#weapon is only implied but its pretty clear

[lets-try-some-writing]

i love it when people apply the whole “humans are space orcs” idea to transformer humans.

jack, miko and raf just doing regular, average day things that make the bots both extremely worried and unsettled gives me so much brainrot.

I got you here. I love this kind of lore/reaction ask.

Each of the children have a particular habit that bothers the team more than anything else. Can it be explained? Not really. All humans do the things they do. But for the bots, it is strange and out of sorts all the same.

Miko always carries around a bottle of sparkling water. She adores the stuff. The team, despite knowing it is not what the name implies, are still horrified with her drinking habits. Not to mention, they can't help but wonder where all the liquid goes. She drinks up to three whole bottles of water a day. In her own words "Hydrate or die." That in it of itself is concerning since the team, while well aware that humans need water, do not know how much they need exactly. The team are down right terrified of her ability to down water like a dry sponge. How can such a small fleshy even consume that much? They aren't entirely sure. Not only that, but if she drinks that much, then are Jack and Rafael getting enough? They can't be.

Not only does Miko down water like a bone dry houseplant, she also drinks just about anything else too. The team have seen her chug sodas which contain Primus knows how many strange chemicals and compounds. They've observed her willingly drink things that no other would on bets, including food that has been blended and watered down just because Jack wanted to see if it was possible for her to down hotdog cafeteria milk cheeto apple slurry.

Yes the team are terrified of humans and their ability to put anything inside themselves and walk it off. But more than any other, they fear Miko. Who knows what she's consumed.

All the kids do it, but Jack is the most notable since when he needs to go to the restroom, he makes it loud and clear mainly so that someone knows to keep an eye on Miko. The team are aware that organics have a need to manually handle removing waste since their systems are rather inefficient, however there is a certain level of mysteriousness surrounding the restrooms. The bots don't want to watch or even know HOW the humans get rid of waste, but they do know that THINGS happen in the restroom that seem to either be painful, emotional, refreshing, or aggravating. No one can really be sure what reaction will follow those who enter the space. Sometimes Jack or one of the other kids will go in there seemingly to just be alone.

It is a strange and almost sacred location where strange happenings occur. Miko went in once with bloody clothes and emerged with a fresh set before Ratchet could figure out what was wrong in the first place. Jack went in once and came out an hour later looking like he'd gone to war after he convinced Arcee to let him stop and get takeout the night before. Rafael took his charger and computer in there and hogged the space for a while to get away from the others once. The team does not know what happens in there, but it is mildly concerning since it either repairs or breaks a person.

Bulkhead theorizes that its a pocket dimension like the shadow zone. Ratchet refuses to think about it. Optimus will say nothing about whatever he knows. Arcee and Bee assume its a safe haven or sorts and Wheeljack is almost certain they keep weapons in there. Ultra Magnus and Smokescreen both agree that the restroom is simply a quiet space where a human can deal with personal issues in peace.

No bot is willing to try and confirm anything since humans flip out at any attempts to view the supposedly sacred ground.

Rafael is generally pretty good about flying under the radar most of the time, but he has a habit that has caught the team's attention. Humans have been noted doing what they can to clean themselves on their own. Its rather ineffective to clean one's own venting openings with digits considering the sheer amount of germs involved, but it is not out of the question to do so when a cleaning cloth is not available. Rafael occasionally and quietly trying to clean his nose is not what bothers the team.

No what horrifies them is the goop that he pulls out after his attempt at cleaning. What Ratchet has studied states that the goop is referred to by a number names, but is commonly called snot. Its the natural germ catcher humans have, but it still unsettles the team whenever Rafael quietly blows a few or when one of the others grabs a tissue and makes a rather disgusting sound as they try to clear their airways.

The goop reminds the team of any number of horrible things. But the sheer amount of GROSS within a small amount of the stuff has left the team all gagging whenever they find the stuff around base. Rafael is usually good about being clean, but sometimes he gets lazy and will use his chair to hide his cleaning attempts. Bumblebee has almost purged a few times seeing the marks on the chair from where Rafael may or may not have wiped his fingers.

Is he twelve? Yes. Is he fully mature? No. That much is evident just by looking at his chair.

[2-dsimp]

Monster rule 101: Don’t play with fire around your Mothman!—————-:—:————

Mothman! Dabi x monster hunter! Fem reader

—————-:—:——————:————:————-:——

🔞MDNI🔞

C w: Humiliation, asphrodiasic, slight mind break, degradation, praise, NFSW, monsterfuxking, overstimulation, breeding, impregnation, usage of cunt

—————-:—:——————:————:————-:——

You were on a mission.

A very dangerous mission that was a code gold also known as Legendary. Meaning that the monstrous threat was equivalent to a whole country being wiped off the map. However, due to certain circumstances only one solider could be dispatched to deal with the golden threat.

The reason for that being because of how hyper sensitive the Mothman is to overcrowding within its territory. The team dispatch leader decided to proceed with the utmost caution lest they trigger its frenzy mode. Which would ultimately result in the loss of lives country wide, burning underneath the raging pure blue flames of the otherworldly demon.

<< Have you located the Mothman? Over >>

“Yes I’ve got eyes on the area sir, permission to proceed?”

<< Permission granted. Over >>

You were chosen out of a select few individuals for being the cream of the crop, to carry out this dire mission to save all of mankind. If you could succeed then you’d be set for life! Having the fame and the riches that come along with it, all in exchange for exterminating the deadliest bug humanoid in existence. You’d say that’s a fair trade, since it was high risk high reward type situation.

But as you approached the abandoned cave you could feel a sense of dread wash over your entire being.

You were being watched.

You could feel the sweat accumulate upon your lush chocolatey skin littered in goosebumps. Then you heard a sharp chuff that echoed off the walls, seemingly the Mothman enjoyed watching you squirm from his focused attention.

Venturing even deeper into the unknown you tightly grasped at your equipment, a tool of reassurance you could say. That happened to be a flamethrower. Yes, out of all the weapons you chose a hazardous contraption that resembled a dragons breath.

Why? Mostly because you thought it’d be cool to go out in a blaze of glory should you happen to fail in your conquest to get the target in check. But it was also strategic in a way, since moths were attracted to light. You’ve had to find some kind of way to draw them out.

Too bad you didn’t get the chance to use it before you’re snatched into furry arms that secured you to the monsters chest. Which vibrated from his snarky greeting.

“You took too long enough for my liking doll, now shall we get down to business already? “

You could feel his bulge press up against the your ass, rubbing between your cheeks.

“I’m feeling a bit pent up”

He rasped impatiently into your ear, boy did his voice do wonders as it spiked your arousal. But you had a job to do, unfortunately. Gathering your composure you asserted yourself to the monster.

“You already know why I’m here right? Mr. Mothman.”

You could feel him chuckle darkly against your neck, highly amused by your sense of professionalism. Even while having his dick steadily grind against your back, covering you in clear fluids. Making your thighs shake in excitement.

“Obviously, but just call me Dabi, dollface. You’re gonna wear it out in a few moments might as well get a lil practice in ya?”

You were dumbfounded. Could he be implying what you’re thinking—

“Judging from the look on your pretty face, I’m guessing your little agency didn’t fill ya in on our little inside deal huh?”

He purred

You could feel his loosened grip completely leave your body. Allowing you to be able to face the Mothman hunched over in all of his 7ft glory. He had tuffs of black fur covering his toned ripped chest, arms, and legs. His overall body type was lean and slender. The dark colored wings sprouting at large from behind, before being folded back neatly into place. To avoid you from seeing his jagged scars littered across them.

“All I can say is that you’re in for one hell of a ride once I get my hands on you Baby. So Outta the kindness of my heart I’ll give you a 5 minute head start—”

He paused, as you gave him an warm embrace of your own. Grinding against his bulge that continued to grow even further against you. He looked down at you in disbelief, but it wasn’t before long until he connected the dots.

“ Don’t tell me, You’re one of those monster fanatics aren’t ya?”

To be quite frank yes. You were an absolute fan of monsters, you fantasized about getting close and becoming friends with one. But now you were gonna be the mate of a code legendary?? You couldn’t believe your luck. Plus it was the mission you were given, so as the loyal solider that you are. You gratefully accepted your fate with no questions asked.

The Mothman merely laughed in the irony of it all, a monster hunter wanting to be fucked by a monster it was so priceless. A devious smirk planted on his face As he bended over down to your height charred lips barely touching the shell of your ear only to whisper darkly of a precautionary warning of what you’re getting into.

“ You do realize that I’m in heat right doll?”

He reached his hand down running his tempered claws down the fat of your thick ass giving it a tight squeeze before hooking your leg up to leave some room for him to freely press his huge twitching bulge against your moist mound.

“I’m barely hanging on by a thread, so Don’t hold anything against me if I lose control got it?”

It wasn’t long until you were on the brink of being fucked to death by the Mothman of your dreams. face pushed down into the cocoon like nest he prepared in advance as his extended feeler limbs sprouted out from his sides, to grasp at you from behind hooking onto your waist. Keeping you grounded on his intrusive dick. While his primary arms wrapped around you tightly to play with your breasts that jigged violently from his ruthless thrusts from behind.

“You’re sucha pretty lil thing for me aren’t ya?”

The strong pheromones that wafted off from his wings made you feel so vulnerable and helpless within his smoldering embrace. You couldn’t keep count of how many times you’ve came alone from him just penetrating your cervix. It was as if you were on cloud nine enjoying the way his cum covered cock kept digging even deeper inside your snug snatch trying to ensure that you’d get pregnant with his brood.

“Your slutty pussy just can’t seem to get enough of my dick, don’t worry doll I’ll make you take all of it”

He murmured eyes staring down dangerously at the way your pliant body bended to his ministrations. He payed close attention to the way his dick continued to be devoured by your juicy cunt. That sucked and messaged his thick cock inside the hot mesh of your inner walls determined to be flooded with his baby batter.

“ Mmh D-Dabi please I can’t—!”

You babbled dumbly with drool hanging down from the corners of your fucked out plump lips. As the intensity of his rapid heavy thrusts began to increase its assault against your quivering quim.

You tried to crawl away from yet another approaching high that was dead set on crashing down on your senses. But his firm grip on your neck yanked you back into reality.

“ Aye Dollface don’t ever try to fuckin crawl away from me again, you’re mine you got that?”

Dabi hissed, giving you a sharp tug on your butterfly locs and a harsh bite on your shoulder as a fair warning.

The cave was emitting loud strange sounds from the inside, alerting to anyone from around the area to vacate the premises immediately. In case the Mothman were to come out of his home and start wrecking chaos. But little did they know that Stowed away deep inside the cave for a whole week did you lay beneath the Mothman in all your naked glory.

Freshly fucked all the way to Sunday during his still ongoing heat cycle. Where the only thing covering you was his semen that painted your caramel skin from your breasts down to your overused cunt stuffed to the brim with his cum that trickled out from your puffy pussylips. Only to be pushed back in by his long veiny dick just to ensure that the next of his kin would live on inside your womb.

Hey At least you prevented a worldwide tragedy, right?

[starwikia]

suicide cw

look i have been in this area before mentally. it sucks and i wouldn’t wish this on anyone. but, and this is going to sound callous, but i don’t feel any sympathy for james somerton. even if i hope he’s like. not dead. But thats all the amount of goodwill im willing to give him. The more i think about this really, the more angry i am. 

ngl this entire situation is another example of how white people weaponize their mental illness to avoid consequences. Im seeing it in real time.

this man has a continuous habit of using self-harm as a get-out-of-jail-for-free card. in both of his apologies, he has worded his supposed attempts in ways that were clearly meant to guilt people who displayed his plagiarism and overall horrendous history of racism and misogyny. i say supposed because, while i’m not saying those are lies and this would he such a fucked up thing to lie about that i don’t want to think he has, unfortunately, it’s been proven again and again that his word can’t be trusted, as he’s known to lie to try get out of consequences. Hes a proven liar. him lying about this is actually the best case scenario, because no one should go through this entire situation, wouldnt wish this on anyone, but you can only do this so often before people stop sympathizing with you. is this callous? Yeah, but like. I’m actually fucking angry he cant straight up take no as an answer. that this is how he reacts realizing he cant be one of the Cool Kidz™️ on youtube anymore. he acts like he DESERVES a career, like its not a privilege hes lost due to his own actions.

He lied about apologizing and forgiving people, he lied about giving the money to hbomberguy to give to ppl he ripped off (yknow, instead of doing it himself), he lied about the jessie gender situation and rewrote the narrative to make it so he isnt the bad guy, and hes the victim all along actually!

you can’t tell me that supposed last message of his isn’t meant to be a 13 reasons why esq attempt to deflect the blame “look i’m going to kill myself and it’s all YOUR PEOPLES FAULT for not letting me achieve my DREAM of being filmmaker IN PEACE!!! I just wanted Nick’s (the guy who I have thrown under the bus again and again) portfolio up!! Im just being a good friend dont you all FEEL BAD” he refuses to take ANY ACCOUNTABILITY of any of his actions and he IS STILL trying to shove the blame over to other people again.

it’s also pretty ironic people are like “uhhh well hbomber’s fans harassed him!!!” like hbomber outright told people NOT to HARASS JAMES!!! ALSO acting as if james doesn’t have a very real documented history of STRAIGHT UP sending his fans to harass and threaten smaller creators, more notably women, trans, and bipoc creators. especially after he’s stolen typically very personal anecdotes so he could profit from them. so why can he do it but the second people are like “hey this guys an actual piece of shit.” and he can’t handle it suddenly people are trying to white knight his shit? like no he doesn’t get that. he doesn’t get that at all just because he couldn’t handle the consequences of his actions. 

what? were supposed to stay quiet about a man profiting off of other minorities because he wanted to be the spokesman for all gay people? people tried to solve this on a smaller, more private scales for YEARS and he kept doing it. it was clear that the giant public video was the ONLY way to get people to notice. HE WOULDVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH STEALING 87 FUCKING THOUSANDS WORTH OF DOLLARS. HE CANT HANDLE THE FACT HE CANT GET AWAY WITH IT. 

am i supposed to feel bad for the guy who basically threatened a trans woman with the police? i don’t care what anyone says, it’s so fucking obvious that he threatened jessie by implying he was getting the police involved in their conflict. what am i supposed to act like that didn’t happen? are we supposed to pretend like he didn’t glorify nazi’s and outright said that gay people made up a good chunk of the nazis? That he didnt say america joined ww2 bc they were jealous of the NAZIS. WHAT WOULD POSSESS YOU TO FUCKING SAY THAT. but then? He gives women (not even women most of the time, he misgenders nonbinary ppl constantly) shit for writing mlm. are we supposed to act like he doesn’t straight-up sees himself superior and better than people of color and steals their works to put himself on a pedestal? Are we supposed to act like he didnt spit on our elders by saying “only the boring gays survived aids” like man! Fuck you! He BLANTANTLY MAKES UP HISTORY TO PUT HIMSELF ON A PEDESTAL!! HE ACTIVELY TRIED TO REWRITE LGBT HISTORY TO SUIT HIS FUCKED UP NARRATIVES!

yes this sucks ! no one deserves this but no one should be making him a martyr. Thats what he fucking WANTS! He wants to be immortalized as a victim!! (again, supposedly, it was reported hes alive but its not confirmed).

The shit he got isnt near the amount of fucking callous behavior hes done again and again. Again, to drill this point, EVEN IF HE DIDNT CALL THE POLICE HE THREATENED A TRANS WOMAN INTO THINKING HE DID!!! The fact he tried to use a head injury to justify years of the outright ghoulish shit fucking astounds me. Why the fuck did anyone in his life thought it was a good idea to let him TRY to come back. in the end, he had options. he didn’t need to try to make a comeback. HE DIDNT NEED TO FUCKING LIE OR IGNORE THE SHIT HE WAS CALLED OUT ON the reality is, he wanted to come back thinking he could shove it under the rug, was told that no dude, you’re not allowed to be a youtuber anymore. you’re done. you need to move on and went full nuclear. it’s not on anyone’s hands but his own. HES BEEN DOING THIS TO HIMSELF!! But nah man we cant call his shit out bc hell may or may not kill himself. Fuck the other minorities who have the same issues but worse and sometimes BECAUSE of him. This is going to SUCKKKK so bad when other ppl, specifically white gays, are going to weaponize this shit to get away with their stuff.

[running-with-the-feels]

okay, just had a thought but like

nothing Kuai Liang has ever done has actually been his choice prior to like, maybe, the second half of MKX.

I mean, think about it, he's kidnapped by assassins as a child and tortured and brainwashed into becoming a weapon. He's told that he can't leave or he'll be killed and even if he could he has no one to turn to in the outside world bc they killed everyone else and his knowledge of it is limited by the fact that he's not been in it since he was a child and is only allowed out for missions. If he doesn't do what he's told, they will kill either him or his brother, that is the very definition of Under Duress.

And then he's cyberized and Literally has his autonomy taken away, along with his body which is Horrifying, and when he gets his autonomy back, he's in the middle of a war and has no real choice but to fight for his life no matter what he wants.

Then he dies, and becomes a revenant and while its unclear exactly how much control Quan Chi had over them, it's pretty heavily implied that it was a lot, kinda like a semi-autonomous puppet situation, and is again made to fight and kill for someone else.

Then he's resurrected, and almost immediately possessed by Havik who canonically took full control of Kuai Liang and made him kill a bunch more people.

Even once he's freed, going after the cyber initiative might count as his first choice, but they are also hunting him and constantly trying to kill him so idk if that counts and then he's just sitting in his temple, minding his own business, when Raiden sends him a bunch of people to train and we have no indication that Kuai Liang intended to reform his clan at all until this happened, Raiden made that choice for him.

the man has never had any true freedom to choose in his life.

Meanwhile,

Everything Hanzo has ever done has been fully his decision.

We know that Quan Chi lied to him about who killed his family, and I will give him a pass bc nobody would be thinking rationally in that situation, but also, why on Earth would you trust the fucking necromancer? why would you not try to ask literally anyone else if he's telling the truth EVERYONE KNOWS THAT QUAN CHI IS A LIAR. but hey, maybe Hanzo doesn't know that, so we'll give him a pass.

But then, he still choses to serve Quan Chi rather than seek Bi-Han out on his own, he still kills Bi-Han even when he has a Massive incentive (the elder gods bringing his family and clan back) to leave him alive, and he chooses to keep serving Quan Chi after getting his revenge.

He even admits in the MKX comics that he was never controlled, though we know he was manipulated and he's probs not taking that into account, so at the very least the majority of the blame for his choices is on his own shoulders.

He also chooses to try and kill Kuai Liang in those same comics even as the cryomancer is kinda begging for his life and pleading his innocence. And he kills Quan Chi even knowing that it will damn the rest of the revenants to staying in hell forever.

Like, I'm not saying Hanzo is evil, I find all of his choices Very easy to understand even if they're the wrong ones, its clear why he does what he does, but he still makes a lot of bad choices that hurt the people around him.

And it's just like, do you think they ever talk about that? Does that affect the way they see and understand each other? Do they bring it up in fights and then regret it immediately?

Idk, I just think it's a really interesting parallel between their two characters.

[loz-furbies]

Breath of the Wild / Age of Calamity / Tears of the Kingdom Zelda, part 2/2

Role in the story

BotW, AoC and TotK stand out among the LoZ games in that they're specifically Zelda's stories in a way only Spirit Tracks can rival. Or Skyward Sword also did a similar thing where you first try to figure out what the deal with Zelda is, but I'd say that in that game Link's own journey to becoming the hero he needs to be is just as important, while BotW Link's is feelings about his adventure are more implied that explicitly shown in his games. While the actual story of BotW and TotK is pretty similar to most loz titles as far as Zelda is concerned (she is in some kind of trouble through the whole time and only clearing the game can help her, and she has minimal impact to the actual gameplay of the final fight), since we get to see so much of her own story, her contributions still feel a lot more meaningful than just doing something fancy in a cutscene after the player has done all the actual work. And despite being absent for the whole game, Zelda still has a lot of presence, since searching cutscenes about her is the main quest, and so many side characters talk about her.

I prefer Zelda's story in BotW over TotK, because in BotW she has internal conflicts and character development, while in TotK she is more about dealing with the external conflict that the plot throws at her. Or you can say that she is unsure about what to do at first and has grown more confident by the final Dragon Tear cutscene, but I don't think this was motivated by any personal growth about her. Also I'm not a fan of how the Master Sword just shows up on its own in the past, because it makes it feel like she's just acting on someone else's plan and the whole draconification is pushed on her. The scene where she eats the secret stone is really good, but I would rather have had her also intentionally pull the Master Sword to her after she comes up with the dragon plan to give her more agency about the whole thing.

TotK also has the issue that while the scene where Zelda sacrifices her humanity in order to restore the Master Sword is incredible, when it comes to gameplay impact, it comes across as underwhelming. Like this is a reincarnated goddess who gave up her all and has been pouring her strength for a billion years into this sword as a culmination of the dramatic flashback story, and what you get out of it is... a base power 30 weapon. I get why it is like this for obvious balance reasons, but from a pure story perspective, there's so much narrative weight on the Master Sword that at this point it should be able to one-hit-kill anything that isn't Ganondorf.

Showing the cutscenes about Zelda in mostly random order is a somewhat risky way to tell the story. I got a satisfying story in both BotW and TotK, but I figure that your opinion about Zelda might be coloured if the first BotW memory you see about her is the one where she acts rude towards Link. But I do like how any of the memories being optional naturally plays into the ending of the game where Zelda asks if you remember her; how well the player knows Zelda probably factors in how they feel during this scene, so I'd say that each player gets the ending they deserve.

Meanwhile in TotK I feel that after getting the geoglyph where Zelda makes the decision to turn into a dragon, the rest of them become less meaningful when the mystery about where she disappeared has already been solved. And speaking of which, I really wish the game handled the mystery about Zelda in the present time better because all red herrings about her become incredibly awkward when Link already knows where she is. I can still sort of buy that he wouldn't want to discuss this with Penn, but the main story missions really should have had an alternate version if you already did the Dragon Tears quest. And puppet Zelda in Hyrule castle towards the end doesn't work too well either, like what am I expected to feel about this suspiciously behaving Zelda when the game has already made it clear that it can't possibly be her?

Also it should be noted that as has become somewhat of a tradition, Zelda also gives you the Bow of Light in BotW. Which feels a little superfluous there since it's not really related to the rest of her story, but whatever. She also takes part in the TotK final battle as the Light Dragon, though she's not a very active participant when she just automatically carries you higher when you fall down enough, and later she has no memory of her time as a dragon anyway. But it's nice that she was included in some way at least.

AoC tells a similar story about how Zelda goes through failing to awaken her powers to confidently wielding them in a battle, but it feels completely different since the player is present through these events instead of seeing them in a flashback cutscene. And I would argue that Zelda just flat out is the main character of that game, sure you start as Link but Zelda already becomes a playable character in chapter 2, and story-wise Link is feels very much like an afterthought.

AoC makes her a badass fighter like all the other characters, which is totally at odds with the rest of her characterisation, but it's just something you have to accept for this type of game. And of course it would have been super disappointing if she wasn't playable. I like her Sheikah Slate and Bike movesets, but I never liked the bow for too complicated for me to handle (and somehow the bow tutorial is like the hardest level in the game?)

In the golden ending of TotK the sages pledge their loyalty to Zelda, and the scene cuts to a flashback of the ancient sages doing the same for Rauru. Honestly I don't really get what they're trying to say with this; Zelda doesn't have any kind of character arc that would need to culminate in her becoming a leader or accepting help from others, and while the ancient version of this can be taken as everyone joining forces to fight evil together, at the end of TotK the world has already been saved so I don't see what the other races would get out of, I dunno, reinstating the monarchy that fell a hundred years ago? And the sages are already personal friends with Zelda anyway so the whole scene just feels weird.

Relationships

In addition to having a lot of development to herself as an individual, this Zelda also gets to have a lot of relationships with various NPCs that are worth mentioning.

As usual Link is among the most important relationships for Zelda. Zelda and Link obviously have the connection that they both have a predestined role in the Ganon thing, and the fact that they have such different starting points (Zelda struggles at her job while Link is pretty much already ready for his) gives them an interesting contrast. And when they eventually start getting along better they’re probably the only people who can understand each other’s situation properly.

Out of the Zelda and Link duos I've seen, I think this one has the most well defined relationship. For comparison SS Zelink comes second, and while I do like them a lot and I think the game makes it clear they care about each other as people, I don't think there's much else to their relationship than "childhood friends". Or like stuff that makes them unique among the many anime childhood friends. Meanwhile in BotW we get to know some actual specifics about their relationship (at least from Zelda's side), primarily about their shared fate. Zelda being jealous of Link's success at his job is a notable part of the story, and this comes up a lot. In her diary she describes how she is unhappy about the king appointing Link as her knight, how she is unnerved about how he is so silent and unreadable, and how she speculates about how he must despise her for her failures. And her jealousy doesn't just affect her own self esteem, but also impacts her behaviour when she lashes out at him for just doing his job.

Once Link saves Zelda from the Yiga clan, she becomes more friendly towards him, apologises and puts an effort in getting to know him more. I think it's a cute detail that the first thing she learns about him is how gluttonous he is. Eventually Link confides in him about the pressure he feels about his duty and Zelda presumably talks about her own fears (or at least she writes in her diary that she wants to and I assume she eventually did). So I really like that they get to connect at a very personal level and open up about their insecurities, and the game explicitly points out this connection.

I do have some issues with how the turning point of their relationship where Link saves her from the Yiga clan is executed. Like the reasons Zelda starts to see Link in a more positive light is because he did the one job he had as a bodyguard, like that comes as a surprise to her. On an intellectual level sure I can get that it's different for her to know that Link's job is to protect her from theoretical danger and actually experience that moment, but I don't think the story works in the moment. The scene itself is pretty weak, like Zelda writes in her diary how Link put himself in danger for her sake, but it's just two Yiga footsoldiers so as a player it's hard to relate to the idea that Link was at any kind of risk.

Age of Calamity changes Link's character significantly in that he finds the Master Sword during the game after he has already been appointed as Zelda's knight, and this also changes their relationship to a less interesting direction. As someone who is on track with fulfilling their role in the grand plan, Link still works as a foil to Zelda who struggles with hers, but all of this is depicted as Zelda's frustration at herself and all the the envy and animosity towards Link is missing. In general Link is pretty boring in AoC and most of what he could be able to contribute towards Zelda have been moved to Impa. But I do like how consistently he acts as her bodyguard in AoC, there are multiple scenes where he moves in front of her to protect her. Which of course is very appealing to someone who really likes the princess-and-knight trope.

Ultimately I think Link and Zelda make for a good couple not just because they have so much shared history together, but specifically because both are canonically kind of weird. Zelda makes people eat frogs, and Link is someone who eats rocks. I prefer to imagine that even before the Calamity Zelda could fully be herself around Link. And in TotK it's clear she has a high opinion of Link, considering how much she brags about him to Rauru (which was a super cute scene).

Since we've been taking note of any hand holding instances between Link and Zelda it should be noted that there's some of those here as well, though none of them are what I'd classify anywhere near romantic. As the bodyguard Link drags Zelda by the hand when they run away from enemies, and the ultimate hand holding game TotK also gives one hand holding moment to Zelink too (though Link holds hands in pretty much every important character in that game). And we also get a little princess carry moment at the end so that's cool.

While I don't think any of the games confirm that they are canonically a couple, I think there's a lot that points in that direction. Kass relays his teacher's observation that Zelda was in fact in love with Link, and while this is third-hand information and either Kass or the teacher could have misunderstood something, but that just feels like a really strange thing to put in the game especially when it isn't challenged in any way. Then there's the TotK house debate which has been discussed to death, so I'll just state the often listed things that Link can only sleep in the bed of this house, and if Zelda lived alone she wouldn't have as much need for a private study. And also the process of elimination: the game doesn't really give Link any other house where he would have lived during the years between BotW and TotK.

The previous Zelda dads have been pretty boring (either just generically nice or lacking any proper characterisation), so I welcome King Rhoam to this group. He's a pretty hated character for obvious reasons, but I like him because even though he was a terrible father, as a character he is interesting. The story also has more bite to it if everyone isn't just besties with everyone, and Zelda's distress feels more personal when her inability to awaken her powers doesn't affect just faceless masses and instead the constant reminder of her failures has a face. There are many scenes where he impedes or belittles her research or forbids it altogether, and in general the two appear to have a pretty formal and distant relationship.

Many in the audience want Rhoam's head on a stake for his horrid parenting, but I'd say that in canon Zelda is more willing for reconciliation, at least if AoC is anything to go by. According to his diary, Rhoam had been a strict father ever since the queen died (so Zelda was six) and there is little material on them actually having any positive interaction, but I figure there must have been something at least, or at least Zelda appears to value his approval. I do wonder how Zelda feels about her dad after the events of BotW since she probably got to read his diary and Link must have told him about the "old man".

In TotK Zelda gets more competent parental figures in Rauru and Sonia. It's a shame the game itself doesn't bring this up, but at least there is an interview that compares Zelda's parents to them. Through the power of magic and plot convenience they instantly sense that Zelda is trustworthy and become incredibly supportive of her. It really makes a huge difference for Zelda when she gets some actual guidance for unlocking her new magic powers, and unlike her BotW experience where she's constantly reminded of how necessary her contribution is to saving the world, this time she is told that this is not her fight and she is allowed to focus on her own issues. She eventually becomes a part of Rauru's inner circle and anti-Ganondorf team. I really like how Rauru treats Zelda, in that he consistently acts like the adult in the relationship and always remains supportive, but also doesn't baby her either and lets her make her own decisions.

While the other Beast Pilots primarily have a notable relationship with Link, Urbosa is more about Zelda as a mother figure or a "cool aunt" type. Urbosa is consistently supportive towards Zelda; she consoles her when her powers fail to awaken, was present to help when kid Zelda almost passed out from praying in cold water, puts her hand on her shoulder when she's stressed, and tries to do something about her strained relationship with Link. It's clear that the two are very close and go way back and Zelda has opened to her about her feelings. Zelda also acts more relaxed around Urbosa, like in the cute scene in Champion's ballad where they laugh together about having to put up a formal act in front of an audience.

Zelda also writes that she was surprised that Mipha was quick to learn to control her Divine Beast, whatever that means. Other than that Zelda doesn't share much of a specific relationship with Mipha, and Zelda's situation isn't contrasted with Mipha's at all even though both are princesses who are in a conflict with their king father. Even if Zelda does share personal and character-focused cutscenes with all champions, in general there's not much to say about her relationship towards the non-Urbosa Beast Pilots; while each of them has their own unique feelings about Zelda, from Zelda's side it's more just that she considers them her friends.

AoC Impa is in a similar boat. Impa's title in the game is "Royal advisor, loyal friend", and she indeed is included in many of Zelda's scenes where she's troubled over her lack of progress with her powers. Third-wheeling the Zelink from a shipper's perspective, but makes sense from a narrative perspective to have someone for Zelda to play off so she doesn't have to monologue for an entire cutscene since Link (or Terrako) doesn't talk as usual. So Impa gets to deliver some important pep talk to Zelda, so she can continue to trudge forward despite all her failures. Still this is mostly from Impa's side and I don't get a lot out of Zelda outside obviously seeing Impa as a friend.

Mind you even if I don't think Zelda's relationship with Impa or the Beast Pilots is particularly special, I'm not really complaining. Like there is effort to put them in character focused scenes and have them have some sort of connection with each other, and in almost any other LoZ game they would be a high point in Zelda's relationship list. It's just that the bar is way higher with this iteration of Zelda, so stuff like this becomes even worth mentioning.

The TotK sages have disappointingly little to do with Zelda, even though they should have known each other for years. We get nothing from Zelda's side towards any of them, and the sages are primarily concerned about the environmental disaster affecting their homes (which okay is fair) and Zelda is just a footnote in their story. Only Riju brings up Zelda being her close friend, and is the only one to refer to her as Zelda, while the other three use princess Zelda.

AoC gives Zelda her own companion character in Terrako, which I guess is fitting if you see her as the main character of the game. Unfortunately for me Terrako inhabits the character type that I categorically dislike and is my least favourite character of the franchise, but is still relevant enough that it warrants a mention here. And if Zelda has to have a mascot, making it a little robot is a good pick. We even get to see a flashback where kid Zelda builds Terrako, which of course ties well into her characterisation as a scientist. Through the story Terrako is present in Zelda's important moments encouraging her, and Terrako being (temporarily) destroyed just before the grand finale is the final big moment for Zelda where she repeats her resolve to win the war. And of course the true ending of AoC has Zelda set out on her own with just Terrako, which I guess helps to really sell her as the main character of her own life (compared to if she left with her whole friend group or a bodyguard).

Purah is brought up together with Zelda a little; apparently Zelda used to cover for her when her research got too explosive back before the Calamity, and Zelda took part in the ancient Sheikah technology research and writes in her diary how she thinks it's best not to try to argue with Purah. But since being a scholar is such a big part of Zelda's character, I really wish her relationship with Purah was more developed. She doesn't get much out of Mineru either other than a mention that she visited her and rode her construct.

We also get to know about how the public perception of Zelda, in BotW Rhoam tells about how there are rumours spreading about her inadequacy, but in TotK there are NPCs in every corner of Hyrule who have something nice to say about her. I think this is cute development, and I find it believable too given how much of the talk about her is how she actively goes around helping people.

[tyrantisterror]

While we’re on the subject of Dungeons & monsters, what are your top ten favorite D&D monsters & why?

I'm going to limit this to monsters that are either original creations of D&D or so divorced from their mythological roots that they might as well be original creations, or else this would just be me listing dragons. This is also in no particular order.

I'm gonna start with the Otyugh, because I think it's a result of D&D creating a very interesting ecosystem to justify its mechanics. You have all these artificial dungeons filled with different man-eating monsters, right? Well, what about the waste products they create? Carrion, yes, but also, you know... poop.

Well, you get Otyughs, a species that, depending on the setting, was either artificially engineered to take care of the waste products of a dungeon, or naturally evolved to clear out the waste of enormous megafauna predators like dragons. Is it mostly just an excuse to introduce yet another weird monster with a unique attack mechanic (say hello to sepsis and other infections, players)? Yeah, but it's a good excuse, it gets the imagination flowing.

I've actually played a lot more Pathfinder than D&D proper, and Pathfinder went out of its way to give Otyughs love by exploring all the aspects of their ecology that were only lightly outlined or implied in D&D, including the fact that they're technically intelligent enough to be capable of speech and reason - and thus, not necessarily a monster you have to deal with using violence alone. It really endeared me to them, to the point where Otyugh characters became something of a trademark of mine when running Pathfinder/D&D campaigns - and to the point where I ended up making up an expy of them for my own fantasy setting.

Bulettes are one of the coolest looking D&D monsters for my money, especially given that their modern designs take two inspiration from two very different animals - sharks and tortoises - and manage to combine them so beautifully to create something at once very cool and yet perfectly plausible as a "real" creature.

I love Rust Monsters for the same reason I love Otyughs - it's a monster that was made to showcase a game mechanic (namely, destroying players' weapons and armor, making sure they know how valuable those things are) and ends up creating a weird but plausible and interesting aspect of the ecology and world-building as a result. Also like Otyughs, they're very cute in a groady monster way.

Not every monster needs to have a big mind-blowing concept for me to be happy, though. Sometimes a creepy guy with a squid for a head who eats brains is enough. Mind Flayers are iconic and often imitated despite/because of being such a simple and easy to grasp concept.

Speaking of iconic monsters, Beholders feel like such an obvious cool concept that is shocking to me that they're more or less an original D&D creation - and it kind of sucks that they are, because a giant monster head with one main eye and several smaller eyes on stalks feels like it should be as ubiquitous in fiction as dragons and unicorns, and yet it can't be without paying Wizards of the Coast a shit-ton of royalties.

I will say that the lore D&D gave Beholders is pretty good, though - namely that each Beholder thinks it is the apex of their kind, and hates all other beholders for their perceived imperfections. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you see. It's great, no notes, but beholders should belong to the people, not copyright holders.

I'm pretty sure Mimics originate from D&D, though I guess they just couldn't keep the idea of "a treasure chest that fucking eats you" from the people, since they appear in a lot of non-licensed stuff. As they should - man-eating treasure chests are another monster concept that should belong to the people.

I was talking about Froghemoths the other day on here but I want to reiterate that I love them despite/because of the fact that there really is no greater concept at play here than "what if there was a big fucking frog freak," and not once in the long history of this game has anyone decided there needed to be more at play than that. A big fucking frog freak is enough for all of us.

I just think this one looks neat.

D&D kobolds are in the category of "so far removed from its mythic roots that it's basically a new monster," and in that case the new monster is "scrabbly little dragon people with extreme anxiety," and I love that. Kobolds are my favorite humanoid species in D&D, and I'm glad 5th edition finally gave them a stat block that's actually playable, as opposed to previous edition's attempts, which made the prospect of being a kobold character the equivalent of having a public humiliation kink.

Finally, and also in the category of "technically named after a mythic monster it no longer resembles in almost any way," we have the Tarrasque, which went from a turtle/lion hybrid dragon in myth to a nigh-indestructible monster that's explicitly compared to natural disasters for its immense size, vast destructive power, and near inability to be harmed thanks to its armored hide and insane healing abilities. Or, in short, D&D lawyer friendly equivalent of Godzilla. How can I not love D&D Godzilla?

[thestargayzingheroine]

My Adventures With Superman - A Rambling Set Of Thoughts

Okay, I know I don't USUALLY make posts like this and I especially hate getting cynical and nitpicky about these sorts of things because I just don't wanna contribute to all the negativity on the internet... But this is something I just couldn't shake.

So last night I watched the first season of My Adventures With Superman and... I have a lot of mixed feelings about to be brutally honest which is a shame because I know SO many people really loved this show.

Spoilers for season 1 obviously

For the most this show is great and it has a good foundation for Superman and gets him and his relationship with Lois so right. I love how Clark is this big, soft himbo twink dork who really reminds me of Adora from She-Ra and Lois is this fun tomboy who falls head over heels for him. And to be honest, all of their moments were genuinely the highlight of the show for me. SERIOUSLY ITS LIKE CLARK AND LOIS BUT MADE FOR SAPPHICS LIKE ME AND I ADORE THEM

I love the art style and animation too and really does put a very fresh new aesthetic on DC stuff. Sure, it's a bit too much like She-Ra and Voltron in places, but for DC, it's a really good breath of fresh air. Seriously, look at the designs of Deathstroke and Livewire!

But sadly, that's not all the show is and this is where I have to sadly talk about my negatives with it.

Sooooo… this show was written a lot of the same people who wrote She-Ra and it seems to be a big fan of various anime things too, especially Dragon Ball Z and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

To that end, the show has basically... turned Superman into a mixture of Adora and Goku, not just in terms of personality traits and in Adora's case, her relationship with Catra (Seriously, if Clark was a woman and blonde, I would swear she and Lois would just be Catradora)

This sadly does apply to how this show portrays the Kryptonians, who are implied to MOSTLY be a race of evil conquerors who tried to attack Earth only for Krypton to be destroyed. This is VERY similar to how the First One's were depicted in She-Ra, as well as how the Saiyans were in Dragon Ball Z. One could also argue that their attack on Earth is a weird mashup of the movie Arrival and the Second Impact from Evangelion but that's me getting very nitpicky.

So naturally, we have Adora and Goku's traits being applied to Superman. And…. those traits don't really work for Superman, at all. Now I should be clear, it seems to be that Jor-El and Lara were actually like rebels fighting the evil Kryptonians (which is ironically Mara's whole deal... you seeing the She-Ra pattern here yet?) but like... I don't like this idea at all. Poor Clark even has a fucking breakdown later on and thinks he's actually some evil weapon meant to conquer Earth AGAIN just like Adora from She-Ra being used as a weapon by the First One's. And I just feel bad for him because he's trying to be the good decent Superman we all love... but he's getting dragged into this plot that pretty much breaks him... and I don't really like it.

And then there's a whole subplot about Lois meeting alternate versions of herself and discovering alternate versions of Superman who are evil (which is bizarrely how Kryptonite is introduced in this show) which.... yeah I don't like that plot either. Nor am I the fan of Task Force X pulling the whole "the Government is treating clark as hostile because they think he's an evil alien" plot which I have gotten kinda tired of seeing in a lot of modern Superhero media. It's either Superheroes being hated or hunted by the government or being made to work for them.

And you know where this all probably came from for this show in particular? Fucking Zack Synder and Man of Steel. It's kind of ironic because a lot of this show feels like its in response to the Synderverse, like it feels obligated to comment on how people see Superman now because of those crappy movies, something that I know James Gunn is probably gonna do as well with his superman movie basically a live action version of Superman vs the Elite.

And just…. no, none of this shit is really necessary nor is it a good idea. Because it kinda takes away some bits of Superman that I like. I know the show isn't done yet but… I can already make a good guess of where it's going to go. And where it's going… idk if I'm gonna like a whole lot.

It is clearly a show wanting to be different from all that has been done before with Superman…. but by being different for the sake of it, it's doing a lot of stuff I just don't like.

I just want there to be a day when we get a Superman thing that doesn't have to justify the man's own existence and role in a story because some objectivist edgelord made a bad movie with him in it eleven years ago.

So yeah, by turning Superman into more or less mostly Adora from She-Ra... I think they might have messed him a bit in my eyes. I hope season 2, whenever that comes out hopefully pushes things in a more hopeful direction and I could genuinely call this a good adaption of Superman. Because there is so much potential with just from the relationship of Clark and Lois alone that tells me that these creators just GET how Superman's character is.

So yeah, I hope that long rambling thought made sense.

[penguwastaken]

yo i was just goin through your blog and this post in particular stood out to me https://www.tumblr.com/penguwastaken/749651172845092864/junko-never-lied-in-chapter-6-of-danganronpa?source=share the one about junko lying about izuru killing the student council members. and i just have to say... it literally says in the text you cited that izuru was there... "Enoshima used the Old School Building due to its being closed off, locked the Student Council and Ultimate Hope inside, and caused them to kill each other utilizing various tricks. Scattering weapons, threatening to kill everyone if a murder didn't occur, murdering in plain sight to demonstrate... and so on. She was trying to make them doube each other, to kill each other... it was almost as though she wanted to experiment. She is... truly messed up..." izuru, the ultimate hope, was locked in there with them and junko made both him and the student council members kill each other. "made them to kill each other" — as in everyone locked inside. obviously izuru would've won, being the ultimate hope/having literally every talent. hence why it's a no-brainer he could've killed all the student council members. dr0 and dr2 support the same idea. given dr0 came out right before dr2 it's pretty clear to me the intention of junko's line here is to imply there was a full sweep on izuru's side — he managed to take all of them down effortlessly. this also kinda lines up with junko's line in dr2 about "breaking izuru's spirit" imho. not saying junko never lies but this was lowkey a bad example as it doesn't contradict earlier evidence at all. dr0 and dr2 line up a bit better in this specific case than dr3 does for me (not hate or anything i just wanted to point it out bc it's been eating at me. no shame in liking dr3 either like pop off but i was just itching to point this out)

Not really sure what the issue is here, like, at all.

In Danganronpa Zero, Yasuke claims that that Izuru was locked in with the rest of the student council and Junko made them kill each other. Yasuke doesn't say Junko made Izuru kill the student council, he says that it was a mutual killing.

There are also multiple scenes in Danganronpa Zero where they describe the student council killing each other and not Izuru killing everyone. They even directly say: "the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak wasn’t simply a mass murder."

Like let's look at this specific scene for example:

In this scene, we see someone in a school uniform attacking another person. "But Pengu, this person could technically be Izuru because he has a uniform." Well unfortunately, that's also wrong. Because immediately after...

...we see that man in the student uniform get killed by another person. And then we witness a brawl between several people take place. Obviously this paints a very clear picture that Izuru did not do the killing on his own.

I'm not really sure how you can assume Izuru killed the entire student council when the murder was literally stated to have not been a mass murder, was described as a mutual killing, and we literally see them kill each other.

The most we get to Izuru being a mass murderer is Soshun telling Yasuke that Izuru was the culprit. However this is:

Before Yasuke learns of the Mutual Killing

Because Soshun was implied to have been hiding and just saw Izuru

In fact, this is something Danganronpa 3 further addresses. When we meet Soshun and the rest of the student council in the anime, they all believe that friends wouldn't kill friends, easily explaining why Soshun would think Izuru did it.

But the point is from Danganronpa Zero alone, we factually know that Izuru was not the sole killer of the Student Council. How many people he did kill or whether he killed anybody at all is left vague, all we know is that he was there and suffered only a minor injury.

Which brings us back to the claim Junko makes in Danganronpa 2.

Now that we've literally seen the student council kill each other, there is no doubt that this is just blatantly untrue.

So yes, in this instance, Junko lied without a doubt. Hopefully this cleared any confusion.

[asterdotash]

TIME FOR LORE

which i will put a break above so if u don't care u don't have to see it :3

this was another 12am "i must get this out of me or it will never happen" piece, i'm so obsessed with these two atm they invade my every waking thought :D

right. you opened this, you deserve this wall of text.

i wrote most of this after a spicier piece i drew of these two you can see over here

The only other major character is Seth, who Alistair met a few months after escaping the military, and helped him get his shit sorted in the city.

Alistair is a military clone, kinda like a clone trooper but more genetically engineered. He’s got major trauma surrounding his appearance because he’s seen his face (and body) die hundreds (if not thousands) of times. No one knows how large the cloning system is but there are enough of them for the government/military to be able to throw troops at enemies without much regard for survival rate, nor the mental toll it takes on them.

All the clones have a tracking/control chip embedded in them, it punishes them for not following orders through minor electric shocks and tracks their every move, reporting them to the higher ups every 10 minutes or so. This means that the clones are basically walking weapons, they can’t have any freedom.

In one particularly bloody battle, one that involved a lot more close-quarters combat than the others Alistair had experienced, his tracking chip was damaged to the point of breaking. When a chip breaks, its final report usually implies that the clone died, and because there are so many of them, the military doesn’t usually care to follow up and check whether or not the soldier in question is actually dead.

Alistair wasn’t dead though, and after regaining his footing and working out where he was he took the opportunity to escape. He eventually, after a few weeks of scavenging and doing minor merc work off the street, found Seth. He took Alistair in and gave him shelter while he worked up some savings. This is when he met Tala.

Tala is a hacker, first and foremost. But she’s also a damn good spy and won’t shy away from doing the dirty work herself if a job calls for it. She knows how to use what she has to get what she needs and isn’t afraid to blackmail people if they try to double cross her.

She also has government history, she used to work for them in tech security, but after digging around the wrong areas she uncovered some, less-than-savoury information and pretty much said “nah fuck this” and ran away. She’s still technically on the run, but the government isn’t known for actually keeping track of people so she’s flown under the radar so far.

Having this mutual history with big organisations basically designed to make their lives hell, Tala and Alistair grew to pseudo-trust each other pretty quickly. Of course being the city they were in, no one truly trusts one another, and the two are still wary of each other despite what they’ve seen.

Tala understands Alistair's trauma and respects his desires to remain private, especially about his appearance, and Alistair has a deep respect for the work Tala does to break open the dirty secrets of large organisations like the ones they’ve both run from.

Due to their line of work, they end up wound up a lot and getting to relax is a luxury not often available, so despite the circumstances the two of them often turn to each other for comfort. Sometimes that’s just being able to bitch about whoever wronged them that week, and sometimes it’s more… intimate. They’re not lovers though, just to make that clear.

apologies if this is incoherent, again i wrote this in one go with *zero* revisions lmao

[skaruresonic]

Can you do an analysis on shadow's line in battle where he says "if the world wants peace they'll have to destroy us first" ?

Sorry for the delay; I'm pretty sure I've discussed this particular scene before but since Tumblr's search system is massively unhelpful, naturally I can't link you to the post. So we'll be looking at it again :P

This time I'll be relying on TheSinnerChrono's transcript of the game instead of screenshots because this post would otherwise become way too long and unruly. Here's the link:

Sonic Battle - Game Script - Game Boy Advance - By mtkennerly - GameFAQs (gamespot.com)

---

First thing to note is that Shadow is experiencing a lot of internal conflict about being a weapon of war vs. being an autonomous being with a heart and mind of his own.

The way this conflict presents itself is via stubborn denial for much of his story. Shadow tends to reject emotion for the most part, considering it weakness, but for a few notable exceptions.

When he encounters Sonic for the first time, Shadow's story noticeably omits his demand that Sonic hand over Emerl and the ensuing fight, in the usual Rashomon style these Adventure-era games tend to tell their stories with.

However, Sonic's "He's at Tails' place" and "Why are you after him, anyway?" imply this is not the first time he's pursued Emerl. I would argue that this omission fits Shadow's general trend of denial.

What we get from here is an interesting back-and-forth between Sonic and Shadow about the Chaos Emeralds, the Gizoid, and whether "weapons" have hearts.

I find this conversation interesting, and not just because it's the polar opposite of the scene in IDW 6. It's interesting in that it's a rare occasion where Shadow and Sonic bandy words without devolving into a physical fight, and those words furthermore tackle some pretty heavy concepts of identity, power, and war.

Especially war.

Battle's anti-war message is about as subtle as a tire iron to the face. While SA2 only alluded to cultural fears of WMGs with its hint-dropping about the development of the Eclipse Cannon, Battle takes the ball and runs with it, making not only Emerl but Shadow question their very identities as instruments of destruction. And then furthermore has the other characters wax poetic about it.

Worth noting as well that Sonic's insistence that Shadow has a heart matches Shadow's vehement denial of that very concept, leading to a stalemate where Sonic surprisingly relents Emerl. Shadow wore him down with his angsty emo shit lol.

The stark difference in Sonic and Shadow's mindsets becomes clear when you consider their word choice. Shadow strictly calls Emerl's power "power," while Sonic calls the power bestowed by all seven Emeralds "unlimited energy":

Shadow: "Right now, its true power lies dormant."

Sonic: "I've heard that he who collects 7 'Chaos Emeralds' will be granted unlimited energy."

To Sonic, this energy is morally neutral. It is not inherently destructive. His wording reflects not only his thinking, but his personal experiences in wielding Chaos Emerald energy for good.

Shadow, however, deems the pursuit of power an inherent path to ruin, tainted by mankind's thirst for war. As a living manifestation of that desire - or so he thinks - he insists on dehumanizing himself. Numbing the part of himself that feels and cares is the only way his conscience will stop screaming at him.

As has been pointed out numerous times before, this scene directly contradicts the moment in IDW 6 where Sonic brings up Shadow's past sins in order to win the argument about Mr. Tinker:

Instead, we have Sonic arguing for Shadow's heart, as well as the idea that Shadow once acted for the good of humanity and can do it again.

The real irony here is that Battle!Sonic is actually being a little bit of that bleeding-heart "everyone is good deep down" moral champion IDW fans think IDW!Sonic is, what with his whole spiel about "if you have a heart, there's no way you could use your power for the forces of evil."

The important caveats to keep in mind, however, are that:

A.) Sonic has seen proof of Shadow's heart for himself; he doesn't make his argument despite a lack of evidence, unlike Eggman, for whose supposed "goodness" he struggles to think of a single example. He clearly states "Maybe you've forgotten, but I seem to recall you saving humanity at some point." So his argument is not just him blowing flower petals up Shadow's ass - it's grounded in fact. Whether or not Shadow wants to face those facts lies on Shadow.

And B.) Sonic is probably waxing poetic this hard because Shadow's being equally stubborn in insisting that he's just a tool of destruction. His self-dehumanization, in fact, appears to disturb Sonic in a way we seldom see in other games:

Sonic suggests Shadow and Emerl play some games together. Shit's probably getting too heavy for him and he's getting freaked out, in addition to simply wanting Shadow to wisen up.

Shadow regularly says stuff like "Weapons have no need for a conscience" and "There's no need for a weapon to have feelings," and it's clear the so-called "weapon of war" doth protest too much. He wouldn't be pointing out the folly of Real Boy Feelings(tm) if on some level he wasn't suffering the cognitive dissonance of having them. His disgust at Emerl acknowledging his own capacity for feeling joy and friendship at the end of his story pretty much confirms this.

But even more interesting than that is his dour outlook on humanity: he feels it's a given that mankind must destroy the instruments of its own destruction if it ever wants peace. That it's a weapon's fate to be used and discarded precisely because, in his misanthropic view, humanity is foolish, belligerent, and greedy:

However, despite Shadow's brooding observations, the scene ends on a lighthearted note, with Sonic laughing "Some ultimate weapon you are!" in Emerl's wake:

[nonepizzaleftgirl]

Side Order Mechanics Speculation

Or: These mechanics make no fucking sense under scrutiny what the fuck is going on.

So, I've been looking over the palette screen, and trying to identify what certain aspects could mean. Up above is my conspiracy corkboard thing, but I'll go into detail below.

So, first of all, it's noteworthy that the design of a chip (including the pattern of it) responds to its "type." Right now we know of six different types: Power (red), Support (purple), Range (orange) and Mobility (blue) are all outlined in this screen, and the floor select shows that green seems to correspond with Drone features.

That leaves yellow, which I assume is for Miscellaneous upgrades that don't fall under another category. The "Common Tones" part shows a smaller icon for the Support category, but it also has the yellow color chip class next to it:

Now, labelling this as Miscellaneous is ultimately a guess due to the question mark implying that it's, well, random. However, the motion lines to the top left complicate this a good bit and mean that it could be something else, too. Maybe this has to do with increasing the drop rate of certain things (it bears some semblance to the Grizzco capsules, for example), or maybe it lets you change your sub weapon (representing a throwing arc for the bombs). Though given that's all not quite conclusive, I'm ultimately sticking with "Miscellaneous." As for "Common Tones," I believe this is a setting either belonging to a given character's Palette or something you can customize yourself entirely that makes certain types of chips more common. The bigger one is boosted by a lot, the other by not so much. This lets you aim for certain builds even from the start of a given run.

This is all pretty clear stuff so far, but I'll go into a lot more detail on my observations below, including the fact that the footage shown makes no fucking sense under scrutiny.

Now, as for the color chips on the palette themselves. There's 4 rows of 9 spaces each for a total of up to 36 chips, with the player having collected 20 chips so far at the point of going into Floor 16 (sort of, it gets a bit complicated. I'll get to that later.) You can see that their color corresponds with their category, but beyond that there's subtle differences in hue, too. The orange color chip on the far left has a redder hue than the other Power-type color chips, and the Drone-type color chips also differ between being more green-ish or blue-ish. Notably, not all different chips also have different hues. The glowing chips on this screen are the "Ink Damage"-type chips, and there's three of them. The two red chips on the right side, then, must be Splash Damage (because there's two of them, and Splash Damage has gotten two upgrades), so the leftmost red chip is Main Firing Rate. And oddly Main Firing Rate has a different hue, but Ink Damage and Splash Damage share a color.

The other ones that openly appear are pretty clear: The two purples are Ink Saver Main, the two oranges are Splash Radius, and then Mobility gets a bit odd. We know that one of the blues here is Swim Speed Up, and we know from the Floor Select screen that Run Speed Up uses the same hue of blue. So one of the four blues here is Swim Speed Up, the others are Run Speed. Probably. There's some weirdness I'll get to.

The ones that aren't directly named are a bit more of a mystery. The two green ones at the top left are Drone Splat Bomb most likely, because we saw that Drone Splat Bomb uses the same hue in the Floor Select and that screen showed us already having some Drone Splat Bomb points. The other Drone chips have a different hue, but the same pattern makes it clear it's still a Drone update of some sort. Maybe it increases the Drone's laser damage? While there might be other types of bombs you could unlock for the Drone (such as Burst Bombs or Suction Bombs), I don't believe that's what this one is, because the top right only shows the Drone as being able to use Splat Bombs. We also see the Drone both function as a constant Sprinkler in the trailer, as well as it throwing Burst Bombs. The latter part only appears on two frames of the trailer:

While at first it might seem like it's the player throwing the Burst Bomb, the trajectory and lack of animation on Agent 8 makes it clear that it's the Drone's doing.

And the two yellows are Misc. No clue what those could be.

Also, the left side menu shows how much you can upgrade each chip. Most go up to five, but Ink Damage and Splash Damage each go up to 9, with a big dot in the middle at 5. Is that just there for visual clarity, or does it signify a milestone at some point? Maybe that's how you get the "upgraded-looking" Dualies seen in a few shots, with the wireframes around them? It's also a bit odd that they both go so high even with only 36 total slots, but I assume that's for supporting very specialized builds.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the top right side of the screen. It displays "Pearl's Palette," shows the main/sub/special you have, and the Drone's sub, as well as the highest floor you've gotten to (or cleared?) yet. Below that is the palette, with a little drawing of Pearl on it.

My assumption is that as you progress through the game, you'll unlock other characters' palettes beyond Pearl. There's a few reasons for this: for one thing, calling it "Pearl's Palette" in particular is a bit odd. While Acht does address Pearl when she mentions putting chips into the Palette, which seems to imply the Palette is connected to the Drone in some way, the image of Pearl here is her real look, with the shades of the Damp Socks outfit.

This is in contrast to the menu icon to get here, which shows the Pearl Drone. Clearly there's a distinction being made between the Palette menu, connected to the Drone, and Pearl's Palette, connected to real Pearl. This is also seen with the little icon of her on the Palette itself, highlighted in pink.

My conclusion is that there'll be different characters' Palettes. The pink Pearl icon on the right seems like the kind of thing that only exists to show off a character that can change. These Palettes will be the equivalent to characters in Isaac or the weapons in Hades: they offer different playstyles and increase replayability. I believe the weapon/sub/special loadout will be tied to the character Palette, too, with the Common Tones likely being customizable by the player regardless. I say this because Dualies/Curling/Reefslider also feels like a very "Pearl" loadout, given we know that Pearl plays Dualies, and Curling Bombs and Reefslider both encourage getting into people's faces.

Though I have to preemptively admit that Subs and Specials might not be locked to the Palette and can be freely customized. There's a shot in the trailer showing Eight with the dualies and a Sub line of about 30%, while in-game Curling Bomb costs at least ~45%, even with max investment of Ink Saver Sub. It's still possible that the upgrades to Ink Saver Sub in this mode are more potent than in multiplayer, however: Run Speed Up can get you at most ~145% of the default with a pure investment in multiplayer, but the upgrade shows that even just 3/5 upgrades of Run Speed Up get you to 140%, with two getting you to 131%. So it's not impossible that some investments of Ink Saver Sub could get Curling Bombs down to 30%, especially given that Eight is also dealing twice as much damage as in the very first scenes (which are likely without any color chips), so this scene seems to be pretty far into a run. Plus, while abilities in multiplayer have diminishing returns for balance reasons, for a singleplayer roguelike it makes sense to allow specialization and upgrading to a more extreme degree to make players really feel that they're getting stronger. Return of the Mammalians already had you being able to spam Splat Bombs when fully upgraded far beyond what Ink Saver Sub could accomplish.

There might also be a Marina Palette that has a Brella, or a Callie one with a Roller, etc. etc. I also believe that the Palette might come preloaded with some color chips in future runs (or as an unlock), too, maybe. The first two chips in particular being the Drone Splat Bomb ones really makes me think that, because for a Pearl-themed loadout, starting out with strengthening the Pearl Drone makes a lot of sense.

Now, the number of chips. There's twenty chips visible in the UI, even though the player has only cleared fifteen floors at this point, which seems at odds with what seems to be one color chip per floor. I assume those are from a mix of potential starting chips and some form of shop inbetween floors. We see that you have a currency, and harder challenges give you more currency than easier ones, but nothing to spend it on yet. Given that it doesn't look like harder challenges reward inherently better chips, it's likely that there'll be a shop of some sort that'll regularly come up where you can exchange currency for some chips to let you get ahead of the curve.

Now for the weirdness.

These are the descriptions for the individual upgrades. Splash Damage has 160% at 2/9 upgrades and 190% at 3/9, which seems to imply each level adds 30% to the damage. While this might diminish at some point, it certainly seems to go high up. At 5/9 you've already far surpassed 200%, and it likely goes up to 300% at least.

Next up is Run Speed up. I already mentioned that this goes up quite high, though this menu is showing diminishing returns: 131% at 2/5 and 140% at 3/5, with 0/5 at 100% and 1/5 likely around 120%. Either way, the step from 2 -> 3 is seemingly a good bit lower than previous ones. It's possible it tops out at 150% for a nice even number, but it also doesn't seem like investing two full chips just for that extra 10% is worth it, so it might go up to 160% maybe.

And lastly is Drone Splat Bomb. This shows a p cost, which is interesting. The Drone certainly doesn't seem to be using the player's bomb controls, because we see it firing bombs automatically while the player is shooting or doing other things. But it also can't be on the R Stick Press like a Special because the player already has a Special to use. My assumption is that the Drone will automatically toss a bomb once the player has painted the given amount of turf during a fight, which works with the general makeup of the Drone as more of a passive support. Level 2/5 for this is 180p and 3/5 is 160p, so it likely starts at 220p and goes down by 20p each step.

Here's where the weirdness start. We have the amount the chips upgrade the stats here, and we obviously know how many chips of each kind we already have. Given that we're being asked to upgrade each chip from 2 to 3, it goes to reason that we already have two of each type and adding a third, right?

It tracks for Splash Damage and Drone Splat Bombs, but earlier I established that three of the blue chips were Run Speed Up while one was Swim Speed Up. Which at first seems to imply that there's a third type of blue Mobility chip, perhaps Intensify Action.

However, here's where it gets weirder. From this menu, from this state of the menu, we see the player select the Run Speed chip and insert it as their third Run Speed chip. So as the chip is inserted, the Palette should look like this afterwards:

However, as the player confirms to take Run Speed Up, we see the Palette go from this...

To this...

Which makes no sense. The last chip in the Palette menu suddenly disappears and is placed again as the Run Speed Up chip for the Floor is placed. Instead of placing a new chip, the animation shows the placing of the last chip that was already in the Palette.

My first instinct was, "Oh, the Palette in the menu was showing what the Palette would look like if you picked the chip you were hovering over." However, that can't be it, because the Palette menu we saw was opened while the player was hovering over the first chip, the Splash Damage one.

So, option A is that this is all a bit of jankiness because this is prerelease footage. They probably hardcoded a Palette for this, and accidentally used the graphic for the Palette *after* getting Run Speed Up rather than the one before it, and the Palette in the menu should've actually looked like this all along:

This would also explain the contradiction with the "Why does it show going from 2 to 3 Run Speed when we already have 3 Run Speed," because now the Palette only has 2 Run Speed Up chips and everything works out.

There's one other option that has the same functional outcome but a different explanation. It looks like there's some way to go back to, or maybe look at, previous floors:

It's unclear what exactly this entails. Maybe it simply lets you look back at your run's history (though labelling that option like that is a bit weird), or maybe it lets you replay the last floor if you were unhappy with your performance on it. If the latter case is true, maybe what's happening is that the player already beat 16F with the Run Speed Up chunk, then they went back to do 16F again with the same selection. Potentially to get footage, maybe they were testing this feature at the time, I dunno. And going back would also mean giving back the reward you got (i.e. the Run Speed Up chip in this case). So maybe they went back to 16F after already having beaten it, and while the rest of the game registered that they should take away the Run Speed Up chip, the Palette display in particular hasn't implemented that part yet or something. I dunno.

Either way, this was everything I could think about for the mechanics at hand here. There also seem to be different types of levels, denoted by the icons to the left of the Floor indicators:

Top one is likely the type of mission we've seen all over the trailer, where there's the fish skeleton enemies coming out of the black orbs and you need to take out the orbs as they spawn in or something. Though it's notably that the objects around the orb here don't really look like those fish enemies. The second mode has something to do with Splat Zones, maybe reusing some of the multiplayer maps and having you defend and/or take a Zone. The last icon is a complete mystery to me. Due to the arrangement of blocks my first guess is "platforming challenge" but honestly I have no clue.

Anyway, that's the post! Congrats for making it here! My head feels heavy now.

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF Shorts: Can They Solo?

A short form vs analysis that puts a character up against an entire group or franchise, skipping the usual preamble and one by one analysis present in Isekai Invasion to instead jump right into comparing them side by side.

This Week's Fighters...

Sollux Captor vs Steven Universe (Verse)

Conditions:

This battle includes everyone from the Steven Universe franchise.

The Epilogues and Beyond Canon are completely ignored.

Low-Tiers:

Let's start with the common foot soldiers and the otherwise non combat oriented Gems. Your average rubies and sapphires might not be too impressive when compared to the rest of gemkind, they are superhuman juggernauts when compared to any ordinary human. They can easily vaporize entire pools of water, survive falls from the upper atmosphere, and create massive storms. Their most impressive feat, however, would likely be when the Ruby Squad tanked getting rammed head on by their own ship moving at near light speed. A feat that means they withstood up to 274 Megatons of TNT.

Source:

This is obviously monumentally impressive... but Sollux more than has the scaling to match it.

Gold bloods on the regular are more than powerful enough to move ships at near light speed as well. When used as batteries for the Alternian Empire's battleships, your average gold can throw a much larger vessel at near light speed, generating kinetic energy equivalent to 2.8 Zettatons of TNT! More than enough to obliterate a small planet! Both feats do the same thing, but one of them just throws a much heavier and larger ship than the other.

Source:

Needless to say, Sollux clears the board in stats. But, there's more to discuss. In the realm of the wider matchup, Sapphires are a bit of a sleeper pick when it comes to characters who can turn the tide. Their precognitive abilities are inherently a lot more useful than Sollux's. Simply hearing the last words of the soon to be dead is a lot more limited in utility than actually seeing the future. With this in mind, Sapphires will be utterly invaluable in organizing a counter attack against Sollux in the scope of the larger overall fight, organizing plans to best exploit his weaknesses.

But, there is a catch. Future Vision is limited in its ability to deal with unknown threats. When starting out, Sollux is going to be a very unknown threat. It's implied that Earth is the first planet with sapient organic life that the Gem Empire has encountered, so a telekinetic flying alien with laser eyes is pretty outside the scope of what the Gem Empire normally deals with. This problem eill naturally fade as the conflict goes on and Sol's limited tool kit becomes more familiar, but it is worth noting.

Even Garnet's future sight, which is far more advanced that any lone Sapphire's, with the capability to account for numerous alternate timelines, has shown to not be able to account for variables its user does not know exists. As shown when Garnet first fought Jasper and was immediately shocked unconscious by a weapon she didn't recognize.

As such, in most direct cases, Sapphires are going to be caught out by an unknown being with a level of power they didn't know was possible and with capabilities they could not predict.

The Crystal Gems

The Crystal Gems make up most of the franchises mid-tiers and high-tiers, so I'll be discussing them all together as a team. They tend to fight together as a team anyways and in an all out war situation, would absolutely confront Sollux all together as a single unit. I'll save Steven and Rose for when I discuss the rest of the Diamonds, however.

As far as stats go, everyone on the team should be more than capable of outperforming the Ruby Squad one for one, with possible exception of Peridot, who only really compares in durability. But, Peridot is still perfectly capable of building weapons that can harm Crystal Gem level characters regardless, so it all balances out.

In the video game, Unleash the Light, all of the Crystal Gems are capable of surviving and fighting within a black hole the size of a planet.

Sollux scales to Gamzee, who has a directly equivalent feat of surviving a planet sized black hole. A feat worth at least 0.73 Foe.

Source:

Seeing how the Gems can amplify themselves with fusions to become even stronger, this should be a slam dunk in their corner for stats right? Well, not quite.

Sollux has a bit of a scaling chain behind him that gets him even higher. Sollux is comparable to Gamzee, who can take hits from Caliborn, who can trade blows with those directly equal to himself. Caliborn withstood a Solar System sized black hole, literally billions of times more powerful than the one the Crystal Gems could survive.

Source:

Even with the ability to fuse together to make themselves exponentially more powerful and even with Lapis, who is by herself capable of soloing the rest of the group, that is a strength gap I'm not confident the Crystal Gems can get strong enough to one for one match that strength gap. Save maybe Obsidian but I'm saving that for the Strongest Characters section.

This issue is compounded when one considers speed.

Now, both franchises have explicitly stated and even attempted to show that faster than light speed is completely impossible. Entire episodes/acts of both series have been made to showcase why this this is the case. However, this is also woefully inconsistent for both series. Lapis traveling to Homeworld's neighboring galaxy from Earth, Sollux redirecting faster than light meteors from the Reckoning, hell we literally just discussed the Crystal Gems fighting inside a black hole.

There are numerous instances of Crystal Gems moving towards and reacting to passing objects within the Galaxy Warp as it transports them across cosmic distances, with several feats reaching as high as billions of times faster than light.

Source:

But, even with all these considered, Sollux still has it beat. Even the lowest end for Sollux catching the Reckoning's meteors or keeping up with Sprites puts him in the range of quintillions of times light speed.

Source:

So, Sollux has them beat in stats both ways by very large margins. But, what about teamwork and abilities?

The Gems are easily Sollux's superior in a direct hand to hand fight, as Sollux leans hard on his powers to carry him through such situations, but they don't really have anything that circumvents the stat gap. Connie wields Rose's Sword, which ignores durability against other Gems, but.... Sollux isn't a gem. In fact, that's a problem for a lot of Gem Tech is that it works to fight other Gems and is generally useless against organic creatures. And even with Lion's ability to create portals, I doubt it can beat a trillion times speed gap.

The Crystal Gems best move would be using Future Sight and Peridot's tech prowess to plan ahead. And given Sollux has to fight an entire galaxy worth of characters here, they'd likely have plenty of time to at least hear about what he's capable of before he gets to them. The Crystal Gems certainly won't make a plan that risks killing him, but Peridot's more than capable of building a knock out gas trap.

The issue there, however, is that Sollux is liable to hack any high tech gadgets that they come up with to counter him. While it hasn't come up in any of Sollux's matches before now, as they tend to be one on ones with organic characters, but Sollux is an excellent hacker. Hell, he can hack into a game that warps reality and creates entire universes. He's more than able to, say, hack the gem battleships to even the numbers in an army scenario.

Counterpoint: Peridot can use her magnetism to steal his phone or laptop in an ambush to disable this threat. Countercounterpoint: Sollux is so fast he just snatches it back again.

Overall, I favor Sollux.

Fable:

Fable is the main antagonist of the game The Phantom Fable and, to be frank, she's kinda the secret sleeper hit of this fight.

Fable is a Tome that records memories and recreates them as pocket realities inside of her pages, then traps people inside of them. She has complete reality warping control over these pocket realities and, frankly, I think she represents the verse's best shot at beating Sollux by sealing him away. Her recreations of reality within the book are so realistic that they can fool the entire town of Beach City into not realizing they're inside the book until Connie realizes it at the end.

Sollux isn't going to know that simply interacting with a book is gonna trap him inside of it. Fable's not gonna kill him so his precognition won't warn him. If Fable plays her cards right, he may very well never know he's trapped at all.

But, in character, that's not likely to be how Fable approaches the fight. Instead, she's gonna draw from his memories to convince him to stay willingly. Fable's whole deal is that she's cripplingly lonely and she often overplays her hand to try and convince Steven and his friends to willingly stay within her pages. Even in a scenario where it's "hey, Fable, this guy is gonna destroy literally everything if not stopped, try and keep him trapped" she honestly just can't help herself. She could've easily avoided fighting the Crystal Gems had she kept her attempts to keep them on the downlow, but she's so starved for genuine connection that it works against her self interest.

While Fable is able to match the Crystal Gems circa Season 5, that's not enough to match Sollux, meaning he could just obliterate her entire pocket reality once the jig is up. There are absolutely versions of this fight that end with Sollux obliviously living out his life in Fable's pages, with Future Vision characters deliberately orchestrating this scenario after learning more of what Sol can do.... but more often than not, she's not gonna approach him that way. And that's her biggest problem here.

The High Tiers

Alright, last stretch. The Diamonds, Obsidian, and The Cluster.

First off, stats.

All of the Diamonds scale to the Diamond Blast, having either participated in or directly blocked it. The sheer amount of light this blast created from a galaxy away would require energy equivalent to 3 TeraFoe and speeds of upwards of 50 Quintillion C.

Source:

Utterly dwarfing Sollux's shown stats up to this point, right?

Well, I've got one final calc up my sleeve for you.

Calliope's ghost, in order to hide her conversation with Roxy, created a black hole out of a dreambubble. Calliope is physically identical to Caliborn, so same scaling applies. With this feat, Sollux scales to 7.3 Terafoe, only slightly stronger than the above mentioned blast.

Source:

When it comes to characters who upscale the Diamonds, such as Steven at his full power or Obsidian, and the gap is almost nonexistent.... in power.

But, returning to the Reckoning feat for a moment. Spot the high end for speed. Quinvigintillion C.

That is, simply put, exponentially higher than any speed feat in the entire Steven Universe.... verse. So, while the Diamonds compete in power, speed is still Sollux's game.

So, while the Diamonds can take hits and The Cluster, which the Diamonds considered to be a super weapon, might be even stronger (it can briefly match a full power Steven with just one arm), speed wise Sollux is trillions of times faster. It doesn't matter if you can hurt Sollux if you can't hit him.

And whilr normally, the Diamond's hax might turn the tide, they're again held back by specialization. While Sollux is vulnerable to mind control abilities in canon, Blue Diamond's powers explicitly only effect Gems. Connie is confused when everyone around her starts crying. Similarly, White Diamond's mind control rays are specifically shown to work by targeting a Gem's gemstone and may similarly be unable to effect organic beings, as she never even tries it on Steven.

Even if it did work, it'd be a moot point regardless. That sheer speed means she's absolutely never hitting him with them.

Conclusion:

Sollux has the stats to strength stomp 95% of the verse and speed blitz the rest. His hacking ability means he can turn any tech that could potentially turn the tide against the Gems. Despite that, the Gems have all the tools they need to pull out an underdog victory. If everyone plays their cards perfectly, then the right coordination of future sight, The Diamonds, and Fable could beat Sollux. I can forsee an instance in which he's trapped mid Diamond Fight, thinks he's won, and goes about his life oblivious in Fable's pages. But, more often than not, the way the characters operate in character and the sheer stat difference make this unlikely. The speed gap means that the characters would only have one real shot to get one over on Sollux and that's just not a margin for error I can bet for them in.

I will note that Sollux vs Steven may actually be a fair fight in a Speed Equalized context (though I do have arguments to get Sollux to Galaxy or Universal if need be). ...Mark that idea down for later.

Does They Solo?

Sollux Clears!

[honestlyvan]

(Now on DW!)

TBH I think I've fallen into the trap of taking the game systems in Last Recode too literally, because Roots pretty directly implies that Haseo's batshit level before he gets data drained is the result of the PK killing spree he goes on after getting Form 3'd by AI Harald.

To me it looks like having cleared Forest of Pain at such a low level, and having access to high level skills and mechanics most people need to grind up to access gives Haseo an edge over the majority of players, even those he has a significant level gap to, and once he hits level 100 he's truly in an elite that only people like madmen who grind the arena like Sirius and Taihaku, or else people who camp the level cap due to extensive playtime like Phyllo and Shino, or people who simply cheat like Ovan.

And that does a *little* bit bear out as far as game!Haseo goes, because the game outright encourages you to keep aiming for battles to be 2-3 levels above your own for optimal level growth, and I've found that even 6-7 is perfectly doable as long as you never ever ever get hit. Haseo's version of Adept Rogue emphasises speed with two of its weapons, and the upgrade seems to have unlocked a lot of his skils outright, and what with how aggro he is, he's just out-damaging everyone in an instant even at a low level.

This dovetails with the idea that outside of basic attacks and a few skills, most skills and abilities in The World are rewards from beating certain enemies, quests or areas with special conditions. But since that would be tedious for the narrative, the game unrolls some of those systems into just the level-up system, and leaves the rest as implication.

[miloscat]

[Review] Child of Eden (PS3)

The cooler Rez.

After United Game Artists (the studio behind Rez) was dissolved into Sonic Team, Tetsuya Mizuguchi left Sega and founded Q Entertainment. They made other games with his signature flashy light show style, like Lumines and Every Extend, but in 2011 they followed up his original "synaesthetic" game with another rail shooter, Child of Eden. If you ask me it's a more successful expression of Rez's aims, and a more engaging shooter as well.

In addition to Rez's eight-target homing shot (which can now get multiple locks on stronger enemies like Kachi's shot in Sin & Punishment 2), there's a new rapid-fire shot which is specifically for destroying projectiles and damaging certain enemies. A strong use of colour coding helps with gameplay readability, so it's clear when there are hazards to shoot down or targets to lock on to, and responding with the right choice of weapon is satisfying. There's also a score multiplier system that turns CoE into a true rhythm hybrid game, as you're rewarded with a score combo when you get full target locks that are released to the beat of the backing track.

You will want to get good scores as this grants you stars which are necessary to unlock new levels. Again there are only five, plus a unique bonus marathon challenge unlocked after you clear them; I couldn't get more than a third of the way through this but it's a nice extra that hearkens back to Rez's more abstracted visual style. Luckily the unlock stars are cumulative, so you don't have to perfect stages to open up later ones, simply play them through a few times. This felt like a chore at first but I did get into improving my score as I flew through the rich virtual environments.

While the setting is similar to Rez (a cyberspace world vaguely under attack, an avatar character to save) the levels have memorably stronger theming, such as evolution or technology, and the bump in console generation certainly helps to make more fleshed-out and visually impressive worlds and setpieces. I also found the music landed better with more of a pop and vocal tinge, especially given the story.

You see, Child of Eden is something of a tie-in to Mizuguchi's house-pop band Genki Rockets, who needless to say handled the soundtrack. Their virtual frontwoman Lumi, played in their shows and this game by Rei Yasuda, is the central character, an AI recreation of a woman born in the far-future year of 2019. Lumi has a constant presence in the game as a live-action integrated FMV character, appearing on menu screens, in gameplay, and in the intro movie as a white-dress-clad personality-less object of innocence soon imperilled.

I'm not keen on the damsel-in-distress imagery, and I thought the concept would have landed better if she had been rendered in the cool sketchy "Take On Me" rotoscope style as seen in the unlockable music videos (well, you can only watch partial clips of them in the gallery, for some strange reason...). Either way, she provides a central figure to hang the game around which works well enough, especially because the implied player character has reduced presence as the game is presented from the first person perspective.

While I was underwhelmed by Rez, I found Child of Eden genuinely impressive; it actually is what I was hoping that Rez would be. It's a shame that it's now a lot less accessible than Rez. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that just as Rez Infinite has its VR support, Child of Eden is compatible with the flash-in-the-pan 3DTV technology, as well as having optional Playstation Move motion controls, which seems like it would work pretty well (the 360 version instead has Kinect support, which probably doesn't work as well). I still found it plenty immersive without the gimmicks, playing on a 2D telly with a stock Dualshock 3. Good stuff.

[red-elric]

OKAY kicking off classpect talks with some thoughts about KNIGHTS :) not gonna have much structure to this but if u want me to talk about a specific class or aspect all u gotta do is ask!!

anyway I think ppl are pretty wrong about knights for the most part. sorry :/ I see knights listed as active a LOT, especially when they're paired w pages as an active/passive pair; while I DO agree that knights and pages are a pair, I really truly think knights are the passive one! the way calliope talks about active vs passive to ME feels like its mostly about who the powers benefit. thieves and rogues are really clear cut for that; thieves can steal x for THEMSELVES (vriska stealing her opponents' luck (light) so she can make more powerful attacks) while rogues can only really steal x for OTHERS (roxy only being able to create generic objects and pumpkins (basically worthless lol) until she was motivated to create the matriorb to help kanaya). and when seen from that lens, looking at knights and pages, we have the class who is constantly portrayed as someone who fights to defend and protect OTHERS and the class who trains and levels up massive power for THEMSELVES. which seems p clear cut to me!

beyond that, ive been considering a division of the classes on a second axis..... got the idea from another post somewhere to consider 'creative' and 'destructive' classes as seperate, but while that post was trying to imply the existence of a bunch of other classes to fill out the destructive side iiiii kinda think we can split the ones we have already w some finagling? knights/pages arent SUPER far on the destructive end of the scale but I think when u consider the dual meanings we get from princes/bards of destroys x/uses x to destroy u can make it work; knights and pages most literally use their aspect as a weapon, which is a form of destruction. which categorizes knights as passive/destructive overall (in my mind sharing that category w bards and rogues)

some knight specific stuff....... we get themes of defense, protection, and service here, as well as inaction without a cause; dave in particular is really prone to only taking action if he has to or is told to, but I think karkat ends up in that position as well, even if it's only because of paradox space inevitability. they also seem to focus more on the importance of fighting over other aspects of the game, and I think I can safely say they tend to be really good at fighting WITHOUT relying on powers. uhh a knight in a session would indicate smth (their aspect, in some way) needs to be protected and/or precisely destroyed (liiiike think pruning or trimming, just a LITTLE destruction) for a successful session; dave -> lots of timeline shenannigans to be careful of, karkat -> lots of interpersonal problems to be careful of, latula -> lots of players' choices to be careful of.

tangential maybe but when considering classpecting, I think I like the approach of determining a class first (type of role you would play in a session........ feels v personality based more so than aspect is) -> considering the narrative beats in ur potential session (or, if u wanna go abstract, in ur real life somehow?) -> choose an aspect based on the way your class interplays w the narrative beats. so if ur prone to solving problems for other ppl, think most problems can be solved through conflict, and tend to not stick up for yourself as much, u might be a knight!

[sshbpodcast]

Bottom Five Star Trek VOY Episodes

by Ames

Star Trek: Voyager gets a lot of flak for not always capitalizing on its unique circumstance, as a show about a cumulative journey meant to take a lot of time. Some of that is the episodic nature of the show: audiences needed to be able to tune in randomly and not feel as lost as the crew were. But some bad episodes just had no excuse. And you’ll see a lot of that in A Star to Steer Her By’s picks for worst episodes of the show. 

We’ll miss all our Delta Quadrant friends, enemies, and alien races, sure. We’ll miss the ship and the crew. But there’s also a lot that we won’t miss, as there were a good deal of missed opportunities, clunkers, and just plain offensive episodes along the way. Good riddance to those! Scroll on to see what we mean in our bottom five episodes of Voyager below, and/or listen to our coverage over on the podcast (series review starts at 1:29:20) with some audio-exclusive picks from guest star Liz! It’s finally time to self destruct this ship.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“The Fight”: Ames I’m pretty clear on my stance on dream sequence episodes, but for those of you sitting in the back: I hate them. They’re contrived, they’re convenient, they’re too literal. Just ugh all around. Which is a shame because there’s something in this episode that could have been interesting for Chakotay to do for a change, but it got lost somewhere in boxing metaphors and some Native American spiritualism. Talk about a bad dream!

“Tattoo”: Chris Speaking of Native American spiritualism, this episode is just plain uncomfortable and it all comes down to the one line of dialogue that goes too far: “Forty five thousand years ago, on our first visit to your world, we met a small group of nomadic hunters. They had no spoken language, no culture, except the use of fire and stone weapons.” Oh writers, you done screwed up to imply that the only reason Native Americans have culture is because aliens. A-koo-chee-moh-no.

“Alice”: Caitlin Caitlin surprised us a couple times in her series picks by opting for episodes she hadn’t even included in her season-by-season lists! So welcome, “Alice,” to the bottoms list. The femme fatale ship was just too tropey and icky and really brought Tom’s character down a few pegs. It’s episodes like this that make us wonder how on earth Torres stayed with him throughout the show.

“Ex Post Facto”: Jake Tom did some more suffering in this early-seasons dud of an episode. We’ve seen Star Trek do film noir to a slightly better effect in something like DS9’s “Necessary Evil,” but this one just whiffs hard at the style. It doesn’t help that the Baneans’ hair feathers are distracting as hell and that the conclusion that the damn dog helps solve stretches credulity to its very limits. Have the writers never met a dog before?

“Concerning Flight”: Caitlin You’d think John Rhys-Davies playing Leonardo da Vinci would elevate an episode to something greater, but somehow this baffling episode proved to be a waste of time. We spent most of it confused by pretty much everyone’s motivations. Why did Tau keep da Vinci around? How did da Vinci not notice anything was out of the ordinary on this planet? Does the sun always set in the same place on this planet? Who knows!

“Body and Soul”: Ames I’ve clumped a bunch of really gross, sexist episodes together if only to rile myself up because I hate these kinds of episodes so much. But how can one not get riled up when Seven tells the Doctor that he violated her and his response is to blame her? What should be a fun romp watching Jeri Ryan get to pretend to be another character is horribly tainted by that “she was asking for it” attitude. And then for Seven to be the one to apologize while the Doctor never sees what he did was wrong: VOMIT!

“Retrospect”: Chris Oh look, more violating Seven of Nine! This show really couldn’t help itself sometimes. What else was there to do when you had an attractive woman on the cast but to exploit her? If this episode was trying to debunk false memories, it failed hard by making it about a violation of a woman character because then the only thing you can see is the allegory for fake rape allegations, and that is not the message you want to send. Plus the doctor suddenly peddling pseudoscience is just nonsense.

“Blood Fever”: Ames Here’s another gross sexual act that I’ve never been quite okay with. Pon farr as a plot device was fine enough in “Amok Time.” Weird and kind of illogical, but fine. But when Vorik goes and sexually assaults Torres and everyone tries to sweep it under the rug because it’s some weird Vulcan bullshit, that’s not fine. And when Tom makes it clear that it would not be consensual for him and Torres to bang it out but Tuvok insists they do, I am all the more disgusted. No means no, Vulcans!

“Sacred Ground”: Ames, Jake We’ve got some overlap in our remaining bottom picks, starting with this absolutely nonsensical debate between science and faith that just boils down to: believe everything you’re told without questioning it and maybe magic is real. There’s a reason this franchise usually shies away from addressing religion in this kind of way. It’s one thing for a character (or a person in real life!) to have faith; it’s quite another for miracles to just happen for plot convenience (unless you’re part wormhole alien or something).

“11:59”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake The hatred for Henry Janeway is strong in this room (though that might be because Chris skews the curve a bit). But he’s just a wet blanket of a character who’s just taking his son and his whole damn town down to his level through sheer obstinance. Add to that the fact that he seriously has no chemistry with Shannon – like really, he could be her father – and you’ve got a massive clunker of an episode on your hands.

“Fury”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake The series as a whole wasted Kes as a character, which was quite the shame to watch, but the one thing it did do was give her a poignant and powerful farewell in “The Gift.” But Voyager can giveth and Voyager can taketh away, and this return of Jennifer Lien as the hardened, hellbent, furious Kes basically attempts to ruin her character. This was not the Kes we knew and loved, and damned if we even understand how she got there. How dare they do this to our sweeting!

“Elogium”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake Finally, the one we all agree on is some other weird sex claptrap. The Vulcans may have their pon farr (which I hate enough on its own), but the Ocampa have elogium, which somehow makes even less sense! Biology aside (blegh), the rest of the episode is confused in its messaging: these are people who are not ready for a baby, but instead of really exploring what that means for them, we’re stuck with this weird Ocampan heat thing. This whole episode has lost its sex appeal!

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See also: our Top Five Star Trek VOY Episodes list! And why not: here’re all the seasonal tops and bottoms from seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7!

We’ll still miss the Voyager and her plucky crew of misfits… just not when they were being racist or misogynist for no reason. And while I’d love to say we’re glad all those bad episodes are over, there’s always more bad ideas to go around. Let’s see how our next show in the rotation compares as we prepare ourselves for our next watchthrough: Star Trek: Enterprise! We’d love for you to watch along with us on SoundCloud or whatever podcast platform is your favorite, to hang out with us on Facebook and Twitter, and to really brace yourself because we know more pon farr action is on the way. Ew.