#go make your own edgy original world | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lunarlianna · 7 months

Text

Medusa Asteroid ( 149)

The Medusa myth is a compelling tale encompassing themes of power, fear and transformation. Medusa, born from the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, was the only mortal among the Gorgon sisters. Originally, Medusa was a stunning maiden who captured the attention of Poseidon, leading to a grievous violation within the sacred confines of Athena's temple. In order to protect her, Athena transformed Medusa's hair into a mass of serpents, bestowing upon her a petrifying gaze. Medusa's astrological connection with the asteroid 149 suggests her influence recurs periodically, like seasons, lasting about 3.2 years. This implies cyclic challenges and growth tied to her themes.

Her family lineage underscores sibling rivalry and a sense of being different. After her transformation, Medusa retreats from the world, which can reflect where we tend to hide. Confronting these hidden truths requires courage and wisdom. Medusa's connection to Athena links her to Jupiterian qualities, offering insights when considering her placement with Jupiter in your chart. Some individuals with a strong Medusa presence may struggle with self-perception, seeing themselves as a metaphorical monster in the mirror. Others may possess an intimidating gaze that isolates them. Medusa's myth explores profound psychological and ethical themes, emphasizing self-awareness, ethical choices, and facing consequences. In astrology, Medusa indicates a swift and forceful defense mechanism to protect oneself, potentially causing tension, wounds, and unjust criticism in specific life areas, ultimately prompting personal growth.

Medusa in the 1st house: can give you a magnetic and intense presence that sometimes triggers negative reactions from strangers. Your hair and eyes, tends to draw attention, potentially making you a target for bullies or disrespectful comments in childhood. You may tend to stay hidden and to hide your body but you always end up being villainized. However, your transformative journey involves transcending these adversities. You rise above others' insecurities and boldly embrace your individuality. Empowering yourself by disregarding hurtful comments, you nurture self-appreciation and self-confidence despite societal pressures to conform.

Medusa in the 2nd house: can make you appear very self-assured and confident but you might find it difficult to see your own self-worth. Your voice may be quite attractive, and you might excel in business or singing. Financial success and possessions could come easily, but you may also face envy for your wealth. You may tend to hide the possession that you have and the inheritance that you received, especially from your husband. However, you can transform from this by maintaining your dignity, adapting to change, and valuing inner beauty over material possessions. Your makeup style may accentuate your allure, but be cautious of attracting unwanted attention in relationships.

Medusa in the 3rd house: may lead to tension with siblings and peers. In early years you may be quite shy and scared to express your opinion. In the neighborhood or with your siblings, things that go wrong might end up being attributed to you. Your social interactions may lead you to encounter individuals who are less than truthful, which can be frustrating. In some cases, people might misunderstand your intentions, labeling you as two-faced or even anti-social, especially if you're more introverted. However, your transformation comes by becoming more confident and setting boundaries, expressing your opinions assertively, and speaking up courageously when needed. Your ability to address uncomfortable truths may inspire others to do the same.

Medusa in the 4th house: can trigger negative reactions from family members. You might inherit certain challenging behaviors from an older relative and sense negative energy at home, possibly due to constant parental arguments. The them around you home can be quite unconventional, have an edgy look with marine and blue vibes to it. Your strong self-awareness and purposefulness can make it difficult for others to deceive or influence you. You've learned to establish your inner sanctuary, and you're protective of your emotions, possibly due to early criticism from a family member. This can lead to a desire for control and a slow transition when getting out of your comfort zone around others.

Medusa in the 5th house: with this placement people may envy or have hidden agendas, especially when you express your full self. You may tend to hide your art work and your creative endeavors, especially when younger. A lack of desire for children may bring you rumors, criticize and scandals. You're often villainized for outgrowing relationships and embracing change. There's a remarkable ability to protect your passions with unwavering determination, refusing to succumb to societal pressures or stifling expectations. In your life, you may attract partners with abusive tendencies and face misunderstandings due to your sincere kindness.

Medusa in the 6th house: people may envy your disciplined approach to daily life and work. In early years you might have encountered challenges with schoolmates and later, colleagues at work, a consistent inclination toward people-pleasing is noticeable. You've transformed from a people-pleaser to someone who values personal freedom and control. You're protective of your routines and may confront those who disrupt them, also you may like to adopt unusual pets and are very protective over them. You maintain a keen sense of discernment, especially regarding manipulative individuals, particularly men.

Medusa in the 7th house: your relationships may have faced challenges, and you could have experienced envy from others. People might see you as the peacemaker, but when you rebel, you face criticism. Controlling dynamics may have been part of your past relationships, and you may have experienced manipulation or guilt-tripping. People may envy your romantic connections, and sabotage could taint your relationships. You're villainized for not conforming to a one-dimensional image, for having your own vulnerabilities and complexities. To transform, reevaluate your role in relationships, recognize that you're not solely a caretaker, and insist on mutual partnership and empathy from others.

Medusa in the 8th house: with this placement, you may encounter challenges in your intimate life due to being oversexualized. Loved ones might underestimate your pain, assuming you're always strong. Expressing yourself is often met with dismissal or minimization of your trauma. Your interactions can be intense and alluring, sometimes leading to obsessions, especially in intimate relationships. You tend to attract controlling individuals and even stalkers, people that usually want to know all your secrets. Some may envy your constant transformation, which can lead to competition or backbiting. Transformation comes for owning your sexuality and being in control of your finances. Remember, your personal growth is something to be proud of, despite others' negativity.

Medusa in the 9th house: your profound wisdom and exceptional intelligence often set you apart. While your deep knowledge and unique beliefs may not always find immediate acceptance, they are a testament to your unwavering commitment to your values. You naturally challenge cultural and religious norms; your spiritual journey is highly transformative and you usually hide your spiritual beliefs. It's important to recognize that your wisdom and spiritual insights have the potential to inspire and enlighten others, even when they struggle to fully comprehend your perspective.

Medusa in the 10th house: can create a unique journey in your work environment, where you might unknowingly trigger feelings of jealousy and face unkind energies from others. Your public image tends to be captivating, but this can occasionally result in clashes with government or legal matters. Challenges in your career and with authority figures are not uncommon with this placement, as there may have been expectations from your father for you to follow in his footsteps. As you age, you're likely to discover a growing sense of personal power and influence. It's important to recognize that these experiences have shaped you, and they offer opportunities for personal growth and transformation.

Medusa in the 11th house: you might keep your dreams and ambitions hidden because of the jealousy and envy you witnessed from your friends during your early years. Your upbringing might have exposed you to less-than-ideal community conditions, which may have led to toxic friendships and betrayals from people you considered friends. However, you do have genuine friends who share interests in astrology, spirituality, or religion with you, and these connections are meaningful. People might judge you or be envious, but this likely stems from their own insecurities. You're resilient and have the potential to make a positive impact on your community and the world in your own unique way.

Medusa in the 12th house: you might have experienced a pattern of encountering hidden adversaries in your life, which could be tied to karmic elements. This placement could also suggest a tendency to turn to intoxicants, like alcohol, which might symbolize a form of personal poison. Many with this placement may feel a strong bond with water elements, often expressing it through tattoos or jewelry featuring water symbols, seashells, or even snakes. Vivid snake dreams can serve as cautionary messages, urging vigilance against hidden adversaries. Your spiritual pursuits might be perceived as disruptive to community and family norms, causing some to view you as a threat due to your ability to see through deception when others can't. Balancing vulnerability, self-protection, skepticism, and warmth highlights the need for compassion when confronting hidden traumas and fears in this placement.

#astro observations #astro community #astro placements #astrology #all signs #astro notes #for you #asteroid #astrologer #zodiac placements #medusa #gorgon #mythology #myth

558 notes · View notes

shockedemojiatsv · 3 months

Note

MOREEEEE BEN REILLY 🙏🙏🙏 IM BEGGING

▪︎■☆Benny, Baby☆■▪︎

☆ 🔞!!NOT SAFE FOR WORK UNDER THE CUT!!🔞

☆ cis!Ben Reilly / spiderhero!male reader

☆ Drabble and probably OOC

☆ angst and fluff headcanons first

☆ kind of cringe? Maybe? Maybe not? Depends on who's reading it

°○☆happy reading☆○°

☆ his morning voice is so deep but not in a sexy way its more like a funny way. Maybe not overly goofy but he's so loopy since he's still a little sleepy he will make you laugh a little with his voice.

☆ seldomly clumsy. He'll walk through corridors and move his hips to avoid hitting tables and when he miscalculates a move he'll wince in pain, but if you're there he'll try to pretend nothing ever happened.

☆ He's clingy. Like, puppy clingy. He'll never admit it but the next best thing other than working out is holding you. It could be in any kind of context. A fluffy moment, a sad scenario, or something a little more intimate. But don't expect him to get his grabby hands off of your body 24/7 because he just loves to hold you and be there for you.

☆ look at me in the eye and tell me he isn't dramatic. ATSV Scarlet spider here, imagine watching Grave of the Fireflies with this guy. Get your tissues.

☆ His hair is so silky. I'm sure he maintains it well. He's willing to share his own secrets to you so that the two of you are walking around with hair everybody wishes they had. haha.

☆ He's a little bit of a jealous person. Not in a toxic way, per se. But he's a little insecure whenever you spend time laughing and talking with the other spidermen. Usually the Peter's. Ben knows he's a clone. He thinks he's just a copy. He hopes you don't leave him for something more "original".

☆ continuation of the hc above me, he'll try holding your hand whenever you're talking to somebody. Not all the time. Just when he feels uneasy. Just a little reminder to you that he's there. Please don't go.

☆ bad nights aren't common between you two but he'll let his laid back facade fade away and he'll lean on you for comfort. You're his strength. His beacon of light. In a world quite cruel he knows he can rest on your shoulder and recharge his energy just being around you

☆ he loves to work out with you. Definitely. He's your best gym buddy and you'll end up exerting more effort into your routine because of how fun and challenging it is with Ben. He might forget a few basic equipment... so be prepared

☆ I just really like to think that he's a clingy puppy when you two are alone, and small remnants of that desperation for your attention clinging in the air. Hugs and cuddles, thumbs-up. Hand holding and a few kisses, thumbs up. Brushing his face against your chest or vice versa whenever you to get to bed, oh absolutely.

☆ I don't know if he'd be a PDA person, but he definitely would be. He likes showing how much he loves you. Like, every part of you. Your hands, your smile, you're voice, everything. It's like a warm presence that has him forgetting about all of the shit that made him edgy /hj. He'd hold your hand on your arm or your shoulder or whatever. He likes touching you

☆ call him petnames. Any kind as long as if it's a petname. And as long as if it's made by you. That takes the cake. His personal favorite is "Benny baby" because 1, it's adorable, 2, it's catchy.

°○☆ nsfw under the cut ☆○°

☆ He's sloppy. Literally about everything. When you'll kiss him or if he'll kiss you it doesn't matter who takes initiative, he won't hesitate to use his tongue. Sucking your tongue to get a better taste of it. Or kissing your cheek so much it becomes wet in a few minutes. He'll drool like a dog no matter what he does. He'd be ashamed of it at first but when you'll reassure him that it's normal and everybody has their own quirks during sex he won't try to struggle and hide it.

☆ pull his hair. He'd adorably whine and complain. He'd tell you to stop but he doesn't want you to stop. The first time you tried it he was feeling conflicted but he definitely didn't try to stop you the next time around.

☆ he'll probably try to cover his face whenever you fuck him. He's so shy all of the sudden... so when you web/cuff his hands above his head, leaving him powerless to cover his face he pretty much just cums sooner.

☆ if you're somewhere else and he's somewhere private, he'll send you a picture of his abs. Pretty normal. That is until he'll send you even more provocative pictures. That's when you snap and try to finish the errand to get home as soon as possible and fuck him till he goes blind.

☆ PET PLAY‼️‼️‼️ Please please PLEASE treat this man like a horny little mutt. He'll go crazy when you call him puppy or bitch or literally whatever. He's a golden retriever isn't he? Oh he'll melt. Get him a leash too. A pretty collar with your name on it. He'd hide it well away from guests but when you two are alone... he has his fun.

☆ remember what I said about pet play? Oh boy, take it to the next level and he'll go nuts. Literally. Strap him tight on a pet crawler and treat him like a legitimate dog. You probably wouldn't need to touch him for him to cum anymore at that point. Drowning in humiliation to the point where all he could do is whimper for your touch, a command, a word literally anything.

☆ he likes to be degraded. Call him a stupid mutt and tease him about his "rut". How badly he wants to breed/be bred. He'll let out a series of whines and please unless you gag your little puppy. Perhaps if you don't gag him, you can make him woof a little. It's embarrassing. Humiliating but Ben's already past point of clarified thinking.

☆ that doesn't me he isn't a fan of praise! Call him a sweetheart. Your loving little puppy. A good boy. Brush your fingers against his hair and scratch his scalp just right. He'll cum right then and there. Dick frotting against your leg. That is, if you gave him permission. If you spoil him and let him suck your dick while you praise him he'll get drunk. So unbelievably drunk, you'll end up doing most of the work again.

☆ rarely ever a bad boy. He'll follow your orders. And if he's being a brat... well, taming him isn't hard.

☆ if you're going to be bottoming he'll be really soft with it. He'll only go hard if you tell him to. He'll do everything you tell him to do. Go soft? He'll go soft. Move faster? He'll rut inside of you while he sobs out how good you feel around him.

☆ oh my god this man's cum. He definitely cums a lot. Ugagahahh like,,, BROOOOO. Istg. It drops down his dick like thick droplets of pearls and its so filling. Goddamn, doesn't matter if you dom or he does its so much. Please milk him.

☆ oh he has a happy trail. Fuzzy, dirty blonde, well kept ish. He doesn't like to shave it because when it grows back it just gets itchy.

☆ He's a biter. Doesn't matter who's on top. Expect love bites everywhere, anywhere. It feels right to him. In a possessive way. He's yours, your his. Actually, try marking him too. It's hotter that way.

164 notes · View notes

theminecraftbee · 3 months

Note

Despite knowing next to nothing about Persona I am super interested in your Persona AU, is there any more information on it or is it just those two posts?

so far those two posts only! but because i sort of wandered into fic-writing territory, the basic premise, for those unfamiliar with persona:

this is an original plot, not the plot of any of the existing persona games, but it is meant to mimic what persona plots are like. as mentioned at the start, people are mysteriously vanishing in incidents that are making the national news (including in ways that affect our lead characters' lives). like any of the mysterious bad things that drive persona plots, these are being caused in some way by the existence of otherworldly creatures called Shadows, which are monsters made from humanity's collective unconsciousness.

joel, our protagonist, has recently moved to a new town, new hermiton, and is starting at a new school. (this is also Persona Protagonist Standard; hilarious side effect of it being a persona au is that it's technically kind of a high school au). in this storyline, it's because the people in charge of the dam protecting his town Vanished, and as a result, the dam's flood gates weren't opened when they needed to be, the dam collapsed, and joel's hometown was destroyed. yikes, i'm sure that backstory isn't affecting him at all. he was invited to new hermiton academy to finish his schooling.

however, on arriving, he quickly stumbles into the world of Shadows. for my story, it involves following a butterfly to an unpredictable location, where the border between the real and unreal is thin, and then using that to go into the world of Shadows. (i think i might call it the unreal world? i don't know, workshopping that.) there, he discovers he's a persona-user; that is to say, he's one of the lucky few capable of summoning a persona and fighting shadows. a persona is a representation of a person's soul (i am thou, thou art i), as well as a representation of a mythological or legendary figure of some kind. it grants supernatural powers to the user.

for the record: joel's starter persona is pygmalion, and his starting element is wind. also, in this au, summoning a persona requires stabbing yourself with a special knife, and then using that scar to summon the persona afterwards. this is Middling on the scale of 'edgy ways to summon your persona' in the series, lol. however, joel is special: he's a wild card, which means he will actually throughout the story gain the ability to use other personas and swap them at will. this is a special power only he will possess.

it turns out that he's not the only persona-user in town. grian, one of his classmates, has been attempting to fight shadows mostly on his own, with the help of his teacher, joe hills. joe can't summon a persona, but knows enough about the other world to help grian and now joel out. (although, that's... kind of weird, right...?)

joel now must balance his school life with, you know, fighting shadows to save people from Vanishing and, eventually, to save the world. to figure out WHY the shadows have started Vanishing people, too. and, unfortunately, he can't skimp on the "balancing his school life" aspect, because you see, to a wild card, the bonds he makes with other people are vital. joel will collect social links, each represented by a tarot card. each of these social links are his relationship with another person or group of people, and raising those social links makes him more powerful.

he'll also collect more party members, them represented as one of his social links each as well, and he'll bother his velvet room attendant--jimmy, who's supposed to help him fuse personas and give him cryptic guidance, but like, it's jimmy--and manage to fight his way through the trials and tribulations of being a mildly unwilling video game protagonist in a game where half of the story is having to kind of be everything for everyone at once, and also constant weird things you have to do for the plot.

and that's what i have so far of the au! i am sort of just. making it up as we speak,

#answered #smallishsona au

101 notes · View notes

feathernotes · 9 months

Text

Hello! My name is Krispy, and I’m the co-creator of the webcomic Ghost Junk Sickness (along with @spacerocketbunny) It's story time!

GJS is a webcomic published by Hiveworks and features two bounty hunters with an unstable dynamic who are pushed to pursue the deadly bounty dubbed the Ghost The current iteration of GJS is about 9 years old (and wrapping up next year!) It’s been an incredible journey full of ups and downs. We’ve learned SO MUCH creating this comic, and I wanted to share some of it’s origins with you all in hopes of inspiring more folks to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy- and make that comic!

The origin of Ghost Junk Sickness came from our love for Magic Knight Rayearth and Final Fantasy 7. Vahn, the protagonist of GJS, was basically a mash up of Hikaru and Cloud from those two series. The very first version of this story has unfortunately been destroyed, and this map is the only piece I have left of that world. Character art still exists though, and it was pretty funny to see how obvious we were with our inspirations at the time.

The original attempt at the story was called Crew, and my sister Space and I worked on it in 2002-2004. We sort of got lost in our own ideas after that, and weren’t as focus on making the comic (now lost). A few years later, I decided to try my hand at it and it looked like this:

This was all done on low quality paper, whichever I could find at the time and some pencil crayons. This attempt was over 600 pages long and had a pretty random story plot, much like the first version. I could not tell you what it was about haha 😅

My second attempt (then called Divine Ace) I wanted to look more 'traditional manga' and kept with just inks and tried my darndest to tone on the computer (it never worked out). This one lasted over 400 pages, and was more allinged with my liking to edgy action anime and games at the time. It was also Trigger's first appearance!

After experimenting and eventually wanting to change- I started to work with Space again, and we collaborated in full on our first fancomic for TF2 called "Be Efficient, Be Polite." It was a good lesson on how we could coordinate our shared skill sets and plan out who did what as far as the whole process of comics go.

All of these comics (save for the very first lost version) were hosted on DA the day we got our hands on a scanner. It was our first taste on being 'webcomic creators' back in the day, and it was very fun! We didn't much care for readers, only the process of completion at the time, so a page done was always a victory worthy to be celebrated (and back then, we had more time to make pages!)

And so, as the years went by and we decided to move on from our fandom roots, Space and I went back to the Crew/Divine Ace project and redesigned and overhauled the entirety of it. (You can see the full evolution here) We wanted to re-asses what the story, comic, and characters meant to us, and how we could convey some pretty important ideas and concepts to our potential readers. From that, Ghost Junk Sickness was born, and began pre-production in 2013.

Years after, we find ourselves reflecting on how much we've learned from the process of going ahead and diving in head first. There were certainly many iterations and years it took to get where we are today, but realising that it all began that day Space and I decided to scribble some pretty mediocire comics in our homework books and papers. Because that is the beauty of comics- The many skill sets, the hats, and challenges that come along with creating them. And how much we've become better at so many things along the way. So if you read this and feel nervous about diving head first into your first comic, I'm here to re-assure you that things will feel tough, but exciting. Things will feel really hard but amazing when you're getting your story out in front of you with such an incredible medium. Webcomics will always be my favourite because of how accessible it is to any skill set. And know in your heart of hearts that there ARE people out that that LOVE to see growth, they love to see the progression of your journey. So get out there and start creating that comic that's occupied your brain for so long, and start breathing that life into your OCs and your world. The only way is up with webcomics, and the only way to start is just by creating now.

#webcomics #webcomic #ghost junk sickness #hiveworks #feathernotes #me talking

368 notes · View notes

rockybloo · 4 months

Note

As I’m doing this ask, I’m just watching Jack the Giant Slayer and making me SEVERELY wanna read Beanstalked, I’d love a passion fueled essay/reason from you why I should read it! (I’m gonna ready it anyways)

OH BOY I GET TO DROP MY LIMITERS

For starters, Beanstalked is a fantasy slice-of-life with a sprinkle of adventure and action. It does feature swearing, violence and gore as well as some body horror and existentialism. So just a heads up.

The main plot is basically that Lore, the planet that Beanstalked takes place on which exists directly parallel to Earth, has an event every 100 years where individuals are selected to become Bookmarked. This is where they are assigned roles from fables and legends from our world and gain secret weapons known as Märchen for self defense. This event has gone on practically forever under the watchful eyes of the Sun and Moon, the gods of this world.

But that all gets disrupted by an evil fairy called Nevermore who is bored of witnessing the same fairy tales happening over and over again. She has rounded up Bookmarked villains and the occasional misled protagonist to assist her and her army of ink stains as she aims to rewrite the world and rid it of happy endings.

The newest generation of Bookmarked are very unlucky as it is their turns to live out their assigned tales due to their stories all having been screwed up due to Nevermore's interference. Jack is one of these unlucky Bookmarked, who has just recently come to learn he has been assigned the same Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. Much of Beanstalked follows hm as he learns about the magical side of the world he lives in, how to use his own Märchen, his own family history, and what exactly a "Happy Ending" is.

Beanstalked is meant to somewhat explore fairy tales and how suddenly becoming a figure in one can affect one's life-whether it be good or bad. It's also, at its center, a story about learning more about one's self and figuring out what truly makes you happy.

If you are a fan of fairy tale retellings then Beanstalked is a good pick for you. Especially if you are a fan of retellings that:

Aren't just mean spirited spins about the original tale

Aren't completely dark and gritty retellings of the source material for the sake of being edgy

Aren't just rip offs of Disney designs and characters

Or if you are petty like me, don't want to read another story about a protagonist having fallen into the land of fairy tales

Every Beanstalked character is meant to be based off either a direct character from a fable or a stock character. And for each fable, I try to bounce off the original story if there is an author (Like Pinocchio novel) or the oldest retellings as many fables don't have direct authors and simply have collectors that put their own spin on things.

So if you are worried about another fairy tale retelling story where each fable is just based off Disney's spins-DON'T WORRY BECAUSE ROCKY GOT YA' COVERED!

Beanstalked also contains a lot of found family elements, such as the entire village of Briar Patch being a community of Bookmarked who watch out for one another.

There are also cool af battle scenes due to the existence of Märchen (because Rocky grew up watching too many shounen anime and now has to put battles in everything), a ton of world building (I've had this story for nearly a decade now), a lotta characters with melanin (many being black), and a cast comprised of bi and pan characters.

ALSO ALSO...if you are a fan of pretty black girl love interests that kick ass (and may also be a monster girl with sharp teeth and claws and whole big monster form) then you will enjoy Beanstalked as Jack's love interest, Nana, is all of said above mentioned things.

SO if any of this happened to catch your attention-GO READ BEANSTALKED! As of right now I've rebooted it from the original 2010s version I had so it currently only has chapters 1 and 2. Which means you don't have a lotta catch up to do!

I have also handcuffed myself to this story which means I will be working on it till I finish it. I am on a mission. So if you want a webcomic and don't wanna worry about it suddenly being cancelled or disappearing one day-DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF CITIZEN as I am unhinged about my fairy tale babies and am in for the long haul.

#ask: beanstalked #ask #ask: jack #ask: nevermore #ask: nana

52 notes · View notes

cosmos-dot-semicolon · 16 days

Text

Leshy's Dual Nature (Act 2, Kaycee's Mod spoilers)

You know, I'm really divided on how Leshy is characterised in Inscryption. Like about everything he's portrayed as goes two ways.

He's both the world's spirit of nature and somebody intrinsically aware he's in a video game. He's revealed to not have been evil in the way that he kills actual humans for his card game, but he also did stab out one of his colleague's eyes and turn them all into animals and then lock them away for years. He's a game designer, but also a tyrant actively vying for control over his world.

The most interesting portayal of this is his friendship with Kaycee and his attitude towards human players as a whole.

I know a lot of people see this as purely good and wholesome because he only cares about making a good game (and his campaign clearly has more effort put into it than act 2 and 3), but the game itself hints that even that has more sinister undertones to it.

Rebecha is one of the few outsider perspectives you get on the Scrybes' enmity, and she chooses not to mention how he imprisoned his colleagues, but instead his relationships with the player.

He is in this for the thrill of playing the game, above everything else:

(sorry for the Docs screenshot I don't have the original on hand)

If anyone's played Doki Doki Literature Club, he almost reminds me of Monika, but like? Not romantically attracted to the player and actually fleshed out with a philosophy and character beyond edgy aesthetics. Which makes sense, given Mullins has cited that as an inspiration for some of the meta plot in Inscryption.

But regardless, that's what brought both Luke and Kaycee to their deaths. It could be argued that this is a neutral thing/survival instinct on Leshy's part, but I'd ask you to compare that to Grimora, who's portrayed as doing the right thing in bringing down the game (at least within the constraints of the meta plot)

And while I don't think the fault of this lies entirely on Leshy, you see Kaycee start to suffer from social isolation and weird behaviour long before she actually gets (presumably) assasinated by her company. Her death is by no means on him, but had she lived, I can't imagine she would've turned out to be a well-adjusted individual under the influence of the disk.

Like I get being attached to your own OC projects which maybe 1 other person in the world will enjoy (my AU of this game), but like girl. I think something is happening to you there.

Their friendship is absolutely genuine, but it's clear that the disk is a sort of cursed artefact that Leshy has no gripes with keeping her near. Like as far as Kaycee's Mod's plot goes, she never discloses this to the other programmers, and just continues to slowly obsess over her mod and the game's secrets alone.

And like. From experience, that's just not a healthy way to go about it. Even just having one other real person to discuss your creations with will go a long way in making you feel less stuck in your head.

I don't think any of this makes Leshy's characterisation worth throwing away or condemning or anything. It's fascinating that he has so many layers to him, even if they're not all well-executed (I want to comment a bit on how his philosophy is kind of blunted by the twist that he's not killing real humans, but this post is long enough).

But I think it's worth reading into this guy as more than just 'the least bad Scrybe along with Grimora'. He's the densest character you get from this game and I think it's a shame people don't explore that.

#inscryption #inscryption leshy #leshy inscryption #inscryption analysis #kaycee's mod spoilers #inscryption spoilers #'leshy inscryption is the better version of monika from ddlc' is not the take I thought I'd come up with tonight but here we are #i'm supposed to be revising for exams but I'm exhausted #dots dots dots

30 notes · View notes

artist-issues · 1 year

Text

It occurs to me that some people have a warped view of Shadow the Hedgehog.

There’s like two versions of him.

There’s the impression people (including some SEGA creators) have of Shadow the Hedgehog, which started somewhere on or after 2005, which I will be referring to as

1. Shadow’s shadow

He’s dark but it’s cringey because he’s trying so hard to be dark, and you get the impression that only 10 year old boys and 14 year old girls think he’s actually dark. He has a gun, just to prove to monkey-brain children used to fun Sonic ring-collecting that he’s bad. He cusses because cussing is edgy. He never does anything good unless it’s to prove he’s a better hero than Sonic. He’s over-the-top cruel or emo because that’s all he represents, and picks fights to defend his own pride like a bad version of Season 1 Zuko.

The problem with this version of the character is that somewhere down the line, even SEGA thought that Shadow’s shadow was all the Shadow the Hedgehog that everyone wanted to see. Or they just forgot that none of the above character traits have anything to do with the original character, at all. And so they started putting him in the new games like that. But that’s not the real Shadow. That’s just Shadow’s Shadow, a lame guess at who the character is based on his black and red design and snippets of things which people who never played SA2 heard about the character.

The real version of the character, which sparked the original popularity, is

2. Shadow the Hedgehog

The original Shadow the Hedgehog was popular because he was the new character in a game that brought emotional Lore to the Sonic games. He debuted in Sonic Adventure 2, and he wasn’t even the only new character in that game, which is kind of one of the things that was awesome about him: he wasn’t supposed to be The Cool One™ in the franchise.

He was supposed to be a one-off character. Think about that: not a character that just hit every out-of-proportion-fanservice trait, not a character that they kept bringing back over and over to entice weary fans.

He was just a new story element, presenting interesting themes that worked as a great foil for Sonic himself, then dying in an emotionally impactful way, making the SA2 game interesting and memorable for it’s story.

That is what was originally so popular about Shadow. Yes, he was really cool, and he did check all the “Dark Version of Your Beloved Main Character Trope” boxes, but he was ALSO a really well-rounded character that didn’t feel like he was just a hook to get fans interested. He had depth.

In fact, it could be argued that he brought depth of story to the series in a way that hadn’t been done since...well, Knuckles the Echidna. Sonic’s first-ever “rival” (who was not a robot.)

And Shadow brought depth of story MORE than Knuckles, because Shadow came around in the era of Cutscenes and Dialogue which provided a medium for this little thing called Flashbacks. Yeah, Knuckles’ first, pixel-y appearance brought in story elements like The Master Emerald and visuals that hinted at lore, like a Shrine.

But Shadow?

Shadow the Hedgehog appeared and was instantly the audience’s window to look through and see things that had never been seen before, which fleshed out Sonic’s whole canon and world. Things like:

The Government (woah, the Sonic world has a President and a unique military organization?)

Eggman’s family (woah, they’re actually going to tell us something about where Eggman came from?)

Chaos Powers (woah, the Chaos Emeralds actually do something besides just turning characters “super?”)

A story structure like this, where a new character also served as a way to examine deeper parts of Sonic Lore, had been used in the game’s predecessor, Sonic Adventure 1. But that new character, Chaos, was just presented as a mindless, silent villain with a blank face who turned out to have feelings right before he disappeared forever. Shadow is not like that at all in his first appearance.

He starts the game acting kind of like a genie who’s been let out of the bottle, offering to grant Eggman wishes. He offers Eggman a mysterious bargain. He seems totally evil and in possession of power over the Chaos Emeralds that allow him to rival Sonic. But during the story, there start to be hints at something underneath it all.

He keeps flashing back to a scary/sad combo of scenes involving a little girl. He mentions that he’s after revenge. He talks like a Shakespeare character when he villainously monologues, but he also ends most of his levels with “I’m the coolest!” and smugly talks smack with Sonic during their fight scenes. He seems totally focused on his mission one minute, then, any time he encounters Sonic, appears to get completely distracted and eager to compete, like a 18 year-old athlete.

All this contrast between a lofty, broody villain personality with a hidden fun, competitive showboating personality made the audience DESPERATE to know where this Shadow guy came from and what made him tick. It helped that other characters, like the government spy and Eggman himself, were teasing at a mystery in his past, too.

Then when you DO find out the why behind everything Shadow does, there’s been such a buildup that it’s satisfying.

I mean, it sounds really weird to hear that Shadow the Hedgehog is an artificial creature created by Eggman’s genius grandfather on a space station to bring hope to the Earth below, but was warped by a desire for revenge when the Government tried to kill him and wound up shooting the little girl who was his only friend and sealing him away for 50 years, instead. But it ONLY sounds that weird if you didn’t play the SA2 game and get to know Shadow as he was intended, bit by bit, reveal by reveal.

Because SA2 Shadow had reasons for being broody and angsty.

And he wasn’t ALWAYS broody and angsty. In fact, he was a master manipulator! When he was around Eggman, he was confident, smooth, and articulate, like a Shakespearean villain. When he was around Rouge, whom he did not trust, he was silent, firm, and to-the-point. Only by himself was he angsty--and it never lasted long.

And when he was around Sonic?

Oh boy. That is my FAVORITE thing about Shadow. Because when he was around Sonic, it’s like I said. He would stop being focused on his revenge-mission and stop being focused on whatever he was doing with Eggman and he would just turn into this competitive, flashy guy. I mean, yes, it would’ve been hard for him to stay focused on the mission because Sonic was actively trying to get in his way--but the thing is

Shadow starts to be his real SELF around Sonic. Even while they’re fighting. Because you get the sense, as the player/audience, that if this big trauma had not happened in Shadow’s past, he would have been Sonic. In personality. Sonic and Shadow are both highly competitive, love thrills, and love a challenge. They are also both heroic. Even while Shadow is a villain, he winds up saving Rouge the Bat from death by explosion, just because it seems like he can’t help himself. And remember, he was created to be a savior of the world anyway.

So combine Heroism with Competitiveness and you have someone who is very close to our fun-loving, cool blue hedgehog protagonist. But then the human race he was sworn to protect destroyed his home, murdered his best friend right in front of him, and locked him away as a dangerous weapon for 50 years.

Shadow is not what you get if you take Hot Topic and throw it on top of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Shadow is what you get if you took a bunch of Flickies murdering Tails the Fox right in front of Sonic while Green Hill Zone burned in the background.

And then, at the very end of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow realizes that he didn’t promise Maria (his best friend who was murdered) revenge. He promised her that he would protect everyone on Earth. So very much like Ben Solo (RIP) you get a quick snippet of who Shadow the Hedgehog really is when he’s not burdened by all the Baggage.

In a handful of cutscenes and well-performed in-game dialogue, you hear that his voice is a little lighter. He physically transforms from black to white.

He’s focused on destroying the evil threatening the planet, but he also says kind little things like, “Sonic, you need rest! Let me give it a try!” and “How are you doing, Sonic?” and

AND

in one in-game clip of dialogue, he even says that he thinks SONIC might be the Ultimate Life Form.

Shadow’s Shadow, the lame ironic tropey interpretation of Shadow, would never say something like that. He’d cuss in a low-voiced rasp and dramatically try to blow the head off of anyone who even joked about it. But the thing is, at this point in the story, you are seeing Shadow as he is: a lab-created being who’s probably only lived around a year, consciously, and was still figuring out what he even is before going under. The only reason he was ever anything but a good-natured, gold-hearted hero was because of the trauma and revenge-induced worldview. When all of that is stripped away and he starts seeing his purpose and his whole history clearly, he is this slightly naive, open-hearted, mission-driven, contemplative foil to Sonic.

Then he sacrifices his life and dies. And the end of the game is all of the characters, good and bad, united for a scene where they each contemplate who they are and what is right and wrong.

And that’s the effect he had on players, too. He was such a deep, interesting character who was not edgy (even though his backstory was more violent and dark than any other character’s) that they loved him desperately. And SEGA brought him back.

Of course, they brought him back with amnesia, and that probably would’ve been fine, except it spiraled into the Shadow’s Shadow version of the character that got his own video game and worsened everything.

But that’s besides the point.

The original Shadow the Hedgehog, the true, real version of the character, was absolutely the best part of the franchise at the time. And basically, in conclusion, SA2 Shadow is the BEST Shadow.

187 notes · View notes

eth3real-ess3nce · 2 years

Text

How I would handle each moon sign's bad mood (my experience)

Aries moon - I would let you spam our chat with your venting. I had this one friend with his moon in aries and he was so freaking bold about what bothered him. So go ahead, vent to me with no filter. I will listen and acknowledge what fucks with your head. Be as edgy as you like. Yes baby, break this chair too. When you finish, I'll let you know that you don't have anything to prove to the world. It's not you against them. It's you against you. I'll make you see that you have set extremely high standards for yourself and you barely acknowledge your own strengths. Some people can't see it because they don't function in your pace. You're an innovator, love. Own it.

Taurus moon - Honestly, these folks just want to be left alone. They'll talk about it later. Meanwhile, I'll provide you with what makes you comfortable the most , either snacks or something that soothes your senses. Yeah, taurus=senses, cliche huh? But am I wrong? Comfort movie? Blanket? Little kiss on the forehead? I know you want it. When you decide to talk about it, I'll make sure to boost the way you feel about yourself. Because deep down, you give and give to others but, it's like a subconscious act in order to feel that you're worthy of something.

Gemini moon - I'll let you talk, and talk and talk.. and talk. Let me know about everything that concerns you about the matter you're upset about. Each of your perceptions. I'll just listen and reassure you because you need to know that your thoughts and opinions matter. I'll also let you crack a joke just so you break the awkward feeling of being too emotional in front of me. I'll laugh along, but I'd secretly pray that you stopped feeling embarrassed for being human and having feelings.

Cancer moon - I would look into your eyes, which are always filled with gentleness, and let you know that I'm always a safe space for you. Cancer has a sweet tooth, how about some chocolate to soothe your inner turmoil? Or some freshly baked homemade cookies? Most cancer moons stay to themselves; no matter how much they open up to you, they always have a safe distance. You're so in touch with your emotional world so I trust you with your outbursts. But that doesn't mean you I won't allow you to bury yourself inside my embrace when things get too rough.

Leo moon - Your heart feels warm and it is loyal, but there's pride in there as well. I know you value my friendship but you don't want to be too vulnerable. We'll talk about your moodiness and I'll lift you up. Heck, you're awesome and you're radiant and you need to be reminded about it. I'll take your photos and make loud dramatic noises because I admire your regal presence so much. Even if you don't think you're a stunner, it's my duty now to make you feel so.

Virgo moon - You push everyone away from truly getting into your head, don't you? I'd let you know that doing multiple things at once isn't very.. helpful. No you won't escape from your own mind this way! I'll do the bed for you. I'll do your hair for you. I'll put your favourite tunes on and I'll smile as you won't resist quietly singing the lyrics. If you don't even want to be involved with the song, that's when I'll know the mood is REALLY bad.. but even then, I will not leave you alone with your self-deprecating thoughts.

Libra moon - Honestly, I'd shower you with compliments. The genuine ones, of course. I'd listen to what you have to say and I'd remark on your intellect. Something fine would instantly improve your mood. Your favourite glass of wine? Getting out to try some perfumes on our skins? Gifting you a skin lotion that has your favorite scent? All with a big smile on my face, trying to match yours. <3

Scorpio moon - I wouldn't tire you into opening up to me and I wouldn't comment on your smoking habit either. I'd let you know you can express your dullness around me whenever you have the blues. You're a water moon though, you have to know I am considerate of your emotions. Scorpio is a fixed sign, originally ruled by mars. People label you as difficult. But you just consistently do what you think is the right thing to do. Doesn't everyone want that for themselves? Well, you just tend to see deeper. And at times, through the opposite of what's called rose-tinted glasses.

Sagittarius moon - You know your emotional reactions are extra. You don't have to be reminded by other people. Your whole life philosophy takes form based on your emotional experiences. I know it's difficult for you to move on even if your moon is in a flighty, fun sign. Deep down you'd like to belong somewhere, it just has to be a place where you don't worry about a damn thing. My dear, I'd take car rides with you to nowhere and let you blast your favourite songs. I'd see places with you, laugh at your snarky comments about off-looking strangers we meet and play dares, until your pain conceals completely in the moment.

Capricorn moon - Just like cancer moon, you are aware of your inner turmoil. You know what you need in order to have your waters calmed. But nine out of ten times, it's a self destructive method. "It is what it is", you love chanting. You don't want others to be bothered by your emotions because it's " not productive" and it's "time consuming" . Nevertheless I'll treat you like my baby and praise you for your work because you just really need to be seen. Yes I'll get this thing done for you just how you like it. Similar to cancer moon, as I said, you prefer to have your alone time when you have the blues. You want to handle it alone because you believe you have found the best solutions. Regardless, I'll hold your hand while you're trying to recollect your sense of self.

Aquarius moon - We're going to celebrate for you being the odd one out instead of mourning about it. There's no way you're full of flaws, right? I'll try to pull the best jokes for you and listen to your strong rants as well. You do need to socialise but you also need to isolate when you feel off, so you can brood in peace. I'll let you know that you're so appreciated and all your selfless acts mean everything. Nahh, you're not an a*shole. To me, you're my ratchet friend. You're a star the world isn't advanced enough for. I'll try to teach you patience, for your own good.

Pisces moon - For you, I won't boost your self-deprecating lifestyle and thought patterns. You always love to whine to me about how sensitive and ridiculously fragile you are. I simply must let you know that sensitivity is one of the biggest virtues to possess out there. Most of the time you're two fish swimming in a loop, inside a palm sized pond. Aren't you tired of swimming in the same old comfortable waters? You're originally ruled by Jupiter for Christ's sake! Own your ability to expand! Jupiter favours you in ways you never imagined. Just tap into it. I know you can be naive but that doesn't overturn how smart you are. You just want someone to rejuvenate your faith and I know I have to be that someone.

#moon signs #aries moon #taurus moon #gemini moon #cancer moon #leo moon #virgo moon #Libra moon #scorpio moon #sagittarius moon #aquarius moon #pisces moon #Astrology moon

756 notes · View notes

look-how-they-massacred-them · 9 months

Text

Preliminary Poll

Sylvanas Windrunner

Submission reason:

WHERE TO BEGIN.... she's an incredibly traumatized woman who's devoted to protecting her people (the Forsaken) who are reviled by the entire world, as well as geting revenge on Arthas, the man who turned them into undead. But then from Cataclysm onwards she's retconned to have never cared at all for the Forsaken and be entirely selfish and given a convoluted villain arc and is generally treated in an incredibly misogynistic way, both in-universe and by Blizzard's creative team. Once she finally got a redemption arc it felt very unearned because of how poorly written her descent into villainy was. tl;dr she could've been a Vriska if the writers even remotely cared about her

Once a benevolent anti-hero, now a villain who is easily defeated despite their ability. At first her change to villainy wasn't bad, it was actually really cool; But then it just got petty and pathetic, and it makes me want to STRANGLE Blizzard (I already wanted to strangle them prior, and again now... I just REALLY hate Blizzard; I don't play WOW anymore because of all the bullcrud putting up with that company-)... THEN, the writers had the audacity to pull a last minute "SIKE!" and make her redeemed or some crud. Bro, I just want Sylvanas back PLEASE!? They made the villainy undermine all the cool things she's ever done, and then they make the redemption thing undermine everything cool she's ever done as the villain character. I actually still liked her even when she was the questionable villain warchief! Shadowlands has ruined her, AND that game expansion has cause me so much pain and agony (who in Blizzard thought it would be a good idea to make me play for more than 3 hours straight just on one run of the stupid tower dungeon thing... See it's been so long I forgot the name of it-)... Why does Blizzard out of all companies have to own this franchise?!?! They make me so ANGRY! Not only are they abusive towards fans and workers, but their content lacks literally everything (with the exception of their new expansion Dragonlands; Which was really nice...); So anyways, I wish I could fight the writers-. Last but not least, since there is no salvaging "that mess", they ended up sentencing Sylvanas for an eternity of fighting the horrors in hell (LITERALLY)! Now the chances of EVER seeing her character EVER AGAIN is slim as all heck because "nope, she felt bad, so now she's gonna go and do cool shenanigans in the Maw (hell essentially) so no one else has to, cause she's nice now!"... Like bro, HECK NO, who's gonna lead my favorite race of the Horde now? The circus?... Those final words were factual as well, the undead are now ruled by their theoretical local arch-nemeses; Bro these zombie people do not need to suffer any more than they have to in canon GOD DANGIT BLIZZARD! I'm just going to say now, if your people have been tortured by a specific group for as long as they have basically existed, what makes you think it would be a good idea to then put one of their leaders in charge... I don't care if she's dead, or a zombie, she's a relic of the civilization that has been trying to kill you, and is STILL trying to kill you! That and I hate how stupidly unaware the new undead leader is; She literally can't empathize with the undead (Sylvanas could! WHICH IS WHY BLIZZARD SHOULD'VE NEVER DONE ANY OF THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE!). I was hoping for some cool zombie solidarity, and all I got was the largest slap in the face canon could give to it's zombie fanboy. Now every time I play my edgy little undead warlock in game, the nightmares kick-in and the sorrows unleash... I don't think me or my Warcraft account will ever recover from the tomfoolery...

there is a LOT of specifics like you can read her wiki page if you want - it's long - but she has an insanely cool origin story (shes an elf that defended her home against an undead scourge, was killed in action, brought back as a banshee to serve the lich king, and then eventually broke free and rallied all the other dead people who were raised and their minds enslaved by the scourge, and she led the faction of freed undead people, which are one of the playable races) and was a very cool figurehead for a while but the misogynistic writing of Blizzard Entertainment kind of made her into a "crazy hysterical woman" who did really evil things for seemingly no reason that don't make sense based on her previous characterization. she was deliberately made to do a really evil act (elf genocide, basically) on like, a whim? which was really out of character for her as a cold, calculating, intelligent leader and made a LOT of seething gamers really mad. i think they said they used her specifically to make people debate about lore which is like, really shitty bc the story didn't make sense and it just gave a lot of misogynistic gamers an opportunity to hate on a female character. i saw a lot of hate for her (usually laced with misogyny, calling her a bitch and stuff) and a lot of people defending her but ultimately she was just written terribly and her character was absolutely ravaged. it kind of makes me sad but im not really surprised given blizzards track record. i think shes "good" again now? they finally concluded her story arc after i stopped playing the game, but the damage was already done, a lot of people just hate her now bc her shitty actions heavily impacted the story (and made for a shitty story) and she was also featured prominently and people just got tired of her.

Propaganda:

A Vid in support of "benevolent" Sylvanas : https://youtu.be/9ld4tCS8Gng A cool cinematic? : https://youtu.be/TVp7yLfnmrE A silly edit I made... (made a looooong time ago) : https://youtu.be/_5pEZH_pEtA Kakio is cool, I trust his words : https://youtu.be/svZt-opethU IDK, Sylvanas is cool; I had a crush on her in middle school, and I still do-...

i saw the promo post and this character INSTANTLY shot to mind even though i havent touched wow or any blizzard game in nearly two years also shes hot.

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my girl #wow #world of warcraft #sylvanas windrunner #wow sylvanas #world of warcraft sylvanas

49 notes · View notes

itty-bitty-mess · 6 months

Note

hi, sorry if you've already answered this before but i remember you mentioning having your own bittybones au before and im curious to know what your au is about?

TW: BITTYBONES AB//USE, BITTY WHUMP, BITTY T*RT//URE

Hi, sure thing! I've mentioned my own au before wayyy back when this blog was still pretty new. You can find the original idea in the link provided! I tend to jokingly refer to it as "the underfell of bittybones aus" since it could be considered pretty edgy or at least cartoonishly cruel and focuses, as you can tell, solely on bitty whump. Basically, after bitties became popular, people very quickly caught up on their various flaws (such as their annoying personalities, being prone to becoming spoiled, acting like immature toddlers despite being fully grown "adults", constantly talking like babies, going into heat and acting creepy towards their owners, generating waste, having irritiating squeaky voices, etc.) and realized that bitties actually sucked. Many owners began throwing away their bitties and dumped them on the streets. The now homeless bitties could only do one thing now: reproduce. Soon, the stray bitty population grew at alarming speeds to the point where bitty infestations were now a big problem. Stray bitties now were taking over entire homes and would steal from passerby in crowds. The problem was so big that authorities decided to declare bitties an invasive species, even though they weren’t even recognized as animals, and made it fully legal to dust them in order to decrease the population and solve the problem. Now that dusting was fully legal, people got to work and began reducing the population through various ways such as bitty exterminators, food shaped poison, making up games where people dusted bitties for fun, setting up bitty traps, opening fully legal bitty fighting rings or bitty slaughterhouses, etc. Passerby now stomped on or dusted any bitty they stumbled upon. Now, the bitty population is under control and the owned bitties that still exist must stay at home at all times and must be sterilized to avoid any more reproduction. As loved as they can be, owned bitties must behave at all times or they might end up on the streets or donated as food for animal shelters. If an owned bitty sneaks out or gets abandoned by its owner, they're pretty much dead as they are most likely to get dusted in various horrible ways. To summarize: in this twisted and cruel world, people hate bitties. Sometimes i use this au as a baseline for some of my writing, sometimes i dont, honestly it mainly kind of exists as an idea where i can experiment on various concepts and scenarios such as bitty fighting rings or dusting being legal and how it affects the bitty population and the way they live in this society. It'd also be fun to experiment or write about an owned bitty who lives a comfortable, sheltered life but one day he does something that leaves him on the streets, having to face the horrible, cruel world were his kind is widely hated and dusted for no reason. So yeah, that's my silly little au :)

#bitty abuse #bitty bullying #bitty whump #bitty torture #bittybones #ask

14 notes · View notes

s1ithers · 1 year

Text

finished da:o at last. thinking about my assortment of half-developed warden ocs who never quite gelled the way hawke did and i feel like it's partly that i never hit on a sequence of endgame choices that really felt like a payoff. da:o is a such a great build-your-own-blorbo kit, you get such juicy character concepts out of the origin choice & reactivity but i'd always get an oc to mid-late game and feel like they were a bit dressed up with nowhere to go bc the ending just doesn't... really cap their arc in a way that feels satisfying

there's some good crunchy episodic drama contained within the treaty quests but in terms of the overall structure, the warden hits their lowest point at the beginning and you spend the game powering up until you win, pretty straightforwardly depending on your choices. like yeah the dark ritual is edgy sexist bullshit but you need it, you need something there.

like the first 2/3 are a great arc. hero leaves home in exile, goes around finding friends & adventure, returns home changed by said adventures, confronts their past, wrenching emotional ordeal etc, moves on as their new actualized self to take on the big bad. which is great except everything pretty much comes up warden from there on out. you need some kind of climax crunch to test that actualized self, another pain point at the end

which they tried to do, it just falls a bit flat for me. i've heard the 'grey warden must die' twist criticized as feeling sprung out of nowhere but i don't mind that so much. between the whole 'in death, sacrifice' thing, duncan & jory, sophia dryden, etc, i think it's pretty well set up that this is an organization with dark secrets that their two bumbling junior recruits know way too little about. i do think it's a bit stock. 'will you die to save the world?' just isn't that interesting, there's a plain right answer both ethics & genre are pointing you to, which more importantly is not really tied to your character at all.

like say what you will about da2 but the ending pays the hell off bc it forces hawke to show who they are. a person could justify making either decision, so who your hawke is matters. every bit of character development is leading up to how they'll jump in that moment

and then after dropping the warden sacrifice on you, dao immediately offers you an escape hatch, which, unless your warden is really fussed about blood magic or whatever, of course you're gonna take. structurally i think this decision is leeched of a lot of potential by the fact that both options are coming as new information.

new guy we just met: wait! there's a problem! morrigan: don't worry i fixed it! okay! on we go then! thanks morrigan

(could've been cool if alistair knew a warden had to die from the start, so you're struggling to go on with this journey, knowing how it ends, really get some time to stew on that before morrigan drops her bomb. the full relief of a stay of execution, plus 'you're only telling me this now?!' gives the warden a somewhat more sympathetic reason to feel betrayed than like, self-centered dickishness)

but more than that, the options the game gives you to object don't acknowledge what's really so awful about it. like you get 1) dark magic scary. part of a pattern in how i think this franchise tends to (mis)apply blood magic etc as a narrative device, but, like, good option to have for roleplay. 2) is oldgodbaby a bad idea? valid question but doesn't really go anywhere (and is more or less locked into being an anticlimax, can't be world-shaking as a choice-dependent outcome)

but like that post that was going around. what it means for morrigan is so wrenching. is it what she wants for herself or is she still acting out her mother's will? can the warden know, or believe they know? if they ask her to go through with it, are they complicit in flemeth's abuse? or are they overriding morrigan's agency if they refuse out of concern for her? how does your warden's origin & personality frame how they see this - what they're entitled to, what they owe, what they believe about duty & autonomy & respect, they're relationship with morrigan, & with magic, & their own impending death.

these people who are so young & so traumatized flailing around hurting each other in their good intentions. the dark ritual as this awful act of desperation & mixed motivations & regret that tears this hard-won friend group apart (especially if alistair is involved). saving the world as a good clean victory over evil in the grand scope, at the cost of this cataclysmic sacrifice on the personal level - so intimate, so devastating, so small. THAT'S drama.

#all of that said it's not a bad ending. this is all in the spirit of musings not haterism lol #as long as the goodbyes at the gate keep making me cry i can't knock it #replaying shook some things loose i think i'm finally closing in on my canon worldstate #on the whole da:o held up better than i was afraid it would #revisiting a few years on i'm really realizing how much my complaints abt the series were retroactively colored by da:i #da:o's got issues but it's pretty solid #kind of nice to remember that oh yeah i -did- get obsessed with this because i. you know. liked it #lmao #anyway let's see if i can get through awakening before i have to devote myself to putting 700 hours in darkest dungeon 2 next week #da

22 notes · View notes

spinningbuster98 · 23 days

Video

youtube

Sonic the Hedgehog CD Ending: All action. No words

Stardust Speedway is one of those levels that you think you’d love, what with it clearly being Starlight Zone on steroids, but it just doesn’t fully stick the landing because, you guessed it, the level design is just all over the place. As a general rule of thumb: unless you’re going for the generator then stick to the lowest route since it’s the quickest and simplest. This is quite literally doing the opposite of what Sonic level design usually does but hey, that’s just how Sonic CD rolls I guess

I’ve never been a massive Metal Sonic fan per se. He’s either a non-character, basically just another tool of Eggman’s that only stands out by virtue of his concept, or whatever Heroes attempted to do with him. His design however is something that I absolutely adore. He looks straight up deadly, what with those dark eyes and spickier, sharper design that generally lacks most of Sonic’s own roundness and softness, presenting Metal as something truly dangerous and unfriendly. It��s also a pretty edgy design, perhaps the series’ first truly edgy character, a full 8 years before Shadow, yet he still follows the Classic characters’ overall design aesthetics what with his body proportions. He simultaneously looks in-line with Sonic’s world yet also unnatural to it. His boss fight is also pretty memorable and also perhaps the hardest in the game (though that’s not saying much here), which, alongside him being the one who kidnaps Amy at the starts and whose holograms you can find harassing small animals in the levels, helps to solidify him as an actual rival to Sonic. In fact, despite my thoughts on the character himself, I actually think that he makes for a better potential rival than the likes of Shadow and especially Knuckles, as his status as an Eggman robot built specifically to kill Sonic makes it easy and natural to set up situations where the two would fight without it feeling forced or stupid (just think about how, in Generations, he’s the only rival character whose fight justification doesn’t feel arbitrary, unlike Shadow “I know we’re all in a world without time but instead of trying to get to the bottom of things I’ll try to kill you now just ‘cause” the Hedgehog or Silver “but how can I know you’re the real Sonic? I know! I’ll drop a bunch of junk on your head!” the Hedgehog)

Metallic Madness is the worst stage in the game. Act 1 is fine, but Act 2 features pretty much every single issue in the game but cranked up to 11 because it’s the final level. It’s a giant goddamn mess and no amount of chibi Sonic can make me overlook this. Don’t go to the Past, I swear to God it’s even worse than the other timeframes, I always get lost in the god forsaken place. Man did Mania give this place a much needed makeover!

Fun fact: the original Sega CD version of the ending cutscene actually features sound effects at the start before playing Cosmic Eternity! I’m guessing that the later versions don’t do this because they play at higher framerates so the sound effects would be out of synch

I actually think I like the ending more than the opening: CD doesn’t have the classic all-stage medley during the credits but we actually get to see brief animated recreations of previous stages, and this is where I think that Sonic’s personality really shines, showcasing all the cute, cool and creative ways that he disposes of Badniks. I also like how, in the good ending, more specifically in the later versions, Little Planet disappears but not before emitting a bunch of sparkles that form an image of Sonic, kind of implying that it’s somewhat sentient and it’s thanking Sonic. It’s a nice way to sort of personify a literal world and make your efforts to save it from Eggman’s influence feel all the more worthwhile. Again: Sonic CD is able to give character and personality not through words but through actions

#youtube #sonic the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog cd #my gameplay

4 notes · View notes

senasadventures · 28 days

Note

Hey! (It's me, almathecolormaniac just in asks tumblr only lets the main blog to ask)

Do you mind if i ask here, about your comic?

Like how did this story come to your mind, or what is your motivation to make tangible. (i mean my ideas for stories never get further than my mind 😆) And what does the drawing process look like for you?

When did you found alta and what is that you like about it, do you like to read fan fictions too?

Or just ramble as much and about anything or nothing really, no pressure i dont mind at all.

If anything, thanks for your art and have a good day!

Hello there! Thanks a lot for your message!

I’m posting this as public because maybe it could help somebody else too. When I first started making this comic, I was really overwhelmed and wished there was someone to share their own experience to help.

This is going to be long!

When I first started with Sena's story, I was not intending to write a tangible story or make it into an actual comic. I was simply drawing a character as I was fantasizing about an Avatar story.

Just with this little drawing, there was immediately a concrete picture of what kind of character this was in my head, along with her age, her name, her possible path... Other characters followed in much of the same way, without even trying to create them. It was like they were just there. Sometimes the stars will align and such things will happen.

It's interesting how it all started with Nina (whom you do not know yet) and not with my main character Sena. But it's not strange as I always loved drawing waterbenders the most (and their hair loopies)! Nina gave me the headstart to imagine all the rest.

Wishing to give these characters the story they belong to, I began writing , in book format, without any plans on what to do with it later.

I talked about this in another post before, but one of my biggest motivations was that I wasn't content with what followed after the original show and really wanted to see what I'd do with the Avatar Universe. I wanted to prove that a story didn't need to have war, epic battles, villains or "edgy" superpowers to be interesting. And I wanted it to be about "kids", having the same naive and simple (yet deep) quality that I love about AtLA.

Much of the initial writing came naturally to me, and I was influenced by the themes that played out in my own life. Many of Sena's struggles are also my struggles and it means a lot to me to find out where they lead in Sena's case. I write the story as I go and although there are certain events I already know I want to lead into, much of it is still uncertain.

( One of the influences to this story was The Neverending Story, which I had read shortly before I started writing this story. Some of Sena's characteristics were inspired by Bastian, and Kai's were inspired by Atreyu. )

At some point I decided to make this into a comic, which I was hesitant since I knew it would be laborious, but it was the medium that this story would really flourish and catch other's attention as well. And I did want to share it.

There were a lot of tasks ahead of me before I could actually start drawing the first pages. I have different locations in this story, different cultures. I needed a visual language for them.

Shun Fei is a culture that borrows from both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, but it's not supposed to look like either of them. On top of that, it has some of what may be called Western influences to it, as it carries the kind of values that in our world, first came to be in the West. In order to incorporate that while preserving the Asian aesthetic of the Avatar Universe, I borrowed some subtle elements from both Roman and 19th century European aesthetics, or even a little bit of medieval Europe. The pillar architecture of the Shun Fei government building, or the white shirts with puffed sleeves and raised collars of Shun Fei citizens are examples to that. For the color scheme, I went with white, black and brown. It's weird how that hadn't immediately occur to me, but was the most sensible choice, given everything about Shun Fei.

At times, I kept some colors and elements from Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation fashion, but I think it was too much. I actually generally dislike this frame anyway :D

When you're making a comic, there are so many details that are invisible to the viewer, but you nevertheless have to work on. To be honest, it was driving me crazy, because I was unable to produce anything visible for a while. It's best to know this beforehand and be patient with the early stages of your work. It is going to save you so much time later on.

Once I started drawing the pages, there was once again, a lot more that was driving me mad.

I was trying to be authentic with my visual language of the comic, such as the design of the frames and the flow of the story, because I wanted this to have a "book-ish" feeling and a little bit of ancientness to it. I didn't want it to feel like a modern comic. This was taking a lot of effort, because there isn't anything exactly like it that I can imitate.

Secondly, drawing comics is A LOT OF work. It takes so much time that I was unable to move forward with the story! I went from fully colored to monochrome, and later from hand-drawn to all digital. I tried a lot of different approaches and if you look carefully, you can see how the style changes throughout the pages, which I think is not a good thing professionally, but fortunately this is a personal project from which I'm learning.

What I currently do is, I make a storyboard on paper with adequate details to use as a sketch under my digital lineart process later on. I have at least 3-4 other pages' storyboards ready before I start drawing a page digitally. I used to make the storyboards from the text I wrote when I began writing the story in book format, which was difficult to adapt. Nowadays I'm working on a segment which I hadn't written in text and I directly write on the storyboard.

I still don't know how some people can draw so many pages in so little time, it's a mystery to me. But I did get faster and more efficient in time, mostly because I understood how to do things and don't have to think every single thing through anymore.

Another thing with my process is how much I've found it difficult (and mostly still find) going consistently at it. There were many long breaks along the way and it took me longer than 2 years before I made 20 pages and started uploading this comic here.

All of these things can be very discouraging. I questioned my ability to be professional a lot, which I do want to be, since I don't want Sena's Adventures (and other stories I want to make) to just be my story and stuck with me. I want to share it with the world and do it in the best way possible. (It was my dream ever since childhood) To do that, you need many practical skills. But these do come in time and I feel a lot more confident now. I love this story, I've had a bond with it and I love doing something related to AtLA, my old time love. And I really wanted to see where this experience would take me, so I stuck with it.

A lot of people, like me, miss the Avatar of their childhood. I wanted to make a story that had the same kind of feeling. I tried to stick to the original spirit of the show, while incorporating elements that matter to me on a personal level and which I believe are on the same line with AtLA.

-----------

For your second question,

I used to see AtLA on TV as a kid and at some point I started to get interested in it, and later became a die-hard fan. It was 2008 and I was 12. This also marked my entry to digital art and the DeviantArt community, which became a huge thing for my life. I kept making Avatar fanarts until I was like 14-15, some of which were fairly popular back in the day! Good times.

As a kid and teen, I was someone who always lived with fantasies of my current favorite show in my head, the most long lasting one being AtLA. I wonder how many nights I must have fallen asleep thinking about the next romance story between Aang and Katara.

I occasionally had attempts to illustrate stories in my head throughout the years, but these were mainly childish attempts (although there's nothing wrong with that) and always left too early, so I never knew what a professional effort would look like until I began this project. It has been a great learning opportunity.

#webcomic #artists on tumblr #atla comics #art advice #art tips #comic making #comic book artist #comic tutorial #comics tutorial #art process #comic book art #atla comic #avatar the last airbender #fan comic #atla #atla oc #atla fanfic #graphic novel #avatar comic

4 notes · View notes

msookyspooky · 8 months

Note

have you ever made a birth chart for severen? would love to know his zodiacs

I did! But I can't find it which is fine bc it came to my attention the mercury can be no more than one sign from your sun and your venus can be no more than two signs away from your sun as well

- Taurus Rising

- Sagittarius Sun

- Aries Moon

- Aries Mercury

- Scorpio Venus

- Aries Mars

⬆️ I hc him as a Taurus Rising bc it would make his chart line up with I think scorpio 7th house which fits him perfectly imo on how he bonds with others and what he brings to a relationship and probably craves in a partnership. AND Bill Paxton looks like such a Taurus Male that Severen has to have it in his chart somewhere lol. Besides, when he's not trying to get ppls attention he's very chill and stoic like what we see in the camper when Caleb wakes up. Earth risings can be intimidating when you don't know them so it still fits to me. They're Practical, Stubborn and Confident.

He could also be a Leo Rising or Scorpio rising though. Ngl I struggle with the rising but we'll just go with that.

☀️ Sagittarius Sun instead of Leo like I originally thought because as a Leo Sun none of the chart lines up but Leo Mercury and Venus. Honestly? He's too brash and dark for that. Goofballs, flirty, wandering type that is blunt and they're optimistic in a 'welp shit, nowhere to go but up from here' sort of way rather than rosy glasses 'everything is great' sort of way and considering Sev I'd say it fits.

🌙 Aries Moon I will not budge on. He explodes with emotion whether happy or angry and all emotions come to him easy as they do intensely and then he's over it just as fast. They like independence just as much as being near their peopls, challenges and they are very brave and passionate people. They will march head first into a situation and feel little to no fear. SEVEREN.

🪐 Aries Mercury I won't budge too much on either. Istg we DO NOT focus on the mercury like we should! It's your humor, work ethic, view of the world, communication....HELLO? That is a very big thing just like the rising yet it gets overlooked sm! I almost could see him as a Leo mercury BUT I still choose Aries. And even though he is egotistical; I have multiple Aries Mercury and Leo Mercury's in my life. They are very similar but still different. They both have strong opinions, both are blunt, both are arrogant in their own ways but a Leo Mercury is more likely to be more warm and they do consider things when speaking because they care how people view them. They are regal in that way...Aries? As a Capricorn Mercury; I love them ♡ they just let their impulsive thoughts win every time and truly don't care what others think ☠️ And a Leo Mercury views things as a 'stage' to preform on while Aries looks at it as a 'sporting event' where everything is a challenge. They are sore losers and Severen cheats at cards cause he's probably a sore loser too. Anything to win. My cousin is an Aries Merc and she will play a game till she wins or cheats while my leo merc uncle and sister will argue right away that the game is dumb if they don't win on the first try then deny that they thought that way...Leo is gonna think it's below them, Aries is gonna keep going till they win even if they cheat that is as Severen as it gets.

🖤 - Scorpio Venus. Your venus is your style, what you find appealing, how you love, how you have sex (I follow traditional astrology where Venus THE GODDESS OF LOVE AND LUST is the ruler of ur sexlife while Mars THE GOD OF WAR AND ACTION is just that. Modern astrology equating passion/action with sex never sat right with me. Sex is technically your venus and mars combined but the venus is how you love and that includes in bed but anyways-)

Severen dresses dark, edgy and bold. If he isn't a Scorpio Venus then he is a Scorpio Rising Ong. Venus is ALL relationships and He shows an intense loyalty to his family to the point he risks his life for them. Scorpio Venus's are ride or dies. We do anything for our loved ones, I should know, I'm one too and I see a lot of Severen's choices and reactions involving others in myself good and bad. Like him wanting revenge against Caleb for 'betraying' them? Hate to say it but yeah. Scorpio is ruled by Mars and in Venus it makes us intense and if Severen has an Aries Stellium it makes it ten times worse. Once slighted he is prone to being vindictive and intense and it takes a lot for him to trust you but once he does? He'll do anything for you and protect you. In love, he is possessive, protective, passionate, and intense. Like, he is probably toxic and possessive even if he doesn't show it. He is insisting on being with his partner every night hunting and if they want alone time he's stalking them without them knowing to 'protect them' and he is protective! Anyone that would look at his family crossways gets it so can you imagine his partner? Scorpio Venus excludes everyone but their people/person and are loyal for life. (Which is why he was so enraged at Caleb betraying them after he gave him his spur and let his guard down)

I ALMOST put Aries Venus because they can be so similar with both ruled by Mars but Aries Venus falls quickly and intense which COULD be Sev but considering Sev I still see Scorpio. Aries is more likly to chase the red flags because they crave an exciting partner as a Scorpio venus we ARE the red flags. I could see Aries Venus or Scorpio Venus but he seems more reluctant to trust friendships than an Aries Venus is imo. Considering Sev is the ONLY one not actively in or looking for a partner in Near Dark and has very few people he seems to care about I'm sticking with Scorpio for now.

🔥 - Aries Mars I wont budge on either. That man would punch God or the Devil in the face if he could. Fearless, Brazen, Bold, Quick Tempered, Leaps into Action. We saw first hand he gets pissed and explosive like when he had to be held back by Jesse before he ripped Caleb's head off for hurting Mae by drinking from her (Scorpio Venus shining through again im js) and he got over it just as quickly at the bar that very night.

#severen hc #near dark severen #severen near dark #severen van sickle #severen #near dark #near dark 1987

15 notes · View notes

professor-doc-emeritus · 1 year

Note

so I know after watchmen came out there was then a massive slew of other "deconstructions" or "genre critical" comics or just plain edgy stuff. i know you generally prefer the more optimist played straight stuff, but is there anything of that sort of thing that you really like?

There's a couple of directions you can go with this ask, so I'll give you an answer for each

if you're just looking for my personal favorite meta take on superheroes, you wanna check out flex mentallo

a fictional superhero imagined by a dying kid brought to life, this mini series by Morrison follows Flex's quest to solve the mystery of the death of his fellow fictional superhero The Fact. Morrison is one of the greatest comics writer alive, and this is their definitive statement on the genre, a deep and intimate look at how the platonic superheros of your childhood deal with a world of death, sex, and suicide. Dark, funny, meta, and mercifully short, if you read nothing else I recommend you read this. You'll finish it in an hour and think about it for the rest of your life.

If you want something less so meta and more so just a really well written and gritty 80s comic, check out denny o'neil and deny's cowan's run on The Question

This run follows the physical, psychological, and spiritual journey of journalist and vigilante Vic Sage as he struggles to bring justice to the deeply corrupt Hub City. It features a much more zen and spiritual take on the classic ditko character, and has a lot of great appearances from some underappreciated members of DC's stable. This run in particular is a must read for fans of Watchmen imo. It features the character that inspired Rorsarch, and actually has a few tongue in cheek references to him during the run. More than anything though, you should read it because it understands something most of Watchmen's successors didn't: Watchmen wasn't great because it was dark and gritty, it was great because it was a smartly written story with something interesting to say, and so is this run. If you've got some pocket change to spare, pick up the omnibuses that released last year. They published the absolutely essential letters columns that most digital uploads of the run neglect, wherein denny hosts a mini book club about the literature that inspired the run.

If you want a meta superhero story that's actually about watchmen, check out 2019's Peter Cannon Thunderbolt

Peter Cannon was a Charelston character that never really found a home. A medical man and captain of industry imbued with ancient tribal knowledge that gives him the powers of the supernatural, he served as the inspiration for Ozymandias. This story is explicitly and unsubtly addressing and rebuking Watchmen: the core conceit of the story is the original peter cannon confronting a universe-hopping ozymandias (for legal reasons her another Peter Cannon) constantly re-enacting his final plan from Watchmen on different universes until it works. Though not as much a visual force compared to the others on this list, what it lacks in raw technical skill it more than makes up for in creativity and enthusiasm. In order to rebuke a work you have to understand it, and ironically this explicit refutation of Watchmen still understands and respects it better than most of it's direct heirs by being about something. Though at times a bit too meta for it's own good, if you care about comics this is one you absolutely have to read

If you just want to kick back and watch Alan Moore twist the nipples off the genre in another work, I highly recommend checking out his work on superman

everyone and their mom has read, or at least been recommended, For the Man Who Has Everything and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, but not as many people know about Moore's third (and my personal favorite) outing with the man of steel: DC Comics Presents #85. A short team up (in the loosest sense of the word) between Superman and Swamp Thing, this story more than any other strips away the layers of myth and baggage around superman and exposes the raw psychological core beneath it. Very short, very simple, and probably not as good as his mircaleman run, but i have the benefit of having read this one so I can actually vouch for it's quality.

Finally, as you mentioned earlier, I tend to like reading more straightforward and optimistic stuff, especially when it comes to my capeshit. While some of the stories I've recommended here get quite dark, nothing really reaches the point of being 'edgy.' I haven't read, and thus can't recommend, the primo edgy content such as Preacher or The Authority (though I've heard good things!). But there is one mindlessly dark and edgy comic that I just can't help loving to death: the ever classic Marvel zombies

A beautiful example of a story that is exactly what it says on the tin: The marvel universe overrun by zombies. The only really original part of its take on the zombies is also the thing that makes it so much damn fun: they're all still intelligent, and basically themselves from before they turned, just with an insatiable and uncontrollable hunger for flesh. Gorey art, pitch black humor, and a lot of genuinely interesting and compelling story arcs you really couldn't do anywhere else, there's been about a trillion followups to it but I still love the original the best. It's not smart, it's not meta, it's not even a particularly good zombie apocalypse story, but it's fun, dammit, and that's a fair bit more than what most of the drivel that passes for good literature these days can say. best read when you're 12 years old and up way past your bedtime

#comics #watchmen #alan moore #this was a fun list to put together i should reread some of these #sorry it took me all day to respond rainy

19 notes · View notes