were very skilled at admitting fault. It was easier to ignore it, to dance around it, than it was to deal with it. It was on your mind more often, now.

You wondered what had really happened, because something had to have happened, right? The more you thought about it, the more it made sense. People don’t just stop being friends and turn to enemies, like flicking a switch, especially not two fiercely loyal people, like you and Race. You didn’t mention it, though, for fear that you would slip back into old habits.

You liked Race, you realised, even if the two of you were incapable of having a conversation about emotions. You grinned at one another in private moments of understanding, warm with that feeling you get when you spend time with someone who has the exact same sense of humour as you. It was really good to be his friend again, until it wasn’t.

The argument had started by accident. Race was coming over on a Thursday, after school to work on a project for history. You were determined to get better than a sixty-nine for this one, even if that was the golden number. When Race had rung the doorbell, your mum had welcomed him in, pleasantly surprised to see him. You always had a feeling that she was sadder about your losing Race than you were. She was convinced that the two of you were soulmates, even when you were kids in the playground. She called it a mum’s intuition. You called it heteronormativity, but, anyway.

She chatted his ear off as she waited for you to come downstairs, talking about how much she had missed having a boy around, and how glad she was that the two of you had patched everything up. You caught the tail end of the conversation as you made your way down the stairs.

“What ever happened between you two, anyway?” your mum had asked, innocently enough.

Race laughed uncomfortably.

“Oh, I guess she just got too busy for me. I’m glad we’re friends again, now, though.”

Your mum agreed, and you fumed. Almost as soon as you had pulled your bedroom shut behind you, you gave him A Look. He was alarmed.

“What?” he asked.

“What do you mean ‘what’? Do you seriously think it’s my fault that we stopped being friends?”

He scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“Oh, about what I said to your mom? I mean, yeah, it kind of was. You stopped inviting me over or replying to my texts, so I just figured you were busy,” he sounded unsure of himself.

“You stopped talking to me, Race. Was I supposed to be super nice to you when you always acted like you’d rather be anywhere else when I was in the same room as you?”

He scoffed.

“Are you being for real? We were fine, we were doing great, and then you started hanging out with Katherine or Davey instead of me, which is fine, but it was so not my fault.”

“You pretty much begged for space that day when you asked me about the stupid rumours about us dating, or whatever!”

He ran a hand through his hair.

“I cannot believe we’re talking about this. We were twelve, we were stupid!”

“And, now, you’re deflecting,” you replied. “We were best friends, Race. I just wanna know what happened between us.”

He sighed and flopped on your bed like a petulant child. His blue eyes were stormy, and they looked familiarly intense.

“Fine, it was kind of my fault, I guess.”

You kept yourself from fist pumping.

“It’s just, I felt so stupid!” he continued.

“What do you mean?” you asked, gently, this time, sitting at his feet on the bed.

“So, that day? When I asked you about the stupid middle school rumours?”

You nodded, motioning for him to go on.

“I had the biggest crush on you, and I figured that that was your way of letting me down easy. I was like your brother, right? It sucked. And, whenever we hung out, after that, I just felt so frustrated. I was mad at me, for being stupid and catching feelings and making everything weird between us, but I guess it was easier to just lash out at you. It was dumb, but I don’t think I like anything in the world as much as I like you, you were the first person that I ever felt any anything for. It sucked.”

He scrunched his eyes shut and looked ready to disappear.

“Wait,” you said, still processing his words. “’Like’, as in, present tense?”

He sat up straight.

“I – what?”

“You said like, like present tense like, like currently like.”

He cleared his throat and his eyes scanned the room, as he searched the walls for something.

“Uh, slip of the tongue, whatever. You said like way too many times just then.”

You waved your hand. Semantics.

“Do you, um, like me, as in like-like me, present tense like me, Race?”

He sputtered for a moment, and then swallowed drily.

“I guess, it’s stupid. It kind of never went away, if you can believe it.”

You could believe it. It wasn’t hard to believe, since you could relate. He was waiting, nervously, for you to say something, but your words didn’t seem to be working. Instead of speaking, you moved across the bed, so that you were sitting next to him, both of your heads leaning against the wall.

“I, um,” you took a deep breath. “Uh, same.”

His head snapped to yours and he searched your eyes for humour. He sighed, shakily, and then let out a soft laugh.

“’Same?’ I practically confess my love to you and all you’ve got is ‘same’?”

His eyes twinkled with mirth.

“Well, what else do you want me to say?” you protested. “That I don’t hate you? That I never wanted to hate you? I just figured that you didn’t want to be my friend, anymore.”

“God. We are idiots.”

“Yep,” you agreed.

You sat in silence for a moment, letting the realisation of what you had just admitted wash over you. Race suddenly turned to you.

“So, what happens now?”

You shrugged, still not meeting his eyes. You weren’t sure what you were nervous about now, but the tumble of feelings in your stomach insisted that looking at Race’s eyes would ruin you, so you stared at the white wall in front you.

“Because,” he said, putting a hand on your knee like he was bracing himself. “I kinda wanna make out with you, like, romantically?”

A laugh bubbled out of you and you turned to him, finally. You had been wrong, before, about the consequences of meeting his eyes. They weren’t storm-blue anymore. They were blue like the sky on a sunny a day. They were blue like the ocean, when you’ve spent months away from the sea. They were a sight to behold.

You turned your whole body to face him and gently slipped a hand to the back of his neck, playing with the blonde curls there. You leaned into him, and just before your lips met his, you muttered a word, just loud enough for him to hear.

“Same.”

You leaned in and kissed him, with years’ worth of hidden feelings, and he smiled against your lips. You pulled away after a bit and looked at his eyes. His pupils were blown wide, but they were as blue as ever. You wondered how you had ever pretended to dislike eyes as beautiful as his.

 TAGLIST: @bencookisagod @broadwayandbookblog @theygivesyawhateveryouwant @crazymecjc

[searchin-for-an-urchin]

Like a Punch in the Gut Aaron Burr x Reader Chapter 10

Forever Tag @fangirlandnerd

Chapter 1 Chapter 2  Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9  Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Masterlist

The conversation between you and Nathaniel ended with the two of you exchanging contact information. You admitted that you weren’t sure if you were ready for him to be a part of Charlotte’s life and he agreed. The two of you would think on it for a few days. After you and Aaron had left the restaurant, you finally felt like you could breathe a bit more. Trying to process everything that had just happened, you remained silent for a few blocks. Subconsciously along the way you start giggling. The two of you pause in your tracks as your giggles turn into full out laughter. You notice Aaron’s eyebrow cocked as he observes your laughter, and you try to control your laughs a little more.

    “I’m sorry,” you say in between the subsiding giggles, “I really don’t know how to process what just happened.” When your eyes catch his again you see him looking as if he’s trying not to laugh either.

        “I’ll admit that’s not a part of the date that I planned.” When you can catch your breath, you feel a bit relieved. “Shall we head on to the next destination?” You tilt your head to the side with a smirk on your face and retort,

    “You sure you can handle all the random parts of my past popping up?” Aaron answers your question with a genuine smile.

        “I absolutely insist learning more about you, Y/N.”  

    Hand in hand, the two of you walk off to the next place; an arcade. You think to yourself that this isn’t like the arcades you and John grew up with, oh no. This was an arcade full of video games, large crane machines, and prizes on prizes. Aaron saw the look of your amazed face and laughed. Tugging your hand slightly to follow him he walked up to the customer service counter and asked to speak to the owner. After taking his name, the employee went into the presumed office space and requested the presence of the owner, a man in his 50’s, who greeted Aaron with a handshake and a hug. Aaron greeted back with the same energy and then introduced you as his date. The man, Greg, as he said to call him, did a double take when he heard your name.

    “Wait,” he questions, shaking your hand, “Y/N as in the mother of the girl who decked Theodosia?” With a forced chuckle from both you and Aaron, you confirm that yes, you are Charlotte’s mother.

    “Good!” Greg exclaimed. “I’m glad the two of you finally got to go on a date.” Aaron’s arm reaches around you and settles on your hip as Greg continues to talk, very clearly trying to embarass him.

        “How do you two know each other?” You ask Greg.

    “Oh, Aaron was my lawyer years ago when a rival arcade tried to sue me. They were trying to blame me for the way my crane machines were manufactured, saying they were rigged to be successful, which is why everyone came to my place.”

        “It was my first solo case,” Aaron chimes in, as you look in astonishment in his direction.

    “His first win, too,” Greg says with a laugh. “Mr. Burr here has been my go to for legal advice since. Here,” he pauses, grabbing a card from his back pocket. “Go play, have fun, on the house. Just make sure to stop by before you leave.”

    You and Aaron thank Greg profusely, with both of you saying it wasn’t necessary, but he just waves you off, leaving the two of you to decide where to start. Since the cranes were the both of you attempt to grab a Pokemon plush for the girls. Twenty credits later, you have a Squirtle and a Charmander plush sticking out of your crossbody purse that you now are grateful you brought. Moving on from the cranes, the video games catch your eye next. After kicking his butt multiple times on the motorcycle racing game (“This isn’t fair, you actually learned how to drive, you didn’t grow up in New York!”), and having your own handed to you on the Tekken Tag game, (“Oh-ho-ho, vengeance is mine, dear Y/N!”), the two of you wander over to some goofier games, like the hopscotch game.

    You fail pretty spectacularly on your first attempt. Glancing over at Aaron you notice that he’s laughing in your direction, trying to keep it hidden under his hand.

    “What?” you say, with a grin on your face. “Hopscotch wasn’t really my favorite game growing up. John never played it with me!” You turn your attention back to the screen where a measly “15” was displaying. Aaron comes up on your left, places a quick peck on your cheek and scooches you out of the way. Feeling a little starstruck because of the kiss, you barely register your date taunting,

    “Excuses, excuses. Let me show you how it’s done.” Aaron hits the 101 hops jackpot in less than a minute and a half, leaving you speechless, even without the kiss on the cheek. Watching the tickets pour out, you sputter,

        “Are you kidding me?!”

    “And that, my dear, is how it’s done.” For the next hour you spend competing with each other in the basketball game, skeeball, whack-a-mole, even a jump rope game, and compile a large pile of tickets. Realizing you don’t really need to spend all the tickets, you each pick out a small prize. Aaron chooses a fun pen that he swears he’ll use at work, and you a desktop sized dinosaur that sings “Dynamite” to annoy John, Peggy, and Lauren at work every once in a while (more like every dang day). You decide to leave the tickets for the next kid coming in to enjoy.

    Greg wishes both of you a goodnight as the two of you leave the arcade. Noticing how barren the streets were you glance at your phone for the first this evening and realize how long you went without thinking about the restaurant or how Peggy and John were doing with Charlie.

    “What time did you need to pick up Theo?” You ask, grabbing his hand, intertwining your fingers. Aaron squeezes your hand and answers,

        “She’s spending the night with the Hamiltons. I couldn’t plan for how long we would spend in the arcade, and Theo was overdue for a sleepover with Pip and Angie anyway.” After a few moments, he questions, “What do you think Charlotte and her aunt and uncle are up to?” You snort at the image that comes to mind.

    “Well. If I know John, he’s probably asleep while Peggy and Charlie are painting his nails for the fun of it. They’ll probably watch the Spongebob movie at least one more time and fall asleep during the credits.” Aaron lets out a whistle and responds with an astonished voice,

        “That’s really specific, Y/N.”

    “Well, before Lauren came to the restaurant, there weren’t too many people I trusted to run my kitchen so I worked a lot of evenings where John or Peggy would watch Charlotte.”

        “It’s hard being a single parent,” your date mentions.

    “I imagine it’s a bit harder being a widowed single parent, Aaron,” you remind him. He just hums in agreement, and then adds,

        “It was hard for both of us. Theodosia Sr. was killed in a car crash when Theo was 5. She couldn’t quite understand why her mom wasn’t coming home, or why her mom looked like she was sleeping. I wasn’t prepared to teach her about death that way, you know?” Aaron asks the hypothetical question, slowing down the walk just a tad, and you squeeze his hand to show that you understand.

“I don’t think she ever really got to mourn. Her memories from her mom are so few and far between that it almosts hurts for her to remember. It’s also why I haven’t really dated since. In fact,” he admits, stopping in his stride and turning to face you, “It took me until Charlotte punched Theo in the face to even talk to you.”

    “Wait, what?” You say, incredulously, a smile and a blush gracing your face.

“Yeah, I noticed you at one of the open houses for the school and just never had the nerve to start up a conversation. I’m really surprised Theo hasn’t told you,” he explains, watching your face and starting to smile himself. “I kept asking her to make friends with Charlotte, and she just kept saying no.”

“Look where they are now,” you interject, with a giggle escaping your smile.

“Yeah. Look where we are, too.” The two of you continue back to your apartment as the conversation dwindles slightly. A weight on your shoulders is suggesting that you talk about Nathaniel, even though you weren’t sure what you were going to do. I mean, the guy had to decide if he even wanted to meet Charlotte, let alone be a part of her life.

    “Hey, Aaron?”

“Yes?” He hums in response.

    “I would like to tell you about Nathaniel, but I’m a bit unsure if I should.” You can feel his thumb running over the back of your hand in order to soothe you.

“Y/N, you’re welcome to share anything with me, but you don’t have to, especially if you would like to wait. I would like to be around as long as you’ll have me,” he assures you, as he pulls the hand he’s holding up to his lips. He places a gentle kiss on the back of your hand and you can’t help but lean into him.

    “For someone who hasn’t dated in years, you sure know how to sweet-talk a girl,” you stammer out, trying to tease him, but being a little more affected than you want to admit because all of a sudden you find yourself tilting your head up towards his face and he’s tilting his head down towards you, and as your eyes are fluttering closed you hear him joke back in a similar manner,

“I’ve had some practice in the mirror.” Before you can react to the cheesy line that didn’t seem so cheesy you feel his breath on your lips and then your lips connect.

It was the best kiss you’ve had. Ever. While it was a little bit awkward and fumbly, you liked the way he felt. Soft enough for comfort, but firm that you were able to sink into him no problem. Breaking only slightly to regain air, your arms wrap around his neck and he catches you stumbling into his arms (which you swear was involuntary). Each kiss grew more sure and a little more coordinated, and each kiss brought you deeper into his arms.

*********************************************************************

    You walk the rest of the way home hand in hand. Kisses are shared every few minutes and quite a few are given on the elevator ride up to your floor. After you’ve successfully unlocked your door and shared a goodnight kiss, you find yourself taking another deep breath before walking further into your home. Before you can even sneak into the living room, you hear Peggy’s steps towards you, pulling you into your bedroom.

    “John actually stayed awake long enough to carry Charlie to bed, then he came back and crashed on the couch,” your best friend huffs out, rolling her eyes, before landing on your bed, taking you with her. “So, tell me everything!”

    You jokingly scold her for her curiosity and begin to recount the events of the night.

    “You ran into who?!” Peggy incredulously inquires when you get to the part at the end of your dinner.

        “I ran into Nathaniel, Charlotte’s dad.”

    “I thought you didn’t remember him?”

        “I didn’t,” you insist, “Until I saw him again. NYC is a large place, Peggy.” With a grimace, “He deserved to know that he has a daughter, too.”

    “Poor Aaron,” Peggy chuckles, “All he wanted was a date and he got an estranged father.”

        “Yeah,” you sigh. Aaron was such a good guy and you were still in shock with the way Nathaniel showed back up in your life, but you decided you’ll tell Aaron about him later. After giggling and gushing about the rest of the date, you and Peggy fall asleep leaving your daughter in her room and John on the couch. It was a late night afterall. And while the evening had some gut-wrenching moments, the butterflies in your stomach are fluttering around peacefully.

[demonsfate]

Hi again! "Not only the whole "IF A MERE FATHER-SON QUARREL IS ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE WORLD, THEN SO BE IT" ---> I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this sounded weird from Jin's part. I completely agree that was his T6 personality. I truly hope we see good Jin again in T8 because I can't deal with another character assassination. I totally understand what you say about Xiao and Alisa's interactions, at times it seemed like ok this is important for the plot but how much of it do we need? Is not that I don't enjoy these two characters (Xiao is one of my faves), but I think the writing was just plain bad and all over the place. I can’t even remember what was the whole point of them spending so much time together 💀. Other than fighting over Shin(?) And yeah, Jin didn't care about hurting her which, again, kind of strange when you see him being so protective of her in the past??? Like you can be an ass but you can also care about your friends. Tek writers said NAH he's an ass with *everyone* and gives no fucks! Imo, I think his design in Blood Vengeance is a little weird. He looks young and grown at the same time. His neck area throws me off lol

Really, it felt like Blood Vengeance didn't really know what it wanted to be. With the whole Alisa and Xiao thing - it felt like they just wanted a cutesy slice of life high school thing with the beloved cutesy girls of the series - especially with fuckin LEE being like a teacher at the school??? And... g... Ganryu being the principal or something??? IIRC??? Which I wouldn't have mind if they did just create a full on silly Slice of Life thing that meant nothing but only for fun. But it felt like they also thought, "well... this is Tekken. We can't just do THAT, people want ACTION, and they want the Mishimas fighting" so they just came up with a contrived plot to get that rolling, and just to get some forced fight scenes going. And it all just became a boring mess and had the viewer wondering why they're even watching it or what's even really the plot of the movie.

I ADORE Xiao - a lot tbh. And tbh, I also liked her much better in Blood Vengeance than the anime, Bloodline. Whenever I complain about Xiao's characterization in Bloodline - people get critical of me and say "well we can't have her be a naive bimbo school girl!! that would look bad!!" And I could get into why I don't agree with that statement itself but it's not just that I didn't like that Xiao wasn't nearly as bubbly/cutesy in Bloodline - it's other parts of her characterization I didn't care for. And Blood Vengeance did her better and I'll say how -

in Bloodline, Xiao was able to DEFEAT fuckin Nina Williams - all on her own. A 16 year old VS a trained assassin. And yes, Xiao is trained, too - but not to kill, I'm sure not as harshly, and also not as experienced. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao struggled against Anna. This is much more realistic. As Anna is quite similar to Nina - trained assassin, more experience, and all that. And many argue that Anna is supposed to be the inferior sister in terms of combat skills. So, it shows just how fierce these sisters are against Xiao (who's 18-19 now, but still) Now this might be nitpicky as hell - but the scene where Xiao "attacks" Jin when they're walking to (or from) school. I guess because she didn't like how injured he looked, and he wasn't talking to her? But it just felt like an example of trying to make Xiao just a "cool female character who takes no shit!11!!" trope. Just because in Blood Vengeance, XIao was a very soft person who understood ppl and never pushed them around just bc she got upset. And in the games, she was also very caring of Jin and wouldn't do that. (hell, in the Pachinkos - she's even very gentle with Devil Jin, going as far to softly touching his face - she only attacks him in self defense.) Anyways - my point is, even if it is just a mere joke and nothing more - it felt very out of character for Xiao, and very forced. And one last example is that Xiao actually showed way more emotion for Alisa's "death" in Blood Vengeance than she did for Jin's death in Bloodline LMAO. Like she screamed, but afterwards - she just sounded more... angry at Heihachi than anything. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao showed she was angry at both Jin and Kazuya for why Alisa had to die. But you could really see her tear up, and crying about Alisa - as well as being gentle with her, and holding her mutilated body. There was a lot more emotion that could pull at your heart strings with Xiao experiencing Alisa's death vs Xiao experiencing her best friend's (and potential crush)'s death.

So, whilst I'd still rather watch Bloodline even if I did think Xiao was a better character in it - because whilst it was boring to me, it wasn't as boring as Blood Vengeance was. Nor did it feel as contrived - it just suffered from expositions and stupid writing choices.

I think the whole fighting for Shin thing was actually just an elaborate plan by Heihachi to get Kazuya and Jin together so he can kill them both and take the power of the Devil Gene for himself, as well as get back the Mishima Zaibatsu. Yes, you see - Shin had an elaborate plan and was playing 4D chess, but Heihachi had an EVEN MORE elaborate plan and was playing 5D CHESS. The thing about Jin in Blood Vengeance is that sometimes he looked fine. But many times he did kinda resemble more of a teenager in the face than his game counterpart does. It's hard to explain, I guess he just looked... more baby-faced, meanwhile Jin in games is "rougher" in the face. I rly don't know how to explain it SDSGJNDFGN.

The thing about Jin being an "ass" before is that whenever he was standoffish to his friends - it wasn't because he's just a jerk, it's because he genuinely cared about them. He apologizes to Hwoarang if he felt he broke a promise they made - he showed concern to Xiao by telling her the tournament is dangerous, and told her to go home. (And in Xiao's TK4 ending, he told her to follow her dreams and make them a reality) Jin may seem cold, but he really shows that he cares for his friends (and his coldness is also just another way to care because he doesn't want them hurt by his dangerous life, or his devil - who wasn't even really in Blood Vengeance lmao)

A good example of just how awful his character has become is in TK6 when he says this to Hwoarang -

or in King of Fighters mobile crossover when he said this...

(annoying little brat - they're literally the same age lmao - nearly the same height iirc) When in TK5, when Hwoarang got offended, and suspected Jin thought he'd found a stronger opponent - which Jin is quick to deny this.

Instead, just telling Hwoarang the truth - life has gotten too busy for him and he can't keep his promise of a rematch (which Jin apologizes for that - twice.) Had this been the Jin in TK6 / other medias, he wouldn't have apologized nor would he have denied Hwoarang's claims. He would've mocked him here. But no - Jin doesn't here because not only does he care about Hwoarang, but because he was also a good person. (Altho not gonna give TK5 all the credit, as they did kinda kickstart TK6 Jin - but who knows if TK6 was actually really planned)

But yeah - I'm just really hoping we see the compassionate, and caring Jin who struggles with his morality instead of the jerk Jin who doesn't give a fuck about anyone else or the world for no reason. He definitely seemed to be better in TK7. Because again, whilst it's hard to really say as he wasn't really in it much. But there was Miguel's ending where he showed remorse, and even wanted Miguel to kill him. (Whereas in TK6 when Miguel confronts him, Jin says "I don't need forgiveness from someone who's about to die.) And whilst they kept his "power is everything" (🙄) and "you're a joke" animations - they did remove his "fear the wrath of god" as well as the smirk pre battle ones. And of course, his determination to kill Kazuya in the end of TK7 for what seems like the better good. So I do strongly believe in TK7, they were already trying to do damage control, and make Jin back to being Better. I just hope in TK8 we get the full on good guy Jin we've always known. The actual Jin, not the cheap Kazuya clone LOL.

Tho I'm also hoping TK8 retcons TK6. At least Jin's involvement in TK6 - so therefore there can be something that can excuse his behavior, and ppl can STFU about him being a villain. Either go with my idea that it wasn't Jin, but just Devil Jin who had completely consumed Jin at the time - and everything he said about "helping the world" was just his way of trying to manipulate good people into siding with him on the war. Or, as I've had someone on here tell me before - have it that Azazel just practically brainwashed Jin. (Similar to how Ogre brainwashed Nina in TK3)

Anyways, this went on for toooooo long - but I tend to get rambly when it comes to Tekken SJNDFJGN

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #793: After the Confrontation (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

4:25 p.m. at the Smash Mansion's Living Room.......

Ren: Well.......That all happened.

Makoto: I had no idea that confrontation has gotten so intense....

Pit: Yeahhhh.....Our moms can be pretty scary when they want to be....

Kirby: (Nodded in Agreement) Poyo Poyo.

Morgana: I'm just surprised they've actually managed to bring that Kazuya guy down on his knees.

Ren: (Starts Snickering a Little) I know, right? Who would've the the big and bad devil man would get himself whipped that easily?

Makoto: ('Sigh') I'm sure he has a reason for acting the way he did, Ren...... Speaking of which.....(Turns to Futuba and Lavenza, Who Are Still Looking at Kazuya From the Distance) What his he doing now, girls?

Futuba: He's still on his knees!

Lavenza: And I believe he is apologizing his deceased mother in tears and agony!

Ryuji: (Immediately Realizes Something) Ooooooooh! That's right. His mom, Kazumi!

Shiho: You know, I almost kinda forgotten about her entirely to be honest.....

Ann: (Raised an Eyebrow in Confusion) What about his mom exactly?

Ryuji: (Turns to Ann) Okay so, back when Kazuya was a little kid, Heihachi killed her while they were fighting, with an iron fist.

Ann: (Eyes Immediately Starts to Widened in Shock) WHAT!? Why!?

Shiho: Well, in her prospective, she thought that Heihachi and Kazuya would go down a dark path in future. That and she was kinda, sort of destined to kill her husband by the Hachijo Clan.

Ryuji: So before she asked Akuma, of all people, to try and kill Kazuya and Heihachi when the time comes, she decided to deal with her husband herself. Needless to say, it..... really didn't work out for her in the end.

Shiho: Yeah. And the crazy thing about all of this is that her death caused all the other crazy events that happened afterwards. Like how Heihachi overthrown his father of CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu and then throwing Kazuya off a cliff afterwards when he was five or six at time.

Ryuji: Which also caused Kazuya to throw him off a cliff after he won the first Tekken tournament. Buuuuuut Heihachi dropped him down on an active volcano in the second tournament..

Shiho: And then when he starts training his son, Jin, at the time, he betrayed him by having himself and his army shoot at him. Only to get knocked out of a wall thanks to the Devil Gene Jin has when I think he was younger at the time?

Ryuji: Doesn't really help the fact that when the guy beaten Jinpachi in fifth tournament years later and became the new head the corporation, he SOMEHOW caused a literal worldwide war in the process. And I don't even think he knows why he caused it either at this point.other than avenging his ma or whatever.

Ann: (Couldn't Believe What She's Hearing Right Now) ....................What the hell is wrong with these people!?

Shiho: (Simply Shrugs) Being apart of the Mishima Bloodline can do a lot of crazy things for the most part.

Ryuji: No kidding. Can't imagine being apart of a mess up family like that one....

Pit: (Sighs as He Slouches Down on the Floor) Honestly......I'm just glad that this whole Kazuya fiasco is finally done and over with now..... I'm beat.

Kirby: (Slouches Down on the Floor as Well) Poyo....

Peach: Pit. Kirby. (Walks in the Living With All the Other Certified Moms and Ganondorf Following Behind her) We need to talk, sweethearts.

Pit: (Turns to See Palutena is Still in Tears) Mom? Are you okay?

Palutena: (Tries Calming Herself Down While Wiping the Tears Away) Yeah....('Sniff') I'm okay. I-I'm just....('Sniff') So happy....and blessed... that you're finally home and safe!! (Immediately Rushes Over to the Duo and Hugs him Lovingly) Why did you two had go out there alone at night? ('Sniff') Why didn't you tell anyone of US about it beforehand!? We could've helped too....

Pit: I-It's not like we didn't want you guys to come or anything! We just thought you guys and everyone already has headed to bed. So Kirby and I decided to head out and find Ganondorf. To see if he's okay and stuff.

Ganondorf: (Looks Down at Pit and Kirby) While I appreciate the care and concern, I'd be more happy if you two stayed home instead. (Starts Gritting his Teeth a Bit in Anger) Especially after what the devil breed bastard did to the three of us-

Daisy: (Glares at Ganondorf While Smacking Him on the Shoulder) Ganon. Language. Children!

Ganondorf: Ah. Right. ('Clears Throat') My mistake. (Starts Crossing his Arms) But regardless, my point still stands. (Turns Back to Pit and Kirby) You didn't have to go looking me out in the streets alone at night.

Pit: (Lowers his Head Down in Shame) I know..... We're sorry.....

Kirby: (Lowers his Head Down as Well) Poyo Poyo........

Bayonetta: Oh darlings.....(Make her Way to the Trio and Join in on Their Group Hug) We're not mad at either at you for what happened. Nor are we ever going to punish you for it. We're just worried about your safety is all.

Peach: That's right. (Tears Starts Coming Out From her Eyes) ('Sniff') Our hearts would be broken in pieces if anything terrible would've happen to you two. So please don't ever scare us like that again, okay?

Pit: (Quickly Nodded his Head Along With Kirby) Yes, ma'am. We promise to be more careful next time too!

Palutena: And Pit.

Pit: (Turns Back to Palutena) Yes, mom?

Palutena: (Turns to Pit With a Teary Yet Motherly Look on her Face) I don't ever want you think that you're "Pathetic" or "worthless" from this day forward. Because you're neither of those things. (Place Two of Her Hands on to Both of Pit's Cheeks You've worked very hard be the angel you are today and I couldn't be anymore proud.

Pit: You..... really mean that?

Palutena: (Smiles Softly While Tears Starts Falling Down Again) Of course I do, sweetie....('Sniff') You're my baby boy and I love you so much. ('Sniff') Always and forever more.....

Pit: M-Mom, I.....I......('Sniff') I-I-I.....

And with that, Pit finally begins to burst out in tears in two of his mothers arms. All while being blessed and thankful that he and Kirby are still alive and that they are back home with the group of people they love and cherish for the rest of their lives.

@keyenuta

@princekirijo

@caleb13frede

@cyber-wildcat

@26shann

@albion-93

@ma-lemons

[minaminokyoko]

A Love Letter to Black Panther

Disclaimer: Y'all gon' get tired of hearing me scream, "WAKANDA FOREVERRRRRRR!"

Because I mean it. Bless this movie, man. This is everything I have ever dreamt of seeing from a black superhero with an all black cast. They couldn't have done a better job. This movie is a vision, fully realized. It's going to leave a very important impact on pop culture at large and I am so here for that. I've been a black nerd since birth, and to be given a big budget film with a 90% black cast that is backed by a studio giant is so gratifying I can see why some people left the theater in tears of joy. It's not that we haven't had black films before that did well. It's not that we're not giving credit to Blade for being a (mostly) successful film franchise with a black hero at the helm. It's all the elements lining up from having Ryan Coogler direct to grabbing actually African cast members to being marketed during the Superbowl--which is the most expensive ad time you can buy on television--to seeing an amazing integration of tradition, science fiction, and modern topics that are relevant to the black community. I sound like I'm overstating things, but I truly am so happy with how this film turned out. It wasn't a cheap cash grab. It was a genuine attempt to weave a story about African and black culture based around a whole lot of ass-whuppin' and I can't wait to dive in. Follow me, Wakandans.

Naturally, spoiler alert.

Let's start with the man himself, the King of Wakanda, T'Challa. First of all, I knew I'd love him since Civil War. Most people went for Tony or Steve and came out of that movie going, "OH MY GOD BLACK PANTHER IS THE FUCKING BADDEST I CANNOT WAIT FOR HIS SOLO MOVIE DUDE." We all knew he was a total badass, but what I left this movie with was a sincere love for the mercy and compassion he showed us in this film. It's very easy in a position with that kind of power to let it corrupt you and become jaded, but the gestures he made in this film were so lovely. I love that he was outraged by his father trying to erase history with what happened to his uncle and cousin. He was genuinely angry and hurt by it all and in the end, he showed so much kindness by letting Kilmonger see the sunrise before he died that it was honestly touching. I love T'Challa because he has such a big heart. It’s an incredibly important perspective to provide, as much of the world still sees black men as angry, dangerous thugs incapable of kindness. He has flaws as well, like his anger issues and naivete, and that's what makes his journey so compelling. It's very easy to write a royalty character as above it all, but that's why Thor: Ragnarok was so well received recently: they knocked Thor off his princely pedestal and brought him down to our level. We understand what T'Challa is going through even though we aren't royalty. He has a homeland to protect and a family to look after in his father's absence, much like we have our own responsibilities trying to tug us in a thousand different ways. I love that he challenged his father and brought about a new era, extending his help to the world. T'Challa is an excellent character and Chadwick Boseman did a hell of a job with him.

As a black woman, you know what's coming next. My girls Nakia, Okoye, and Shuri. Where do I even start? First of all, let me raise my fist for some lovely dark-skinned women getting the spotlight in a major superhero film franchise. Now, don't get me wrong--I absolutely freaking LOVED Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok. She slayed. But my heart is just bursting with pride at these beautiful badass women who are given weight, agency, and attention in this film. I have absolutely nothing against light-skinned women at all, but I do acknowledge that they tend to get roles easier than dark-skinned women because society still has this idiotic aversion to them because of the establishment's idea of beauty. It was such a rush to see each woman on screen having inner conflict and deciding what side of the line they would stand on. I love Nakia's stubborn nature and her hesitance to join the fray, but the second T'Challa was gone, she switched into spy mode and she did the damn thing. She saved the people who cared about her, she saved Ross, and she stood up for her country as well as the other people out there who needed her help. You are a diamond, Nakia. Okoye is probably going to come out of this film as the runaway favorite, if you ask me. I mean, Danai Gurira is already worshiped for her role as the amazing Michonne on The Walking Dead, but seeing her here, slicing and stabbing and beating the tar out of everyone while struggling with her loyalty to the Wakandan throne just gives me all the feels. I adored her sharp tongue and her grumpy frown and her impossible awesomeness. Then there's Shuri. I can't express my delight with her. She was such an adorable, witty addition to the team. I fully admit that I fell for the low-hanging fruit: the "WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOSE!" joke was hilarious even though I know no one over the age of thirty is going to have a single clue what she was referencing. I loved her calling Ross "colonizer." Shuri was throwing shade left and right and it was glorious. Furthermore, having her be the gadget gal of the film was brilliantly done. I loved her enthusiasm and her amazing tech. I loved that she bravely fought even though she was inexperienced. She was such a great character and I look forward to seeing beautiful little girls idolizing her mind and her strength in the future.

Kilmonger is definitely one of the strongest villains in the MCU so far. Most people ding Marvel for having thin villains, and that's not an unfair assessment. In my opinion, it's Cutting Room Floor issues. When you have to tell a story in two and a half hours, sometimes there's just too much content that you're excited to fit in and you just can't get it in there, so you take out chunks related to the villain to avoid the hero having an unsatisfying character arc. It's not a great idea, because then your villain isn't three dimensional and it can diminish the overall enjoyment of the film. Kilmonger is the answer to that problem. He had a reason for what he did, and while it wasn't an excuse for his cruelty, it definitely made you think about the fact that every good villain is a hero in his own mind. Kilmonger's plan even tempted someone in T'Challa's camp because it had a serious amount of relevance not only to Africans but black people all over the world. Wanting to stomp out oppression, especially in this day and age, is a trap I think a lot of people can fall into. I love the almost Shakespearean tragedy of it all, that maybe this could have been avoided if T'Chaka stayed behind and explained to the boy where he came from and that he had no choice. It probably wouldn't have worked, but just abandoning the kid with his dead father was ice-cold, and it's more tragic that it was done out of good intentions in T'Chaka's mind. I love that T'Challa sympathized with Erik and even offered to save him in the end. That has weight. That's excellent writing. I do admit, though, that Michael B. Jordan is definitely a young actor, because he was hamming it up pretty hard in certain scenes, but overall the kid did well with the role.

The costume design and scenery were just breathtaking. Man, I love the visuals we got to see. African culture is so vibrant and interesting. I'm really delighted knowing millions of people will get some exposure to all the different aspects and traditions it has to offer.

The soundtrack is killer. From the score to the tracks, it was done truly well.

Andy Serkis as Claw (although I don't appreciate the bait and switch, I can live with it; Marvel always kills their villains that are not Loki and even he is probably going to die in Infinity War). I knew he was an oddball in Age of Ultron, but damn, was he a complete nutcase. I appreciate how completely insane he was the whole time with no real explanation as to why. The simple glee on his face when he giggles, "I made it rain!" was just flawless. He might have the market corned for wackiest Marvel villain thus far. I'm sad that we only got to enjoy two performances from Serkis, but they were still entertaining as hell.

The action sequences had me floored. This is one thing I've always adored about Marvel films. The pacing is always excellent and they know how to wow you. If you follow me at all, you'll know one of the numerous reasons I hated the Justice League movie is that there was NO imagination in ANY of the fight scenes. Black Panther offers some of the best and most creative scenes to enjoy, from hand to hand combat to flipping cars with a fucking vibranium spear. I was cringing and twitching in my seat like I was playing a VR of Tekken, for God's sake. These fight scenes were so well done (though I will ding the film for lighting issues; the jungle scene suffered badly from that problem, as did at least one other one to my chagrin) and I loved everyone's various weapons and fighting styles.

MY BOY BUCKY AT THE END CREDITS YOOOOOOOO. I am infatuated with the idea that the Wakandans analyzed him and have been slowly helping him recover from being brainwashed and abused. It made my cold, petrified heart all warm inside when he smiled and looked out over the water. I just want Bucky to be happy, okay?! Leave me alone!

Well, I've gone on long enough, haven't I? I regret nothing, honestly. This is like The Dark Knight all over again: one of those rare instances when the hype for something was so crazy that we were sure it couldn't deliver, but not only did it deliver, it kicked the hell out of all expectations. I can't wait to see where the road will lead from here. My wish and hope is that this movie does so damn well that Hollywood opens its damned eyes and listens to what we have been saying since the beginning: we want diversity and we want it well done and we want it now. Stop relying on the old ideals of a market that we outgrew decades ago. Black people are just as complex and interesting as everyone else on the planet, and it's time you woke up. We've been doing it ourselves with all kinds of various projects from comic books to novels to short films and you can either lead, follow, or get out the way, as Jidenna once said. Your move, Hollywood.

WAKANDA FOREVER.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s End of the Year Rambling: Fighting Games

So now we get to the part of my End of the Year Rambling where I actually Ramble. This... this is gonna’ be a long one, and I haven’t even gotten to the RPGs yet... Lord help when I do. 

So yes, video games. I can’t just talk about everything in one go, I’ve played so much, played too much to be honest. So for the sake of my sanity I’ll be breaking this into genres, starting with fighting games.

I’ll be honest here, I’m not the best at fighting games. As much as I love a lot of the characters, as much as I enjoy writing lyrics to the character themes and fanfics for the lesser known  fighting games, I really couldn’t play at a competitive level for my life. My best game is Blazblue, and I can barely keep a 10% win rate on rank. 

No, my love of fighting games comes from the aesthetics and the animations.

Fighting games just tend to look very pretty in motion, and as someone that loves action and shounen and all that, games like these are right up my alley in terms of hitting those aesthetics. I don’t mind trying to learn how to play the game, but... well, “Git Gud” is a phrase that will forever haunt me for a reason. 

But yeah, I gave just about everything a shot as far as fighting games go this year. I played 2D fighters, 3D fighters, Brawlers, Side-Scrolling Beat-Em-Ups, and so on. If it went on sale on PSN or Steam, I tried it out. So here are some of the highlights and my general thoughts on some of these games.

So first I gotta’ talk about Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Blazblue’s older brother in a way. I’m not gonna’ lie, my opinion of Guilty Gear is a tad... negative due to a lot of Guilty Gear fans putting down on Blazblue fans in the early years of Blazblue’s rising as a fighting game. I know I shouldn’t let that color my view of the game, but it does make it harder to make posts like this, and I can’t help but compare so many things in terms of characters and aesthetics. I tried a bit of Xrd when it came out, the original Xrd back in 2014. I mainly played Chipp and Ramlethal, then mostly Ramlethal since she was a bit easier than Chipp (online anyway). I liked a lot the visuals and animations, it was a bit grittier than Blazblue, and had a much easier story to follow despite being the 3rd (major) game in the series than the time-traveling, multi-dimensional, quantum-mechanical science-meets-magic craziness that was Blazblue. Hell, the voice casting was actually pretty good, even if it felt like they used literally 10 voice actors at times (I swear every English voice actor was playing at least 2 characters). I put it down after awhile and went back to Blazblue and Under Night In-Birth. 

What brought me back to Guilty Gear was actually Answer, and not Baiken to everyone’s surprise. As much as I love samurais and tough girls, Answer hit every single Ninja aesthetic I could ask for in the world of Guilty Gear. His suit, his style, how he talks on the phone while he fights, his theme, oh lord, his theme. I bought Rev 2 with every intent on Maining him.

Then I realized I had to learn how his scrolls worked to do that, and went right back to maining Ram.

As far as the story of Rev 2 goes, I... I really don’t care for it. I honestly didn’t bother with it after chapter 2. And honestly, it was because this game didn’t get dubbed. 

Yeah... sorry if I’m bringing up an old point of complaint, but when games have visual novel-style cutscenes, or a CG movie in the case of Guilty Gear, to showcase their story I’d really prefer a dub. It’s just easier for me personally to follow the information a bit more. The Japanese voice actors sound fine, and I do prefer Ramlethal’s Japanese voice as a oppose to Erin Fitzgerald if I’m being frank, but... I need a dub for these kinds of story scenes, hearing it in a language I understand helps me. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between, and I’m especially not cutting Guilty Gear a break because of that. The only reason I tolerated it in Blazblue is because it was the finale to Ragna’s story, and I was personally invested in Ragna’s character after 3 games. Sol and the cast of Guilty Gear... don’t get that advantage with me since was my first time really caring about the story. I played a bit of Guilty Gear XX beforehand, but not enough to care.

In terms of how it plays, it’s fine. Personally, I think Guilty Gear is way more strict with inputs. You can’t just fumble around with joystick and expect to combo into a DP like in Blazblue, you need to be accurate. You also have to account for close and far-ranged normals like with Slash and Heavy Slash. Guilty Gear is... just a different animal for me. A more strategic and precise one that punishes mistakes heavily.

I do like a lot about it though. It’s music definitely surpasses Blazblue in terms of quality, my favorites of the Rev 2 track is One Dawn, Dizzy’s theme, and Enough is Enough, Answer’s theme. I’m... trying get lyrics together for those songs, but... eh, it’ll take some times.

Next up, we’ve got Street Fighter 5. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of the Street Fighter series, but I do like a handful of character in the sense of aesthetics. Makoto and Ibuki are my favorites, but yeah, I actually bought this game since it was real cheap at the time and I wanted to see if I could actually get into it despite it’s focus on competitive play. I heard this game wasn’t for those looking for a single-player experience, but I needed to see that for myself.

And man, this game is actually tough. Sorry, for the sudden segue, but mechanics of Street Fighter so different to the fast-pace style of an ASW fighter. Doing combos is so hard for me. I know Guilty Gear was tough and punished mashing, but Street Fighter is so much slower paced with how you need to approach it. This game does not want you to button mash for combos. Like, at all. In fact, the main reason I like Ibuki so much is because she one of the few characters who has a handful of combos that you can mash. You need to time things carefully, and that makes things a nightmare for me in netplay sometimes.

But, back to my time with the game. I know I’m beating a dead horse with this critique, but the lack of a true arcade mode or any really single-player experience outside of Survival Mode really bugs me. As someone that isn’t good on a competitive level, nor has an interest in the competitive scene of Street Fighter, I feel like there’s nothing keeping me around. Maybe I could find a group of beginners like me and just pal around with them and improve, but... I don’t know, I don’t think it’s worth it.

In terms of good things about this game, I like the presentation very much. We can... talk about character models and their hair another time, but I like a lot of the outfits and style of the characters. Certain outfits I just had to get for the aesthetics of them. Like I said before, Street Fighter has aesthetics, but... not much outside that is keeping me playing it. Eh, maybe I write a fanfic about the series, who knows?

Alright, next is something I was meaning to get to for awhile, King of Fighters 14. Between this and Street Fighter, I much prefer this one. The inputs took me a minute to get use to, realizing that special inputs could be combined into super inputs and all that, but I like the combo system in this game. I find it a little faster paced than Street Fighter, but not as fast as something like Blazblue. It’s a nice middle ground given my experiences, something I’d be willing to stick a little bit more time into. 

I had to uninstall this due to... certain events happening this year with my PS4, but I’m hoping to buy a physical copy of this game at some point in 2018 and try this out in earnest. My favorite characters to use were Mian, Luong, and Mui Mui. I messed around a little with Alice and Vanessa too at the time before... the event. I’m just hoping there’s still a community afterwards when I get this game later.

And last one my fighting game highlights, I tried to get into Tekken 7. I really tried too, but there’s just a lot that’s dissuading me from it. Much like Street Fighter, I feel like the focus was on online and competitive play instead of making a single player experience. Story mode I didn’t care much for since I’m apathetic to Tekken’s storyline as a whole. Arcade mode... is barely there. There’s Treasure battle, but it doesn’t feel like much of a game there. Honestly, I think Tekken 6 was a little better at this. I feel like a lot of previous fighting game titles did more for the single player experience to be honest. I mean, it’s fine if they want to focus on multiplayer and online,but that just didn’t keep my attention. I’m not really interested in reaching a higher tier of playing a fighting game unless we’re talking about Blazblue and Under Night In Birth.

Now if there’s one good thing I can say about Tekken, it’s the animations. If there’s any reason I get 3D fighters, it’s for how fluid all the characters look and move. It’s why I like Virtua Fighter, it’s why I like Dead or Alive, and it’s why I like Tekken. Your character just does cool stuff when playing them, and unlike 2D fighters, it really feels like you’re doing all the crazy martial arts action. Spectacle is probably the main reason I love Tekken so much, and even if I feel this game is lacking, I’ll probably come back to it eventually... eventually.

Honorable Mentions

Blazblue Central Fiction 2.0: I’ll talk about the Blazblue series in depth another time, but I do want to at least finally welcome Jubei to the cast, it’s nice to have you here Cat Person, here’s hoping we can see you in Cross Tag Battle.

Dead or Alive 5: I actually played this a bit more often over this year, not enough to talk about it in depth, but I’ll admit there’s more to this game mechanically than the breast setting... plus I... spend roughly $100 on cute outfits for the girls... hehe... what can I say, I’m a bit of a shameless pervert.

Absolvers: While technically not a fighting game, there’s enough fighting and martial arts in this game for me to give it a quick mention. I liked it well enough, I just wish it ran at a higher frame rate on the PS4 though.

The Plethora of Small-Scale Fighters/Old Re-Releases I Bought This Year: If I talked about all the fighting games I bought and I’d be here all day, so I’ll just list them off here.

Brawlhalla

Chaos Code New Sign of Catastrophe

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

The Last Blade

Melty Blood

Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena

Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars

And that’s it for fighting games. Again, I care more about fighting games in terms of aesthetics and animations, something I’ll probably Ramble about in the future, but for now... I’ll see you all when I talk about the Fate series... yeah, I’m really hesitating to talk about RPGs guys, just... give me a week at least.