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out-of-this-dimension · 3 years

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Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others. We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox. Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better. Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all. Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually. However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular. Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive. I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64. I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return. I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies.

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story. I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky. Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it. An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault. Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure. Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault. This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids. We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma. We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma. That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him. While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels. If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels. Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are. But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.

- Revise the scene with Tricky. I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done. And why is he suddenly king now? Did his parents die? He seems not affected by this at all? Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it. Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big. As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out. Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously. And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved. I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again. I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive. This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids. I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that. Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask? I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”. Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest? I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off? They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back. Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing. Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning? Or maybe back in Katina? And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force. It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival. Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen? I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission. I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals. Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies. While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well. While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray. Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”. As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion. Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there). But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this. He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids. Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo? Are they safe somewhere else? Where do they go? How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs. A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me. While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out. I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be. “But why, Amalia? Why are you disappointed by that?” 1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes. 2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy. And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures. Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later? Where were the Krazoa in all of this? Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers? It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much. Which I mean, sure. Family, kiddo game. I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant. As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins. Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations. Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast. Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened). I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it. I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria. Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault. Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible. It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it. Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion. Why? Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level. Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team. Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria. The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short. It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware. I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place? I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic? Also where is my revised Adventures music? Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t?

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign. I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints. I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign. Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels. Self-explanatory. Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points. I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers. It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good. Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly. I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it. And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault. But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot. For variety’s sake.

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind. So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future. I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading! Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s? Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

#star fox assault #starfox assault #super long #queue'd

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iguessishouldbethankful · 5 years

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headcanon time:

Okay so someone ( @readasaur ) asked me about the various headcanons I had for both the Star Fox and Star Wolf teams, and other characters. So I decided to tackle as many as I could. Star Wolf will have to wait for later, but there are some snippets of them here. Please keep in mind that these headcanons are of my own opinion and some are built upon years of speculation from the original timeline, old fanfics and things I’ve read. They can also change from story to story. AKA, I’m super flexible and willing to discuss, but most of these are usually what I follow in general.

Also a lot of these headcanons I implement in my own fics and interpretations in various pieces and sketches.

General headcanons:

I never played the original Star Fox game. I started with the 64 version, so I never thought they amputated their legs. And I still believe they never had to. But I do keep that easter egg as a dark part of history in the Lylat System.

I do think there is a form of religion in the Lylat System. It’s a religion similar to Pagan, tied to their ancestors and nature. Not everyone follows it, and many have their own interpretations of it.

The Lylatians diet consists mainly of seafood, vegetables and bugs. Meat does exist, but only on certain planets. And due to the food shortage during the wars and struggles across the system, the Meats became a luxury. I also did not figure out what find of animal life would exist that would provide meats.

There are struggles between the species, mostly between mammals and non-mammals. Mammals are the majority in Lylat, Reptiles and Amphibians coming in second, and Avians coming in last as they were mostly all exclusive to Zoness (because so far we only see Falco. No other avian).

Yes, worm holes and various dimensions to exist. In fact, the Lylat System is very active with these space phenomenon, but they are also considered highly dangerous as very few come back from such adventures from the inside. The phenomenon are usually considered as portals for deities if viewed religiously.

The DNA of all Lylatians are compatible with one another. As in, a mammal and an avian can have children. Any form of cross species relationship, as long as it’s between two Lylatians, can result in a healthy child. However, it is frowned upon due to scientific studies that the more mixture between the species can eventually result in great or great great grandchildren being born sterile. So it is highly suggested that the species keep to themselves and their own. Mammals to mammals, reptiles to reptiles, avians to avians, etc.

Star Fox:

The Great Fox’s hangar actually has a zero gravity mode. Slippy uses it to properly transfer the vehicles to a more secure location to work with. It is also useful to not tire any of the team members out when they are individually working on their Arwings. Falco especially enjoys the experience.

The Great Fox also has an installed atmospheric clock that mimics the day and night cycle of Corneria—and it also follows Corneria’s clock as to help the team members to have a healthier biological clock when not in active duty. During the daytime, the lights are fully on and operational, and the temperature is at a normal level. During the nighttime, the lights dim down to a mere artificial twilight, and the temperature drops.

There are individual dorms for each member. In fact, there are 6 in total with a bed, a window and a fully functional bathroom. Only 4 are in use until Krystal joins. The spare dorm is used as a guestroom is anyone decides to visit them, or they have to have a rescue mission with a survivor. If by any chance they need more rooms, they can easily convert some of the supply rooms into a guestroom.

Fox McCloud:

He has green eyes.

It was only shown briefly in Farewell Beloved Falco, but I do picture Fox having a short temper. Not as notorious as Falco’s, but enough to warrant the fights the two of them go through.

I also feel as though the short temper comes from the sudden increase of stress and responsibilities Fox had to deal with after his father passed.

Fox never fully believed his father was dead. He never elaborates or speaks much about it with anyone, but after the war, he feels as though his father was always with him. He could even hear his father. It scares him, but comforts him.

Fox is heteroflexible. As in, he only participated in relationships with those of the opposite gender. However, there are a few members of his own gender that, if put in the position, he could actually see himself falling for. But there are a very select few. But if never pushed or bothered about it, he will never really think about his sexuality.

Fox has little experience in bed. He spent most of his time training instead. He had some puppy love in the past, sure, but nothing too serious. The closest he ever got to a truly committed relationship was with Krystal.

He does suffer from an annual rut, and he absolutely hates it. It’s the most awkward time for him and he hides away as much as possible. During the war or missions however, he takes a supplement to bypass the rut altogether. Which, unfortunately means that the rut will come around much stronger the coming year.

On that note, Fox can knot during sex. He also has a natural habit of wanting to bite the individual he is sleeping with.

One more thing. Fox is very vanilla in bed as well.

Out of the team, Fox is possibly the most organized—despite Peppy’s constant complaints. His room is tidy enough for him to know where everything is. It’s also a rule his father implemented when he was little. Put everything back where you found. That’ll make life easier.

Fox is very much reigned by his feelings at times, which can cause him to slip up as a leader. However his actions do reflex what he says in the end.

Fox is a natural furnace. As in, he’s usually warm all the time. Which is why he enjoys the winter season, and can live without summer season. However, he does enjoy the sun as well. Hell, he flew right into the sun, he’s not scared of some heat.

He considers Peppy as a second father to him, Vivian as a mother and Lucy as a sister.

Fox never truly met his mother. She died when he was a baby. James never told him how, just knows that was the reason they left Papetoon. He knew there was a lot of pain connected to his home planet and his father.

Fox found an old pair of aviator glasses of his dad in the Great Fox. He keeps it with him.

The red scarf is still part of the Star Fox uniform because Fox always thought it was a cool accessory to keep around, and none of his teammates complained about it.

When not on active duty, Fox does sleep in. And he has a quiet snore.

Fox is actually very romantic when given the chance. He also wants to have a family.

When in regards to Wolf, Fox respects the canine’s flying and battle skills. He even admires him. But that’s as far as his feelings for Wolf goes. It takes a while to even get to this point as he heard rumors that Wolf was slightly responsible for his father’s murder. But as it wasn’t confirmed, he keeps the Star Wolf team leader at a distance unless they truly need to cooperate with each other.

Fox has no connection to Leon, despite him not really wanting to deal with the chameleon as he is aware of Falco’s uncomfortable-ness around that particular pilot.

Fox will never trust or liked Pigma. The only reason he was trying to save the swine was due to morals.

Pigma’s comments about his father during battles were the hardest things for Fox to ignore. He used it as fuel to hunt the swine down during the dog fights.

Fox actually pitied Andrew if anything.

He is lowkey possessive, especially when it comes to his teammates. It was something he struggled with badly when Falco left for 4 years. Fox never held the avian back or kept him from leaving, but he did struggle with the results afterwards. Which is why he gets very nervous that someone else will leave, or that Falco will leave again. He’d rather discharge them himself if it were the case.

Falco Lombardi:

He has blue eyes. It’s a call back to the Farewell Beloved Falco’s design.

He’s a mix between a Vietnamese Pheasant and a Red Throated Caracara Falcon. Thus he is considered a hybrid falcon and takes pride in his mixture.

He was born in Zoness, but moved to Corneria with his mother when he was 3. He was very attached to his mother, and he is reminded of her when he sees their home planet, Zoness. She passed away when he was still a young teenaged.

Falco never met his father and isn’t interested in meeting him. He has no idea that he actually has a half-sister.

He’s one of the messier teammates. Not with trash or anything, it’s mostly with his clothes as he has a natural habit of nesting in his bed during sleep. This also goes hand in hand with him always being cold and hating it as he doesn’t retain heat very well. So he packs on as much fabric between him and the atmosphere as possible, and is usually seen with his jacket and scarf on.

He’s very much an early riser. He got in the habit of making coffee for the team due to him being the first in the breakroom/kitchen. His coffee is extra strong, dense and enough to wake up even the teammates that enjoy hibernating for too long—aka, Peppy.

Although he never mentions it, Falco is actually a bisexual. He has an equal interest in both females and males, but his type usually lies with mammals due to him growing up in Corneria. He also likes how warm they are. Felines and canines usually catch his eye the most.

Yes, since the war (if not during), Falco has had affections for Fox. However, Falco isn’t good with expressing his feelings and emotions. So he expresses them through diligent action. Slippy feels that Falco is showing off and in a way he is because that’s how he gets Fox’s attention. But the resulting reaction isn’t what he wants…

Falco does regret leaving the team for 4 years. He doesn’t like talking about that time.

Falco does have a rivalry with Krystal, but he instead tries to pull her into the team instead of pushing her away. Why? Because it makes Fox happy to know that the team is back together and getting along, despite Falco’s heavy heart.

Yes, Falco and Katt had a relationship in the past. Falco did and still does care for her a lot, enough to keep her as a friend and unofficial confidant after their romantic relationship ended. He in fact encouraged her to get with Cool as the feline was a better match for her.

Falco, being an Avian, has a cloaca. Not a penis. He also doesn’t have ruts. Much to Fox’s envy.

He is the tallest member in the team. He is also the lightest in weight. And the fastest running wise. However he is not the strongest, coming in on third after Fox and Peppy. He has a brilliant aim with firearms, tying with Fox. However no one can surpass him in flying, even with Fox tailing him in skill. Falco also has a habit of using his beak as a form of weapon when desperate times call for it.

Falco’s temper is legendary. His sarcasm and sass are just as bad. However his confidence is one of his strongest points, only secondary to his loyalty to Fox and team. Do not fuck with his idiots, they are his idiots.

Falco’s rivalry with Leon comes from his teenhood when he formed his first gang of delinquents and wreaked havoc throughout the Lylat System. The story changes as to why their rivalry started, from Falco continuously defeating Leon in flights, to Leon successfully beating Falco down during a brawl, to Falco and his teammates either vandalizing or outright stealing Leon’s ship. But for some reason, Falco is very aware of Leon’s talent for torture… He never expanded as to why he knows this.

If Falco is anywhere near religious, it’s only because of his mother. If not for her, he’d be an atheist. Although most of his teammates assume he is atheist.

Falco doesn’t own property, so what little he has he keeps in a storage that’s not under his name. It’s under Katt’s. He keeps his more personal and important possessions there, such as documents proving he exists, and photo albums of his mother and of Zoness before the pollution. Some Academy paperwork and criminal records are also stored there.

The Great Fox is basically Falco’s most permanent nest.

On that note, after Peppy sacrificed the Great Fox, Falco pretty much lost majority of his possessions with it. It didn’t hit him until after they were returning to the Lylat System.

Falco did test out the Blue Marine once, as everyone was required to. He kept himself calm until he dove in deep underwater, resulting in a major panic attack. He refuses to enter the mini submarine since.

Unlike Fox, Falco actually doesn’t want children due to personal reasons. This can change however.

In the long run, Falco actually has no reason to be aggressive with Wolf or Panther. The only reason he is stems from the fact that he is part of Fox’s team and he will take the mean spirited banter personally due to that.

Now Pigma can go fuck himself for all Falco cares.

He also couldn’t care less about Andrew.

Falco is aware that Fox put him second in command after Peppy became too old. It’s something that he doesn’t want to think about.

Anything that deals with the undoing of the team makes him incredibly flighty and nervous.

Slippy Toad:

His eyes are dark blue.

Probably the messiest team member in Star Fox, but it’s an organized chaos. As long as he knows what he’s doing, Fox will allow it.

He an atheist due to being brought up as one. He gives more credence to scientific proof than anything.

The war was his first on the field experience with flight, and he was intensely nervous about it—and vocal. However after the war, he started to form a stronger backbone. Enough to either smart talk back to Falco or ignore the avian completely.

Despite all the harsh criticism he receives, Slippy does very much care for his teammates. He can’t stand the idea of any of them not being around for any reason. And when Falco left, he suffered a great deal trying to keep Fox motivated and himself as well. He carries those 4 years as a close reminder of how bad things can get.

Slippy is heterosexual. He has very little experience as well with relationships, but that’s mostly due to him being very selective, and also having a long distance relationship with someone over the internet.

Slippy actually writes his plans and manuals in a way he only understands them. It’s not on purpose. It’s just how his mind works. He noticed this when neither Falco, Fox or Peppy understood how to implement the upgrades. So sometimes he needs to dumb down the instructions so they can also follow.

He will, in fact, blast rock n’ roll as loud as he can in the hangar when he’s working. Or on his headphones. He enjoys music a lot and he did influence some of Fox’s taste when they were kids.

Emotionally, Slippy is probably the most well balanced member in Star Fox.

Peppy Hare:

His eyes are dark crimson.

The oldest Star Fox member alive to date. Also was the first recruited by James McCloud. Pigma Dengar came in later.

His relationship with James was incredibly close, almost brotherly. He misses his friend dearly and it reflect on how he cares for Fox.

He is also very protective of his daughter, to a point that he wasn’t fond of her learning much of what he was teaching Fox as he didn’t want her to have to go through the same things they were. He had no idea how much that would strain his relationship with Lucy at first.

He is also not fond of the idea of her wanting to date any of the Star Fox members. Especially Fox.

Peppy broke down hard when he receive the news that his wife passed away. It was the first time since James McCloud that all of the families got together to grieve. Pallbearers he picked were himself, Fox, Beltino, Slippy, Bill and Falco. Lucy was an honorary pallbearer.

Peppy is also close to General Pepper due to old connections and due to his and James successfulness with the Star Fox team before the Lylat Wars.

It actually took a while for Peppy to warm up to Falco when the avian was first recruited, but he offered Fox as much support as possible in the decision. Slippy was easier for him to accept. Peppy was more comfortable with the new dynamic of the team a little before they entered the war.

Peppy actually manages the money for the Star Fox team, and he’s still mentoring Fox over how much should be spent and saved away as there would be long dry seasons in between missions. He worries that Fox might over spend at times, or overly ration their resources. Neither would be good. Fox still needs to pay his father’s debt, even after the Great Fox was destroyed during the Aparoid invasion.

He actually doesn’t fully forgive himself for what happened to James. He had no idea that Pigma would be capable of betrayal, and there are nights where he thinks about what if scenarios where maybe he could have pulled James out of the situation, of that he should have stayed behind so James could still remain. But such thoughts leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

Krystal:

After she joined the Star Fox team, she was the cleanest member in the group. Her room is spotless and beyond organized.

She actually picks up on things very fast due to her empathy and telepathy. However there is a downside that she tries to avoid, which is slipping into other minds and picking up thoughts or emotions. She does he best to avoid it.

She can also see glimpses of various futures, and it’s another talent she tries very much to avoid because it will drive her insane.

She can feel that Falco is jealous of her, but she dares not figure out why. She actually appreciates his caution around her, and it means way more when he does defend her from others. Something Fox doesn’t entirely comprehend.

Once she meets Lucy, the two of them became fast friends. It was a good way to learn more about Fox’s childhood and also of the rest of the team.

Unlike the rest of the Star Fox team, she’s actually very sympathetic towards Star Wolf, if not indifferent. She has no reason to hate them and hasn’t been around long enough to form an opinion. By the time she can, Star Wolf instead assisted them. So her opinion on Wolf, Leon and Panther are leagues more positive than the rest of her teammates.

Lucy Hare:

She grew up with Fox since a toddler. She considers him part of her family, despite the jealousy she felt over him for spending more time with her father. She slightly resented this, as Peppy never taught her everything like he did to Fox.

Lucy however did have a long lasting crush on Fox. Fox just never noticed.

She did good in the Academy, mostly excelling in strategy and scouting. But after she got rejected from joining the Star Fox team, she just went into an Educational career instead, promoting Fichina.

She keeps in constant contact with her father and mother and Fox and Slippy. She also started to accept Falco as a family member. Took a while, but she gets as close to him as she is did with Fox and Slippy.

#star fox #starfox #fox mccloud #falco lombardi #slippy toad #peppy hare #krystal #lucy hare #long post #my drabbles #headcanons

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thebastardmeteocrusherpilot · 5 years

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Andross x Pigma? Please explain?

Oh fuck, I supposed someone would ask about this. Okay, I don’t care honestly. I can calmly answer this question about this couple not so loved by western fans.

[ This is a long post and probably so cringy or more based in headcanons but let’s start! ]

First, a little information that not many know, but thanks to this user, I was able to find out a little more about Pigma’s past. Apparently, Pigma worked with Andross when the monkey was a scientist from Corneria. Now this responds to the fact that they apparently knew each other since before the Lylat war, and would answer or give a reason why Pigma betrayed James and Peppy for Andross. Perhaps they conspired earlier before Andross’s exile, or was there something else? Who knows! The fun of not having much information from Starfox is to develop mysterious ideas.

With that said, and although it is more based on my ideas, I like that possibility that Pigma really is a faithful follower of Andross, or a friend with a lot of admiration for Andross’s ingenuity. Andross was probably an inspiration for Pigma to be a scientist or mechanic or something else. As I said, any possibility is possible, and anyone will have their reasons about its dynamics!

In my case, I really like the idea that Pigma was a friend of Andross since his work in the Corneria army. Andross also sees him as his friend, but he could never show that sign of friendship apart from having daily visits or talks with him. Even Andross could always count on Pigma’s help or collaboration for his plans or care for a little Andrew or his sister (I’ll talk about that later).

Not only that, Andross never cared to pay Pigma for any detail, after all, money was not the important thing for Andross, but more his obsession with work or the unrequited love of his life. Pigma is satisfied with that, and so is being next to Andross, who secretly admires a lot.

Of course, Pigma is not an idiot (of course he is not), and notices Andross’s slow but macabre madness. But he didn’t think it would be so serious until he saw Andross planned to kill James with a bomb (and who Vixy, fox’s mother, would die by accident) and when he saw Andross would sacrifice lives for his work and technological process.

Pigma is still terrified by Andross for that (and does not forgive Andross for what happened with Vixy), but he cannot ignore that the monkey has a powerful determination and great intelligence that is worthy of admiration.

With that said, what do we have here? Basically, a relationship between a totally intelligent but gloomy man and another expressive, mocking and greedy man who in turn is also as intelligent as his beloved monkey friend (and no, I don’t think Pigma is an idiot, just watch starfox 64, zero or Guard, or even Starlink, to realize that he is not the idiot that everyone wants to think thanks to Assault).

The first is a criminal with an interesting histotial, being a man with a lot of intelligence behind and a dark personality, but admired by that first detail, and who the other man admires in total secrecy, but who remains his friend and ally during a dangerous war. Even if you don’t want to admit it, and just talk about the reward you will receive when working as a mercernary with Starwolf, or taking care of Andrew. after all, a greedy man is still a greedy man (that would not make Pigma a bad person, if he had not done what made him the traitor of Starfox).

Andross is an emperor now, but he and pigma continue to interact, whether or not they talk about old times or the future they have in mind if they win the war. The monkey’s brain still didn’t deteriorate too much to lose social behavior, and Pigma is still the sociable pig that was with James or peppy.

(And again) with all that said! The reason why I like the idea of a ship of the two of them would be, basically, for thinking of a story of “romance” with tragicomedy.

In part, because of the different personalities of both, it can create a funny strange relationship between a serious and gloomy man (andross) and an expressive man who loves to make jokes about how strange the other is (pigma). Apart from other fun ideas with them interacting, probably with pigma trying to flirt with andross and failing in the process, or Andross trying to be “pretty” with Pigma.

and on the tragic or distressing part, well, I like it better because of its concept of two men who are bad people “in love”, but it is clear that one manipulates the other by that detail (the manipulated here is Pigma), and the other falls into those “charms” with bad intentions.

In conclusion: I am an idiot who loves to match villains or bad people, having a strange “romantic” relationship between them. Ending in a funny strange interaction or in an anguishing love story between them.

I just need more ships with villains, Sara!

#[ Marti is talking ]#/// if you don't like this ship i can understand and chill with that #/// not everyone are always into my fav ships and i don't force anyone with this one #/// but being honest?? its kinda lame to see a lot of people only telling Pigma is this bad or is forever alone bc reasons :/#/// anyway just don't make bashing for bashing okay?#/// pigma is great and i love him same with andross

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illtaketheskyanyday · 5 years

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4. Have you made any outright changes to the canon material in order to write your muse the way you wanted (entire scenes you chose to omit, chapters you say never existed, things you assume were never said, etc.)?

(( It took me a while to address this question, mostly because it was one I really, really needed to think about.

I don’t know if I’m in the minority or not, but I am someone that both cherishes whatever games Star Fox was able to release, someone that enjoyed the fanon approach, and also enjoys the canon as well. And yet, I pick and choose what I want to use whenever I want to use it because I decided not to cheat myself out of the possibilities that both canon and fanon could offer.

There are things I prefer, and I will list them. I just want to stress that I am intensely flexible to other’s approach to the series as well, and willing to change and adapt my portrayal from time to time when I feel is needed.

I guess this is why it took me a while because I really don’t... omit much. Just have preferences due to how I viewed Falco before any information was available to me.

Falco has blue eyes:

It was the first color I saw for his eyes due to FBF and Assault, and one that stuck with me since. I don’t remember what kind of eyes I have him as a kid and I probably went with full on black at the time. But yeah, this is an old canon piece that I prefer over the current canon only because it was the version I grew up with.

Falco is tall:

Another thing I always headcanoned and prefer over canon, especially now. With Starlink giving proper proportions to all of the characters, I find it interesting how they are height wise in comparison to humans. However, my headcanon for Falco’s height doesn’t include humans in the mix. It’s mostly an IN Lylat thing.

In Lylat, Falco is seen as a very tall and lanky individual. Our version of a 6′2 ft guy. Outside of it, I really don’t care if he’s seen as a manlet. AKA, I’ll cross that road when I get to it. But for me, my muse is a tall lanky fool.

Falco’s a falcon/pheasant hybrid:

Again, another one I run into that I honestly was more or less on the fence about since hearing it as the canon information never got to me when I was little, and I grew up with many different theories as to wtf Falco was. I just always assumed he was some sort of hybrid. And what do you know, that’s a much simpler solution in my opinion. Sure he has the colors of a pheasant, was based off of a pheasant, but his structure damn well isn’t of a pheasant--nor is Falco’s philosophy which is of a bird of prey.

If anyone’s wondering, he’s a mix between a Vietnamese Pheasant and a Red Throated Caracara Falcon.

Lylat has feral versions of it’s citizens:

This is probably the main thing I have changed.

I know what Pigma says in Zero. I am aware of the commentary in Command. I am also very aware that General Shears rides a feral hog after Fox in Farewell Beloved Falco. I am very aware of the existence of feral animals of the Lylatians. I just have a hard time finding logic to it. Thus, I omit them and replaced them with feral dinosaurs and alien animals that have nothing to do with the Lylatians. It just makes more sense.

#immy-ooc #meme stuff #ooc #headcanons #(( links are to my own sketched headcanons #))

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selfish-swine · 6 years

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Let’s Talk About Star Fox and Character For a Moment - Part 2: OOC is Serious Business

Continued from here. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, then go do that first! You need context! Anyway, this is a long one.

So that whole big rant I wrote up was really just a preamble to get to something I REALLY wanted to rant about but found myself basically writing two rants to get my point across and needed to split stuff up to establish a reference point for what I’m talking about.

Let’s Talk about the fandom’s universally disliked unfavorite, Star Fox Command on the typical topic of how badly it characterized everyone and derailed things and all that hullabaloo.

Now let’s get somethings clear here. First off, I do NOT think Command is a good game by any stretch, mechanically or narratively. It does screw a lot of shit up. Second of all, I am not saying Command doesn’t derail characters senselessly and deserve pretty much all the ire it’s earned from the fandom.

BUT. Big but here.

It is important to not dismiss all of Command for these mistakes. To start with, for as much Command gets flat out WRONG, it also gets a lot RIGHT. Falco and Fox’s bromance is especially strong in Command, and characters like Slippy (who basically never gets written poorly) are still solid. Pigma also gets some actual emotion to his unceremonious death in Assault as a spooky space ghost, to say nothing of the small implications it gives to Andross’ motivations. Then there are things that were just the result of Command having an honestly shoddy translation job all things considered, which especially pertains to Star Wolf. Panther’s third person self-narrations are a misunderstanding of him speaking in an arrogant manner in the original Japanese, and Leon’s infamous liking of rainbows was meant to be sarcastic - but these are things that can not be conveyed in text in ENGLISH (but can in Japanese). Then there is Wolf, which brings me to the real point I want to get at with this post.

I said before it is important not to dismiss all of Command for these mistakes, but really what I should say is it isn’t fair to dismiss Command for the same mistakes other games did before it, specifically Assault. The big offenders of Command, Fox and Krystal, are just as derailed in Assault (if not moreso in the case of Fox), along with Wolf and to a lesser extent, Peppy, yet no one bats an eye because it suits the fandom’s tastes at large (or at least the English speaking fandom), and that bothers me. Out Of Character writing should not be accepted just because you like the direction it takes, because that is disingenuous to the characters.

Let’s start with Fox. Fox’s archetype (to see why archetypes are important read part 1 you weenie) is that of the charismatic heroic leader. There are some subtle differences between his Western and Japanese depictions, namely his confidence (Japanese Fox is in 64 at least more son-in-his-father’s-shadow than Western Fox, but is no less cheeky or cocksure for it), but the general idea stays the same. This is consistent with Fox in the SNES comic, 64, and Adventures (as well as the Farewell Beloved Falco comic). He meets every challenge head on with confidence he can over come it and his sense of justice is strong, and this is reinforced mechanically as Fox being the player avatar, puts us in direct control of confronting these challenges with confidence and bravado.

Assault Fox lacks any of this. He is bland, boring, robbed of any character he once had. He stammers like a teenager more than he ever did as an actual teenager over the simplest of things, constantly walks into traps and danger in spite of knowing danger is ahead and waiting, routinely makes bad leadership choices by no virtue other than the plot necessitating it, and then at the end of the game acts absolutely unemotional to the supposed death of his mentor figure only to later reveal he knew all along his mentor wasn’t actually dead and was just hiding this from his team. Honestly, I might just need to make another rant dedicated JUST to WHY and HOW these ideas are detrimental to Fox’s character, but for now I’m going to leave this simple and possibly revisit the topic in greater depth. Either way, Assault Fox is uninteresting and vapid, underreacting to everything despite being previously established as a smart ass quippy hot blooded hero, and that’s terrible. Yet, noone notices or cares, because at least he didn’t break up with Krystal.

Let’s talk about Krystal next. To say she was treated OOC in Assault is honestly to suggest she had a character to begin with, but in all fairness she does have elements of it from Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures, if broken and disjointed due to her loss of protagonist status. Going back to what I wrote about archetypes, Krystal was, in DP64, completely set up to be an aspiring hero, but when DP64 became SFAd, she lost that narrative importance and was reduced to a Damsel in Distress crossed with a Macguffin Girl, which totally undermined what she had, but as I said there was traces of something still there. She is bold, brash, heroic and full of justice (much like Fox), but also more contemplative and insightful as well. She’s the wise hero to Fox’s action hero, or should have been at any rate.

So what did Assault do? Absolutely rob her of all that and just ram in hard the Love Interest nonsense. Everything about Krystal in Assault revolves around FOX - she has NO agency onto herself anymore, something she even had in Adventures at least at first until she got captured for 90% of the game. Not Assault Krystal, though. Her whole character is defined by her fawning over Fox, worrying over his idiot well being and wanting him to be safe, stammering affectionately like two high school kids who haven’t had their first kiss yet. Yes, she does have some moments free from this nonsense, but those moments are not her DOMINANT portrayal. Even when discussing things with bad boy romantic rival Panther, she focuses on -Fox-. Krystal’s entire character in Assault is dominated by the existence of her love interest.

That is the worst case of “love interest centric” writing you can commit, because when you take the stuff away that doesn’t bear on Fox, you have so little left. I’d honestly consider Command Krystal BETTER than Assault, because her rude angry bitchy self was at least her OWN character and not joined at the hip to Fox. Notice how the cutscene with Fox and Krystal with Tricky, Krystal barely says anything worthwhile to the conversation? It’s all Fox being flustered liked a stupid teenager while Krystal coyishly “teehees” in the background while Tricky hammers in the fact they are romantic interests. No. Agency. But again, no one cares, because its fuel for their ships, amirite?

Now we get to who is in my opinion the worst offender of Assault’s derailing character writing, Wolf. Fox might’ve gone from heroic leader to bland cardboard, but at least he’s still the protagonist. Krystal might’ve been reduced to a vapid love interest, but at least she didn’t have much left to lose to start with. Wolf, though, not only oversteps his boundaries as an archetype, but he PUSHES OUT other characters from their meta narrative roles as well. Wolf is the black hole of Assault’s writing, and he absolutely got away with it because he’s “cool” and “badass”. He is the pinnacle of my point in this rant.

Let’s talk about archetypes again. Wolf’s is that of the eternal rival, the black recolor, the evil counterpart to the hero. His mission is to see Fox undone for the sake of his own ego. In Japan, a little more supplemental information is known, namely that Wolf has a rivalry with the McCloud family name as a whole starting with James, and Fox’s reaction to Wolf’s persistent pursuit is treated more humorously than in the west (namely Fox is subtly dissing Wolf rather than being intimidated by him), but these subtleties do not change the core base that Wolf is an impulsive, rivalry motivated antagonist.

So of course Assault saw fit to.... shift him into a mentor role. This only compounds for the worse when you consider the fact that Wolf only even formed Star Wolf because Pigma manipulated and goaded him into doing it (another Japanese lore tidbit), further cementing that Wolf does not make good wise decisions. He is violent and aggressive and obsessed with his rivalry. Why the HECK is he suddenly giving advice to FOX? Wolf is the WORST person to give advice or take advice from, he is literally Mr. Bad Decisions, but Assault’s writers saw fit to absolutely change his entire persona from an aggressive archrival to a quasi-antihero cool guy big brother-esque mentor... and Fox doesn’t even remark on it! (Another mark for Fox being OOC I suppose).

Worst of all though isn’t the damage this does to Wolf, but rather, to Peppy! Wolf becoming the mentor effectively butts him into Peppy’s meta narrative role, and he essentially replaces him for it. This isn’t to say Star Fox characters can’t develop and shift around and change, but Wolf doesn’t DEVELOP into a mentor, nor does Peppy develop BEYOND it. Wolf just usurps it from Peppy and proceeds as usual. Good character writing is finding how to fit a character into a story - that is, finding a role they fit into and working from there. This is why so many fan OCs fail - they don’t fit into a role, they usurp from canon characters. One need only look at all the Star Wolf OCs that exist purely to replace “uncool” characters like Pigma or Andrew and see the flaws. When you write to replace another character, you aren’t writing true to that character, you are shackling and chaining them down to the one they are replacing. This is what Wolf does in Assault: he is sloppily mischaracterized, and then because of that, he butts into another character’s writing space.

And once more, the fandom at large did not notice or care, because Wolf is “cool”, “badass”, et cetera. This is my beef. This is my issue. So I leave you with what I said at the start of this rant: do NOT just accept changes to a character because it placates you superficially. THINK about what roles it is a character serves and why, and respect that. Don’t just blindly complain about character derailment just when it suits you because you don’t like the change personally, or because it fucks with your ships. Press yourself to be better than that.

#OOC #rant #ramble #meta narrative #character archetypes #melodrama #character derailment

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rivkahstudies · 7 years

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for the ask game- top 5 stationary brands you love! I'm always looking for more stationary 😉 hope you're having a good day!

Ahh there are so many! Here are the favorites of the stationery brands I use.

1. Prismacolor (colored pencils)

2. Smart Color Art (my beloved dual-tip markers, I use for everything)

3. Sakura Color Pigma Micron (felt tip pens, wATERPROOF, I use for lining watercolor and taking small notes)

4. Precise V5 (rolling ball pen, I use it for alllll basic notes)

5. G2 Pilots (good gel pens that I use with normal notebook paper when I want color-coded notes)

Thanks for asking sweetie!!

#rivkah answers #top five asks #meg-is-studying #friends

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colourmanic · 6 years

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#EzRepost @illustratedjournal with @ezrepostapp Sunday, March 4, 2018 On the frozen Schreventeich two very different sized dogs played - but the bigger of them had no chance to get the disc! It's so funny that dogs have no idea how big they are. Hugo Hamann (my most beloved art supply store) now has the Pigma Microns in the strength 0.03! Of course I had to buy a few. And I got the last Raphael brush! I did not think I would like Synthetic Brushes more than Kolinsky sable brushes. . . . Sonntag, 4. März 2018 Auf dem zugefrorenen Schreventeich spielten zwei sehr unterschiedlich große Hunde - aber der größere von beiden hatte keine Chance, die Wurfscheibe zu bekommen! Es ist so witzig, dass Hunde keine Ahnung haben, wie große sie sind. Bei Hugo Hamann gibt es jetzt die Pigma Microns in der Stärke 0,03! Hab mich gleich mal eingedeckt. Und ich habe den letzten Raphael-Pinsel ergattert! Ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass ich Synthetik-Pinsel einmal sympathisch finden würde. . . . #artjournal #artjournaling #visualjournal #journaling #moleskine #moleskinepocketdiary #illustratedjournal #illustrateddiary #illustratorsofinstagram #moleskine_arts #illustriertestagebuch #illustration #kjmillustration #kjmillu #artsupplystore #kiel #hugohamann #pigmamicron #syntheticbrush #artsupplylover #playingdogs #watercolor

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out-of-this-dimension · 5 years

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On topic of “canon”

So with the Starlink update being announced, a lot of people have been talking about canon. “What is canon anymore?” “Is Starlink canon?” “What do we do about the canon Starlink might present versus what we know from previous games?” “Are Adventures, Assault, and Command dead?” So here’s my take on the “canon issues” in Star Fox as of right now.

First of all, I think it’s really important to understand that in the Star Fox universe, what’s probably considered the “main” canon’s already been contradicted multiple times among the games. This is probably due to having multiple studios working on games. Consistency gets lost between games because of studios invoking their own interpretations of how the characters can/should function. And details get lost as well. Command saw Panther’s last name change and saw him suddenly start talking in 3rd person. Farewell, Beloved Falco references the Titania mission, even though that level is on the “Easy Route” of SF64, which is commonly considered non-canon. In almost every game, we’ve had someone change eye color. Katt and Bill changed fur colors between SF64 and Command. We’ve had Pigma get retconned out of being dead (arguably Andrew as well).

And then there’s the question of Star Fox Zero-- which is largely considered a reboot of the entire franchise but notably wasn’t referred to as a reboot when it was announced but was called a “re-imagining”, which has left canon’s status super questionable since then.

Bottom line is if you’re going to argue canon in the SF universe, you really just have to take a deep breath and acknowledge one very important thing: The canon is a mess.

So what do we as fans and content creators do about it?

Honestly, until Nintendo gives us solid answers-- and no, Miyamoto’s statement at E3 2015 is not solid enough to verify what is going on with the canon-- I think it’s fairly safe to say that canon is just what you can glean from the games that makes sense. Is that incredibly subjective? Well... yes, it is. And is it going to lead to debates? Abso-friggin’-lutely. But honestly until fans hear otherwise from Nintendo, it’s just kind of a futile effort to try to debate what is or isn’t canon.

And honestly? There’s no shame in canon-divergent material. In fact, a lot of fics get shoved into being canon-divergent as more material comes out because headcanons will be shot down, ships will crash and burn, etc. It’s just the nature of being in a fandom. Sometimes, yeah, it sucks when your headcanons are obliterated by new material coming out. But honestly? It’s also really rewarding seeing how on the mark or how off the mark your theories are.

As for me, I’m just gonna continue doing whatever it is I do. I try to stay canon-compliant with my works (I feel like that appeals to a wider audience personally) but I definitely throw in my headcanons to help bolster the weaker parts of the series lore. If the headcanons get disproved, I try to find a work around or I just go “Yeah, let’s ignore that” and just keep goin’. The important part isn’t to nail every single detail of canon-- the important part is having fun.

Keep creating content. And if you’re afraid of certain character never being seen again, I... think that while it might be awhile before we get another true Star Fox game (as opposed to Starlink updates), I really wouldn’t be a surprise if SF2′s official release (including Miyu and Fay) and the inclusion of characters like Dash, Tricky, and Krystal in SSBU were an indicator that Nintendo hasn’t entirely abandoned those characters yet. Since Zero’s release, the fans have been fairly vocal in stating that they don’t want rehashes of the same material-- they want more content, and I think Nintendo finally understands that to some degree after looking at Zero’s abysmal sales versus the very blatant amount of Star Fox fans that helped (somewhat) support Starlink on Switch (I mean Starlink didn’t sell great but there’s a very big difference between its sales on the Switch versus the other platforms and I think we all know why).

Anyways, I’mma go to bed now, let’s not fight anymore about canon stuff and just agree to make content about things we like.

#the great canon debate #star fox #starfox #this was largely inspired by a few convos i've seen on tumblr #and that one hater who told me that krystal x panther isnt canon bc its not explicitly stated that they're dating #anyways my canon thoughts pls enjoy them

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