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bethanythebogwitch · 4 months

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Digimon 2023 tier list

As 2023 is about to end, I'm gonna rank the new Digimon that debuted this year. This is purely my opinion based on how much I like each species. My tier list will run from S to D, with S being my favorite and D being my least favorite. I will only put one in each S and D. A will be Digimon I really like, B will be Digimon I like but not as much, and C will be ones I'm more ambivalent toward. I want to say that I don't dislike any of the new Digimon from this year, I just like some more than others.

The only new full evolution line we got this year is the Loogamon line. The baby stages are Fusamon and Bowmon. They're both cute and perfectly good Digimon, but it's generally hard for me to get excited about baby stages compared to the later stages. C-tier for both.

Loogamon is fun for being a new prototype Digimon with ties to Dorumon and Ryudamon via Seekers. I do think canine Digimon are overdone, but Loogamon sticks out nicely among the flood of Garurumon expies, which is a definite plus. I think I like it more than previous expies like Gaogamon and Dorulumon. I'll give it B-tier

Loogarmon I quite like. Again, canine Digimon are overdone, but this one manages to have a much more unique silhouette than the likes of Gaogamon, Dorulumon, and Fangmon. I love that the fire it breathes formes a muzzle, that's such a cool and unique idea. The wolf Digimon being a scary werewolf/garm monster is also a great step away from preguous Garurumon-style Digimon. A-tier.

The two Perfect/Ultimate level forms for Loogamon are Heloogarmon and Soloogarmon, with Heloogarmon being intended as a dark evolution, like the SkullGreymon of the Loogamon line. It's a badass werewolf made of hellfire that has the uncontrollable instinct to burn everything around it in a mindless rage. That is such a cool and scary concept, I absolutely love it. Easy A-tier. Soloogarmon as the good evolution is a lot less cool to me. Its the red-headed stepchild of the Loogamon family. I'm not a fan of how so many high-level Digimon turn into bipeds and Soloogarmon is definitely guilty of this. The mechanical elements also feel out of place compared to the rest of the line and that giant canister on its butt is just weird. The weapon being a wrench/lightsaber is cool, I just think it should be on a Digimon themed around engineering. I definitely prefer Heloogarmon as the Loogarmon evolution. I'm putting it on the bottom of C-tier because there is one I like less.

The Ultimate/Mega level is Fenriloogamon and I love it. Another quadrupedal Ultimate/Mega partner for a main character has been a long time coming as they're usually humanoid. For example, all the partner final forms from Ghost Game, the most recent anime, looked like people in costumes. A blue, flaming werewolf clad in silver armor is such a cool concept. I would love to see Fenriloogamon animated or in a video game. The Norse Mythology theme is also cool. Easy A-tier. Fenriloogamon also has another form called Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi which looks like if Zacian from Pokemon was designed by a heavy metal album cover artist. The blade it bears is Kazuchimon transformed into a sword. It look me longer than it should to realize that Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi is a reference to Alphamon Oryuken where Oryumon turns itself into a weapon for Alphamon. Given that the Dorumon and Ryudamon lines are in Seekers, we may see Alphamon Oryuken meet Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi. I also give this one an A-tier.

Commandramon is a high contender for my favorite Digimon of all time (which is ironic given how anti-military I am in real life), so I was super happy to see new evolutions of it for Seekers. Heck, the D-Brigade will be featuring in the Digimon Adventure fanfic I've been working on (please give me constructive criticism on what I have so far) Commandramon itself is not in this list because it's been out for a long time now. The new Adult/Champion level evolution is Hi-Commandramon, which is such an amazing evolution for Commandramon. I think its a better evolution than Sealsdramon, even though in canon Hi-Commandramon evolves from Commandramon who failed the test to become Sealsdramon. Hi-Commandramon is like Digimon distilled into one design, a high-tech cyborg dinosaur with military equipment. It may be a bit early in my tier list, but Hi-Commandramon is my S-tier.

The new Perfect/Ultimate level for Commandramon is Cargodramon, a dragon tiltrotor. It gives some air support and transportation to the army that is the D-Brigade. Cargodramon is definitely a callback to Tankdramon as the weirdly out of place vehicle evolution of Commandramon. I give it a B-tier.

Brigadramon is the new Ultimate/Mega level for the D-Brigade. In-universe, it was designed for a replacement for the original Darkdramon after that one went rogue. It acts as a commander that surveys from the air and guns down enemies from above. While I still prefer Darkdramon as a Commandramon evolution, Brigadramon is still great. It also works as an evolution for a ton of different Digimon without seeming out of place, which is a great factor in a series like Digimon with branching evolution lines. Off the top of my head, I can see virus MetalGreymon, MetalGreymon 2010, Gigadramon, and maybe Jazarichmon all evolving to Brigadramon. Easy A-tier.

Two new related Digimon are Luxmon and ArkhaiAngemon, who are both new angel Digimon. Luxmon is the new Child/Rookie level angel Digimon. I really like Luxmon, I think it's a great starting point for any angelic or holy line and I like that it looks like a child Angemon in footie pajamas. This may be heresy to say, but Luxmon is a better Angemon pre-evo than Patamon. I give it A-tier. ArkhaiAngemon is a new Perfect/Ultimate level angel and I do like it, but I think its probably the last interesting angel of its level compared to HolyAngemon and Angewomon. I kind of wish we got another feminine angel Digimon of this level (or any angel thats not a blonde white person) because it could be a great through line between Dacmon and LovelyAngemon without having to double-up on using Angewomon as the Perfect/Ultimate level when she's pretty firmly established as Ophanimon's pre-evo. I'll give ArkhaiAngemon a B-tier.

Quantumon is a cool design and is neat as the closest we've gotten to a Digimon form of Adventure's Homeostasis (even though she appeared in a completely different continuity). I Also appreciate another feminine Ultimate/Mega that's not sexualized. Honestly the biggest thing I have against Quantumon is that the end of Ghost Game sucked. I give her a B-tier.

Cthyllamon as an evil MarineAngemon is neat, but more interesting is that it many be a refenrence to an obscure bit of the franchise. Bck in the Digimon Accel virtual pets, multiple existing Digimon got Blast Modes. These modes only existed in those games and don't have reference book entries. One of these was MarineAngemon Blast Mode, which looked like an angry MarineAngemon with bat wings. We never got anything more than sprite artwork for the Blast Modes, but given the similarities, I think Cthyllamon is a callback to MarineAngemon Blast Mode. For that, I'll give it an A.

All the new Digimon introduced in Digimon New Century have bee great and Dijiangmon is no exception. As far as evil Digimon go, Dijiangmon is a interesting one. Instead of destroying things or raising armies, it just hangs out, being completely expressionless and never making a sound. It also has the power to telepathically induce other Digimon to fight. It's like the Digimon version of a creepypasta monster. I like it. A-tier.

A Digimon that has been announced but not yet fully released is Tlalocmon. We have the art and the knowledge that it's a Jogress/DNA Digivolution of Eldoradimon and SaberLeomon, but no lore yet. Despite that, what we have is super cool. It's an adorable Ultimate/Mega level, which is super rare, and its named after the Aztec god of rain Tlaloc. A twitter Digimon fan and Mesoamerican history enthusiast did a big post breaking down the design influences and mythological references in Tlalocmon that you should definitely read. Easy A for Tlalocmon and I can't wait to see it in action.

Another announced by not yet released Digimon that will be coming from New Century is Takutomon. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not nearly as excited about this one as I am about Tlalocmon. The design is fine, but I'm not too excited about another "dude in a costume" Ultimate/Mega level. Maybe my opinion will change as we get more information, but for now it's C-tier.

The final new Digimon released this year (not counting the one teased in the announcement for the new card game project which we don't even have a name for yet) is BigUkkamon. The name says it all, it's Ukkamon but bigger. And pink. And with less detail. Gotta say, this one is pretty boring. They didn't even include the weird head tree thing from 02 The Beginning in its official art. The lore is decent, but BigUkkamon is just bland. This one's the D-tier.

To recap:

S-tier: Hi-Commandramon

A-tier: Loogarmon, Heloogarmon, Fenriloogamon, Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi, Brigadramon, Luxmon, Cthyllamon, Dijiangmon, and Tlalocmon

B-tier: Loogamon, Cargodramon, ArkhaiAngemon, and Quantumon

C-tier: Fusamon, Bowmon, Takutomon, and Soloogarmon

D-tier: BigUkkamon

Between Seekers, 02 The Beginning, and announcements for new card came and video game projects, 2023 was pretty good for Digimon. Hopefully next year keep on going and helps the Digimon renaissance keep going.

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princelancey · 2 days

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15 Questions

Thank you for tagging me in this @f1-disaster-bi

1. Are you named after anyone?

nope! I was gonna be named gráinne after my great gran but then my parents saw 'sorcha' and liked that

2. When was the last time you cried?

I've been crying all week because of allergies, maybe? but like proper crying maybe 2 weeks ago? I have no concept of time but yeah Uni is super stressful so i've had a few stress cries recently

3. Do you have kids?

nope, and tbh the chance of me getting pregnant are super low so that'll probably stay a no

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

yes, so many. Hurling/Camogie (you should check this out its so cool, its a 3000 year old sport and played at an insane speed, the top level is still amateur), one singular day of Gaelic football (i was beyond bad, turns out i needed glasses lmao), swimming, rounders, and finally the loml Archery. I needed to keep busy as a child 😅😅

5. Do you use sarcasm?

the day i don't is the day i'm dead

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

their facial expression, trying to see how they're feeling, where is their attention at (lowkey this is a trauma thing)

7. What is your eye colour?

greyish blue, with the hazel central heterochromia

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings by a mile, I'll cry but they'll be happy tears

9. Any talents?

I'm good with my hands? does that count, I can pick up a like hands on craft thing really quickly. No party tricks though

10. Where were you born?

in the hospital across the road from my house

11. What are your hobbies?

Embroidery! I love it and am very annoyed that I don't have the time for it right now with all that's going on with uni :( I have a lance triptych that i need to finish and hopefully i'll get that started after august.

I've also gotten back into reading, fiction that is, I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading scholarly stuff, so if anyone has recommendations please share, Lance nation bookclub let's go

12. Do you have any pets?

YES! my sweet baby boy Bobby. I say baby he turned 13 in February so he's getting up there, he's a beagle and a cuddle monster. I love him to bits, he follows me everywhere, sits on my feet to be as close as possible and perfected the puppy dog eyes a long time ago (insert pictures here when i get to my phone)

13. How tall are you?

5'6" (166 or 67cm?)

14. Favorite subject at school?

easily History, I went on a did it college and am currently doing a masters in museum studies so you will not be getting me away from the old stuff. We had an amazing history teacher in secondary school, @f1-disaster-bi can attest to that and she was super encouraging and really nurtured the love of history I had so yeah, making it my job

15. Dream job?

yeah so like i said above i'm doing museum studies at the minute so the dream is the work in a museum. I'd love to work in the education side of museums, sort of a pay it forward vibe with the love of history, outreach programmes and museum events that kind of thing.

that was fun, hope you all feel like you know me a little better now <3 I'm tagging @rockingpeeble @abovecalamity and @no00000000 as always, no pressure we're all here to have fun

#tag game #get to know me

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hiemaldesirae · 23 days

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I read it and omg it turned out amazing like the way you described Valentino’s and Velvette’s demon form has a chokehold on me I never really see people portray Velvette as an actual doll too much it’s mostly just a comment that’s it so you just going all out on that was so good and Valentino being the one with the cool head during this was nice but also fitting normally people would make Val a brainless idiot or a manipulative dick so him being just calm and strangely scary was a nice change but I can totally see him being more like a evil all his moves are calculated type overlord whenever someone he honestly cares about is at stake or hurt we really just need more found family vees but Vox literally just letting himself get kidnapped was such a pleasant surprise I didn’t expect myself to be so spot on about the fact Vox really has more control over the situation and don’t get me started on Alastor I just love the way you always give Vox and Alastor a muse x painter dynamic so this story was just the epitome of that trope but come on Alastor don’t be stingy let the vees go to y’all’s wedding another thing I love dramatic stories but it’s always so funny thinking what the other characters think like can you imagine Charlie’s confusion when Vel says he kidnapped Vox and he just like yeah I did lol Lucifer coming in to save Charlie he probably doesn’t really care about what’s happening let alone knows. Lucifer needing a reminder on who Velvette and Valentino are but recognizes Vox instantly gives off Adam not knowing who Alastor is but knows angel also I need to know what Charlie and Alastor talked about when he left the room cause I know nothings good gonna come out

haha thank you!! i based velvettes demon form off those like, old stories about those haunted dolls like annabelle and such. i think the dichotomy between a sinners regular and demon form is such an interesting concept to explore- i think personally that a sinner's demon form is their 'true' self-- since so many sinners and overlords especially wear a mask to hide their true faces, when they turn to their full demon form they shed that mask in a sense. from vals actions in masquerade, i developed this headcanon that val is the type of person who throws little tantrums for fun, but when he gets Really angry, his anger is cold and calculating more than anything. in that way, he's a lot like vox, except... well, vox is able to keep more of a lid on things most of the time because he Has To as the face of the vees. so yeah, i def agree with you! found family vees really does have my heart, they're the worst and they love each other <3

yesyesyes to all of the radiostatic dynamics!! theyre both horrible terrible posessive freaks but in my mind alastor wouldnt have been able to take him away from home if vox hadnt at least given a verbal okay at first, he's too much of a fighter to go without a struggle lol. and yeah i feel like i spent a looot of time on the other characters povs solely bc they were so much fun to write lmao. like.... imagine being charlie and having to watch this all go down meanwhile youre thinking 'awww its so sweet' no. this is like black swan levels of psychological horror and you are going to watch it all go down live

#ran rambles #hazbin hotel #radiostatic #fic asks

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themosleyreview · 9 months

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The Mosley Review: Talk To Me

I remember as a kid that all the witches and true Goth teens that were all about "the dark and endless void in which our spirit shall rest" lifestyle. Sometimes they would invite other kids to a party and at some parties they would have a seance or a ouija board would be brought out. They would claim to see stuff and then pass it on like a creepy ghost story throughout the halls of the school. Many films like Stigmata and The Craft were some of the inspirations and classic teen films about supernatural horror were everywhere. The level of originality and creative scary visuals got better then started dying off when the Paranormal Activity films started taking over. Now comes this film which takes a simple and universally friendly acknowledge of communication and twists it into something more sinister and creepy. That was the beauty of the concept and it is put to full use and nothing is held back. I loved the visuals of the many spirits and how the possession would violently take place. The sense of desperation, psychological and emotional trauma was on full display and its always fun to see how the characters handle it. I liked that certain characters were around only when needed instead of over crowding the screen even if a few of them were very one note.

Sophie Wilde as Mia was the lead of the film and she knocks it out of the park. The amount of desperation for wanting to rekindle the flame of young love and her need to fit in wasn't necessarily new, but her portrayal made it relatable. The quick turn of events for her life as we get to the main plot was astounding. Her rough emotional journey into madness was excellent and her performance kept me engaged. Marcus Johnson plays her father Max and I felt he was very one note. He was very good at delivering the emotional weight of the strained and distant relationship between him and his daughter. Alexandra Jensen as her best friend Jade was great and funny at times with her snarky remarks. Their friendship felt natural and the genuine moments of bonding between them was good. Joe Bird was really good as Jade's younger brother Riley. He represented the "younger brother looking up to older sibling" type and it was cute at times. He represented that last shred of innocence in the film. Miranda Otto is always great to see on screen and as Jade and Riley's mother Sue, she was a firecracker. She wasn't afraid to lay down the law in the house and I loved how she embarassed her daughter in a particular scene. Otis Dhanji was good as Jade's boyfriend Daniel. He is stuck in a love triangle between Jade and Mia and I liked the tension between them and I'm glad it didn't overshadow the story. Zoe Terakes was good the dealer of the school, Hayley. Hayley was the purveyor of "The Hand" and I liked her devilish enjoyment of the possession scenes.

The score by Cornel Wilczek was good and creepy in the more intense scenes. The use of silence is where this film excels. There is power in not using score in the most obvious moments of horror and that was used well here. I loved the design of the "The Hand" and the markings add that extra level of demonic iconography. Where I feel the film lacks is in the middle after the majority of haunts begin. I would've loved for a not so obvious twist in the psychological moment that kicks off the last 30 minutes of the film. I liked the visual foreshadowing earlier in the film and how it paid off. I've been a fan of the YouTube creators behind the wild and awesome channel RackaRacka, Danny and Michael Philippou. For a debut film, this was an fantastic supernatural horror film that plays to their strengths and shows that they have a bright future as storytellers on the big screen. I can't wait to see where they go from here. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

#talk to me #Sophie Wilde #Alexandra Jensen #Joe Bird #Miranda Otto #Otis Dhanji #Zoe Terakes #Marcus Johnson #Danny Philippou #Michael Philippou

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thisdykesthoughts · 6 months

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What Makes Something Scary?

this is a shit post but I just wanted to get my thoughts out about it.

I have always been fascinated with what makes something scary in film. I have seen my fair share of horror media and I have come to the conclusion that the answer is very simple. however, so many writers and directors seem to still be getting it wrong.

jumpscares or startling someone is not what makes a film scary.

look at Skinamarink, for example. a film that has stirred lots of controversy because of its nature. I have heard people say that it's not even a film.

Skinamarink has to be one of the most chilling movies I have ever seen. and don't think of me as someone who is only scared of analog horror or first-person horror games, because I am not. I am an avid enjoyer of Hereditary and other mainstream horror films.

but they all have something in common.

suspence. I know you've heard this before, that suspense is the most powerful weapon when curating a jumpscare, which is likely true. but what if there were no jumpscares at all? this is what Skinamarink explores.

and I urge you all to watch Matpat's video on Skinamarink if you haven't already because his analysis of the film really puts it into a different, even scarier light.

the suspense and darkness of Skinamarink, along with excellent audio design, create a horrifying movie that just makes you want to cover your eyes. Even if you have read the reviews and you know nothing is going to jump out at you, the movie still manages to make you feel terror.

on a different branch, hereditary is one of my favorite movies ever. not just horror movies, but movies in general. hereditary gets its scares from the same place as Skinamarink, but this film has the extra level of fantastic acting.

the performances in Hereditary are second to none and really make the audience feel the terror. especially after Charlie's death following the party. if you have not seen Hereditary, please go watch it. it will change your life.

alex wolff, who plays Peter in the film, delivers a fantastic performance of true fear following his sister's death. his performance goes hand-in-hand with Ari Aster's incredible direction. this scene in the car and following the accident is a stroke of genius on Aster's part.

the things that I tend to find in all scary movies or media are the suspense, and performances of the actors. of course, content and scripting play a part in this. but assume that you had the best concept for a horror movie you have ever seen and gave it to a director and a group of actors who just butchered it. if those two elements are not in check,

it becomes a parody. something making fun of brilliant movies like Skinamarink and Hereditary.

#horror films #horror #horror movies #skinamarink #hereditary #ari aster #a24

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ispyspookymansion · 1 year

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my true and correct ranking is

evil dead - all good

child’s play - mostly good people r to mean to seed it’s fun

final destination 3/4 but 4 is terrible

scream 4/5 and 5 isn’t that bad

saw - mostly good sometimes really great and even the bad ones have their moments

friday - mostly terrible but all extremely enjoyable

nightmare - 3 great movies and new nightmare and like the bad ones are fun

chainsaw - two fantastic movies i can take or leave the rest

psycho - i love 1 & 2 but the rest of them are notverygood

halloween - great opening wild sequel i own season of the witch merch and a dvd copy of h20 but christ alive when it’s bad it’s terrible

write-in last place is alien cuz those first two are without comparison but prometheus is the worst movie i have ever seen

saw should maybe be higher cuz i like her more than scream but if we’re looking at them as a franchise than i think 3D and jigsaw really bring her down cuz they kinda loose what makes those movies work so well i loved finally seeing the reverse bear trap in action tho

also i’d be reeeeally incherested in knowing ur rankings :D we’ve all given our terrible opinions i’d love 2 know urs

sorry this is abt to get so long and just know i dont necessarily believe any of this im saying words recreationally ! and i tried to think abt them as in quality of franchise, but i am obviously human with personal tastes and biases. i generally counted how many movies i gave 3 or more stars on letterboxd to get my numbering. below the cut for my takes!

- saw (8/9 or 88%) my babygirl. my sweet cheese. i can get why some people dont rock with it but writing it off as torture porn is unforgivable both in that its not, or not entirely, and okay so who cares torture those bitches !!!!! saw’s Quality is not consistent, but its premise is and its one of the most interconnected franchises which strengthens it as a series

- child’s play (6/8 or 80%): prefacing by saying this doesnt take the show into account, but the show is a wash for me anyways. child’s play is a perfect mix of funny and scary, both on a movie by movie basis and as a franchise. don mancini sucks at writing a tv show but his consistent hand in the series makes it a good franchise as far as consistency. edit i forgot about the terrible remake um. yeah. eep.

- final destination (4/5 or 80%): 1, 3, 5 are really good, 2 is decent, theyre fun! i rewatch them from time to time i love the concept i love tony todd and i think its impressive that theres really only one stinker (the final destination aka final destination 4 you will never be famous)

- scream (4/5 or 80%) very partial to the original, and i respect a lot of what scream does even in the movies i dont like as much, but the last film + upcoming no sidney lose points for me for sure. the first movie is standout, the rest are pretty consistent even if its at a level far below the first film. i havent seen the tv show

- noes (6/9 or 66%): my beloved <33333 i loooove the first three and i love new nightmare! the quality steadily deteriorates between those though it Is in a fun way most of the time. the atrocious remake damages this a lot for me but it Knows what it is, so you cant fault it for that. i would fight for noes as a favorite above scream and final destination, but its a weaker franchise overall imo

the next three i had a hard time putting in order tbh, but i guess what i’ll say is:

- psycho (3/5 or 60%): i really was surprised by how good the 2nd one is, cannot state that enough. but 3 flopped to me, the bates motel tv movie sucks, and ive heard the remake is horrible. the prequel is alright (it and 3 both get a half mark), though the whole franchise loses ground for the inherent issues with norman’s character. i havent seen the bates motel tv show.

- evil dead (2.5/4 or 63%): look. sorry, but its not for me. i love the first one and i love the remake, but the style of comedy isnt my thing in the two in between. its not BAD in the sense that it is what it set out to be, but i just dont like that thing very much, and i struggle to call it a better Franchise than most due to how varied its parts are. ash williams tboy swag you Will always be beloved tho, and the first one is a real fav of mine

- halloween (7/13 or 53%): the original is very dear to me, i love the weirdass hustle of 3, and i think halloween 2018 was a great start to a disappointing trilogy. the muddied timelines mean the franchise itself is a mess. one great movie does not a good franchise make! i might put this above psycho depending on the day, but the last movie was so atrocious it leaves a very bad taste in the franchise mouth

- friday the 13th (5/12 or 42%): i love campground horror and overall, the quality of f13 as a series is pretty consistent! its just that its pretty consistently bad. i respect the hustle of sending jason to space and manhattan but its not my kind of film

- tcm (3/9 or 33%): only the first two and the 03 remake are really good to me. i dont think people realize there are NINE of these. a lot of the other sequels are decent movies, bad tcm films, so a low ranking as an overall franchise. sorry tcm, your writers dont understand what makes you great!

so um yeah. im pulling for scream or noes to win at this point, but my opinions are clearly not very shared....also these could change at any time i cant stress enough how much even the lowest franchises here are beloved by me, rewatched by me, have posters on my walls, etc etc!!!

#:-)#asks #anons #hfk #kora.txt

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violetscanfly · 1 year

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Tagged in by @baakeli thanks!

Are you named after anyone?

Not by first name, no, but one of my names is one that I got from my great grandma. A certain flower, can you guess which one?

When was the last time you cried?

Watching Suzume, the parts about wanting to live felt really powerful to me.

Do you have kids?

Nope.

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Sure.

What sports do you play/have you played?

I'm reeally not a sporty person, that said I started learning to skateboard last summer! I'm not good at it yet but it is really fun and I'll continue to learn this summer. In the past I've danced as a hobby, something I'd like to maybe try again someday.

What's the first thing you notice about other people?

Stealing answers here from the last taggers, sorry, but its vibes for me too.

Eye colour?

Blue.

Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings definitely, I'm a sappy bitch. I don't enjoy horror movies (there are exceptions but getting into it here would get way too long.) Contradicting the earlier, I do enjoy a good tragedy though!

Any special talents?

Art. Even if I'm not as good as I'd like to be, its something I will definitely keep at my whole life. An artist is never "ready" which is something I really love.

Where were you born?

Finland

What are your hobbies?

Drawing, reading, animation, comics, cosplay.

Do you have any pets?

Sadly, no. If I get a pet someday, it'll definitely be a cat.

How tall are you?

170cm or 5'5(?)

Fave subject in school?

Art, languages and history.

I have studied English, French, Spanish and Swedish (mandatory here in Finland,) although sadly English is the only one I'm any good at anymore, since keeping it up is kind of necessary and easy since I interact with it every day. Once you learn a language that is usable for everything the motivation for others kind of trickles out, though I'm trying to get back on track with a Spanish course this summer! Couldn't find a French one for my level :P but I'll get on that or maybe just start over entirely lmao.

Dream job?

There are so many things I'd like to try, mostly I'd like to be a freelancer so I could be more independent and lean more into my own interests without limitations, but in an industry setting I'm interested in being a story artist, a concept artist, a character designer or something like that. Also playing with the thought of starting my own comic but that probably would not be a full time job for a long time if ever.

tagging @epzart & @eeviart but no pressure + mutuals feel free to consider yourself tagged

#tagged #haven't really told much about myself here so I thought why not #thanks baakeli #long post #text

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a-book-dragon · 6 months

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one of the most repulsive qualities of the neoliberal pop feminist movement is its discourse on consent and respect. here's how it muddies the waters and actually sets us back:

saying stuff like "consent is hot and it makes you sexy!" "women are attracted to kind, respectful guys who never pressure them!" "being a feminist is always the biggest turn on!" etc. is inefficient because:

it commodifies an ETHICAL QUESTION. it shouldn't matter how much or how little respecting boundaries and having a healthy view of sexuality and relationships adds to your value on the dating market. the very fact fact that the concept of a dating market exists is an abomination. both hookup culture and long term relationships tend to be about gaining social capital by chasing "high value" partners/becoming a perfect object of attention. this is the opposite of love, pleasure, playfulness, respect, exploration. it is the opposite of sexual liberation, no matter if it manages to integrate and thus discapacitate feminist and queer concepts.

it misses the intrinsic motivation. you treat others with respect because you respect yourself and a "respectful person" is what you want to be. not to get something in return. not even because you respect the person before you - they may be pretty stupid, brainwashed or toxic, but you still treat them with a baseline of respect unless they're actively harmful. because of who YOU are.

many women are in fact brainwashed by the patriarchy and WILL chase after men who fit the toxic masculine "high value" ideal. even many self-proclaimed mainstream "feminists". there are many facets to this. 1, in our society, for men (especially those who have economic and cultural capital) arrogance and pushiness is often mistaken for confidence and expertise, both undeniably attractive traits on a biological level. 2, the misrepresenting of controlling and disrespectful behavior as "protective" or "romantic", usually by abusive partners themselves. 3, women generally feel shame about taking an active role in relationships/pursuing partners/clearly stating their desires. they oftentimes focus on making themselves an attractive, passive object of desire for the male gaze. they might sadly prefer having something they don't really enjoy done to them than going through the shame and vulnerability of connecting with their actual desires and agency, + the responsibility to themselves that comes with it. 4, past trauma - frequent encounters with bad behavior make it seem normal, healthy behavior feel weird/boring/even scary and dysregulating. 5, the reproduction of patriarchal oppression by women themselves (usually they're young and attractive, or consider themselves to be so, or are socially respectable family women), harming other, "lower value" women, gender nonconforming men, and nonbinary people. therefore, if you're a straight/bisexual man and meet a woman who has internalized these patriarchal standards and isn't ready to question her views and heal, better don't engage - not only for her sake, but for your own too. having the masculine gender role expected of you is no fun. you will end up hurting yourself and others and repressing your inner being.

the 2 abhorrent categories of men such rhetoric feeds into instead of destroying: the opportunistic pick me boy/fake feminist, and the manosphere guy who's all about following the rules of the sexual marketplace and maximizing superficial value in a very toxic culture with no regards for ethics.

in conclusion: THE SEXUAL MARKETPLACE IS A DYSTOPIA! WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS! PROTECT THE SANCTITY OF LOVE, PLEASURE, ACTIVE CONSENT AND REAL FREE LOVE FROM GETTING APPROPRIATED! DESTROY THE SYSTEM OF GENDER!

#feminism #consent #long post #feminist theory #gender roles #important #neoliberalism #anticapitalism #liberation #anarchism #gender abolition #queer #dating market #sociology

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crystalelemental · 11 months

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And now, the other half. After bigging up Irida all week, surely she lives up to my expectations, right?

General Overview Not at 1/5. No one should be surprised by this. Irida is HYER reliant on Hail. Without that, she loses the gauge acceleration and things get bad. Without that, she can't sync nuke. Without that, her allies lose the bonus. It's a whole mess, and she can never get MPR. That's really the most damning aspect, she's going to be a bit demanding for Gauntlet. In addition, as expected, she does not tank as well as Adaman does. I still used her as a tank, and my girl Cheryl absolutely rocks the supporting role, but it's not the same level of comfort. Add to it, 3/5 offers so many additional tools to Irida's kit that, without them, she seems particularly bland.

That said, success on 9 stages, the current gold standard. Moltres is likely possible, but I really do not feel like doing that. And Regirock...no comp I designed for her was more effective because of her, so it didn't seem relevant. In fact, some of these comps don't feel stronger because of her, per se. But, I can still discuss what worked.

Vs. Tapu Bulu Thorton tank. Mostly I just wanted the flinch present, but Cheryl absolutely cannot tank this fight. Irida does respectable damage while her Hail effect is up, but the instant it's gone she falls off pretty sharply. The Buddy move situation is also rough. Using something early to get Buddy move right away means using up a precious MP on her Ice Zone. Ice Zone on entry suddenly feels a lot more valuable to me.

Vs. Tornadus SS Cynthia is one of those sync pairs I think benefits wildly from Sinnoh Spirit. She can deal serious damage when supported through this. Mind Games 9 would've just made things better. Glacia's also really important to talk about. Double passive regen, in addition to boosted defense, really puts Glacia in a good position. Her Hail grid loves Irida's presence.

Vs. Terrakion Janine debuffing. This one was rough because it was slow. Glacia's Synchro Healing pulls a lot of weight early on, becaue the damage reduction in later phases requires Irida to hold off on her Zone. Which means gauge issues. Which means taking a lot of hits. Which means scary. This is not a fun solution. 3/5 would feel so much cleaner.

Vs. Cobalion 1/5 Irida may not have Mind Games, but Erika can debuff special defense for her. I opted for Skyla to solve gauge issues and provide the main physical defense need. Also Potion. So much Potion. Again, Irida's damage is relatively poor on her own when the effects wear off.

Vs. Azelf As proof of concept: behold, Glacia tanking Azelf without disruption. Reducing the attack of Azelf means sync isn't as threatening, while Sinnoh Spirit cutting special move damage salvages a lot of Glacia's needs. The double healing in Hail keeps her running smoothly.

Vs. Uxie Lodge Dawn time. I'm done with these clowns. Anyway, Lucy fulfills the conditions of the fight, and Irida handles most of the DPS. It's actually not so bad this time around, if you can believe it. It's also really funny to have three stacks of passive damage in Toxic, Trap, and Hail slapping Uxie through its damage reduction.

Vs. Latios I wanted to get at least one in with BP Candice. You can tell from the red in the bar how it went. Even 1/5 Irida just evaporates the final HP bar.

Vs. Latias Much harder to do. Ghetsis was chosen as the debuffer and primary sync bot, with Irida as tank. This, I think, actually showcases the value of Cheryl as a support. Latias' fight is far scarier, and we were not threatened at any point. Accuracy can be an issue, though. Irida's 95% is...rough. There are times it's legitimately awful, and she just misses at a crucial moment, and adding Latias' evasion is not great. I saved buddy move for this, because it can't miss, setting us up for better odds of success between Dragonbreath and Hyper Voice.

Vs. Entei Yes, Crasher Wake Water Pulse strats are real. Bet you never suspected. Anyway, Irida had trouble as the central damage dealer here for all the usual reasons, so I had to bring in someone other than Thorton, who caused gauge issues so severe we couldn't manage DPS. Again, tank Irida succeeds by the grace of Cheryl.

Vs. Moltres Are you insane? At least with 3/5 you get the entry skill and can reasonably aim for a sync nuke clear of each phase, but 1/5? You need a flinch bot. You need a tank since Irida can't take physical well. You need someone who can evaporate Bar 2 and Bar 3 since weather resets at the halfway point too. It's a mess.

#sync pair testing #irida #gauntlet sweep

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felassan · 3 years

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Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.”

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’”

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’”

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.”

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

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dirk-has-rabies · 3 years

Text

Gender variance and it's link with neurodivergency

Okay so this is it going to be another long one

All quotes will be sourced with a link to the scientific journal I took it from

Okay Tumblr, let's talk gender (I know, your favorite topic) my preface on why this topic matters to me is: I'm autistic ( diagnosed moderate to severe autism) I'm nonbinary trans ( in a way that most non-autistic people don't understand and actually look down on) and I went to college for gender study ( Mostly for intersex studies but a lot of my research was around non-binary and trans identities) I will be using the term autism as pants when I have experience with however when ADHD is part of the study I will use ND which stands for neurodivergent and yes this is going to be about xenogenders and neopronouns.

autism can affect gender the same way autism can affect literally every part of an identity. a big thing about having autism is the fact that it completely can change how you view personhood and time and object permanence and gender and literally all types of socially constructed ideas. let me also say hear that just because Society creates and enforces an idea does it mean that it doesn't exist to all people it just me that there is no nature law saying that it's real and the “rules” for these ideas can change and delete and create as time and Society evolves and changes. gender is one of those constructs.

Now I'll take it by you reading this you know what transgender people are (if you don't understand what a trans person is send me an ask and I'll type you up a pretty little essay lmao, or Google it but that's a scary thought sense literally any Source or website can come up on Google including biased websites so be careful I guess LOL) anyway to be super basic trans people are anyone who doesn't identify as the gender they were assigned at Birth (yes that includes non-binary people I could do a whole nother essay about that shit how y'all keep spreading trying to separate non-binary people from the trans umbrella) some people don't like to use the label and that is totally fine by the way.

now autistic people to view the world in a way differently than allistic (neurotypical) ppl do. we don't take everything people teach us at 100% fact and we tend to question everything and demand proof and evidence for things before we can set it as a fact in our brains. This leads to why a lot of autistic people are atheist (although a lot of religions and this is not bashing on religious people at all I am actually a Jewish convert) this questioning leads to a lot of social constructs being ignored or not understood At All by a lot of autistic people and personally I think that's a good thing. allistics take everything their parents and teachers and schools teach them as fact until someone else says something and then they pick which ones to believe. autistic people study and research and learn about a topic before forming an opinion and while this may lead to them studying and believing very biased material and spitting it out as fact it can also lead them to try and Discover it is real by themselves.

because of this autistic people are more question their gender or not fall in a binary way at all as the concept of gender makes no sense to a lot of us. “ if gender is a construct then autistic people who are less aware of social norms are less likely to develop a typical gender identity”

no really look: “ children and teens with autism spectrum disorder ASD or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder ADHD are much more likely to express a wish to be the opposite sex compared with their typical developing peers” That was posted in 2014. we have been saying this stuff forever but no one wants to listen. the thing is gender variance (being not cisgender or at least questioning it) has always been closely hand-in-hand with autistic and ADHD people I'm even the doctor who did that study understood right away that it all made sense the whole time: “ Dr. Strang said they were initially surprised to find an overrepresentation of gender variance among children with ADHD. However, they later realized that prior studies have shown increased levels of disruptive behavior and other behavioral problems among young people with gender variance” SEE YOURE NOT WEIRD YOURE JUST YOU AND YOURE NOT ALONE IN THIS!!

5% autistic people who did the study were trans or questioning. it was also equal between the Sexes fun fact. that may not seem like a lot till you realize that the national average is only .7% that's literally over 700% higher than the national average. That's so many! and that's just in America.

in Holland there was a study in 2010 “ nearly 8% of the more than 200 Children and adolescents referred to a clinic for gender dysphoria also came up positive on a assessment for ASD” they weren't even testing for ADHD so the numbers could be even higher!

now I want to talk about a certain section of the trans umbrella that a lot of autistic people fall under called the non-binary umbrella. non-binary means anything that isn't just male or just female. it is not one third gender and non-binary doesn't mean that you don't have a gender. just clearing that up since cis people keep spreading that. non-binary is an umbrella term for any of the infinite genders you could use or create. now this is where I'm going to lose a bunch of you and that's okay because you don't have to understand our brains or emotions To respect us as real people. not many allistics can understand how we see and think and relate to things and that's okay you don't have to understand everything but just reading about this could be so much closer to respecting us for Who We Are from you've ever been and that's better than being against us just for existing.

now you might have heard of my Mutual Lars who was harassed by transmeds for using the term Autigender (I was going to link them but if it gets traction I don't want them to get any hate) since a lot of people roll their eyes at that and treated them disgustingly for using a term that 100% applied correctly. Autigender is described as " a neurogender which can only be understood in the context of being autistic or when one's autism greatly affects one's gender or how one experiences gender. Autigender is not autism as a gender, but rather is a gender that is so heavily influenced by autism that one's autism and one's experience of gender cannot be unlinked.” Now tell me that doesn't sound a lot like this entire essay I've been working on with full sources…..

xenogenders and neopronouns are a big argument point on whether or not people “believe” in non binary genders but a big part of those genders is that they originated from ND communities and are ways that we can try to describe what gender means us in a way that cis or even allistic trans people just can't comprehend or ever understand. Same with MOGAI genders or sexualities. A lot of these are created as a way to somehow describe an indescribable relationship with gender that is so personal you really cant explain it to anyone who isnt literally the same as you.

Even in studies done with trans autistic people a large amount of them dont even fall on a yes or no of having a gender at all and fall in some weird inbetween where you KINDA have a gender but its not a gender in the sense that others say it is but its also too much of a gender so say youre agender. And this is the kind of stuff that confuses allistic trans people and makes them think nonbinary genders are making stuff up for attention, which isnt true at all we just cant explain what it feels like to BE a trans autistic person to anyone who doesnt ALREADY know how it feels.

In this study out of the ppl questioned almost HALF of the autistic trans individuals had a “Sense of identity revolving around interests” meaning their gender and identity was more based off what they liked rather than boy or girl. That makes ppl with stuff like vampgender or pupgender make a lot more sense now doesnt it? We see that even in the study: “My sense of identity is fluid, just as my sense of gender is fluid […] The only constant identity that runs through my life as a thread is ‘dancer.’ This is more important to me than gender, name or any other identifying features… even more important than mother. I wouldn't admit that in the NT world as when I have, I have been corrected (after all Mother is supposed to be my primary identification, right?!) but I feel that I can admit that here. (Taylor)” and an agreement from another saying “Mine is Artist. Thank you, Taylor. (Jessie)” now dont you think if they grew up with terms like artistgender or dancergender they would just YOINK those up right away????

In fact “An absence of a sense of gender or being unsure of how their gender should “feel” was another common report” because as ive said before in this post AUTISTIC PEOPLE DONT SEE GENDER THE WAY ALLISTIC PEOPLE SEE IT. therefore we wont use the same terms or have the same identities nor could we explain it to anyone who doesnt already understand or question the same way! Participants even offered up quotes such as “As a child and even now, I don't ‘feel’ like a gender, I feel like myself and for the most part I am constantly trying to figure out what that means for me (Betty)” and also “I don't feel like a particular gender I'm not even sure what a gender should feel like (Helen)”

Now i know this isnt going to change everyones minds on this stuff but i can only hope that it at least helped people feel like theyre not broken and not alone in their feelings about this. You dont have to follow allistic rules. You dont have to stop searching inside for who you really wanna be. And you dont have to pick or choose terms forever because just as you grow and evolve so may your terms. Its okay to not know what or who you are and its okay to identify as nonhuman things or as your interests because what you love and what you do is a big part of who you are and shapes you everyday. Its not a bad thing! Just please everyone, treat ppl with respect and if you dont understand something that doesnt make it bad or wrong it just means its not for you. And thats okay.

#autism #actuallyautistic #trans #nonbinary #xenogenders #neopronouns #lgbtq #adhd #nuerodivergent #gender identity

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sixthousandbees · 2 years

Text

I havent played warframe in a while but I played through one of the new quests/story lines, “The New War”, and I loved it.

It started with a big scary warning that this would take several housr and the normal map and gear would be cut off for the duration. Then it started with playing a bunch of characters as they try to stand up to a large scale invasion, and the UI was altered to fit the themes of that faction. thankfully everything was scaled down to low level stuff, so it wasn’t hard or taxing, and because it was a new experience I was appreciating it a lot more. Normally I play guass, who can oneshot most small fry without even looking at them, and charge to the objective.

But here? I actually used the deployable cover the grineer have and hid behind it, had to play things more tactically. I’m fine with the current kinda meta where one shoots first, and just tank everything because everything will be dead before you can go down. This was removed from that mindset, it felt more roleplay-y, more immersed, more invested.

I went into the storyline with no idea on what to expect, and a bunch of things made me go !!! cool!! I shall share them after the cut so one can choose to be spoilered about it

One moment is where someone if getting sucked into an abyss, and the warframe rushes forward and grabs their hand, and then the grip fades and releases, and the operator blips out and grabs both their hand and the warframes, to anchor themself. I thought that was very cool, and not exactly a concept you can apply anywhere else.

Another was finding my ship! it was broken in half! and my fish were gone :( And then immediately afterward was the drifter reveal. Fantastic.

Another fun moment was the watcher in... second zariman cutscene. you talk to some of the other kids and try and stem their panic, and then go to a final kid who’s tapping on the glass, and surprise its you! but also like, not surprising at all, as nobody else has blue hair and pronouns.

Speaking off, I loved the designs on the zariman. I like that the glass was cracked, and most of the view was obscured by broken blast shielding. It seems obvious, like the panels on japanese houses they put up when it storms, but its still cool. I also adored the void corruption later on, the swirling circular grey protrusions breaking the forms of the ship, feeling organic and liquid but also not. I just think its neat.

I was frustrated at first, when the drifter was in my ship, but still using a piddly little pistol. What of all my guns?!?! I have so many!

Getting the bow from hunhow was cool. Its been a while since I played, so I had forgotten I use a bow all the time, but I thought “yeah! bows making a comeback”. in hindsight, I do feel silly.

I loved the designs for the archons, they feel classically cool. like sure, they may be edgey, but they were still cool. I do feel like there may be some criticisms with the designs, but I cannot articulate them properly right now. I mean like, maybe there could have been better theming, more cohesion to the design. There doesn’t seem to be a link between the dead warframes and the animal they became.

I had an “uh oh” moment when I fought the third archon, as I no longer had hunhows cool bow. I had MY cool bow. I actually laughed when I two shot the boss. I think it was a GOOD thing that they removed all my overpowered weapons for the majority of the quest. it made it longer, and made the fights more tense.

I also had a fun confused moment during the first drifter mission. Its one where you’re sneaking into a place to free some prisoners. They gave me a smokebomb and a sensor, so of course I was backstabbing all the hostiles. After several objectives, an objective was to eliminate hostiles, and when I got close to one it said “tap r to overload!”. I didn’t understand. Could I overload my knife? Wait. Did I have a gun? I had a gun! huh. It still took me til the next mission to figure out what it meant by overloading.

I almost died many times in that mission, even though 98% of the enemy didn’t know I was there until it was too late. warframe doesn’t have fall damage. y’all are in a metal robot. normally. The Drifter suffers from having human knees. The ground is a formidible enemy, to be sure.

I haven’t made a post like this in ages. TL:DR I greatly enjoyed Warframes “The New War” questline.

#warframe #nonsensebees

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songbirdsingingthings · 3 years

Note

This request (if it's still an option) might be a little odd and will admittedly stay more feminine, but if i may?

Might i request a small shoto x reader story where the reader is a practicing witch? It's something i personally am into and i think it would be fun to read. Imagine shoto learning about spell candles, crystals charging positive energy, tarot cards, that stuff, because the person he likes uses them a lot.

It might be a touch vague, plot wise, but from west I've read it's sure to be something you can make amazing. Thank you very much. (Anonymous because this is my first time ever requesting something like this and I'm way to shy about it.)

Intuition - Shouto Todoroki x Reader

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Kohei Horikoshi

MHA Masterlist - Main Masterlist

WARNINGS: Fluff, Swearing (It’s Bakugou, so, that’s kinda a given)

Requested by Anonymous:

A/N: Hi!!! I am so sorry that this took me freaking AGES to write. In between trying to research and find reputable sources to learn from about what you requested and dealing with school stuff (honestly, my teachers just think that all of my free time should be filled with school work smh) I finally FINALLY finished! I really hope you enjoyed, and I really found it interesting learning about all these things! <3

Word Count: 1.5K

“Y/N, may I ask you a question?” Shouto’s smooth voice cut through to your senses, rousing you from the book you currently had your nose in. Sitting just inches away from you was the red-and-white haired boy, the textbook he had been consulting now bookmarked and set next to him. With a raise of your eyebrow in curiosity, you marked your page and nodded.

“What’s on your mind?” You ask, leaning a bit closer to him. Shouto, being your boyfriend for now 2 months and comfortable with touch, wrapped a light arm around your waist.

“I was just curious about your choice of decor for your dorm, it’s quite unique.” A knowing smile graced your lips as your gaze left his handsome face and flitted around your dorm. On top of shelves, all over your desk, and even on the balcony windowsill you had, crystals and candles dotted the room. A smile graced your lips as you saw Shouto’s eyes on the various beloved items.

“I guess you can say it’s unique,” You start to say, standing from your spot on the floor and going over to your desk and taking your favorite crystal into your hand. It was a simple clear quartz cluster but it’s been with you the longest. You motion for Shouto to stand up next to you so he could see it more clearly. “This one is a clear quartz,” you explain as he bends down so that his eyes are eye-level with the crystal.

“It’s beautiful,” he murmurs, his gaze transfixed on the quartz. With a laugh, you carefully place it back down on your desk.

“Well, it’s not all just a pretty face. It’s actually charged with a lot of healing energy, so it’s provided some real tranquility in my life.” Shouto’s eyes narrow in confusion, looking back up to yours.

“You’re not telling me that this crystal has a quirk, do you?” He asks, genuinely perplexed. With a bark of laughter, you shake your head.

“No, no, it doesn’t have a quirk. I’ve just been charging the crystal myself.” Still sensing some bewilderment from your boyfriend, you grab a few different items - the quartz, a spell candle from your windowsill, and a pack of tarot cards from your desk - and lead him over to your bed to sit down. “A lot of the things I have in my room have a more… spiritual side to them. Basically with things like crystals, I charge them with positive energies. I do this by cleansing them and then emanating positive thoughts, intentions, or words to the crystals themselves.” Shouto nods, seemingly understanding that concept.

“Are the candles and cards similar?” He wonders.

“Well, they’re all similar in the way that they’re part of witchcraft. People who are practicing witches usually have some, if not all, of these things and probably a lot more. I’m kind of in the low-key part of witchcraft since I don’t really cast spells or am part of a coven or anything, but I really enjoy it.” You gush, causing Shouto’s cheeks to heat up a bit. He’s always loved seeing you so passionate about things whether it be in classes or during hero training, but your passion here was on a whole other level.

“Interesting,” he says, “so what purpose do the candles serve?” His interested tone causes a giddy smile to flicker across your face, sending you into ‘explanation mode’.

“The candles are actually pretty cool. Like the crystals, it’s recommended that you cleanse and charge them in order for them to work. I usually buy these from that crystal store on mainstreet, and this one is one of my favorites! It’s actually one for my zodiac sign,” you tell him, holding the glass holder up in front of him so that he could read the label.

“And the cards?” He asks, leaning over to view the pack of cards.

“Oh! Those are tarot cards.” “I’m assuming they are pretty different from regular cards?” He asks, a little smirk on his face.

“You would be right in assuming that, yes,” you say, giggling while sliding the deck out of its container. You give the deck a few shuffles. “They can help to gain insight on peoples’ futures by drawing cards that represent your past, present, and your future.” Shouto’s eyes widened.

“They can tell your future?” He exclaims, a little wary but also excited about the prospect of it.

“Yeah, you want me to give you a reading?”

“Yes!” Shouto says quickly. Your heart warms at his enthusiasm as you let your shuffling come to a stop. Spreading the cards out in your hand, you hold them face down in front of your boyfriend.

“Okay, pick three.” You say simply, yet Shouto still hesitates.

“Is there a strategy for picking them?” He asks.

“Just go on your intuition. Pick what your heart tells you to.” You murmur. Shouto nods slowly and lets his fingers hover over the cards. He lets his fingers dangle for only a minute before picking his three cards and setting them on your bed covers. With a satisfied smile, you straighten up the rest of the cards, set them aside, and turn your attention to the three he picked. You turn them over one by one. His first card, representing his past, is The Tower. The second card, representing his present, is the Death card. And finally, representing his future, he picked the The World card. As Shouto’s eyes rake over his cards, they settle and widen comically at the middle card.

“Uh, oh no, Y/N I picked death.” He said, his breathing becoming a little shallow at his sudden spurt of panic.

“That’s okay Sho, just let me give you your reading, yeah?” You soothe, urging him to calm down. With a hesitant nod, he settles down a bit. “Okay! So for your first card, you chose The Tower. Now this card represents sudden upheaval, broken pride, and disaster. Think back to your past whether it be just yesterday or years beforehand. I know you had a tough childhood and growing up was never easy for you,” you say, trying to empathize with Shouto. He nods acceptingly, having already acknowledged his past.

“Yes, this card makes sense.” He simply says. Your gaze focuses next on the middle card - Death.

“I know this card can look a little scary, but I promise it’s not.” You say, trying to gently ease Shouto into the idea that his current present is represented by death. “The Death card represents the end of a cycle, new beginnings, and metamorphosis. Think and turn your consciousness to your thoughts right now. Think about how much you have changed from your past, and find solace in the end of that cycle and the beginning of a new one.” Shouto closes his eyes and unconsciously begins to smile, causing your own to shine brighter.

“That is a comforting thought. I never thought I could find relief from a card that says death on it.” He remarks, opening his eyes back up to yours. You could tell he was eager to hear about his last card - his future.

“And your final card is The World. I’m not being biased or anything, I promise you I’m not, but this is one of my favorite cards.” You admit, earning a sparkle to show in your boyfriend's eyes. “The World card represents fulfillment, harmony, and completion. Try and imagine your future. This completion and fulfillment could come in the form of many things whether it be your career, your friendships-”

“A romantic relationship?” He asks, his cheeks now burning with red. You feel yourself begin to fluster and the silly smile across your face causes you to look at your hands.

“Yes, this card could potentially apply to a romantic relationship.” You murmur softly. You busy yourself with cleaning up the cards and putting them back in their container, still flushed with the thought of Shouto hoping for harmony within your relationship. However, your thoughts are put to a halt when Shouto has a soft hand beneath your chin, gently angling your head so that your eyes meet his.

“I like the thought of a fulfilling relationship with you.” He confesses, his doe eyes causing you to melt.

“I, uh, Shouto the card might not be referring to that though.” You stammer, your eyes flicking in between his and his lips.

“You said that I should go on intuition beforehand, yes?” He asks, wanting you to confirm. When you nod your head, his smile turns into a smirk. “Well then my intuition tells me that the card is referring to us.” And in one fluid motion, his lips are on yours. Like always, they’re soft, slow, and sensual… and you can never get enough of them. With one hand going up to play with his hair and the other one wrapping around his neck, you press yourself closer to him as he kisses you more feverishly.

“Thanks for my reading,” he says breathlessly, each word in between kisses. You yourself are breathless as well, sinking into his embrace like puddy.

“Anytime.”

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inventors-fair · 3 years

Text

Two-Faced Commentary

People went really big this week! There were a lot of cool tropes, novel mechanics, and a surprising number of white cards with hexproof.

@alextfish - Manifold Core

The front side of this card is a very powerful cost reduction effect, especially given that it applies to a set of cards that often don’t have any colored mana in their costs. I suspect that would often function as a combo piece in decks that don’t intend to transform it, to a degree that it overshadows the rest of the card a bit, but the overall flavor is good. The card is also very aggressive when transformed on turn 4, although that you need to four-for-one yourself to get the creature serves as a powerful check.

@bread-into-toast - Guilt-Wracked Artist

A genuinely horrifying card concept. I’m not 100% sure that I follow what the treasure represents in the story (the key?), but it’s still very unnerving.

Mechanically, the card holds together reasonably well, in that if you get the card in the graveyard the “right” way, then it’s easier to pay the disturb cost, and the mutual discard plays reasonably with a graveyard-focused strategy.

@decayingbooks - Graceful Swan

This is a great transformation trope, and a very strategy-heavy flip card. Flip cards that gain value by flipping back and forth are established design space, with Huntmaster of the Fells being the most notable, but this card adds the additional wrinkle that, once you’ve accumulated enough bird tokens, you want it to be night on your own turn to take advantage of the ability to buff your tokens. (Although both activated abilities do have value on your opponent’s turn.)

While it’s doing reasonable flavor work, the ability that makes your bird creature tokens humans may be overkill. There’s nothing wrong with trinket text, and in a set with human tribal elements it could be genuinely relevant, but the card is already fairly complicated.

@deg99 - Seraph of Salvation

The creature revealing its true demonic nature (or falling angel, but my understanding is that this is the former) trope is a good fit for a TDFC. There’s a ton packed into this card - the front side on its own is very flashy, and threatening an instant-speed Mythos of Snapdax once the card is on the field changes the way the game is played significantly. (Wrathing at instant speed is a big deal.) The mechanics of each side don’t feel all that strongly connected, but they make enough sense on their own. I like the aesthetic decision to leave the demon W/B rather than making it mono-black, as its effect is more strongly associated with white.

@dimestoretajic - Zosusk, Cruel Taskmaster

The front half of this card is extremely strong. Even at four mana, a super-Ashnod’s Altar that can go in the command zone is a scary proposition, especially given that it’s also difficult to remove and can cash itself out for a treasure if it would die. The indestructibility is arguably overkill, especially as the card can generate a lot of value even if it is removed right away.

Similarly, I’m not sure if the back half particularly needs hexproof; if you’ve got any kind of board, it generates a lot of value, and I think that on balance it’s better if that’s answerable.

The idea of a card that’s sort of a side-grade when transformed is interesting, as is the tension about whether or not to cash out your creatures if it’s going to transform, and I like that the tension is abated a bit by the fact that both halves make sense in the same deck, even though they operate differently.

@fractured-infinity - Velis, Distorted Reflection

This is a really clever twist on the Evil Twin design space. The back side is very powerful, but the effort required to get there is real and meaningful, and the front side is enough of a slightly bad deal on its own that the transformation ability isn’t just a freebie. Needing to specifically see a creature with the same name die is also fairly clever, as it means that Velis needs help to transform. (You can’t just crash Velis into whatever it’s copying.) The back side does have a pretty high level of inevitability; once you’re at six mana, you can effectively “steal” any creature your opponent plays before they can attack with it, and in Commander can be used to keep other commanders off of the field. This latter feature might make this card safer as a non-legendary creature.

@gollumni - Ral, Untapped Potential

The front half of this card makes a lot of sense as a Ral card. The sparking condition doesn’t tie directly into Ral’s own sparking story in any obvious way (he sparked when he discovered his partner was cheating on him), but it mechanically ties into what the character is about and strongly enables his fairly stiff sparking condition.

If I have a quibble with this card, it’s that you often won’t be able to productively make use of Ral the turn he flips. To do so, you’d need a fourth instant or sorcery that you can cast that turn, this time at full price, and if it’s a very cheap spell then the amount of value you’re getting is pretty modest.

@greensunzenith - Escape from the City

What I think really elevates this card above the basic idea of a Saga that transforms into a creature is that it does something with the lore counters after transforming. Unless I’m missing something, haste on Hazoret is mostly superfluous, as it will nearly always have been on the battlefield from the beginning of your turn when it transforms. (It could still matter if you double proliferate or if it changes controllers, I guess.)

@grornt - Inconspicuous Youth

This card is another fantastic choice for a transformation trope. This one does a magical girl transformation in a non-obvious but flavorful way, where the character transforms specifically in response to a major threat, and then reverts when the threat is gone. That it transforms even when the major threat is your own card feels like an acceptable flavor bend for the sake of making the card playable, and that it reverts as soon as any major threat is gone is a reasonable choice for simplicity. (It could also check for 6 MV creatures at the end of the turn.)

I went back and forth on whether I liked the back half having defender. On one hand, it allows the back half to be far bigger and scarier than if it didn’t have defender; without that, the transformed half needs to shrink or the card needs to cost more. It’s also fine flavor. On the other hand, it really gums up the board, as it’s very difficult to profitably attack into the card. Additionally, it kind of creates an “...oh” moment when reading the back.

Lastly, I think that a white creature just straight up having hexproof is a bit of a bend (although not one wholly without precedent.) The flavor helps justify it (and it’s definitely mechanically relevant), but flavor can justify a lot of things.

Despite these questions, I do really think the design is very clever, and it was one of my favorites from this week.

@helloijustreadyourpost - Marchesa, Tyrant Queen

The mirrored Abyss effects are clever together, and the flavor helps to sell the shift. The nontoken clause on the first side is doing several interesting things in terms of not only making the card a bit stronger as a control tool, but in helping enable the flip. Giving opponents a natural out on the back side helps check the overall power level of the card as well, and I think it’s a positive that any wrath is an answer for the back half in Commander. While the flavor makes sense and it certainly makes the card stronger, I could take or leave the second ability on the back.

@hiygamer - Penultimate Form

I like that this card cleverly ties the “quest” condition to something that the reverse side of the card will naturally need. I also think that the triggered ability on the back is extremely clever, in that helps make the card less tricky. Without the triggered ability on the back, there’s a not-immediately-obvious interaction where casting instant spells in response to each other allows the creature to transform with five loyalty counters on it, which is a major advantage in that the card can use its -4 ability right away and survive. Stealing a creature is extremely powerful protection for a planeswalker and strong in general. However, because a similar ability is present on the back, players don’t need to recognize that stacking instants correctly allows the planeswalker side to start with five+ loyalty counters, as you can get the same effect by just casting them in sequence.

@hypexion - Sigarda, Fallen Grace

The transform condition on this card is quite difficult, even with the amount of Eldrazi token-making available and its ability to fuel itself, but the front half is plenty strong. Large, evasive, efficient hexproof creatures are something that I think they shy away from a bit now (and white rarely gets creatures that just have unconditional hexproof), although the throwbacks to Sigarda’s first card are clear. While the back half of the card is a meaningful upgrade, the front half is strong enough that it stands on its own - many decks may not worry about flipping the card at all.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes - Ormendhal Weakened

Ormendhal is a potent abyss effect, and having it wait until your upkeep to trigger for all players is a good safety choice - it gives your opponents a healthy window of time to respond to it. The backside is something of a consolation prize, as in many circumstances it will operate like a basic Plains, but the flavor is interesting. I don’t totally understand the decision to allow the land to tap for colorless instead of just white; outside of an environment where colorless mana costs exist, it won’t make much of a difference, and while there have been Eldrazi on Innistrad (and Ormendahl was affected by Emrakul), the connection seems a little loose to justify what’s otherwise an unusual line of rules text.

@jsands84 - Battered Lamp

This is a really fun design. That you need another creature to “rub” the lamp is a cute piece of text, and allows for other costs on the card to be pulled down to really attractive levels

The degree of inevitability on this card (5-power, evasive, bounces any blockers your opponent has, requires either artifact destruction or instant-speed creature destruction), along with its complexity, might push it to rare, although I like that the numbers work out such that this doesn’t win the game on its own.

I’m not sure whether this is intentional, but you can effectively get “infinite wishes” by having Zephyr Djinn bounce itself when you transform it for the last time. It’s enough of a tempo hit that I don’t think it’s a power level concern, and if you’ve already made (and probably attacked with) a 5-power evasive creature twice, then there’s a good chance that you’d rather attack with the Djinn the third time than to bounce it, but I felt that it was an interaction worth pointing out.

@kellylogs - Klara, Embereth Aspirant

This is a sufficiently clean, elegant transform condition that, even though this is not an existing planeswalker character, tells a clear story. I do feel like the backside of this card could be a bit stronger; if you’ve successfully attacked alone with Klara, blockers may not be something that’s causing you problems, and in an aggressive deck a 3/2 with Exalted may be at least as powerful planeswalker side in many scenarios. (Although being able to get a 2/2 Vigilance creature right away means that you don’t fall back much in terms of board presence.)

The -7 ability in particular could probably also use a bit more juice. While it’s technically a three-turn ult, its impact disappears if Klara does, and the +2 ability required to get to it is pretty weak (especially on the turn when Klara transforms, where it will generally do nothing.)

@misterstingyjack - King Pakesh II

The two sides of this card are loosely mechanically connected (they both like it if your opponents’ creatures die, although both halves can also be fueled in other ways), but the flavor helps tie them together. I think that limiting the front half to one treasure/turn is a good decision both in that it helps keep the cost of the card down and in that the card isn’t so good that you don’t care about the back half. Both halves have unique mechanics that still feel reasonably elegant and flavorful, and I like that the card doesn’t try to do too much. This is also a cool recontextualization of Disturb in general.

@morbidlyqueerious - Niko, Quizzical Javelineer

You mentioned that this card is revised from an earlier contest where the goal was to make a card that included every letter of the alphabet, and while that shows in the card’s name, the overall package isn’t stretching or squishing tooooo much to meet that criterion. Niko offers a larger amount of repeatable scry that exceeds what’s generally printed, although needing to connect with what’s otherwise a gray ogre to get it makes it such that it’s not likely to fire too many times in one game. The flip condition is challenging enough that I think the strongish +2 ability on the reverse side is justified, especially as it will often leave Niko vulnerable. If anything, I think the reverse side could perhaps be a smidge stronger.

I’m not sure whether this is intentional or not, but I do think that it’s interesting that it’s easier to meet the card threshold for the when you’re on the draw, but easier to meet the unblocked attack condition when you’re on the play.

@naban-dean-of-irritation - Will, Stoic Cryomancer

This is a pretty clever way of handling a flip walker that represents power sets found in two different colors, and the card does a solid job of feeling like a tag team. Another cool thing about this card is that it defies the legendary rule as long as you leave both copies on different sides.

If I have a critique of the card, it’s that I do think it’s a bit difficult to reach Will’s ult, however. If you play the card on curve (turn 3), you generally can’t flip it until turn 4. From there, you need to use the +2 three times to get to 10 loyalty, which is only possible if your opponent consistently has at least two creatures. That takes you to turn 7, which means that you can use the Ult on turn 8, making it a five-turn ult (or four turns if you were able to flip Will on turn 1). The ult only does something, however, if you control another planeswalker. While the ult is not a big deal on a planeswalker that’s this flexible, I think it could be a smidge cheaper. (-9 would save you no turns on building to it, but means that you don’t need to have another walker in play to use it.)

I’m also not sure if overtly making typeless permanents is something that’s worth putting on a card, given the potential confusion. The rules can handle it, and there are ways of making it happen in-game already, but similar gameplay can be achieved in more conventional ways.

@nicolbolas96 - Ugin, Last Among Elders

This is another card where the front half is almost worth it on its own, so the relatively steep flip requirement is fine, as it serves as more of a bonus. Life gain and card draw aren’t the things I most strongly associate with Ugin, but the card draw works as a mirror of Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, and the package is sort of like a miniature version of Ugin’s ult.

This is a small thing, but I wish Ugin was a bit bigger than 3/3. I realize that the similar Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, is only a 4/4, but 3/3 feels a bit small for an Elder Dragon.

The planeswalker side is recognizably Ugin, serving as a sort of greatest-hits of his associated cards. The novel ultimate will win the game on the spot in any deck built around it, but as you spent 5+8 mana on Ugin already and upticked it three times, that’s totally fine.

@nine-effing-hells - Mysterious Ruins

It’s not totally obvious which part of the ability the Revelation ability word refers to, but overall the card tells a clear story. A land that transitions into cardflow in the late midgame and a (kinda) finisher in the late game makes a lot of sense, although opponents that are too worried about the reverse side can save a kill spell for it. A land that enters the battlefield untapped doesn’t need to do much else to be good, so the high overall investment required to flip it is a good decision. Decks that want this sort of effect will tend to be controlling decks that can make better use of the mutual draw as well.

@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff - Tender of the Wilds

The names on this card are clever, and help tell a different story than the superficially similar Mayor of Avabruck.

This is a very strong effect; the back side in particular is both large for a 2-mana werewolf and has a very strong anthem effect. While a good fit for a werewolf deck, this card is strong enough to go almost anywhere (and the front half is slightly better in a non-werewolf deck.)

This is a minor thing, but the more common templating for abilities like the backside has is to roll the stats it provides into the creature itself (printing it as a 4/3) and then to print the ability as “Other non-human creatures you control...” However, I think the templating you’ve chosen is potentially reasonable on this card for the sake of mirroring the front half.

@piccadilly-blue - Gavony Town Hall

This is a very difficult card to evaluate, because its impact on the game can vary a ton depending on how things are ordered.

This needs to go in a token deck to do anything at all, but the day-side drawback of turning off all of your creatures is harsher than the anthem on the back is beneficial, if you’re trying for an aggro strategy. On the flip side, there’s a lot of potential to gum up the board quite a bit with indestructible hexproof tokens if you play the card after your token producers. Token strategies already sometimes gum up the board, and this creates the potential for game stalls. Your opponent can get around this by passing their turn to shift to night, but that’s a fairly major tempo loss, and it sets you up well for the crack back.

I do like that there’s some interesting things that can be done with wraths and with creating token copies of cards with powerful static effects while on the day side.

@pocketvikings - Covetous Vizier

One of two “genie of the lamp” cards this week, I believe that this card is specifically a reference to the Disney movie Aladdin. (I could be wrong about that - I’m not super familiar with genies.) This card is basically Phylactery Lich on an installment plan, although you spend more total mana and some life. Additionally, your opponent has a window of time to respond with creature removal, which is not the case for the Lich. In compensation, the front half of the card can be played profitably even if you control no artifacts. Black does, as of Midnight Hunt, apparently get 2/3 creatures with upside for 1B at higher rarities, but a 2/3 for 1B with a useful effect is already, on its own, a satisfactory creature. The first question I had with this card is why it wasn’t just a lich, but not every card needs to use the most obvious or most-established flavor for an effect - and it’s more memorable that it doesn’t.

@quillpaw - Shellcrown Phoenix

A few different phoenix cards - Everquill Phoenix and Rekindling Phoenix - have used complicated tokens to try to mimic this effect, and a few DFC cards represent hatching eggs, but this card is novel in combining them, and I think it works really well.

The one slight oddness with this card is that it’s possible to miss your chance to transform it back, if you don’t have the mana (or don’t wish to spend the mana) to flip it at the time that the last counter is removed. It’s possible to play around this by attacking with fewer creatures, but I don’t think that the card as a whole is so strong that this limitation is necessary. Additionally, due to the cost of the card and the flip condition, I feel like the game will often be over before the card can flip back, but it still has utility in getting the last bit of damage in in a gummed up board state.

@real-aspen-hours - Gathering Storm

The front half of this card is very strong, offering heavy levels of card selection at a reasonable price on a card type that’s relatively difficult to interact with. I don’t know that it’s over the top (three mana is a lot for just selection), but the card doesn’t hinge completely on

I respect the decision to use a simple transform condition. I feel like the “obvious” angle is to condition it on having a certain number of cards in your graveyard, and that’s potentially safer (the current version will, I think, sometimes be flipped with just one very strong card in your graveyard), but even that requires some building around, so it’s probably not that big of a deal. I do like giving players a decision

@reaperfromtheabyss - Wavewhisper Egret

This is a lot of card for a two-mana uncommon. The front half would be an attractive card even without the ability to transform, and the transform effect will generally scry at least 4. Blue can get 2-power fliers with upside at higher rarities on occasion, but this is certainly a very aggressively-costed version of this creature profile.

I also think the decision to flavor this as a card from Kaladesh, rather than from New Phyrexia or Alara, was an interesting one. It injects a bit of light horror into a setting that doesn’t have much of that.

@shakeszx - A Tempest Foretold

Having the saga exile itself and return transformed is an elegant way to kill two birds with one stone, dealing both with the sacrifice clause on the card and helpfully disposing of the now-irrelevant lore counters.

I’m not 100% sure how to parse the first ability on this card - I’m assuming that it’s meant to pull from your graveyard or cards you own in exile (and maybe the stack), since those are under most circumstances the only zones that will have instant and sorcery cards in them when the ability resolves that aren’t your hand, but as written it sort of reads as though you can grab cards from places like your opponent’s graveyard. The rules do intervene to stop you from putting other players’ cards into your hand, but I feel that the wording on this could be clearer.

I’m also not sure that the back side works the way we want it to. In cases of cards that exile themselves on resolution, I’m not sure that Izzuke will recognize that it’s the same card, and any other card will go to the graveyard upon resolution, where it won’t be recognized as the same card if it’s then exiled again. (The rules could maybe be altered to support this, but it’d create additional complications.) Additionally, I’m not sure that exiling your hand in order to slowly potentially get the instants and sorceries back one at a time really feels worth it; Izzuke is a good deal for four mana, but even with Ward 4, the blowout potential is pretty huge. If your opponent saves any removal for it, you’re very likely to lose.

All that said, the general concept of a saga that builds up a resource that the creature it flips into can expend is a strong one.

@snugz - Queen Bee

Assuming that you hit your land drops and that nothing happens to your drones, this card will flip after two land drops, having created seven 1/1 fliers. The reverse side will then make these fliers 2/2’s, three of which can attack right away (assuming this occurred over two turns). In most formats, this means that your opponent is going to be dead before the long-term value aspects of the card come into play. They are still relevant in Commander and as a rebuilding option if your drone army gets wrathed, and the flavor is good, however.

On the whole, the card may be a little too efficient at building a game-winning board, especially as it is hard to remove if not removed immediately. I think the card could do fewer things and still work as a card, even though all of the individual components make flavor sense.

@starch255 - Cursed Knight

There’s a lot of things I really like about this card. I like that its toughness is low compared to its power, so it will usually either kill something or die in any combat with another creature. I like that the Frog side is still a knight. This feels like a reasonably in-pie way to give white a well-above-the-curve creature, and if your opponent doesn’t have an answer or a body to throw in front of it, this puts out much larger life swings than two-mana uncommons normally ever do. Even if your opponent tosses a 1/1 in front of this, you’re still up a bit.

@whuh-oh - Masked Debutante

This card has a lot of moving pieces, but the overall package makes sense. The actual power level of the card hinges a lot on your opponent having at least three creatures already in play, but there are enough outs to it that it doesn’t feel hopeless in any case. I also like that the creatures have to actually hit you to get the counters, limiting the total amount of value you can steal. I also like that the card doesn’t have any sort of anti-sacrifice mechanism built in; it’s game-winning enough of the time as it is, and doesn’t need to have what answers do exist for it to be shut off.

I’m not 100% sure that the creature-stealing is really a red thing, but tying it to the survival of the creature helps, and in general makes the card much more fair.

@wilsonosgoodmcman - Venser, Close to Death

In inventing a new card subtype, this is the most ambitious card for this week. I also like the flavor of a doomed planeswalker having only minus abilities, and lining up the planeswalker so that it needs to die to using one of its abilities (or take damage on your turn, I guess) is a nice little minigame that isn’t trivial, but also is easy enough that you can usually expect to flip Venser if your opponent doesn’t have a substantially greater board presence than you.

The third ability on Venser should probably target only other permanents, to avoid confusion about what happens if it targets Venser, but that’s pretty minor. (I’m assuming that the intent is that it doesn’t flicker Venser.)

Even though it costs you (usually) a creature and the effort of flipping Venser, I think that the +1 on the reverse side might be a bit much. While all of the abilities are powerful, that one stands out as especially tough to beat.

@wolkemesser - Keepsafe Bear

This card tells a cool story, and I appreciate the work you did in balancing the difficulty to flip the card. At first, I sort of felt like it went a little overboard in terms of preventing you from flipping it (you basically need a wrath or for your opponent to block it or attack into it with a much larger creature), but the front half and back half are both strong enough that I think it’s okay for there to be some fairly specific hoops.

The back half does just enough, I think. There’s an alternate design for this card where the back half loses indestructible and the front half is harder to flip, and that version is probably a bit easier to print, but I think there’s a place for the higher-challenge version presented here as well.

#commentary #if-two faced #mtg #magic the gathering #inventor's fair #custom magic card

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imaginesfora3 · 3 years

Text

Stormy [Furuichi Sakyo/Reader]

Nights like these weren’t uncommon.

You had found that the stormier it was outside the easier it was to cozy up with Sakyo on the couch, romance permeating through the air; he was normally seated there watching some movie you’d never heard of, allowing you to join him if you promised not to talk. It’s not as though you wanted to have a full-blown conversation with him constantly but him saying that always made you want to annoy him a little, poke fun at how seriously he took analyzing movies for the sake of acting, but you saved that for when you wanted a piece of his rowdy side. The pouring rain made you a little more complacent and you agreed to his rules, flopping yourself down beside him with your legs thrown across his lap as you watched.

Sakyo wasn’t the ‘Netflix and chill’ type of man, if you told him you wanted to watch a movie with him, he was going to watch it. It didn’t fit the situation perfectly since you had injected yourself into his personal time but it at least gave you the chance to observe his handsome face without him telling you to scram. You watched his face uninterrupted, noticing the subtle little changes when something happened in the movie to change his mood; it was hard to see if you weren’t looking closely but Sakyo could be rather expressive, and you delighted in seeing all the little faces he made without even knowing.

You think he might be getting distracted when his hand rested on your thigh but he’s as laser-focused as ever, his hand slowly moving up and down your calf in a comforting motion. You wondered how many people would be in awe to see such a scary man give such an intimate show of affection, fingers gliding along your skin as you wriggled under his touch, inching ever closer. You managed to get a side glance out of him but it was your turn to pretend to be enthralled with the movie, knowing he could read you like a book but still pretending anyway.

There had been a time where Sakyo never would have imagined this.

Never would have thought he would be sitting beside the person he loved, holding them, feeling the warmth of their skin and the weight of their admiring gaze. He had denied himself such pleasures for so long for the sake of their happiness, or so he had said. Maybe he just didn’t know how to be a good boyfriend, maybe it was safer to hide behind every excuse he could pile up until the wall was so packed in there was no one willing to tear it down. It had been a team effort to level the playing field once more, a solid effort of you slowly picking away at him while brick by brick he allowed himself to be vulnerable with you.

Did he think he deserved you?

Not in the slightest.

It was a mindset that you scolded him over, seemed to get genuinely upset over which was understandable enough as it had caused a fair bit of fighting between you. You had even broken up for months, Sakyo unable to properly talk with you, skirting around the concept of love and insisting you were better off as friends. He thought you were presenting him an ultimatum, either love or nothing at all, but in the end, he understood that things between you would never be normal again if he let you go. He wouldn’t just be lacking in your love but your presence entirely, and even with those walls built back up, they would never be as strong, not after you. Not when you had created such a solid crack in its foundation.

But that was why you insisted on building a new one, a foundation you could stand on and build together. No cracks, total transparency, an understanding. He had thought it was just a romantic notion to be able to start over at his age, to be able to see something from someone else’s view point when he was so stubborn himself. But your sincerity reached him, his heart was never as cold as he tried to make it seem, and you never exploited that part of him. You loved and cherished and teased, but you never hurt him, not willingly.

Sakyo wished that the movie didn’t speak to him so clearly, that the miscommunication between the two protagonists didn’t ring so true to life, but it seemed even Hollywood was able to get it right once in a while. The teary-eyed main character reminded him of you, of your frustration, desperate to get him to understand. The stoic secondary character, the love interest, the one who rejected their feelings and refused to admit to them, truly believing the person they loved back was better off without them. There’s also a sense of embarrassment lingering in the back of his mind as he identified with this overdramatic movie far too much for this being a parallel to his reality.

“Sakyo, are you really gonna make me sit through the credits without talking, too?” You had moved your legs from his lap and had instead moved to lean against him, arms wrapped around his as you rested your head on his shoulder. “That ending was depressing. Who wrote that? I should sue.”

“…Not everyone has a happy ending.” A true enough statement but he knew it might just cause an argument if he’s to start a debate about what makes a truly great love story; some of them ended in tragedy, forever a mark on the hearts of those involved.

“…I guess you’re right.” An unsettling silence filled the room as Sakyo looked down at you, lips pursed as he tried to think of something to say. He hoped it didn’t come off as him assuming you and he would have a bad ending, he would never wish that on you after all that you had already suffered through. He had broken your heart more than enough for one lifetime, to the point he knew he’d be making it up for the rest of his life. “You should try watching something upbeat for once.”

“I watch everything as long as it’s good.” That was a lie, you had totally seen him watching some of the trashiest movies to ever grace the big screen, but from the smile on his face you realized it was a joke. He was in rare form tonight, not only outwardly showing you affection but cracking jokes as well.

“Since when have you become a comedian?”

“Who’s laughing?”

Sakyo tried to keep a straight face but it was so hard when you were giving him that incredulous look, the uncharacteristic smile being hidden behind his hand as he pretended to wipe his mouth. You grabbed his hand with one hand and turned his face towards you with another, not missing the low growl that came from his throat at your show of aggression. With Sakyo there was always a bit of fight but you knew how to get your way more often than not, and tonight would be no different. Getting to see his full beautiful smile, not obstacles in the way, was a moment that should be cherished.

“You’re going to have to tuck me and hold me real tight tonight to chase all my sad thoughts away.” Your noses brushed and Sakyo fought back an eyeroll at your dramatics, “You object to cuddling with me? Aren’t I the sun to your shine? The light of your life? Your very reason to take that first breath in the- “

“Be quiet.” Sakyo cut you off with a chaste kiss to your lips, holding you there for a moment before he pulled away to see your pleased look. He tried to ignore the fact you were clearly leading into him doing that, all too used to him cutting you off by kissing you to shut you up. “Stop pointing out the obvious.”

“Then just agree to give me what I want!”

“… I didn’t tell you to join me.”

“Ugh, does it always have to be so difficult with you?!” Your head flopped back down to his shoulder in defeat and Sakyo smirked, turning back towards the screen. You settled your legs back across your lap as he went to turn on another movie, sighing in defeat at the fact he was making getting him in bed an uphill battle tonight. It wasn’t even that your mind was in the gutter, you simply wanted to be held by the man you held so dear.

“If you can stay quiet through another movie… I can think of a reward for you.”

“Ooh, a gift… Is it change tied to a string? I don’t know what type of gift cheapskates give out~” You teased, ignoring the shiny piece of jewelry around your neck and the heavy ring on your finger.

“You can go to bed alone tonight.”

“And have you sleep on the couch? Your back could never survive.”

The dangerous glint in Sakyo’s eye as he squeezed your thigh told you that you were on the edge of receiving a punishment rather than a present, but with Sakyo, both always turned out in your favor. Your hand rested on top of his, leaning back against the couch and giving him your best ‘love you~’ smile.

You were sure you’d get your way tonight.

Stormy weather was for lovers, after all.

#Sakyo Furuichi #Furuichi Sakyo #A3 #A3!#act! addict! actors!#a3 act addict actors #a3 x reader #furuichi sakyo x reader #sakyo furuichi x reader #a3 imagines #scenario

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