#i love seeing characters who we thought were evil just turn out to be giants nerds

[postureofashrimp]

Nerdification

#it was a real glow up tho #i love seeing characters who we thought were evil just turn out to be giants nerds #it’s amazing #lillith clawthorne #lillith #owl house #toh #toh memes #clawthorne sisters #nerdification #is that the right word #i don’t know #the owl house #owl house memes #shes adorable and i love her

[avillanappears]

godzilla x kong: the new empire

"For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet. What else were we wrong about?"

okay, I kind of fell off doing this, but we’re back! the best ever tumblr review series that’s written by avillanappears.tumblr.com! I came in not expecting much, but it turns out I really, really liked it, actually! I’m more pleasantly surprised than anyone, godzilla vs kong rubbed me very much the wrong way. godzilla and kong beating the ever-loving tar out of each other was fun, sure, but I have WORDS for the human stuff. I could fill a whole post with those, probably, but we’re not talking about that! we’re thinking good thoughts, about the one I liked!

it’s definitely a fun adventure film. hollow earth was a much more fleshed out setting this time, I loved the varieties of locales and creatures. giant, flying flamingo fish that shoot electricity? kong crossing a rickety bridge made out of the spine of a monster so massive, that it’s kaiju sized compared to him? this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see! it was fascinating seeing kaiju sort of “on their level”, in a whole giant sized ecosystem made for them. we got some of that in the atomic time of monsters by @tyrantisterror, and I think it’s such fertile ground to explore. godzilla’s flirted with the idea before in both its netflix animes, but this is them really committing to it. it makes my worldbuilding and specbio freak heart happy. we even got to see more hellhawks! I love those guys.

lookit that face

okay this is going pretty long, but anyhoo, I liked the character stuff too. kong was as lovable as always, you really feel for the big lug. even though he’s a living god the size of a mountain, there’s a real vulnerability to him. he’s just a sad, lonely guy who wants purpose and belonging.

he and suko had some kind of fast, but still very nice bonding. the human side was fun too, they fixed a lot about what I didn’t like from the last movie. jia had more of an arc going instead of just being “the one kong talks to”, bernie was a lot more enjoyable since they cut out the weird conspiracy theorist stuff, trapper was a fun guy. it was nice just seeing someone who loves monsters and weird nature stuff.

skar king surprised me with how personal of a threat he is, they really let him feel like a horrid, nasty piece of work. he’s more than just a big evil overlord, he’s a bullying control freak who wants everything his way, and it makes his wretchedness more tangible in a way.

shimo didn’t get all that much, but I love shimo. I love her, and I can barely even tell why, there’s just some kind of Vibe to her I resonate with. I think it’s how mythical she feels. the oldest of a line of gods, a great being of ice, controlled by a wicked devil….in fact it all felt very mythic. I appreciate that, I love it when kaiju works play out like weird mythological epics.

probably the most tangible complaint I can think of right now is that the godzilla stuff was pretty underwritten. it honestly felt like he was just….doing video game sidequests or something. like, it didn’t have Impact up until the very end when he finally meets kong and SPOILERS SPOILERS. and it feels a shame to kill scylla and tiamat off this early, I liked those two as unpredictable wildcards. with rodan and the others still mia, and two titans unceremoniously dead, it’s starting to feel like the monsterverse is sorta….flattening itself? now that kongs arc is done, I think we need to get back to a godzilla solo or two, flesh things back out a bit. but that’s for future peter to talk about, today we’re leaving things off on a high note. fun characters, dynamic locales, some great monster brawling, this one was a good’un!

godzilla cast monkeys into hell for their sins

#avillananalysis2024 #godzilla #king kong #godzilla x kong: the new empire #kaiju #long post

[entomolog-t]

Ohh we’re being evaluated huh?

My favorite scenarios are ones involving curious giants and tinies that desperately want to run away but can’t

A tiny is trapped and a giant finds them, helping them out of the trap and offering safety, food, even letting them go. The tiny is suspicious— what could this giant possibly want? There’s no way that they’re just being kind for the sake of it, everything they’d ever been told suggested that all giants were evil and they should be dead or in a jar right now. The tentative curiosity and choice to stay of the tiny toasts my eggs and scrambles my bread. The initial terror turned confusion turned curiosity turned delight. Mwah, chef’s kiss.

Also the reverse, where a giant who hates tinies gets stuck with one and slowly comes to realize that they absolutely adore them. I love those equally as much.

Dying to know if this says anything about me, assuming you’re still doing these ^^ /nf

BACK IN OFFICE BABY

This is quite the interesting scenario to discect.

So the main theme of note would be subverted expectations- interestingly, this tends to crop up quite frequently in G/t media.

Typically, this can imply some sort of projection of the self, or some reframing of another.

The main thing I would suggest to consider are the traits associated with the giant, as well as what the tiny/and possibly others think of the giant.

Even if you are more tiny aligned, I would still take the time to consider what traits are shown, and ask yourself if any of those reflect personal feelings.

A regularly occurring theme is to project ones own attributes that we see as misunderstood or overlooked onto the giant. Being shy, or intimidating can lead to us feeling unapproachable, and plant that seed in our subconscious that "If only someone got to know me, they would see that I'm [Defining Trait]"

Though that is certainly not the only route. There is another common trend in G/t, and fantasy as a whole, to reframe negative emotions- even fantasizing a different resolution. Do the "scary" traits of the giant remind you of a time you were wronged by someone? It might be that your brain is trying to reframe it to help with coping. The reframing allows for fantastical leeway to suggest they were not actually wronging you- their intentions were just misunderstood. Those thoughts help the mind to feel more in control because it shifts the blame from someone not liking you or intentionally hurting you to being a misunderstanding- a far more comforting concept that being malicious.

Reframing doesn't have to just occur with the giant archetype either. The tiny holds bias and preconceived notions of how they anticipate someone "dangerous" to act. Does the tiny remind you of anyone? perhaps someone that judged you over something you could not change?

As weird as it may be to say, the brain likes metaphors. There is a great deal of meaning within our subconscious imagery. Peeling back the layers and trying to determine what each character represent is quite the peak into the inner workings of our psyches.

Theres also another very interesting projection that could be occurring on the tiny. Do they share any negative or mistaken traits? Are these traits mirroring traits of your own?

The fact the tiny cannot comprehend why someone would be nice for the sake of being nice to them could be very telling about our own internal self reflection- and its important to analyze what traits of our own we might see of as unworthy of unconditional love/kindness.

I hope this breakdown could offer you some insight into the inner workings of this dynamic trope!

Thank you for attending this session, please see my secretary on the way out to book any follow up appointments.

#g/t #giant/tiny #g/t community #g/t prompts #g/t shitpost #G/t tropes #G/t trope psychology

[lynettethemadscientist]

So. . . what is Fallout 4 about in your opinion?

(Asking this not angrily, but as someone who's genuinely curious about your thoughts on the game. I played it too and I love it. Nick Valentine my beloved!)

Thank you for asking!!

Fallout 4’s story is primarily about two things, both concerning how we cope with Suffering and Despair.

When you begin the game, you and your spouse are finally reunited after a long military deployment and you have a brand new baby (no more than a few months old). You’re on the cusp of a beautiful future together. All your dreams are finally coming true.

And then it’s all taken from you. In the worst possible way. Your spouse is executed in front of you. Your child is taken by people with unknown but undoubtedly horrific intentions. And when you wake up for the second time you have no idea how long he’s been in their possession.

When you find the last remnant of your past life (Codsworth), he informs you that everything you know and love has not just been destroyed, but is long forgotten.

You only have one thing left; one reason to keep going, so you pursue your only lead.

And there you find Preston Garvey. He tells you about people and places that mean nothing to you. And he burdens you with the responsibility of saving these people.

It feels almost cruel. The world has brutally taken everything from you and still it sees fit to task you with saving it.

You only say yes because your moral compass insists. You can’t just leave people to die. Not when you can do something about it.

But if you do ask Preston about his recent tragedy he’ll tell you:

“I had to put on a brave face as long as there were still people counting on me. That's the only reason I kept going.”

You don’t know it yet, but this foreshadows your future in the Commonwealth.

As you search for your son in a poisoned, decaying land full of giant monsters, you quickly realize there are two kinds of people: those who want to kill you, and those begging you to rescue them from certain death. Everywhere you turn there is desperation. And you grow more weary and more worried each time you steer away from your search to save a family pleading for your help.

And then you find Kellogg. However you feel about killing him, the answers you need are locked in his head, so you leap in. As you walk through his memories, to your dismay you find that his family was brutally taken from him in much the same way yours was. And that he chose to become the very same monster that created him.

And here we find the first thesis of the story: suffering is inevitable, and it will change you, but you are the one who decides whether your strife changes you into a better or worse person.

However the Sole Survivor chooses to respond (or not respond) to this is up to your character, but the message is clear.

For the purpose of truly realizing the second thesis, let’s say this moment was a wake-up call for your Sole. You grit your teeth and silently swear an oath to yourself that no matter what happens, you won’t end up like Kellogg. You won’t let your loss turn you into something evil.

But it’s hard to fight the despair creeping into your heart now that you know your son is already 10 years old. He’s been raised by the Institute. An organization that has thus far only seen fit to inflict harm on the Commonwealth for unknown reasons. You try to push the implications of this out of your mind as you now search for access to the organization that has haunted this land for over a century.

The burden of helping settlers only grows heavier as the seemingly insurmountable task of getting into the Institute looms over you.

And when you finally get inside, not even your most harrowing nightmares could have predicted what you find.

Your son is an old man. A callous and calculating old man. He bears features resembling that of you and your spouse, but the more he talks the more he seems like a cruel mockery of your once happy family.

Searching the Institute for answers only plunges the knife deeper. Every terminal, every overheard conversation only confirms the worst; that the squalor and desperation of the Commonwealth, the constant fear and instability, is all the intentional result of the Institute’s machinations. Your own son is the one who has been making life a living hell for all the people you've met and befriended on your way to rescuing him.

Devastating doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The one thing you had left, the one reason you endured for so long has not just been irrevocably taken from you, but has been twisted into something monstrously evil.

When you reach the surface again, you realize you have nothing left. Maybe you consider walking into the water and letting the rads take you. Or maybe putting the barrel of a gun in your mouth.

You wonder why you even survived this long. Why couldn’t you have just died in that cryopod? Or been another casualty of the wasteland? Why are you even still here?

But before you can finish the job you remember why. As much as you might want to, you can’t die yet. There are too many people depending on you now. And you’re the only one who can stop your son.

And here we find the second thesis of the story: having a purpose beyond oneself is the only way to endure impossible levels of suffering. Without a purpose, one succumbs to despair.

What was once a moral obligation has become your only reason to keep going. What was once a burden is now your lifeline.

And with that I think perhaps I should stop haha ^^; I’ve already waxed on for a lot longer than I intended and I feel bad that I made you wait so long for a response. I’ll keep going if anyone wants to hear the rest but I think I’ve about covered the core themes of the story and I fear I’ve already been too tedious about it

#i swear I tried to be as brief as possible #but immersion is essential to understanding the story #Fallout 4 #fo4

[relaxxattack]

hewwo. jake pesterquest route my beloathed. there r a lot of ways that pq depicts certain characters that i dont really think align with canon, but for most of them you could at least tell they were trying to flesh out a less explored aspect of them? nepeta's isolation, eridan's capacity for change, roxy's loneliness, even when they're not perfect they're still neat content to incorporate into headcanons and prompt further consideration into certain facets of the characters. but for jake's they just? hashed out the weird love quadrangle again, even though jake's issue with that was never not knowing what he wanted. he knew he was only interested in romantically pursuing dirk, he says as much multiple times, and instead of him getting a nonjudgmental ear to talk out his insecurities with the narrative almost seems actively frustrated at him. also there are just. so many interesting facets of jake to choose from, and they chose the one that had already been hashed out in canon. he grew up on an island with giant killer monsters on it and he burned his grandma's corpse after she was murdered by an evil alien empress whose nemesis she named him for and whose heir he's best buds with and he has a weird gender and . and. Why Are We Making Him Choose Who He Wants To Date. him meeting jade was nice but it was sort of just that, nice. this. was not intended to be as much of an essay as it turned out to be. i just have a lot of thoughts abt it. here. have a picture of my cats compressed face on a minecraft cat.

YES URGH. this is a good essay man never apologize.

the vriska/dirk tavros/jake comparison was also just. Unfathomably in poor taste to me. like how the fuck do you see those few interesting parallels and then your take is “yeah dirk is just as bad as vriska and is abusive”

#hsmeta

[sillyandquiteawkward]

:333 can I hear the design process that went into Ford? Or Tate?

Or if it was for Fallout OCs, curious on the Kennedy or Bayley “Concept Idea to Current” transition :>>>

<- had too much fun, did everyone mentioned.

oo so when it came to ford and tate, i had a general idea pretty strong from the get go, so there wasnt much exploration, and i wrote general notes i wanted to include in their designs and then kinda just went for it. in my notes and story plotting they were simply referred to as the waiter and the PI.

these are basically the first iterations for them, tho tate took me a while to figure out. tate was also skinnier but then i was like no i need to design with my Heart so i made him more stout instead just a simple tall guy with a dadbod body type. i just always ended up liking how ford turned out so he didnt have many changes (notably it ends up being just his hairstyle).

once i got the gist of the characters down i went back and started looking up clothes and pulling ref images to really hone in on their sense of style and fashion, since that was something for this comic i really wanted to portray. then i went back and drew a bunch of drawings of them in different outfits and tried to figure things out. like tate evolved from trenchcoat and jumpsuits to more simple things like tshirts and jackets.

i made the control meme. and then. i put them on the back burner as i did other things for months. and when the new year hit, i ran to start drawing them again to start the comic on a whim, and did the simple, draw what you remember and see whats the most important character traits. i think i wouldve liked to have more time to really iron more things out before i jumped into the comic but i feared being stuck in planning hell and never being able to Start.

--

kennedy is a fun one bc i designed him to be a matching cowboy oc pair with raynersjournal and an overall group of four. simply the concept idea for kennedy was red badboy cowboy twink. another kind of design i did in one based on vibes and probably google images of cowboys for clothes insp. i am a little foggy on my thought process for designing ken but that was pretty much it. one and done type guy. i think i was feeling particularly inspired by funky eyebrows and giant sharp nose shapes.

i think kennedy has been pretty consistent in characterization, but i think i tend to draw kennedy less boxy now, and ive smoothed him out because ive shaped him more into this devious snake oil kind of guy that looks sweet, instead of this whirlwind fireball. for a second, i stopped drawing kennedy with his square jawline, but ive been trying to make sure i remember to draw it bc i think its a good trait of his that makes for nice contrast in his feminine design.

--

bayley is Also interesting bc he had several pre-designs which is different for me. the concept of bayley being a fucked up scientist to be the antagonist for cc's story was first inspired by one of my goretober prompts, where a unknown scientist was attempting to vivisect hancock. his design was very minimal and more of an after thought.

after that came me trying to come up with a story and a scientist for cc to Have his third arm from. then i tried to doodle some scientist design with that inspiration from mr. goretober and came up with this guy.

but i didnt like him! i didnt think it was the right type of dynamic Look and i wasnt in love with the design so i tried again when i went to actually make ccs into comic. which is where we get this guy who looks More like bayley, but without the sideburns.

his sideburns grow as time goes on, longer and longer, until i start drawing them Bushy and big and the rest is history, i think i was inspired actually by how ray drew them one time and i just took it and ran. another bayley off shoot is evil bayley who channels mr goretober in his rancid vibes, while looking like regular bayley, bc i love au clones.

#THANK YOU FOR ASKING ILUUUU #I WENT HAM. SORRY <3 #silly art tag #just gonna put it in the general tag bc itd be fun to stumble across this later. and its art so who cares i make the rules

[itsdappleagain]

i know csweekly is on hold now, but I still have to catch up on The Luchadora Tango Caper, so here it is!!

Season 3 is maybe my least favorite season out of any of them, but I still love it, so I'm really excited to get into this!

Notes under the cut as always and please ignore the fact that I'm a month late on this thx

NEW CASTLE!!! NEW CASTLE YAYYY

sometimes I think this whole series is Maelstrom just talking about shit for like 14 hours

cleo sympathizing with guys in skirts <3 she knows ur struggle boys

love how they slapped up a giant glowing green world map and copper sulfate burning chandeliers before they put in insulation or heat

brunt, girl, calm down. they were just doing their evil minion bagpipe job

british on british violence

that was such a cute nod when this season first dropped. haha theres been no sign of her all summer because of the hiatus you are so clever

they rlly thought they had something with the turn them against each other thing. i cant believe they thought they tvy7 rating would let shadowsan and carmen kill each other 🙄

"carmen is DEAD" (cheery tango music)

i mean it works because we know hes wrong and stupid but like

no offense but the tango dancers are animated in a way that is reminiscent of a kid manually moving their barbie dolls legs to make them walk

our girl <3

tell me why dropping 200 feet onto the top of the metal detector was more sneaky than literally anything else she could have done

ok. yes. but the fact she is robbing it does not negate the fact that she will be on the news for breaking into a bank dsjfsdghfkdsa

1021 is the number on the box- could it mean something? in a strictly doylist sense. october 21st doesn't seem to have any significant holidays...I can't find anything, might just be a random number set.

good god the "i...have his eyes." hits me like a truck every time

gina pulled it out with the voice acting in this one

she WAS a very cute baby

"another" link girl what else has there been you should be ecstatic

ayyy its the character literally everyone except spintrap-stan and amaryllis solely remember for being voiced by dante basco

i love how snarky carmen immediately gets. if he knows her name and what she looks like, obviously he's an operative, so she gets to have a little fun in immediately declining him while still gaining valuable information, almost immediately, about who he is and what his talent will be

everyone is very stretched today

this is not my favorite fight scene honestly (at least until flytrap gets here. dont even get me started on her fighting style im in love with it) because its literally just like ooh. he kicks. she dodges. wow. they really do try with the tango parallels but idk

wow!! other people can kick too??? who knew

she protected the face

cutely runs into oncoming traffic

those cars were not even slowing down girl they were just like HONK MOVE OR DIE

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS FLYTRAP MY GIRL

okay mini rant incoming i already did a post on this like a billion years ago but flytrap is one of my favorites because in my opinion she and paper star are the most dangerous villains we ever see in the show. let me. try to find that post actually

yeah here it is

flytrap is also so hot and has the same va as luz so she's just top tier. idk if the team put half the episode budget into celebrity voice actors and thats why we only got 5 episodes but you know what

love how carmen is literally stopping her attempts to get free to banter. girl. stop

shadowsan <3

love how they do not even bother showing the fight they just get their asses handed to them

why didnt they start in veracruz just asking

not the table

ok guys. you can stop with the tango thing now. its okay

that little conversation between ivy and shadowsan is so good

comrades??? sir its not the cold war

article from 17 years ago, thank you for that easy to understand slang

carmen plot armored her way out of getting her skull smashed in on that train so hard that she made maelstrom stupid

its canon both in and outside of the show that color theory is so prevalent that any sort of red at all immediately signals carmen

the colors are so beautiful in this scene. carmen doesnt have her coat or jacket on, everythings just a little desaturated as she searches

THE ACME GANG <3333

not the finger guns and glasses wheeze hes such a loser i love him

THE FORESHADOWING TO EGYPT WITH THE PYRAMIDS ON HER LAPTOP!!!!

love how all we get of julia this season is her being pissed off and then leaving

he was such an asshole for closing her laptop why did he do that 😭

has carmen just been ignoring vile missions for the last season of the year to research her mom or

girlie is so sad about everything

ah yes, the door, the thing you wish to have opened, the best place to lean your full body against after you knock,

i'M SOrry. did you NOT attend a school for THIEVES

HSDGGDG HEY. just broke into your house. im your long lost daughter

i love how she goes DONT TOUCH ANYTHING and then immediately drags her whole arm across the wall and cabinet

also her face when she sees the masks is perfect

okay be honest how many of you have replayed carmen saying maybe mommy at least once. who. raise your hands

shes sooo buff

love how everyone is taking this so seriously and then carmen is just completely apathetic about anything thats going on

dont deadname lupe, carmen

her hair catching a gust of indoor wind for the sole purpose of making her look sick as hell in her intro card is so iconic

as ivy absolutely obliterating zack in the foreground is so fucking funny

she got that "EH EH EH." titter of "HEY NO. DONT YOU DO THAT" down scary well

devineaux strutting im sobbing. julia was doing SO well and then she got paired with devineaux AGAIN

that cab driver looks so concerned about the hulking texan in his backseat

remember when the trailer dropped and we thought those roses were for julia. good times

everyone narrowly avoiding each other as they pull in

you just know ivy smacked zack when he protested to decoy time hdsafhadsg

gotta say the "EH?" while getsuring to the trophies is fucking hilarious. obviously julia knows she wouldnt go after those but its so funny

i do love the way carmen just shrinks any time brunt appears. she is soooo traumatized

VAMOOSE EL MASKO SHES SO ACCURATREIUSDHKFSKHFD SHES EXACTLY WHAT MIDDLE AGED AMERICAN SOUTHERNERS SOUND LIKE

LUPE IS SO FUCKING COOL

devineaux showcasing his braincells for a spilt second this episode

ah, so begins the not a good time mantra

devineaux getting absolutely decimated because he thinks coach brunt thinks hes handsome is so funny

the referee watching two apparent civilians enter the ring: 🙂

carmen is so funny here. she uncuffs herself and then just leaves devineaux to die like fuck his ass he can get smooshed

carmen getting increasingly mad at devineaux while she drags him places is my favorite part of the episode

also, either carmen got stronger or devineaux had a few bouts of crazed research where he didnt eat, but she can drag him easily now as opposed to when she was struggling back at the trap in poitiers

they put this shot in the trailer and without context it just looked like carmen was standing there glaring at brunt menacingly

the cat burglar <3

worst fucking ref on the planet i love him

was carmen stopping to listen to julia's voice i would like to think so

ah the devineaux and cars gag. i mean, to be fair, it wasnt his fault this time

starts beatboxing

carmen really just dumped her whole life story on lupe thats so funny. girlie started the day preparing for a match, got her house broken into, and then ended the day learning about a global crime syndicate

they really ended s2 going THE NEXT SEASON WILL FOCUS ON CARMENS MOM and then started s3 going well actually um okay so

theres our transition sentence

lupe's yellow and blue palette btw!! cs color theory i love you

lupe is more of a mom than carlotta ever gets to be thats sad honestly

carmens little smile ough

here is a shot that very succinctly illustrates the dynamics in the coming seasons. the three at the table stand strong- always have. roundy is basically a footnote no one cares about him and then brunt...brunt is sort of on the edge. this carries over all the way into s4 when malestrom tries to drown her

oh my god i forgot about the weird halloween thing the faculty has going on this season i love it

my analysis is right in time for spooky season >:) halloween IS nearly upon us!!!

OKAY well my thoughts on the luchadora tango caper...pretty good. honestly its kind of net zero information because we introduce the premise of finding carmens mom and then immediately abandon it but it sets up um....well....it sets up....what does it set up

anyway- not my favorite episode, even though lupe is fucking awesome. i think it suffers a little from deviating from that classic caper structure and jumping around, but it does its job as an introductory episode.

until we return, sayonara, mon amigos!

#csweekly #carmen sandiego weekly #cs weekly #carmen sandiego

[whenimgoodandready]

*Goosebumps (2023) Season 2 Theories

I read that the producers were really interested in expanding the new Goosebumps series’s by adding in the other books, most definitely Night of the Living Dummy ones, and that’s awesome! I mean, think about it, Kanduu said he can unleash more monsters, weeeeeeell what if he meant the monsters from the other books! 🤩It’s the perfect seasonal plot for Season 2! He could unleash all the other monsters and we’d get them all for Season 2! Picture this:

Calling All Creeps!-This can be about Kanduu summoning all the monsters to awaken and them slowly coming alive.

The Girl Who Cried Monster-I wanted Margot to be the one to tell the others about the monsters coming back, but then I thought, maybe Allison should! We barely knew anything about her other than being Isaiah’s jealous girlfriend, so maybe this’ll give her some characterization and become a member of the group finally when she sees there’s more to life than just the social status of high school.

Monster Blood-One fan suggested this when they said that the dupes blood can be the monster blood, but what if it’s the blood of the monster the teens defeat and when they think they won, the blood slowly moves to its next host to possess!?

The Beast from the East-Those creatures (not all the monsters are caused by the monster blood mind you, some are original monsters from the temple that were unleashed) can play that overly complicated game of tag with the teens. Also, for those who read the books, if one of the “dupes” survived, the beasts will let them go as they’re “Level 3” players😉

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp-The monster blood gets on a lone wolf dwelling in a swamp and infects it turning them into a werewolf.

The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight-The monster blood gets ahold of a simple scarecrow that attacks people at midnight.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb-The monster blood gets onto to a mummy at an Egyptian exhibit in a museum that awakens it from its sleep.

Phantom of the Auditorium-The monster blood infecting an actor in the schools/town theatre’s play of “The Phantom of the Opera” and kidnapping people to be the only star.

Attack of the Mutant-The monster blood infecting a cosplayer at a comic con into the character from the graphic novel, but they’re evil and delusional to think everyone at the convention is the real deal.

The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena-The monster blood infecting a yeti statue outside of an ice cream parlor in Pasadena the teens were at for a traveling thing.

Vampire Breath-Not an actual vampire in the show per se, but what if a student accidentally created this kind of potion and it’s fumes turned people into blood sucking monsters!?

The Blob That Ate Everyone-The monster blood forming together to create a giant blob that consumes everything.

How to Kill a Monster-After finding out how all these monsters keep showing up, Margot will try to figure out a way to stop it from the spell book she now has. She’ll also use it throughout the season as a guide to look up the monsters and find other spells to repel them.

——————————————-

For the Night of the Living Dummy, these will go deeper into the Kanduu storyline when he now possess Mr.Bratt.

Night of the Living Dummy lll-This’ll pick up right where we left off with Mr.Bratt discovering Kanduu isn’t dead and getting possessed again. Poor guy can’t catch a break!

Slappy's Nightmare-This’ll deal with Kanduu before the war and how his life was growing up in the 19th century and he probably didn’t have a good life judging by that era (dirt poor? abusive parents, no friends, etc.) which got worse by the war.

Bride of the Living Dummy-This one I’m excited about cuz what if Kanduu had a love interest that they forgot about due to obtaining all that power, but then something triggered that memory. Maybe he sees all these happy couples (ex.Margot and Isaiah) and remembers his sweetheart, Mary Ellen! Maybe he’ll try to bring her back by using a doll he bought from a garage sale and going to her grave to say a spell to bring her back!? Or a teacher from the school falls for Mr.Bratt and Kanduu (still possessing him) will use her as the vessel to bring Mary Ellen back!

#goosebumps #goosebumps 2023 #goosebumps 2023 season 2

[dynamite-derek]

Mortal Kombat 1's story is embarrassing

NOTE: I will be spoiling the Mortal Kombat 1 story mode, I'm not giving warnings after this. If you want to see it for yourself, please do so before reading this.

Mortal Kombat 9 is one of my favorite stories in a video game. It takes the outline of the first three Mortal Kombat games and turns it into a cinematic story. It's easy to follow, pretty wild and best of all it does not take things safely. MK9 ends with almost every single main cast member dead. When I put down the controller at the end of the story mode, I legitimately thought 'I have no idea how they are going to make a sequel to this.'

It's a story mode that was so impressive that it made me stick around with the franchise despite my misgivings about it. I don't think it plays well and I think the monetization schemes around it are putrid, but I like seeing the stories they have to tell. I felt what Netherrealm Studios did for fighting games was something other studios should copy. I'm a Street Fighter fanboy and I wanted THAT franchise to take from MK. It would take a while but they'd get there eventually.

Unfortunately, those days are long over. Mortal Kombat 1 plays it safe. The end of the most recent game, Mortal Kombat 11, involves Liu Kang restarting history and making it in his own image. He purposefully kneecaps daunting figures from his own history in order to make things slightly better this time around. Shang Tsung is a snake oil salesman, Shao Khan is a loyal guard to empress Sindell, Quan Chi is...I don't know what he was doing but he was not the wacky guy we knew and loved.

Someone doesn't like this though! There is a mysterious figure that is convincing these evil characters to embrace their potential and sew chaos on Liu Kang's world. This could be interesting because, well, how could someone be aware of a history that has been erased? How do they know the significance of these figures? For all they know, Quan Chi is just some bald fella who hangs out at the Hot Topic.

It's revealed that this figure is a version of Shang Tsung from Liu Kang's universe. In the Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath DLC, Shang Tsung and Liu Kang fight for the ability to control the universe and rewrite history. The player can select either Shang Tsung or Liu Kang to get the ending of their choice. So the person fucking up Liu Kang's new world is from a different timeline. This makes sense, but I do not enjoy stuff like this because I think it shows cowardice. The writers did not want to choose a definitive ending for the first game. Nier this is not.

Before this point, MK1 told a pretty straight forward story. You had a group of characters you got to know with discernable personalities and motivations. Things are different from the world you knew from Mortal Kombat 9, but it's a different universe. That makes sense. When the reveal is made, all pretenses of having a focused story fly out the window. Mortal Kombat changes into a multiverse superhero movie and does not look back.

From the reveal of Titan (the other timeline's) Shang Tsung, everything ceases to matter. None of the characters you have been around for the past few hours are important anymore. It's Fire God Liu Kang and a multiverse of different versions of characters you like. You see, Liu Kang has the idea that there are actually multiple different timelines instead of just the two. So now you get to hang around a bunch of characters from a bunch of different timelines where someone other than Liu Kang or Shang Tsung took control of things. There wasn't this kind of choice in the MK11 DLC. It was one or the other. So instead of making this a "well actually both endings were the real endings" scenario it becomes a "well actually there are infinite possibilities and anything could happen so maybe Sektor or some shit is a time god now who knows?" scenario.

So the game ends with a giant battle royale between warring timelines. Liu Kang with a bunch of people he recruited and Shang Tsung and a bunch of people HE recruited. You get to see a lot of blood and guts here with various alternative versions of familiar characters to see. My favorite is Quantum Chi, what a stupid name. The problem is: these are all meaningless. People die by the dozens, characters you are familiar with, but it doesn't mean anything. They are alternate dimension versions of the characters you know. The ones you spent time with are fine. So why should I care if universe 9172 Mileena Khan gets her head bitten off by universe 8162 Tarkan Kabal? I don't know her.

This all made me think of Across the Spiderverse. That movie took a little time to develop the alternate versions of Spider-Man. I'm not saying they were all fully fleshed out characters, but if Penny Parker were to get killed by Mysterio or something, the viewer would probably care. This game throws all this multiverse stuff at you at the very end. I think there was maybe an hour of gameplay after the big Shang Tsung reveal. There's no time to care about anything. If the plan was a multiverse, why didn't you try to establish it a little sooner? That way I could form an opinion about evil Sonya Blade (cameo only, please buy the DLC). I'm not even picky, just give me a couple lines.

When Mortal Kombat 9 did all of its killing, it took characters you knew for the whole game and just slaughtered them mercilessly. It's not the kind of game where you're going to shed a tear when someone dies, but you do feel *something* when you have to fight all the zombie versions of your characters in that game. Like, you went through a lot of stuff with those guys! In this, all the killing and violence meant nothing. It was just for show. People died but it doesn't matter. They weren't the 'real' versions of those characters. In the next game, we will resume from Liu Kang's universe which is mostly in the same state as we started it in. The only character who dies is Sindel. They actually bring back Kitana's dad from the dead, so our death count goes down by 1. We broke even!

They went the fanservice/multiverse route because it's a popular thing to do. Those kinds of stories are in. But this was just violence for the sake of violence. There was no story to tell, just meaningless bodies to skewer. No real consequences. A decade ago I put down the controller for a game I didn't even think I'd like and said 'What in the world are they going to do for a sequel? I can't wait!' Today I put down my controller and just don't care.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat 1 #Video games #vidya #I seriously haven't posted here in years #opinion

[abittersweetraisin]

I’ve finished Dragonwatch!

This post is about my thoughts on the final book of the series so if you haven’t finished it, then do not keep reading.

First of all I’ve got to say how glad I am that Seth neither died nor became an undeath. I had thought he was gone for good. Another thing that I had feared is that someone was gonna use the Unforgiving Blade to chop off at least one of his wings. I’m so happy that he got to keep them! 😁

Personally I prefer a story that surprises me, where I don’t know where the author is taking us, where I think the story will go in one direction but then it takes a different one.

There was a moment when I thought they were going to use the Wizenstone to create a pocket dimension for dragons to live in. A place where they would be free without the risk of them wanting to attack the rest of the world. 

I like the canon solution better because a pocket dimension could had ended up seen as just a bigger sanctuary. A bigger prison in the eyes of the dragons.

About Ronodin. The way they defeated him made sense, but it felt a bit too quick for me. Then again, the series was about dragons so it follows Mr. Mull didn’t want to spend more time on the dark unicorn. 

A part of me would had wanted redemption for Ronodin. When Lizelle told Kendra about Ronodin’s story, it seems as if in the beginning his only sin was being different, thinking different. And that itself isn’t bad. The bad came when he started making evil decisions. As he said back in book… 2?  He liked seeing light being turned to darkness. I guess that alone makes it hard for him to be worthy of redemption. *sigh*

Still, I do have a weakness for characters that behave all evil but in reality have good deep inside of them. And I love reading/seeing that kind of characters going good. Healing that part of them that made them bad. And… maybe this is a bit weird in me, but I love them more if they become good but retain a bit of “evil” attitude. Sortof like Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent. 

Knox. Oh, Knox. 🙈 I really deeply disliked this character. I think he has some little bits in common with Seth here and there. Like for example, back in Fablehaven, Seth too had a period where he wanted gold. But Seth grew out of that and matured. But Knox… He hurt Newel but it was like he got no remorse about it at all. Till the end he still wanted to get a sword. Ok, his personality was being worsened by the Giant Queen’s crown when he hurt Newel, but after he took the crown off he should had understood that swords are not toys. I know there’s people in real life who are like that, who never learn, but that fact hasn’t helped me in disliking him less. 

And his bragging, “The Underking asked for my opinion back when I was Giant King”. 🙈🙈🙈 Please, somebody do something. Go get Mortimer Folchart and throw… I don’t know. Medusa in Knox’s way. 

Oh, and his rubbing on Seth’s face that it was Seth’s fault the fall of Wyrmroost and the start of the dragon war. Come on, that was very not nice and very unfair. Seth didn’t have his memories, Ronodin convinced him that he was doing something good. If he hadn’t gotten kidnapped the fall of Wyrmroost would had been different. And whose fault was it that Ronodin got the barrel which enabled Seth’s kidnapping?? How easily Knox forgot that. 

By the way, I had really believed that the Somber Knight was going to actually be Konrad,… I didn’t read Fablehaven again when I started Dragonwatch, so, maybe there was something written there that could had helped me throw away that theory, but,…. well, it was nice to play detective. 😅

To finish this… I don’t know you, but the ending left me wanting to read more about this world. Not another war. I’d like something different. Like maybe Kendra, Bracken and Seth dealing with the difficulties of their daily lives mixed with their new powers. Kendra got some incredible powers that I wish we had gotten the chance to see! I don’t know, maybe reading them doing good around them while hiding their powers/secrets from their friends. 

I can see Seth rapidly sneaking back into an empty classroom. Hiding his wings just in time before his friends enter the room and saw them. 

- “Wha- Seth, where did you come from?!”   -  “What do you mean? I’ve been here all along?” 

And before anyone has a chance to say anything else a white feather slowly floats its way down in front of Seth. All eyes tracking the descend till it reaches the floor. Their eyes jumping back to Seth who just smiles awkwardly. 

#dragonwatch #brandon mull #fablehaven #kendra sorenson #seth sorenson #bracken #bracken the hornless unicorn #ronodin the dark unicorn #reading #book

[computerything]

Opinions on The Adventure Zone [comic vers.]

I decided to, a while back, read up to book 3 of the comic version of TAZ along with skimming book 4 enough to get a good idea of it. And I've certainly got a few thoughts here in this noodle of mine.

Disclaimer: I have not listened to the original podcast the comic is based on. I've only read the books. So keep that in mind.

Also, spoiler warning.

Individual reviews:

Book 1: I rather enjoyed it! It was some silly guys going on silly adventures with a nice helping of drama and mystique, mainly from the flame glove thing and all the weird static talk. The characters were likeable in a doofus-y way, and I liked the implication that there was advanced tech in this universe in addition to magic. That's something I wished was in more fantasy.

I really liked Magic Bryan's over-the-top theatrics. I do find it odd that a supposedly high-level wizard lost to a bunch of random adventures, but okay, it's DnD. That stuff happens for the plot.

The magic fire glove was badass, and I like the concept of the guy using it being consumed by his own rage and going ham. Rather fitting.

Art wise, the style was very nice. I like the semi-sketchiness of it, it fits the narrative!

Book 2: I didn't like this one quite as much as book 1. We meet the Bureau of Balance, who immediately act suspicious. For heaven's sake, they have a damn otherworldly abomination that sucks the knowledge out of people's brains on a universal scale! Yet it's played off as "perfectly fine" and "nothing to worry about." Huh? Wha? It's... it's a giant brainwashing jellyfish thing... and that's not spooky? WHAT? And don't worry, I have more to say about these bureaucratic buffoons.

Garfield was great though. Very cool guy.

Anyway, the idea of a murder mystery on a train is absolutely awesome. Murder on the Oriental Express, anyone? But everyone clowning on the murderer [Jeeves, this butler-looking guy] made him feel like less than an actual threat, and his rather anticlimactic disposal felt contrived and forced.

I rather liked the concept of the Oculus, the idea of making an army out of illusions is kind of neat. A shame that not only was it never really used, the damn bureau destroys it.

This was when I began to realize that I hated the BoB. Rather than research the artifacts and try to find a way to safely use them, they just destroy them. Sure, they're dangerous, but perhaps there's a way to filter their power so that it is no longer corruptive? But no. Artifact bad, must destroy. Knowledge bad, must feed to big fish. Urgh.

Book 3: Kind of not super memorable to me. Uh... The car designs were pretty neat. I like the idea of underground racing, it's an old trope but it's a good one. The artifact was cool, though I wish it was more racing-based. Or the race was more plant-based, like in a giant tree or something. That would have rocked.

Overall, I really liked Hurley and Sloane's dynamic. They had nice chemistry and I actually felt for them! In fact, Sloane was definitely the star of this one. I always love a badass thief with a cool outfit, lol.

The one thing I didn't like was that it felt like Sloane being turned evil was just shoved in by the DM to go, "See? See? The BoB is good because the artifacts made this lady go all evil and kill her girlfriend! And she felt so much guilt she sacrificed herself too! The artifacts are totally evil guys! More evil than the BoB!"

And the random council guy turning all evil was kind of pointless. I felt nothing when he died.

Book 4: Oh boy do I have some words about this one.

Positive first... positive first...

Uh, the setting was nice. I like science facilities. The imminent demise of the world was a pretty good motivator, too.

The main guy trying to bring people back from the dead [cough cough his mom] in robot bodies was a little cliché but still a neat concept.

The art was pretty much at its peak here, I think. I love the robot designs!! I love guys with screens for faces so much. Especially Hodgepodge, he was such a silly smug bastard.

Hodgepodge...

Dear, sweet hodgepodge... he didn't deserve to perish. Him dying because of the jellyfish's meddling took my hatred for the BoB from mild annoyance to PURE UNBRIDLED LOATHING. Actually, this whole book kind of did, really.

As I implied before, TAZ has this weird underlying plot thread of "knowledge is evil" that has always bothered me, and it's on full display here, and even extends a bit into "scientists are evil" territory.

For starters, apparently none of the science guys' ideas are theirs, they're just stolen from other dimensions. Which is stupid as hell. If this is supposed to be "no idea is original" again, it does a poor job.

For another, the science guy's mom goes crazy from, you guessed it, knowledge, and would rather die than have said knowledge. Which really pissed me off because I'm the kind of freak who would read all the forbidden texts which drive people mad.

And for yet another, the BoB is portrayed as heroic all over again. The comic literally ends with them all agreeing to trust the director of the BoB and called stupid for having any doubts about the organization. So remember: don't think, don't seek to learn things, just blindly follow your superiors!

Overall:

TAZ has wonderful art and pretty neat characters, settings, and scenarios, but is deeply undermined by it's uncanny promotion of blind trust, discouragement of thinking, and hatred of knowledge. It's weird and creepy.

Also, I will not forgive them for killing hodgepodge. Look at this smug little feller:

Poor guy. Rest in pieces.

#taz #taz balance #taz comic #review #ramblings #sorry for how poorly structured this is I'm not a great reviwer

[xan-from-space]

Hey episode 5 of Ahsoka is actually, like...really good (yes I'm making my way through those show so so slowly). Like up to this point the show has been fine but this episode I actually loved. [Warning for giant nonsense ramble of my Ahsoka feelings under the cut]

I think I still need time to process what it means for my girl's wider character arc but I do think it's going in a direction I like. Ariana Greenblatt did a great job as young Ahsoka, and even though Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Ahsoka is not always my favourite I actually thought it was pretty good in this episode.

We finally see Ahsoka grapple with the trauma of being a child soldier and watching all these clones die (and I've always headcanoned Ahsoka as being much closer to the clones than other jedi, both because Anakin was as well, and because she was a 14 year old with almost no other friends). I like how how it mentioned Ahsoka not wanting to fight a war anymore (and she's felt that way for a while now; she chose to be an informant rather than a warrior in the rebellion, and yet she keeps getting pulled back into fighting) I also got some mortis arc feelings with Ahsoka's 'death' and the visions, in sort of a bookend way where this time we're looking at the same events in a retrospective sense. There were some interesting insights into Anakins character, and I think it sort of helped reconcile some of the more jarring differences between his character in the movies and in the clone wars, and showed him to be a flawed and complex character. I think it's really interesting how reframed through Ahsoka's adult eyes Clone Wars Anakin comes across to us much differently. It's always fascinating to me how clone wars era Anakin cared about people so much but also so little, and how him teaching Ahsoka that emotions weren't evil helped her a lot but at the same time his emotions certainly did lead him to become evil. (I've always thought of the difference between Anakin and Ahsoka as Anakin being passionate vs Ahsoka being compassionate; thanks to Anakin, Ahsoka has a much more healthy relationship to her emotions than a lot of other jedi did, but she was always much more open to other viewpoints than Anakin was. Anyway. I didn't want this to turn into a full on character study but too late.)

Occasionally I'll see a criticism of Ahsoka that goes like "Ahsoka is just Dave Filoni's special little oc who has to be the most important, enlightened character who's the most connected to the light side of the force", which like, I get it, but I really don't think Ahsoka being Important To The Narrative of Star Wars as a whole is a bad thing. I do see her as being more connected to the light side than most of the other force users in the series (personally I really enjoy all the light side/daughter symbolism around Ahsoka, and her place as something other than a jedi). She IS a special and important character, and her story has been leading up to this for a long time. (Not to bring it back to Anakin all the time but he was even more of a special boy prophecy important character (he was more of a prodigy than Ahsoka was), and I think it works for their stories) (in a way I think Anakin was born into a big destiny whereas Ahsoka grew into one due to both choices she made and circumstances outside of her control) (I just think comparing and contrasting the two of them is really interesting)

Anyway this is to say that after being pulled out of the water Ahsoka did a bunch of crazy light wizard shit and I enjoyed every bit of it. She honestly felt more like her old self at the end of this episode than she has any other time we've seen her in live action, so I'm really happy for her. My girl is healing.

If you read that whole thing (thanks for listening to me lol) take it with a grain of salt because like I said I'm still behind on this show 😅. I just like writing about Ahsoka.

#I was not expecting to actually like this show but I'm happy to be proven wrong #I think because I disliked ahsokas portrayal in the mandalorian #I thought it would be the same in this show #ahsoka show #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #up to episode 5 at least #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #star wars #star wars the clone wars #long post

[kyogre-blue]

Finally did the stupidly-named first quest of inazuma ch3 and some more (until right before the special shogun training) and I see the resistance still has no clue what the fuck they're doing, cool cool. Are you seriously telling me that NOBODY realised that using whatever kind of fucked up elemental energy Delusions use wasn't normal (like. elemental energy shit ain't subtle) until people started dying bc of it? And when exactly did we learn Delusions drained the bearer's life force?? Viktor didn't know shit about how they actually work. I'm so confused... (plus, yknow, Signora had a delusion for like 500 years and it did the opposite and kept her alive, but I guess she's a special snowflake. And it doesn't seem to track like how Diluc's dad died)

I wouldn't even know Teppei had died if it hadn't been for the mission description like. You can go to the back to talk to Teppei after the Dramatic Death Scene and he's still alive there even if his breathing is getting weaker?? Aren't we still in time to save him? Hello??

love how the domain letters were like 'we need to make sure nobody knows NATHAN is the spy, sure would suck if NATHAN's cover was blown bc NATHAN's role is crucial' did kokomi really have no clue about all this stuff? The GIANT RADIOACTIVE ZONE between your island and the rest of inazuma is pretty hard to miss, did she seriously not put any thought on how it got that way? How the hell did they get to the beach without trawling through that?

On the plus side finally met the scarameowmeow and I want to study him under a microscope he's so fascinatingly fucked up. humans always die so it's all the same if they do it sooner rather than later? (hello three betrayals trauma) seems to really believe killing yourself for power is worth it? just. Wow. Also he really sounded like some kinda sith lord for a hot sec there lol, more like he was trying to turn us than kill us. scara vc: EMBRACE THE ANGER!! EMBRACE IT!!!

As a result I'm kinda dubious of Yae Miko's claims of saving us bc sure, Scara was kinda laughing at us as we blacked out, but he really didn't seem interested on fighting us at all, given that the first thing he told us was that he wasn't in charge and to get going to find who was. Kinda thought he'd leave us there passed out and dip, plus given that Traveler's resistant to dead god taint (re:xiao's karma) + has purification abilities + it's hard to be angry when passed out = I'm sure we'd have been fine. Maybe I'm just looking for in-canon reasons for the main character shield though

But glad to know SOMEONE (even if it's Yae) sees how the inazuman people SHOULD be gunning for the shogun's head even though nobody does against all common sense (seriously, if that's not the goal of the resistance then Why The Fuck Are They Fighting. Fighting should be a means to an end, not the goal itself!)

I've stalled out on starting Inazuma act 2 on my alt because I don't want to deal with all that drama. Inazuma is so unappealing, especially as it keeps going... hot take, but Genshin is vastly improved by just not engaging with the story at all.

A lot of the information Genshin presents is misleading or just straight up wrong, so it's probably better not to think about it too hard. (Example A: Archons don't give out visions regardless of what characters keepsaying).

I'm amazed you got all that out of Scaramouche. Doesn't he say like 3 lines total to you there? I only recall that he sounded like a bland evil type and that was my first time ever seeing him, so I wasn't particularly impressed.

As for the resistance, Genshin's writing has a very strong pro-authority undercurrent. The authority of the archons and the divine is absolute and correct. We can only go against human usurpers who are misleading or misusing divine authority that doesn't belong to them. Since Raiden is the rightful god of Inazuma, naturally she can't be rejected or opposed, only lightly persuaded so she can find her way back to the right path or whatever.

The ultimate outcome for Watatsumi is that Kokomi advances the idea that people need to get over the Orobashi being killed (and used as material and tool to forge weapons??) and makes a backroom deal with Yae to have the government provide aide to them. And that's basically the outcome for the desert people as well. So yeah.

#playing genshin

[alphavanilla]

My Experience DMing for a class of kids!

This will be a bit of a long post, talking about my recent volunteer job as a DM for a D&D club, so I'll pop it under a read more break! For those interested in how this anxious artist managed to pull off running a D&D campaign for a class of kids for 2 months, read on!

So - let's start at the beginning. I was asked if I wanted to take over as DM for a D&D club that ran for 6 weeks over the final term of school. The current guy they had was leaving, and apparently the kids really wanted to keep playing. I, being absolutely thrilled that a school was taking an interest in D&D, gladly accepted, and begun my planning for what would be a challenging yet very fulfilling little project!

I had a chat with a couple of the students who were part of the club, and asked how their last campaign went. They said it was very slow, and they had to share characters, so I came up with the idea of splitting the class into 3 groups, and letting 2 student volunteers take the role of DM for two of these smaller groups. For this, I designed a small 5-room dungeon, and wrote a step-by-step guide on how to run it - similar to how a premade campaign book would, but in even simpler terms. I also simplified the game; a lot. I only got an hour a week with the kids, so I had to make it easy to digest and quick to learn.

I ditched the Wisdom and Charisma stats, ditched all of the ability/skills as well as saving throws - on the sheets I designed for them, I left Strength, Dex, Con, Intelligence, AC and Initiative, and I created 4 premade class sheets with the stats already rolled and filled in. They could be a Wizard, a Rogue, a Paladin or a Ranger. There was also a little box for them where they could draw their own character's portrait in, as I know kids love to be creative. The class sheets had 2 actions/attacks they could make (based on their class), or they could use a turn to drink a potion (for which I gave unlimited uses). For the dungeon I also created premade enemy sheets, with my two types of enemies being Mimics and Goblins. These would be part of the 'DM pack' that would help the volunteer DMs run the game. The map had a version that the players would see and move their tokens around on, and one was a DM map that had all the objects and enemies and traps labelled, that had corresponding letters to the DM guide I wrote.

This.. went about as disastrous as you could imagine. My own little group went amazingly; as I'm an experienced player, I was able to oversee and guide the players through the traps and puzzles I'd made, and we had a blast. I did spend the first half hour of the lesson trying to explain how to DM to my volunteers, but, as young'uns go, they were incredibly distracted and found it hard to pay attention. In the end, I just handed them the material and hoped for the best. They seemed to have fun, but they *Definitely* weren't playing by the rules, or even using the material.

So, I went home, and I scrapped nearly everything. I kept their player sheets as I thought the simplified sheets were working well, but I ditched a lot of rules, and decided to merge the group back into one big party, and oversee DMing myself, with a brand new dungeon, and without a map.

I started them off at the door of a giant, creepy gothic castle, and hinted that an evil vampire lord lived there. The kids loved being told about what monsters they might face, and we had a lot of banter (things got very noisy a lot of the time, so I did have to urge them all to quieten down and listen a lot. A bottle of water is recommended as I had to raise my voice above the chatter to get their attention quite often). I prepared several riddles, and found out I had underestimated my class as they immediately knew the answer to all of them, absolutely blasting through the front door. Here, I had prepared two monsters for them to face; a gargoyle and a giant bat. Now here, combat went slow. I had 12 kids that each needed to decide on what they were going to do and roll several dice that they were still struggling to tell the difference between, and by the end of the turn order, the kids were getting distracted and antsy again. I initially had stats, attacks and all the other components to an enemy block written down, but I soon realised it would be far better to just improvise the numbers on the spot, and let them defeat them when I thought they'd had enough rather than use actual numbers. If a kid asked me about the numbers, I'd just tap my nose and say that was for me to know, which kept them from discovering the secret that I was completely winging everything! If I noticed energy levels dropping and kids getting distracted, I'd let the next student who landed a hit get the killing strike and move on.

What I learned from this was that the kids loved rolling dice, and loved being asked and prompted about puzzles, but found it really hard to pay attention during my dramatic descriptions of the rooms they were in, and they'd often not bother looking around or investigating rooms for puzzle components - by session 3 or 4 I realised I should just ask one of them to roll an investigation check as soon as they entered a new room (just using their intelligence mod) and if they rolled higher than a 10 I'd point out whatever it was they needed to interact with. If they failed, I'd ask someone else to roll until we got a hit, and then I'd praise how the successful party member had helped them so they'd all cheer for them. The kids definitely needed a lot of prompting during exploration, so I would ask questions like 'So who wants to....' and then I'd be greeted with a flurry of hands stuck in the air, desperate to take part, rather than what I would otherwise have had - a distracted group of children who didn't really know what they were meant to be doing. Once they were sent on the right track however, enthusiasm soared, and I'd be swarmed by excited adventurers eager to suggest what they wanted to do.

I found asking them to recap what happened in the last session to be a good way to start each session, as it refreshed their memory and got them back into the mindset I wanted - eager to solve my next puzzles and finish off the one we left off. It also gave me a chance to let the more quieter kids say something by picking their hands if they ever raised. The whole time, I would be constantly asked 'when will we reach the evil vampire lord?!', which I would respond to with a foreboding chuckle and an ambiguous answer.

I played a fair few tricks on the party too; setting off false traps and sending my adventurers into a panic as they yelled what they wanted to do before the closing walls squished them, only for the countdown to end and the walls to stop just short of crushing them - I think the kids really loved the playfulness and sense of urgency created in these scenarios. Most of my puzzles were simple but required group participation - I borrowed a fair few puzzles from DM resources online, picking the ones I thought would be easy enough to solve but still make them think. They also had to be fairly quick puzzles as the kids would lose interest fast and grow bored if they couldn't solve it quick enough. My dungeon over the 6 weeks honestly felt like a rapid speedrun of many different puzzles, each teasing that the next would lead to the BBEG. They also wanted plenty of short combat encounters too; everyone wanted to be the one who got the last hit on the enemy and crowned the zombie-slayer or skeleton-slayer of the group. By this point, I'd scrapped even preparing monsters in my notes, and threw enemies at them whenever I felt we needed a pace change.

I increased the complexity of the puzzles near the end, with the final puzzle being quite a bit longer than the other ones; I wanted them to experience at least one full length puzzle that made the final room feel all the more earned. Thankfully, by this point they were used to my antics, and managed to solve my final puzzle. In the last room, I decided to give them the biggest enemy of all; a multi-headed vampiric dragon (my own on-the-spot invention, as I had hinted at a vampire this whole time only to throw a big dragon at them haha). I got them all excited to fight him, and let this combat feel like a real challenge compared to the others, so it really felt like a final fight. Near the end, some of the kids had gotten distracted again and started drifting off, but I completely lost track of time, realised we had 5 minutes left, and let the next hit be the one that slayed the dragon. As the reward, I had brought a big bag of candy with me as a surprise, and told them that amongst the treasure they found the dragons secret sweet-tooth stash; of course the kids went wild as I dished out handfuls of candy to my successful dragon-slayers.

So, that was the conclusion to my 6-week campaign, with a party of 12 children. The age groups were super mixed, and I definitely noticed the younger ones needed a lot more prompting and guidance, but all in all I think they all enjoyed it. I definitely had a few students who were actively interested in D&D, as they were always stuck right in and eager to join in and solve everything; but I also had a few kids that realised D&D probably wasn't for them, and wouldn't really participate unless prompted to - however, I really appreciated that they tried it a little bit and joined in when asked. In the last session, one of the kids ran up to me when I arrived and told me how much he loved the classes; I almost got teary-eyed! I also had a couple others tell me that they loved playing so much that they were now organising and planning to DM their own campaigns - I honestly couldn't be prouder to have inspired some of them to play again.

The experience was definitely stressful, definitely a challenge, and definitely gave me anxiety sometimes, but it was absolutely worth it. Through trial and error (and, lots of errors at that), I found a flow to work with, and knowing that I managed to guide a whole class of children who had never played D&D before through an entire dungeon, and to have them even tell me how much they enjoyed it, brought me so much joy and pride. I now feel super confident that I can DM my own real campaign for my small group of adult friends, as that will surely be a piece of cake compared to what I just achieved. I'm not sure if I'll do it again (though the school has said they would love to have me back to run it again next term), as it was very draining, but it was definitely an experience worth having. I'm going to miss my little adventurers!

I hope reading this was interesting, as it was definitely a new and challenging experience for me, and I thought it was worth keeping a record of - if nothing else but to remind myself that I'm a capable DM when it comes down to the wire!

[squidspawn]

MDZS Rec List 2: Supporting Cast Centric

(Both AU & Canon)

So, several years ago I started a rec list for a friend I dragged into MDZS. This chunk is for those of you who want to read non-main character shenaniganery. Enjoy!

Rec List 1: Canon-ish Wangxian Centric 

Rec List 3: Early days of CQL fics

Rec List 4: Alternate Universe

(S)- Short fic, either one-shot or up to three chapters in length

(L)- Long fic, four or more chapters

(S) and a heaping spoonful of love by merryofsoul- Sizhui learns to cook, 5+1 format, Sizhui centric, heartbreakingly sweet: https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/22261780

**(L) JC and WWX's Get Along Sweater by newamsterdam- Yunmeng bros reconciliation fic series, contains locked in a room, fighting a giant evil dog, etc. (canon compliant): https://archiveofourown.org/series/1357258

(S) Superstitions- a story split in 2 places, thoughts on the Yunmeng Siblings becoming Deities of Lotus Pier, Beware, t’is Tragic:

https://twitter.com/caughtbyyou/status/1131555397100195840

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18971098

**(S) Light of a Purple Sun by Itabane- JC time-travels & fixes things, lots of Yunmeng siblings being awesome: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16111832 

(S) Say those Words by paranoid-fridge - Cute oneshot of student-era friendships: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18894472 

(L) Empathy by clockwork-spider - 3zun fixit, NMJ goes back in the past and tries to repair what fucked up: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16571534/chapters/38830160 

(L) Fix your twisted reflection by Dgcakes- 3zun fixit, all three go back into the past and try to work through their problems with less murder: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17166020/chapters/40361723 

(S) We built ourselves a ship by Itabane- 3zun fixit, NHS's mother is a prostitute, and that changes everything: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685167 

(L) Dancing Under the Ashes by paranoid-fridge- Canon Divergence, Wen Sect won, features NHS and JC, an interesting what if? exploration: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18972220/chapters/45047110 

(L) Once Upon a Time in Qinghe by paranoid-fridge- NMJ summoned postcanon, Nie Bros reconciliation: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465960/chapters/41130959 

(L) The Art of Seduction by UmbrellaMartialGod- JC/NHS centric, AU where Jiang Cheng doesn't just rebuild the whole sect by himself, NMJ is protective, NHS is horny: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087771/chapters/45348169

(S) Posthumous by Ehyde- After JZX is killed at Qionqi Pass Wifi turns him into a conscious fierce corpse like Wen Ning: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926346

(S) Where your heart is set in stone by magnvseffect- JZX & JYL are both zombies and raise Jin Ling, lots of cute undead family fluff: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1324004 

(L) Waiting on the Night Hunt by JustaWanderingBabbit- Starts out as misc post-canon Wen Ning adventures, develops plot but still mostly focuses on character interactions. It’s nice to see WN get some appreciation: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17605241/chapters/41502140

*(L) Beginner’s Guide to Moving On by messenger18-  focuses on JC & LXC as they heal from the events of canon, a really interesting character study for them both and its nice to see them start to repair their lives and relationships: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824490/chapters/39493117

(S) High Hopes by messenger18- follows JC & LXC, character study, starts at early childhood and ends just before the Sunshot Campaign, canon divergent, full of angst, if only there were therapists in ancient magical China, https://archiveofourown.org/works/20363950/chapters/48290395 

**(L) I Wish You Time by Itabane- Time Travel, BAMF!A-Qing: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16394459/chapters/38375432 

**(S) two boys talk in the library by exocara- MXY&XY decide to fix shit: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17419853 

*(L) Where did the Stygian Tiger Amulet go? By WangYue - Source Code au, JGY focus, demons, apocalyptic stakes, time travel, canon divergence: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16342619/chapters/38236091 

**(S) a game of dares by t-why- In their defense the Junior Trio were left unsupervised: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16015541 

(L) Forms and Transformations by EHyde- Every sect leader has a nonhuman feature, a manifestation of their power. The Wens with their crown of flame, the canine Jiangs, the Nie centaurs, and so on: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19332796/chapters/45988300

(L) Brothers & Sisters by mercyandmagic- Qin Su Deserved Better the fic; there are some things I really like about this one and some I don’t? There’s a fair bit of unnecessary angst and completely ignoring timelines, but i appreciate 3zun feels and JGS’s children bonding: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17913614/chapters/42294245 

(L) Zixuan’s Little Brothers- JZX tracks down some of his half siblings because if JYL has little bros then he wants them too, inadvertently fixes most of canon, lots of sibling shenanigans: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1242932

(L) 江山如有待 | It Seems the Hills and Rivers Have Been Waiting by ScarlettStorm- OCxJC slowburn, I really like the Jiang Sect inner workings here. The OC is very cool & fun and original, also yay for JC getting some emotional support post-canon https://archiveofourown.org/works/27403903/chapters/66977596 

(L) If Wishes were Fishes by Spiraling- JC magically acquires so many babies. All the babies. https://archiveofourown.org/works/28811424/chapters/70659555 

(L) I Shall Not Live in Vain by Spiraling- A look into Mianmian's missing years, with minor canon divergences based on the choices that she makes. She's not going to change the whole world, but she's going to make it better for at least a few people. Takes MianMian & JZX’s friendship from the drama, but otherwise follows novel canon  https://archiveofourown.org/works/35526151/chapters/88561609 

#mo dao zu shi #fic recs

[glowyjellyfish]

OUAT Rewatch Report Part 5: Lady of the Lake through The Doctor, plus Forget Me Not and The Serpent

1. Emma’s far from my favorite, but her feelings are really doing it for me this time. Seeing her walls go up, and how hard it is for her to adjust to having a mom who cares about her. And seeing her walls come down, too, seeing her vulnerable when she puts so much effort into making herself tough. And I enjoy watching her fumble around not knowing how to handle Fairy Tale Land but also needing to prove she can take care of herself. I don’t think I realized it before, but there is an entire theme of parental dynamics in this arc, isn’t there.

2. Henry’s a manipulative little sneak, isn’t he? He came by it honestly, considering his many relatives.

3. I definitely made a mistake in setting up a viewing order where I get New Robin Hood before I even see Old Robin Hood.

4. I love Will so much. I love the way he talks about himself and his past, and how he has clearly thought everything through very carefully and figured himself out. I’m totally convinced that he had therapy sometimes in Storybrooke. And probably got diagnosed with depression, because that’s what his heartlessness looks like. And I love the way he admits to feeling like a monster and going through dark times, even when he can’t really feel it without his heart.

5. It does sort of bug me that Maleficent is hyped up as super evil and dangerous, but in practice we mainly see her as losing to Regina, her BFF, and vaguely chiding a group that stole from her. And she was a dragon, and there’s been talk of what she did to Aurora, but she just comes off a little weak.

6. rumple is the first person on the show to discuss deaging anybody, which is interesting given future plots and revelations.

7. I love rumple but he is in fact an awfully horrifying person. Like, The Crocodile started out and Milah was callous towards him and Hook was a bully. He comes back with power, planning to murder Hook for taking (and, Rumple thinks, raping and killing) his wife. Milah comes out and tells him she’s alive and admits to lying to escape him, and he still has to be bartered with to stop murdering Hook (which was supposed to be revenge for Milah). It’s understandable that he’s still upset, but then when his ex wife is trying to honestly explain herself, he murders her—CLEARLY projecting his own issues with abandoning Bae. I sympathize with him, of course, knowing that in the present he’s more or less trying to be better, and usually directing his energy in a more productive direction, but like… I don’t think Hook’s wrong for wanting revenge.

8. I’m not a fan of how they chose to make their version of Hook. That man is NOT CAPTAIN HOOK, and I could just call him Killian and convince myself he’s not the real Hook but just some other pirate guy, but honestly the name Killian bugs me even more. But in practice, the character’s perfectly good as his own character. More than anything else, it’s just annoying that they either did minimal research or threw virtually everything out before slapping a couple of Captain Hook traits on a completely new pirate character. Other characters are either super recognizable as the most well-known version of the story, or were cardboard cutouts in the original leaving room for whatever. Idk, it’s fine just irritating.

9. ANYWAY I think from Hook’s perspective, he played the role of a giant bully to discourage Milah’s weak husband from coming after her, and to help her escape her boring life and loveless marriage. And then later, he was trying to shield her from an ex who suddenly turned up powerful and abusive. I don’t know if this was old meta I read or what, but I immediately concluded that he plays parts an awful lot, and am trying to compare this to what I saw in other pirate media (ie mainly Black Sails). I maintain OUAT Hook is a giant weenie compared to most other pirates in media, but I guess the whole point here is that he’s a big softie underneath his exterior, going for revenge because his heart was broken.

10. I love how Ruby automatically protects any and all women without batting an eye. Ladies helping ladies!

11. I forgot just how bad Bae’s abandonment issues should be. Jesus fucking Christ. First abandoned by his mother, then he slowly loses his father to the dark one curse and becomes a social pariah, then his father breaks a promise and abandons him to another entire world. I’ll have to update this litany of tragedy as I go forward and remember more details; I know he is briefly taken in by the Darlings and then goes to Neverland, and he then has a short period of doing Treasure Island with Hook before he figures out this guy’s the reason his mom abandoned him, and then he’s stuck in neverland for a long time before getting to the real world in more or less the present day. And of course he’s then coerced into leaving Emma, and abandons his own son without realizing it. Neal’s gonna have so many issues, I cannot WAIT.

12. I adore OUATW’s Jafar, who I like to call Hot Jafar. They did a wonderful job of giving him motivation that’s so complex and interesting I want it to be the backstory of every Jafar, and making him understandable without making him less ruthless and terrifying.

13. recently on regular ouat, Henry was chilling in Emma’s car, so I’m not sure my timeline even has a fixed point anymore. OUATW could even have started during The Doctor, which features a storm. And the two shows were not designed to be watched like this—maybe with s3. HOWEVER, there continue to be fascinating parallels popping up between the two shows when watching them like this. OUAT had The Crocodile, OUATW had The Serpent. OUATW had an episode about Jafar learning magic and how far he was willing to go, OUAT’s next episode was about Regina learning magic and being pushed to go farther than she wanted to.

14. ugh I love the Will/Ana dynamic so much. It’s so spicy and interesting compared with all regular OUAT relationships!

15. it occurs to me that it’s also just possible that Regina chose to bring Jefferson and Victor along in her curse because she thought they might be useful, and Jefferson maybe was just able to resist the amnesia of the curse because of his portal jumping abilities. She doesn’t seem to be particularly pissed off with either one of them, and she had zero qualms about asking Jefferson to help her. And they WERE both useful to her; aside from keeping an eye on David for her and keeping Henry alive when he had the sleeping curse, Whale was probably very helpful as she tried to raise a small child.

16. Victor literally thought her curse destroyed his world and he was the sole survivor. And found himself the sole survivor of a whole world, living in a community of refugees from another world that all know each other and follow the same rules and logic as each other, while he only knows them from the curse. I think it’s interesting he (apparently) didn’t try to talk to Jefferson or Rumple until after his science failed and he couldn’t get Regina to send him home. Probably he didn’t know Jefferson was there until after he heard about Charming talking to him, and Regina absolutely relied on Whale during the curse and she was still a nice, relatively innocent young woman when he knew her, so it’s not really surprising he thought he might be able to convince her to help him despite leading an angry mob to her like a couple days ago. And of course, he was both intimidated by Rumple and too proud of his own methods to admit to needing magic until he thoroughly failed, and presumably didn’t trust anybody from the magical fantasy world to perform decent surgery to reattach his arm. (…I tried writing so many fanfics about him back in the day and it sounds like I may need to try again) I still think there were some deliberate light Wizard of Oz hints sprinkled into The Doctor. Maybe we were just meant to be misled for this one episode, but I am still convinced that SOMEBODY in the writers’ room wanted to make Victor also be the Wizard of Oz. Not gonna lie, I had an entire theory about that and I am still positive it would have been better than the nonsense Oz plot we got.

I finally came up with a selection of gifs describing each (regular OUAT) episode in s2 so far! Next time I think I might do gifs for all OUATW so far, because I have an absolutely perfect gif for the next episode… but we’ll get there.

(…I want to find a good collection of gifs for Emma, especially something resembling the FACES she makes when confronted with magical nonsense, but haven’t had much luck so far)

#OUAT