#the information talks about these talks happening in 2023 which wasn't a great year for tumblr

[gramophoneturtle]

Blog Update

So for those that don't know, I primarily post my art on Tumblr first. It's been my art archive for so long that it gets priority, and I have a bigger base here, and the archive system is nice. However, it's been brought to my attention that they may start doing AI nonsense so I'm going to focus on making sure I have back up archive on pillowfort account (gramophoneturtle) so if I need to stop posting on Tumblr, I don't have to start from scratch.

When Twitter went downhill with it's AI policies I removed all my art there. However, because of how Tumblr works, I will probably keep my art here. Since once it's reblogged, and maybe once they have the unprotected works in their databases, they already have access to it.

I don't remember if pillowfort still needs registration keys but I have a some I can hand out if people need them.

I picked pillowfort because they only other sites I looked at were mastodon & bluesky (both are not really long blog post sites for comics, for example) and cohost (which...didn't sound reassuring at the time. Never looked into what posting options they had). If there are other alternatives, let me know.

I'm hoping the Tumblr user base can fight back on this idea out but, it might be like Tumblr Live where it gets pushed out and only after a year or an overwhelming amount of backlash and loss do they remove it.

#update #blog update #text #mastodon #tumblr #social media #bluesky #pillowfort #twitter #this sucks so much i like how tumblr archives stuff #the information talks about these talks happening in 2023 which wasn't a great year for tumblr #and 2024 is supposed to be the better Tumblr Spirit focused year #it has been a huge reason why there's been a slowdown of art. it's just exhausting #like honestly it's partially why i've focused more on vtuber things and sammi programming #i still WANT to draw but if people are just going to enable art theft like this... #i enjoy sharing my art with people. and i will continue to draw for myself and i guess for stream #ugh. so exhausting

[taylortruther]

Did it feel like her songs about Joe were starting to get redundant? By the time Midnights came out I was surprised we were hearing another two songs about the breakup/make up period in the beginning, another song about the beginning when they were falling in love, another three songs about how the relationship is great if the world stays out of it, another song about the Afterglow I-thought-he-cheated moment, and another song about how it wasn't supposed to work but it did. It really struck me that the Joe parts of Midnights were dedicated to not giving us any kind of update or really new information. It was all either about their beginnings again or 'everything's perfect except for the media nothing to see here.' She found a couple new angles on it, like Mastermind, but she was mining the same ground she'd been sifting through for four albums already. At the time it struck me as odd that she was deliberately avoiding any real update, but I thought she was just committed to privacy and refused to go into any other part of their relationship that wasn't already known (which is entirely her right). But obviously it turned out to be much more complicated than that and the mysterious gap makes perfect sense now.

i noticed the beginning was really fertile ground for her, but it didn't really strike me as unusual or concerning. the 2016-2019 period of her life was HARD. it was obvious, to me, she was probably processing that stuff all the time because for her, it never went away.

additionally, folkmore's fictional narratives and midnights' reflections on the past still reflect her mental landscape at the time of writing (tolerate it, coney island, bejeweled, champagne problems, hoax say hello.) so i'd argue she was treading new ground and writing about some of their issues even if it wasn't strictly autobiographical.

plus, as super fans, i think we get caught in the minutiae and don't see the big picture. let's pull back and look at the story her albums told about their relationship, in stages:

2016: joe and taylor meet and fall in love 2017: reputation is released and, among other things, it's about joe being sexy and wonderful and not caring that she was "crazy" or cancelled 2019: masters situation happens also 2019: lover is released and it's about taylor recovering from the cancellation, fighting her demons, admitting she self-sabotages, but we also get songs implying they want to get married! makes sense, it's 2-3 years of dating now. we also, notably, get a song about her wanting to step back out into the world! 2020: pandemic! sorry, daylight! also 2020: folklore and evermore are released and are about, among other things!, how she fears her life is too big for joe to handle but she is still planning a future with him (peace, the lakes, which both feel more present to me.) makes sense, they have obviously talked marriage and KIDS, things are getting very real. but, to your point, evermore in particular reasserts that they were lucky to find each other in the beginning (clm, lss, evermore.) 2021: renegade discusses joe's shit - we now understand that he has his own struggles and clearly describes a very recent/present conflict ("timing") 2022: in midnights, we get songs about the early honeymoon phase (lavender haze), and about how he is still a respite from it all (sweet nothing, mentions a recent trip to wicklow.) 2023: ylm drops (written in dec 2021), we also get the alcott - both implying conflict and a couple trying or failing to reconnect. makes sense, it's been like 6-7 years! couples go through shit!

...no, this isn't the WHOLE story. but it feels like a satisfying one, and not one where she was simply recycling topics. to me anyway.

[seventhdoctor]

Trauma Team Artbook Character Bio Lore

...As gleaned from running artbook scans from 2014 through a sketchy machine translation in the year 2023. I won't post the exact translations for fear of mistranslations ending up reported as fact on wikis and so on, but here's the gist of what Google Translate yields.

CR-S01

Is named Erhard Muller, a fact that already made the rounds in the 2010s

His nationality is also listed as German, though he clearly spent most of his life in America

Most of his backstory isn't anything new compared to in the games, but the artbook does provide a timeline: adopted by Professor Sartre at age 9 after his parents died, enrolled in medical school at age 12 and hailed as the youngest ever to do so, age 13 when Rosalia was adopted, age 16 when the Cumberland Institute incident happened

Erhard and Rose weren't super close siblings, but got along well enough and they had happy lives until the bioterrorism attacked

The government 100% knew Erhard wasn't the culprit when they arrested him - he was the public scapegoat because they couldn't find Albert Sartre, their real person of interest. They never stopped looking for Sartre, and S01's work to reduce his sentence was a quiet compromise for the fact that they, y'know, ruined this kid's life

After learning the truth, S01 is disappointed at his father's betrayal but also chooses to take blame for Sartre's crimes and work off his sentence rather than expose Sartre as the true culprit

Not in-game lore, but according to the concept art section he was nicknamed Chris (CRS) during development. Other people will be funnier about this than I am

Maria Torres

Has the shortest bio and the least amount of new information along with Tomoe, honestly

Born in the slums

Was already at the orphanage at age 10 when Rosalia (age 3) came there

Ended up in rehab of some kind after the orphanage fire

Hank Freebird

Also doesn't have much new compared to the game, sadly

Joined the military out of a sense of justice, left out of disillusionment following John's death and used the medical knowledge he gained in the military to become an orthopedic surgeon (not that this wasn't already implied in the game)

His bio specifically calls him out for being kinda clumsy/goofy. Poor guy

Tomoe Tachibana

Honestly the only thing that's new is a bunch of names, so this is the one time I break my rule and cite a translation directly. TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, IT'S STILL A MACHINE TRANSLATION

The only daughter of the Tachibana Zaibatsu, a global organization run by a family descended from the leader of the Koga Shinobi Army, Hisayori Tachibana.

Gabriel Cunningham

Nationality is listed as Great Britain. Surprise!

His wife Lisa left him with Joshua and went to her parents' six years before the game because she didn't like his lifestyle

Lisa was willing to get back together if Gabe was ever willing to talk to her properly, but as seen in the game he kept his distance. He and Lisa met occasionally over the next six years, but he never saw Joshua - which is of course why Joshua never recognized him in the game

His decision to go through with the divorce was about acceptance of his failings and a desire to do right by Joshua and Lisa

Naomi Kimishima

NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH BACKSTORY

All right, so that bit in Second Opinion where she took a Savato sample after cutting ties with Delphi and used it to bargain amnesty with Caduceus [Europe in the US version; US in the JP version]? Yeah, apparently she transported that sample by CARRYING IT IN HER OWN BODY for Caduceus to extract

Her fatal condition is a result of that, though it's already implied to be a result of GUILT in the game anyway. It was a sudden development a few years later, followed by Derek's six-month diagnosis

There's also details about her illness! Apparently her specific brand of PGS or whatever involves excess serotonin and dopamine production, which she needs meds to regulate.

It also means she's no longer able to operate on the living, which is why she transitions to forensic medicine as part of her plea deal

[Insert grimace here] I don't want to get too into this because this bit because 1) machine translation fears, 2) even perfectly translated it's not likely to be accurate to actual philosophy/terminology anyway, 3) I'm not a doctor I don't know what I'm talking about…

But the bio then starts talking about pranayama and prana, defining prana as life essence and...saying Naomi lacks it because of her condition and its effect on serotonin? I'm not entirely clear on this and I'm hesitant to say anything for sure; the main thing is that they take her illness and use the concept of prana to connect that to...

Her new ability to hear the dead! Apparently Naomi reads the prana left behind in a corpse and translates it into the person's final words via her phone; the worse the damage to the corpse (e.g., skeletonization), the less prana remains and the weaker the voice she hears is

Whether any of this relates to the Healing Touch is not mentioned. IDK man

Technically this was in S01's bio, but it relates more to Naomi: Jacob Tillman originally wanted Naomi to perform his surgery and keep it secret. Naomi was already unable to perform surgery on living people at that point, though, so S01 was Plan B

Rosalia Rossellini

Admired her big brother Erhard :(

Albert Sartre

Adopted Rosalia to study the virus in her blood (that is, he already knew about it by the time he adopted her in case that's ever a timeline question)

Additional Note

If someone with actual knowledge of Japanese corrects me and anything I've written in here, absolutely believe them over me. I'm not the translation hero anyone still in this fandom in the year 2k23 deserves, I'm just the stopgap until maybe one arrives someday.

#trauma center #trauma team #trauma series #trauma center series #cr-s01 #crs01 #erhard muller #naomi kimishima #tomoe tachibana #hank freebird #maria torres #gabriel cunningham #rosalia rossellini #albert sartre #artbook #man i hope this post works this time #free me from reposting #UPDATE: IT WORKS #THANK GOODNESS

[bewitched-bullet]

Hi. I've been trying to follow #a scandal in tumblr but I'm still confused.

I've been following the John/Sherlock blogs for about 18 months or so. And in the beginning of my following, both characters seemed like they were posting as if they were both in 2021-2023 (Rosie when mentioned, was portrayed as 6-7 years old, current events were mentioned, etc.). It was mainly John and Sherlock interacting, mostly cases and domestic life type posts. Which was great. It even was entertaining and fun when Mycroft and Greg joined in, especially when it was related to a case. Mrs. Hudson, Rosie, Molly and Jim weren't as fun, and they posted sporadically and didn't add much to the whole experience.

And in the beginning (of when I started following) both John and Sherlock (characters) acted closer to the canon BBC characters, although with some small changes of course (most likely the mods personalities showing through). But while John continued to post as though he was a middle aged dad, working as a doctor, in love with Sherlock and publicly saying as much, and participating in cases, Sherlock started changing (I'm not sure if regressing is the right word?). Focusing more on drugs, acting shocked and disgusted at any mention of sex/attraction, not knowing what well known common slang meant, fighting with anon asks about absolutely nothing and not interacting as much with anyone except John and Jim. Which contradicted how he acted to start on the blog, as well as the canon character. BBC Sherlock was a drug user but didn't constantly talk about or persue drugs, he said he wasn't interested in sex, but he wasn't naive about it (as the comment to Donovan in the first episode about her knees showed, as well as being well aware of what Irene's activities were and what she was blackmailing the royal with), and he wouldn't have hung out with Jim just because he was bored.

The two blogs seemed to be on different pages (as far as the rp went) and it became confusing to follow. I went from a daily reader to weekly or even longer on occasion. Which bummed me out because I had enjoyed it a lot. But 🤷🏼‍♀️ it's just online fun, right?

I come back after a week or so of not reading, to find the whole "break-up" with Sherlock, making it seem like the whole rp blogs were finished and done. Which seemed really odd after the whole "love confession" from Sherlock that John had pinned for like a month. And also a surprise to not only followers but Sherlock as well.

Then all of the further mod drama blowing up, when as far as I remember, there hadn't been any kind of mod/rl posts before about any conflict between them. I honestly don't remember seeing any posts from the mods on the John/Sherlock blogs, ever. As far as I know, that's pretty normal for rp blogs, at least the few I've ever read. Mod interaction happened by DM/messaging/Discord etc.

I did send a few asks to both characters over the time that I followed, as myself and anonymous at times, but didn't really get super involved. I've never communicated with the characters or mods other than the asks. So it seemed weird that when all of this drama started, I get a message from the John mod, telling me how the other characters mods are trying to destroy his blog, threatening him, trying to turn his followers against him, and how it was ruining their life. Asking me to post support for him. I didn't know what to respond as I didn't and don't have a clue as to what's going on behind the scenes. So I didn't. I really don't understand who is who that is involved in all of this, (blogs/mods, Dump, Greg mod, etc), and not informed enough to "pick a side".

I appreciate that you are trying to clear the confusion up for everyone that enjoyed the blogs, and bring to light any bullying that is going on. I really don't have a dog in the fight, I was just here for the fun, and I don't know enough about either mod to have an opinion on whose the bully.

Just sharing a POV from a casual fan and how extremely weird this whole thing is. 😊

PS I do enjoy your blog and interactions that were on the Sherlock blog before. The puzzles and mysteries were interesting!

Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I think I started following in…October? Right around the time I broke my back and had nothing else to do but be bed-bound and twiddle my thumbs. I wish I had more knowledge on how tumblr works so I can better assist folks in navigating the search. The best I can suggest, to get chronological order of the journey, is to scroll my page till you hit, I think, March 4th or 5th. And I posted, wtf happened—I was gone over in left field, minding my business and I come back and shit had hit the fan.

That’s when I received my first ask to go back and look, so I went to town on some digging.

And god, it was confusing, sus, and at first just some light observations and criticisms on how to run a role play (am an active DM and I agree with your assessment ). When I created the tab #a scandal in tumblr, it was supposed to be a tongue in cheek reference to the Sherlock Holmes case A Scandal in Belgravia. But then it took a turn and the tag was no longer tongue in cheek.

Anywho, I am sorry that a mod attempted to personally get you to “chose a side.” That had to be a 🤨 moment.

I don’t expect you (or anyone) to enter a dog into the fight (save that puppy), just to simply observe and make an informed decision that best fits you. I certainly don’t expect people to be like me. I may be intelligent but I’m a dummy for willing painting a target on my back. And wouldn’t want anyone else to do this. (Though I do appreciate my dark “acolytes” ™️ by harriett mod)

I’m glad you have enjoyed my small corner of the inter-webs and my little 20 question mysteries. Once this is over, I hope I can make things enjoyable again…after I eat some grass and touch some food.

#a scandal in belgravia #a scandal in tumblr #Sherlock #eat grass #touch food #lolol #for real though #lets get lost in some woods

[theliterarywolf]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Otherwise known as: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Chris Pratt and Enjoy a Video Game Adaptation."

So, first, some non-spoiler thoughts.

Part 1: The Trailers

I don't know who was in charge of the trailer selection to go in front of this movie, but we need a word. Because a 'Happy Gilmore-esque' comedy about a guy trying to impress his girlfriend's family but, oh no~ His Italian dad is weird and behind the times kind of missed the mark.

So did putting the Barbie (2023) teaser in front of this movie. Not like I'm a prude (you all know me as almost anything but), but watching the 'I'll beach you off!/Not if I beach you off first' exchange in a theater with little kids on either side of me seemed like kind of a misfire.

Disney's live-action Little Mer-- I can't even be bothered to type the whole thing out.

And I just found it really weird that Illumination has a second movie coming out this year that they put a trailer in for, but the actual movie wasn't even present that much in its own promotion?

To explain better: the trailer was 'Illumination has brought you such wonderful family features as Despicable Me (long clip), The Secret Life of Pets (long clip), Sing (long clip), Minions (long clip), and Super Mario Bros. The Movie (long clip). Soon they'll release Migration (a few short clips of ducks flying and hiding under a bridge)'

Part 2: Thoughts on the Movie Itself (Which will include some spoilers, so...)

Right off the top of the bat, yes: the movie does move very quickly. Now, for me? This wasn't a hindrance but it was to a degree where it was noticeable so I can see where legitimate movie reviewers are talking about when they mention it.

I like how the movie starts off with Mario and Luigi's plumbing commercial and first job. Builds into the 'regular Joe'/no one believes in them-setup. Though, fuck a duck, why is their family full of such assholes? 'Luigi would be able to get somewhere if you weren't always dragging him down', okay so let's just continue to work for a guy who was a douche to him. Cool, fine.

While Mario's initial walk with Toad upon reaching the Mushroom Kingdom was kind of 'eh' to me, I love how the Mushroom Kingdom was handled: bright, active without being spastic, and allowed the setting itself to narrate rather than having the characters go 'And this is a store! And this is the road! And this is how we get money!' Like a lot of adaptations can fall into.

Peach was fine. I literally have no idea why people were trying to create discourse about her portrayal in this movie. She's not some emasculating girlboss, she's not 'Daisy wearing pink'; she's a competent monarch who just happens to be able to platform and ride a motorcycle.

Also, good on the writers for executing things where you can interpret Peach having a thing for Mario but they could also just be really close friends (kind of like Judy and Nick at the end of the first Zootopia film).

I love how we were all worried about Chris Pratt's voice-acting 'just being Chris Pratt' when, in reality, what we needed to worry about was D.K. because ay-my-me is that performance 'Just Seth Rogen'.

Jack Black definitely had the most fun with this movie. I can't believe they okayed the 'Peaches' song...

Why was Lumalee a Nihilist? Like, I'm not even mad but that was such a strange choice.

The musical score was good. Replacing the original music made for the Jungle Kingdom intro with "Take on Me" was a bit of a miss. Also, please: credit the actual composers, not just "'Song' from 'Game'"

However, even with all of these praises, I do have to detract a point for one crucial misfire:

They really couldn't have had Mario and Luigi do their finishing blow while saying 'So long, eh Bowser?' As a perfect referential send-off? For shame...

Final Rating: 8.75/10

I wanted a good time that celebrates the Mario franchise with great information and for someone to be there to whack Illumination in the head whenever they tried their bullshit... And that's what I got!

#Wolf Watches #the super mario bros movie

[semthescientist]

i normally don't write long posts on here but i've been bubbling from the seams with things to say as of late. back in september of 2022, i was towards the end of a cruise and my sister introduced me into Abraham Hicks. it wasn't new to me per-se simply because i always would have these expansive ideas, like i just knew i was supposed to be great and experience wonderful things. however, what was new was the fact it was so widely accepted. like i couldn't believe that people would actually tell abraham their problems and they would provide solutions. looking back, since Abraham talked about vibrations and vortexes so much, this may have been the law of attraction (not sure lol). and for a while, i grew so interested in the concept.

this journey happened so naturally though that i cannot pinpoint when i got into the law of assumption or started listening to Edward Art, but that is what came next. it went from there being an outside world i had to change to there being an internal world i had to change. now, for awhile i listened to Edward Art videos (haven't tuned into him in so long but i still adore him, he seems so nice!) only because i could not for the life of me, ever understand what Neville was saying. listened to Edward for awhile then stopped because i realized i was making him my God (though i didn't really know what that meant at the time), got on tumblr to consume more information and i did this months until i was sick of hearing what others had to say. however lol, i just moved to twitter and did the same thing. and of course, i got sick of that too--grew so tired of the fighting between loass and affirm and persist girlies, and whoever else wanted to be different so bad. and then i was introduced into nonduality.

now, it was so different from everything i had learned before that when i watched a video by Rupert Spira, i put it down and went back to loass. like, i literally said, "there's no way in hell i'm about to confuse myself with more shit." kid you not. like i refused to hop onto something else. so i just let it be but i eventually came back to it and it started to consume me and it was out of sheer curiosity. like i remember when i had put it down, just one random day i thought to myself "there is nothing else but consciousness. there is no separation." i wrote that in a diary entry on august 30th, 2023 and it really stuck with me because like...where the hell did that thought come from? especially because all of my old diary entries were how unfazed i was by the external world because i have what i want in the "one true reality" (i really had to laugh at those old entries.) and they were only from a couple days before i had this sudden realization.

but somehow, that caused me to get off of twitter and come back to tumblr and i eventually stumbled across 4d-barbie's account and some others too. i stayed up all night reading Ada's answers to submissions because this was unlike anything i'd ever heard. and it was there when i promised myself not to consume too much, to do things differently. and like okay, that didn't happen 'cause i consumed a lot but i'm happy it all happened because of what i found.

eventually, the same thing that happened with the law happened with nd. i got so burned out and i was so angry with hearing the opinions of others. like my brother in christ, i physically would be angry that i relied on others because i knew i could trust in myself but i wasn't. and like why?? why was i doing that? and because i didn't have an answer, i'd get pissed all over again.

and this probably went on for a couple weeks or so, i don't know entirely. i didn't document everything--and the things i did, i deleted because i was trying so hard to reach enlightenment. and it wasn't until i went on another cruise in late september 2023 that it finally clicked--a whole ass year later.

now i'm only saying the time because i find it so comical and beautiful. i'm gonna make another post which entails what actually clicked for me because i don't want this to be too long.

part two here. yay.

#nondualism #law of assumption #law of consciousness #neville goddard #nonduality #realization #success story

[oraliefathdon4eternalia]

Rayni: Little Miss Neverseen - Chapter 2 (Mar 22 2023)

When Glimmer entered the room, two cloaked figures were curled up together on the gray Neverseen couch, which was dilapidated and falling apart.

"Hello?" she called.

The smaller cloaked figure, whose head was resting on the other's shoulder, looked up, straight at Rayni.

Er, Glimmer.

She still wasn't used to calling herself that.

"Who are you?" the person asked in a hostile voice. A lock of brown hair slipped out of her cloak.

"I'm Glimmer, the new recruit," Glimmer said as confidently as possible.

"Oh!" the other person said. "You're the person Lady Gisela was on about! She said a bunch of vague things about you not being satisfied with the system. I'm Trix, and this is my girlfriend, Umber." He gestured to the brown-haired person curled into him.

Glimmer smiled, relieved. At least one person was being welcoming.

"New recruit, huh?" a deep voice sounded from the corner.

Glimmer jumped. Umber laughed at her derisively.

"Who's there?" Glimmer panicked. Remembering her Flasher ability, she snapped her fingers to illuminate the dark corner.

A scarred person sat at a desk, but Glimmer was too distracted to wonder how he could do anything on a desk in that darkness.

But if she'd wondered, he would've soon answered that question.

"I'm Brant," he said. "And I have my own light tricks."

Brant snapped his fingers and a fire came to life in his palm. Glimmer shivered, thinking what the fire could do to her. Was this what Gisela was talking about when she mentioned the ban on pyrokinesis?

"Oookay," Glimmer said. "Anything else I need to know?"

"My hunger for fire was so great I lit my house on fire while my fiancée was in it. I got all these scars, and she..." He lowered his head. "Well, she died."

Glimmer felt deeply uncomfortable and just stood there, shuffling her feet.

Brant's head snapped up. "That was after I joined the Neverseen. Fintan told me to join this group because it would make my pyrokinesis legal again."

"What happened after you killed your fiancée?" Glimmer asked.

Brant flinched at the word killed.

"I pretended to her parents that I'd gone insane with grief. I feigned coughing, sickness, and inability to do anything. They visit me every year to check on me," he gloated with a grin. "The mother bakes candy for me. Little do they know, I don't spend the rest of the year skulking around that tiny house in sickness. I burn things. I get revenge."

Brant laughed a creepy, maniacal laugh that shook the walls. Glimmer backed away, making a mental note to avoid him.

Something bothered her about the exchange besides the creepiness, but she couldn't figure out what it was, so she turned to Trix and asked: "Are there any other members?"

"Oh, yes," Trix answered. "There are a lot of members, I think. But Lady Gisela prefers to keep information compartmentalized, and there are multiple Neverseen leaders with different plans stretching us in different directions. So I only know three more members besides the leaders. One's name is Ruy - no code name. He's a Psionipath. Another is Gethen - also no code names. Telepath. And Alvar Vacker, Vanisher."

"Okay," Glimmer said, processing. "Can you show me where my dorm is?"

"Sure. Follow me." Trix stood up, and they walked to another narrow hallway, followed by Umber's disapproving gaze.

There were only a few doors in a row, so Glimmer assumed this was a small Neverseen hideout.

Trix showed her a door at the end of the hallway.

"Thanks," Glimmer said, entering.

"No problem. See you around." Trix smiled and left.

It was only when Glimmer closed the door behind her when she finally got what was bugging her about Brant's story.

Fintan recruited him to the Neverseen.

The same Fintan who was kicked off the Council after the ban on pyrokinesis.

Glimmer slumped against the door with the weight of the realization.

Ex-Councillor Fintan was part of the Neverseen.

@winterfireice@rayniiariaa@official-kenralie-fanbase@you-have-been-frizzled @sewersewersewercouch@literaturewithliz

#this is going to be much longer than 3 chapters #chapter 3 coming soon! #it's already started #rayni aria #kotlc neverseen #kotlc fanfic #trix #umber #brant kotlc #lady gisela #background umber/trix #this chapter was a bit short #still longer than some of my oneshots though #i've been trying to bring back rayni's snark but just can't find a moment #like her situation doesn't really allow for me to insert snark #wrote this last night #why is it becoming a trend to write this fic at night #mentioned ruewen family #poor jolie #edaline and grady being fooled #i feel like this chapter was a tad worse than i usually write #lmk if that's true #ok yes definitely worse #next one will be better i promise #kotlc glimmer

[thenanamisimp]

End of 2023 autumn season - part 2

Check out this post to read part 1 of my autumn 2023 reviews! It includes my opinions on Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden deductions and Spy x Family season 2.

This part 2 includes opinions on Heaven Official's Blessing season 2 and Jujutsu Kaisen season 2. I waited so long to post this so I could include both reviews in one post since Heaven Official's Blessing actually only just finished this week.

In part 1 I didn't discuss any plot points so no spoiler warning was included; this time I'm talking about 2 of my absolute favourite adaptations - hence SPOILER WARNING for Jujutsu Kaisen and Heaven Official's Blessing (short discussions of the novel as well).

Heaven Official's Blessing, Season 2

Mmmkay so here's the thing... After watching season 1 on Netflix 2 years ago, I bought volume 1 of the official translation, read it and then kinda... Gave up. Then as the hype of season 2 started and then after the first couple episodes came out I became intrigued enough to finally read the rest of the books. And then I got even more attached to Hualian - which caused my MXTX spiral but that's besides the point.

Reading the books was actually a great decision because knowing what happens allowed me to appreciate the adaptation that much more. The first couple episodes of the season were not that exciting for me (I don't particularly enjoy the Banyue arc so I don't care for the aftermath) but then as we properly got into the gambler's den scenes, paradise manor, Fang Xin guoshi - I was hooked. I especially enjoyed the adaptation of the Qi Rong cave scenes and the Gilded Banquet arc. I also seriously loved the liberties the adaptation took with some scenes - like adding more information about the Gilded Banquet and Lord Anle. NOVEL SPOILERS [Hated (but loved) how they teased Xie Lian's parents' suicide - that scene crashed my SOUL as I wasn't expecting to see anything regarding that arc for another couple seasons at least.

Regarding censorship, this season wasn't too bad; do keep in mind tho, nothing too crazy happens in volume 2 which is what season 2 adapted. We lost the lap scene from paradise manor unfortunately. Xie Lian not falling into Hua Cheng's lap was a big loss but instead we got Xie Lian carrying Hua Cheng bridal style out of the way? I don't know, can't complain too much about that one.]

The animation, art and music were, as expected, incredible. This season elevated this donghua for me and earned its spot into my top 10. It probably helps how attached I am to the books and knowing what's coming. Overall, definitely one of my faves of the season. Please give this donghua a chance if you love fantasy.

Jujutsu Kaisen, Season 2

I have so many thoughts. So many feelings.

If you know me or have followed me for any length of time at all - or literally just by reading my name - you'll know that Jujutsu Kaisen is my favourite series of all time. Season 2 ran for almost half of 2023 and for me, it was my favourite of the season, not unexpectedly considering my love for the manga and the anime being my favourite of all time.

I don't wanna talk about the plot of hidden inventory and Shibuya arc cause we all know it's genius writing and plot so.... Let's just hype it up!

First of all, I can't speak about how beautiful the adaptation was and the incredible job the animators did without also talking about how MAPPA treats their employees with the least amount of respect they could. If you weren't online and weren't keeping up with the fandom on twitter as the season 2 was being aired, there were multiple animators from the jjk team tweeting about how horrible they feel and the mental load they are under from the pressure to finish animating jjk with a schedule that was unrealistic. Please show some love to the jjk animators and remember to thank the team - not MAPPA!

That being said, the animation team was ON IT. There was not one single episode that disappointed me - I was instead wowed by every new episode that came out and especially the extended fights, such as Megumi vs Toji, Sukuna vs Mahoraga, Yuji vs Mahito were so well done and beyond my expectations every single time. Even knowing what was about to happen, I was left at the edge of my seat, gasping at how beautiful the adaptation was every. single. time. without fail. I made an event of every new episode and my Thursday nights basically became rituals while the season was being aired.

ANIME SPOILERS [I have to specifically mention that Nanami's death episode, Nobara's death (jury's still out on her death if you cope really hard) and every episode after that were world changing, brain-altering, earth shatteringly good. I mourned Nanami's death for 3 days even knowing it was coming. The animators did an insane job and really did him justice. The whole dancing on the beach transitioning into the fight scenes was simply, insane. I love Nanami. Gege give him BACKKKKKKKK]

Anw this post is basically just Jujutsu Kaisen praise. I love Jujutsu Kaisen and this season surpassed my expectations and I loved every moment of it. Everyone should watch Jujutsu Kaisen, just be warned of the tragedy. And trauma. And many deaths.

Thanks for reading another anime ramble! Enjoy watching :)

theNanamiSimp

#anime #anime recommendation #anime review #jujutsu kaisen #heaven official's blessing #jjk #jjk spoilers #tian guan ci fu #jujutsu kaisen spoilers

[goombasa]

Thoughts on the Super Mario RPG Remake

So hey, guess what I got for Christmas?

Okay, so, to give a bit of context to this, the original Legend of the Seven Stars on the Super Nintendo is one of my favorite games of all time. I played it backwards and forward and I've probably played through it start to finish more than any other game on the SNES. I love the world it created, and felt like one of the first big proper expansions to Mario's universe, rather than just being an incidental new place where the game was taking place. I love the new characters we were introduced to, particularly Geno and Mallow, and I was always disappointed that we never saw them again. I mean, I get WHY we didn't, the game was made by Squaresoft pre-Enix merger, and as such, most, if not all of the game's original characters were the property of Square and not Nintendo.

Oh, and of course I love the fact that this would be the impetus for other Mario-themed RPGs down the line, including Paper Mario, its sequel, the Thousand-Year Door, and the Mario and Luigi series… not that either of those series are in particularly good shape these days. But this was the start of it all.

So imagine my surprise when Nintendo announced during the Nintendo Direct in June of 2023 that there was a remake of this game in the works for the Switch, AND that it was going to be released later that same year, just in time for the Holidays!

I never thought it was going to happen, but it was happening. One of my most favorite games of all time, was getting remade, from the ground up, and brought properly into the third edition! Holy crap! AND GENO AND MALLOW WERE COMING BACK, BABY!

But… the more that I thought about it, the more my excitement died down. How would the gameplay hold up? Were they going to change a bunch of stuff about the game? Would they add a bunch of superfluous fluff? Who was even making it? It wasn't made by Nintendo or Square-Enix, but by a third party called ArtePiazza, a studio that up until this game came along, I hadn't actually heard of before. I was worried, and that worry was only exacerbated by how much this game meant to me personally.

Thankfully, all my worry was for nothing. This is not only a very faithful remake that makes changes only in what I personally consider the right places, but also a reminder of how much these older games tended to be better about respecting a player's time.

And now I'm gonna talk about it all.

The Developer

As it turns out, ArtePiazza has a long history of working with Square Enix, and were actually the primary developer behind a lot of the remakes of classic Dragon Quest games, as well as the CG designs and scenario designs in others, so they definitely know what they're doing when it comes to RPG remakes. It's not really surprising that I hadn't heard of them before, as they were more a background studio that offered assistance rather than main development.

This isn't the first remake they've been responsible for, like I mentioned, and I definitely think they did a great job with it, but I kind of wish I knew a bit more about the studio as a whole now, but information on them is a little bit on the sparse side, aside from the list of projects they've worked on which mostly consists of the Dragon Quest series, and a small handful of other RPGs here and there.

The Story

Hokay, so, this is a Mario game, but it's an RPG. That basically means that you have a very typical RPG setup, and at no point does it feel like the game is treating itself very seriously. I say that as a positive, because the story is paper thin here, basically an excuse to have Mario and friends go all over the place in this weird and wonderful world that has been created here.

The story itself wasn't really changed at all from the original. It is as close to the original as possible while at the same time altering some of the weird mid-90's quirks of the script. Most of the changes are minor, like removing the Bruce Lee name drop just before the Bowyer fight, and a few of the names of certain characters and enemies were changed. The only one that I kind of wish they hadn't changed was Mack, the first commandert of Smithy's forces that you fight in the game. His name was changed to Claymorton in the remake, which does make sense, it's still a pun on his weapon of choice, but in the original, he was known as Mack. You know, as in Mack the Knife? Pun on the song? Because he's a sword, but still… kind of a knife?

Okay, I get why they changed it.

Point being, if you are a fan of the original, nothing here is going to ruin any sort of memories you have of the story, simple as it is. Whatever changes they made are negligible and it retains the same flow, and most of the sillier moments are preserved perfectly here in the remake.

The Characters

Like the story, there's not a huge amount of characterization here, so if you were expecting the remake to suddenly give more depth to anything here, you're going to be disappointed.

At the same time though, none of these characters really needed much in terms of depth. Their designs and personalities are more than enough to carry the game. The villains barely get much of an introduction in this game, simply showing up at designated points to be the antagonist for that particular chapter of the story, and yet every single one of them has such a striking design and an interesting personality (for the most part; the aforementioned Claymorton is about as generic as it gets, save for his design and pogo-sword gimmick) that I don't think ‘depth’ is every really an issue. Entertaining is probably the best way to describe the characters here. Even the most minor of characters manage to leave enough of an impression that you are never going to mistake one person for another as you journey across the Mushroom Kingdom here.

This is something that carries over beyond Smithy and his gang to the one-off minor villains you run into, like the fame-hungry Punchnello, the underwater pirate Johnny, and of course the completely detached from reality Booster and his Amusement Tower.

Also, you fight a sentient wedding cake at one point, and the ending to that fight is legitimately hilarious.

And then there are the playable characters. Mario is given more of a mischevious bent in this game, and I was really surprised to see that they kept in some of the less flattering moments for our hero. There's a point where Mario's ready to just deck a child in the face for basically saying he isn't as good as Geno. And there are the many moments where Mario, rather than just recapping past events to other characters will just mime his way through what's happened, basically playing every character at once, and it's fantastic. This was one of the first times in the series where Mario had a lot of character beyond just being a heroic jump man and I think it did a very good job at conveying that character.

Also, you can make Mario say some real mean things to people in this game and just be a dick, which doesn't really have any sort of consequence, as most of the ‘yes/no’ questions, you do have to eventually agree in order to progress, so there's generally no reason NOT to make Mario talk negatively at least once or twice, just to see the other character's reactions to him just flat out refusing to be a hero for once.

Princess Peach is how she always is. She spends the first good chunk of the game in her usual role as a damsel in distress, and even after she joins the party, she doesn't really get a chance to shine on her own. Mechanically she's one of the most important party members, but in terms of personality, she really doesn't stand out much once she joins your party. I kind of feel like she had more dialogue before she was rescued than after. It's not a terrible portrayal, but you can definitely tell that this was written during a time when Peach's role was mostly to be the damsel, and the fact that she was part of the main party was enough to celebrate, whereas steps have been taken in future games to give her a bit more personality, and to make her a more active element in the story. It's especially noticeable when you compare Peach to Bowser's portrayal.

Bowser is fantastic in this game. This was the first time Bowser was shown to be anything more than just a big, evil brute in the games. Back in 1996 this was pretty unprecedented, and it really made Bowser into the more endearing, well-loved semi-villain that he is today. Like, yeah, Bowser is evil, but at the same time, he's also a bit of a dork with self-confidence issues who thinks he's way smarter than he is, and it's just… it's just so great. It's to the point where, even in RPGs where he is the main villain, Bowser is just as much comedy relief as he is an antagonist. It's the same here. After defeating him early in the story and then slowly watching his forces dwindle down to nothing as he tries in vain to defeat smithy on his own, Bowser is just a delightful curmudgeon to have on the team… even if, in terms of mechanics, he was actually the character I ended up using the least throughout my playthrough.

But then there are the newcomers, Geno and Mallow. I love them both, from an aesthetic point of view. Mallow, being a little cloud creature does fit right into the Mario world without issue. Geno's a bit more unique looking, but his role as the guardian of the Star Road fits right in with the occasional character guarding a super powerful area or relic or long lost power source that seems to crop up, even in the regular platformers now and then. And as they aren't really Mario characters, at least not in terms of the main canon, the writers did have a bit more freedom with these two, though not a huge amount was done with that freedom. Geno is about as static as Mario, Bowser, and Peach, though he's certainly a talkative character. I never really got much of a vibe for his personality though, as much as I enjoyed his design. Mallow is unique amongst the main cast of the game in that he's really the only one of the five that has something resembling a character arc. Orphaned as a child, wanting to find his real parents, and learning to be more confident as a result. It's really simple, much like most other subplots in the game, what few there are, but it does give his character more agency in the plot beyond the shared goal of wanting to stop Smithy from taking over the world.

Speaking of Smithy, can I just say how much I love the idea behind him. He's an alien blacksmith who literally forges the enemies that you fight, making sentient weapons that are completely loyal to me. It's an intriguing idea for a villain and I kinda love it. It almost makes me a bit disappointed that he just exists to be a villain. We don't know anything about him, what he does, where he comes from, whether or not he's done this to other worlds and so forth; Like I said before, we don't really need all that stuff for this to be a great game and an enjoyable story, but the fact that I'm not disappointed and yet I'm still asking these questions about the villain does tell me that I think he's at least an interesting force, especially with how much he's built up over the course of the story before you finally confront him. He might be one of my favorite Mario villains just for his concept alone, and that extends to his minions, all of whom are based around various weapons, their names a pun on the weapon they're based on. It's great stuff.

What the characters lack in depth or complexity, they more than make up for by just being absolutely off-the-wall strange, and I am here for it.

The World

Exploring the world in this game is a pretty straightforward experience. Folks tell you where to go and what to do, and then you do it. You pretty much will never find yourself wondering what you're supposed to do next, and that's without the need of a waypoint or a radar or even anything to really remind you of what you should be doing, though the remake does give you a handy journal function to remind you of recent events and any interesting information that you've gleaned from talking to people.

While the original didn't have any journal or fast travel functions in it, moving around the map was fairly snappy (actually much snappier than in the remake) and the areas and dungeons were small enough that revisiting them for whatever reason never felt like much of a chore. However, adding in modern sensitibilities and accessibility options for the convenience of the player is something that I will always welcome, especially since they slowed down traveling on the map quite a bit for the remake.

But that's about the only thing that feels like it's been made slower. Mario no longer needs a button held down in order to run on the overworld, running is just his standard mode of movement in this remake, and his speed is a very happy medium between his walk and run speeds from the original, and it works perfectly for getting around quickly enough and avoiding enemy encounters, not that you'll really want to, as combat is really fun, but I'll get into that later. Platforming also feels better in this version as well. The original wasn't bad perse, but the sprite-based isometric layout of the game combined with the strange ascent and descent speed of the jump could make platforming a bit tricky. And yes, the game does have platforming, usually in optional mini-games

While the areas themselves are small and even somewhat linear in their layout, the isometric layout of everything does make exploring worthwhile, and of course there are always hidden treasure chests and enemies to keep a lookout for. There are even invisible treasure chests scattered all over the world, with a particular NPC in the game that will even tell you how many hidden treasures in the world you haven't found yet, how nice of them! You can find a bunch of stuff just by talking to the individuals and poking around in every nook and cranny, whether it's directions to a hidden treasure room in the forest maze, a challenge to hit a certain number of consecutive bounces using your jump attacks, or hitting a button in Booster Tower that opens up a completely new screen in the previous area. And that's to say nothing about the rush that you get when you grab an invincibility star and just plow through a ton of enemies in the overworld.

And you get Experience Points for it!

The Combat

The combat is fantastic, from all angles, and is probably the part of the game that was both the most heavily altered, and the the most improved in this remake. And make no mistake, it was already pretty solid to begin with. The timed hits mechanic, where you can push a button to either increase the strength of an attack or defend yourself against an incoming attack or spell and potentially eliminate all damages if your input is timed well enough.

However, the old game, for as good as it was, could be somewhat vague about what you could and could not block, and also what the timing was for certain attacks. It also limited you to only using three out of the five characters at a time and you couldn't change characters mid-fight. Also, Mario always has to be in your party, so party composition couldn't be super varied. The remake addresses most of these issues, and in pretty decent ways.

First off, if an attack is unblockable, it will say so in the corner when the attack name is announced. Then, whenever an attack is used against you, or you use an attack, an exclamation point will apear above the character's head, letting you know when you should be hitting the A button. While decent timing will get you a small bonus to damage or defense, if you perfectly time the button press you'll either completely eliminate any damage you take (defending) or you'll dish out extra damage AND cause a small shockwave that will cause a small amount of damage to all other enemies (attacking). It's a smart system, and encourages you to learn the tells for both your enemies and allies. to maximize your offense and defense.

Oh, and that exclamation point? It doesn't stick around all the time. After you've successfully gotten a few perfect hits and blocks, the indicator will stop appearing. However, if you start missing the timing frequently on the same attacks, it will come back to help coach you into properly hitting that sweet spot. Depending on your team composition, you'll also get bonuses to certain stats if you manage to keep a combo chain going of successful attack and defense. And speaking as such a big fan of the original, I actually needed that help getting the timing down. With the new 3D models, the animations are far smoother, and also a lot quicker too, leading to the timing feeling a lot trickier. This game also has a lot more attacks that can be blocked with a button press, and I'm not sure if they could always be blocked in the original, or if the timing was just that strange. To be fair, the timing on these particular magical attacks (Diamond Saw, Bolt, Storm), they're really tricky to get down, even with that helpful little indicator.

The ability to switch in party members from idle during battle is also more of a boon than I thought it would be. In the original game, you were stuck in combat with whatever characters you had in your party, and generally I never switched out specific party members, save for some very specific fights. I'd almost always go with Mario, Bowser, and Peach, and end up leaving Geno and Mallow behind. It isn't like the game ever forces you to use them again anyway. But in the remake, you can swap out a character without wasting their turn, something that becomes very useful for characters afflicted with status ailments or knocked out, or when you just want to experiment with other characters' abilities against certain foes.

And by far, the biggest quality of life improvement to the game's battle mechanics were with its special weapons. The system itself remains unchanged, you have a pool of flower points that is shared by all your characters that they use to utilize their special attacks. In the original game, these were, by a large, kind of useless, at least in my opinion. Apart from some specific fights, all I would use special attacks for was for Peach's healing abilities (which makes her super powerful in this game, she can basically keep everyone hale and hearty all on her own so long as you don't let her get KOed). It is true that plenty of enemies in the game have weaknesses to elemental attacks that party members have in their special attacks (Mario's fireballs, Mallow's thunderbolts and snowy powers, and so forth… also Mario's jump attacks count as their own element too), but there was very little indication about whether or not using a special attack on an enemy was actually affecting them any better than your regular attacks. Add in the fact that powering up the special attacks required more involved button inputs (pressing the D-pad in a clockwise rotation, rapidly pressing the attack button, holding it down and releasing it at a certain point, etc.) and sometimes I just wasn't sure if I was even using them right.

The remake on the other hand, gives you plenty of ways to know just what would be best to use against your enemies. First, when you use Mallow's Thought Peek ability (Psychopass in the original game), you not only get the enemy's remaining HP total, but also a list of everything they're weak against, including status ailments as well, which can also encourage you to use all those items and spells that inflict statuses on your enemies rather than just having those collect dust. When you use an attack that hits an enemy's weakness, or a resistance, it will TELL you that, letting you know that, yes, you are doing something right. And those special attack inputs I mentioned before? The game gives you a visual cue that not only makes it very clear what you're supposed to do, but gives you visual feedback on how well you performed the action, so you're always sure exactly how well you're performing them.

I don't want to say that the original was terrible in this aspect, but the original never really made special attacks feel like a necessary piece of the puzzle beyond healing abilities, and some early game fights that benefited from Mallow's screen-hitting attacks. It was balanced in such a way that using your regular attacks was still perfectly optimal. In the remake, not only was I more often switching out party members to change up my strategies during fights, but I was using special attacks a heck of a lot more often because I could be sure that it was something that would be effective this time around, which in turn made both Mallow and Geno feel much more helpful overall. This is actually the reason why I ended up using Bowser much less than I did on the SNES version, as he is a useful tank, but I found Geno's status as a glass canon and Mallow's ability to cover and reveal multiple weaknesses to be a lot more useful compared to Bowser's interesting but underutilized ability to inflict a lot of status ailments. Combat just doesn't last long enough to make status ailments useful to use.

I would even go as far as to say combat overall feels much faster  than the original. Not that it was slow before, but the animations just feel much snappier and more fluid and the lack of really needing to think too hard about what you're doing from turn to turn means that most regular fights are going to be over within three turns. The game's balance is just perfect in this regard, especially if you're new to RPGs. Speaking of which…

Breezy Mode

Look, the original Mario RPG was not hard. At all. And that was by design. It was built to be an RPG for people who didn't play RPGs but were familiar with Mario as a series. Combat was simple, the numbers were kept small, the level cap was very low, and the timed hit button presses kept people engaged and alert during combat, rather than just encouraging them to mash the attack button the whole time to get through the fights quicker. You're never confused on where to go, the few puzzles the game throws at you are very easy to figure out and dungeons are relatively small, quick affairs with only the occasional gimmick to spice up a boss fight here and there, such as Bowyer's ability to lock down a button.

I've gone on record in this post saying that accessibility options are a good thing, and I mean that. More options and more difficulty settings will always be a good thing, and there, it is no different. I just personally find it funny when a game that is already built to be easy and accessible goes even further and gives you an option to make the game even easier. It's a good thing, to be sure, and it's especially helpful for those struggling with the timed button presses. Heck, if that was all this mode did, it would have been a perfect accessibility option in general, but it also decreases the EXP needed to level up, and decreases the overall battle difficulty, lowers the HP for all enemies and bosses while still keeping the story the same. They took an introductory RPG and made it even easier to get into for anyone who is even remotely curious about the genre, and with how many RPG series are transitioning into more active combat systems and leaving the old turn based systems behind, I think this is a great way to introduce the concept of how these older RPGs functioned to people who just didn't grow up with this era of games.

The Post-Game

So, this is basically the biggest thing that was added to the game. As faithful as the remake is, one thing I'm very glad to see being added is a little bit of post-game content. There's not a lot of it, but it is there, and I felt compelled to talk about it.

The original game had no post-game. At all. In fact, there wasn't even anything after the credits, which was the style at the time. Games would usually just end, and stay on their THE END screen until you reset or turned off the console. Here though, after beating the main story, you unlock a brand new questline that will take you back to past locations to rebattle harder versions of bosses you fought during the main story, like Booster, Punchnello, and Johnny, and these fights do something very interesting: they really dial up the gimmicks. I mentioned before that gimmick fights weren't really all that prevalent in the main game. I mentioned Bowyer, but off the top of my head, there are also the two fights against Belome where he'll either eat one of your party members (the first fight) or clone your party members to fight alongside him (the second fight), and the second phase in Johnny's fight which turns into a one-on-one duel with Mario. However, each of these extra fights dials up the gimmickery quite a bit, to the point where they can feel somewhat like puzzle fights, as each one has to be fought in a very particular way.

You fight Booster, and if you let him finish his work, he'll drive a train into your body, dealing max damage to everyone on screen, basically guaranteeing a party wipe if you don't interrupt him and take out the snifsters, who are going to be encouraging him the whole time. You fight Jinx, who will instantly KO a party member if you fail to land a properly timed attack. You fight Punchnello, who has built up his defenses so high that the only way he can be hurt is by turning his bombs around towards him. There's even a rematch with Johnny that is once again a one-on-one with Mario, but this time you can't even use items, meaning that surviving the fight is going to be down to learning how to defend properly against all of Johnny's attacks. All of them CAN be blocked, but he has some pretty annoying timing for all of his attacks.

This all culminates in a rematch with the game's hidden superboss, a Final Fantasy inspired villain known as Culex. You fight him in his original 2D form during the story if you find the key to his door, but during the rematch, he has achieved a perfect 3D form, and man oh man, is he a challenge, well worth it if you're craving something that's actually pretty difficult in a game meant to be more welcoming to new players.

What I like about these fights is that they are essentially tests to see how well you've mastered the game's timed hit mechanics, and it makes you feel good for properly mastering them. Even if you're at or near max level (which is pretty easy to do in even a casual playthrough), these bosses will challenge you. You even get some new equipment for each of the extra bosses, usually super-powerful golden weapons for party members that didn't really have an ‘ultimate’ weapon the way that Mario and Peach did (the Lazy Shell and the Frying Pan respectively). You don't really have a reason to use these weapons since at this point you've basically done everything else in the game at this point, but the fact that there is a tengible reward for doing this post game stuff is always fun. And your ultimate reward for beating all the extra bosses and then defeating Culex? You gain the ability to fight Culex as much as you want, and see how fast you can beat them. It's not the greatest reward, but the fact that the developers went out of their way to include something to do after the credits roll in a game that initially just ended after that? I think that's really cool, especially considering just how much tougher these fights are compared to everything else in the game. It's just nice to see something that challenges you and your knowledge of the game's mechanics beyond what is usually required during a basic playthrough.

The Future

If I haven't made it clear at this point, this is a fantastic game. The original is a fantastic game, and it isn't often that I find a remake that can stand toe to toe toe to toe with the original, and while there are differences between the two, they mostly balance each other out. Both can be played and enjoyed easily, and while the remake does have a lot of very helpful quality of life improvements, the original version's more deliberate timing with its more limited animations still makes it very fun to play, it's just a different feeling.

I hope this game continues to sell well, and my biggest wish is that this means that the future for classic style RPGs will continue to be strong, or maybe we'll see some more new Mario RPGs that are quick, snappy and simple like this one, rather than these strange pseudo-RPGs that the Paper Mario series has turned into, or the drawn out, boring slogs that the Mario and Luigi games became.

But between this remake, and the upcoming remake of The Thousand Year Door that's supposed to be coming out some time this year, I have hopes that Nintendo is using these to guage interest for another original Mario RPG game.

I'm also hopeful that we might be seeing Geno and Mallow in games beyond the one they originated from. I'm not going to pretend that I know the details of whatever agreement Nintendo and Square Enix reached to make this remake a reality, but I'm hoping there was enough wiggle room for Nintendo to actually do something with the characters and concepts contained therein. At the very least, maybe Mallow and Geno will be able to appear in games outside of their origin in a form that's a bit more than just a glorified PNG, or a little background element cameo. Again, because I don't know the details of the agreement between Square and Nintendo for these characters, I can't be sure if this is just really wishful thinking on my part (game publishers are notoriously controlling over the IP that they own, with Nintendo being cited as the biggest example when it comes to their characters), but hey, I never thought we'd ever get a remake of this game, let alone one as polished and fun as this.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this post, it ended up a lot longer than I actually meant it to be, I just couldn't help myself and needed to gush as much as possible about a remake of a game that I have held dear to my heart since childhood, and I hope that this is a sign of more RPGs of this nature from Nintendo, or featuring Nintendo characters.

Who knows, with all of these remakes, remasters, re-releases, and smaller scope games that are coming out for the Switch as of late, this might be the year that we get some ideas about what Nintendo's next console is going to be, and what sort of games might be on it. That might be something to talk about down the line.

#Super Mario RPG #Remake #Thoughts #Lotta Thoughts #Like Too Many Thoughts #I think I went on with this for a little bit too long #Sorry about that #not really #had a lot to say #really love this game #Y'all should really play it if you can!

[atmymercy]

Hello again darling! I really enjoyed the reading you gave to me last time so I'd love to get one again since they are open🥰🤍. I'm mfh and I'm a Scorpio sun.

So... There's actually a lot of things I'd like to get a clearer view through tarot so I'll try to get to just one question to follow the rules. Please bear with me even if it's long or difficult for me to get to the question lol it's for context and I need to let it go.

My birthday was last Saturday (I just did enter on my twenties) and a lot of things were getting out of control and giving me a lot of anxiety in general, it was one of the heaviest weeks of my year actually. I became kinda distant with the group of friends I love with my whole heart, i was really disappointed and unsatisfied with college projects and exams results (and I still have a couple things to figure out before the year ends), it was my first birthday far from my family as I study in another city, and the person I've been in a situationship with was there for me during that time but we have to go in different ways for some time until next year and I'm really heartbroken cause there's many things that has happened between us but at the end I think it wasn't the time even though I loved him.

Was a pretty intense year. I actually loved how it played out, my life changed a lot but I'm still anxious these importantes aspects in my life won't get better for 2023. I'll go back to home for holidays until March maybe, and I fear I'll lose the friends that I have and feel alone, I fear I have to live with the pressure college did put me through for the last 2 weeks and not being able to be happy with what I am doing. And I fear my relationship with this guy (he's fg♑ if that helps) tears apart to the point we don't talk anymore. I know I have to let us go but I still want to be part of his life as I do now. My question is: how these aspects of my life are going to develop for the next year. So sorry it's long lol as I said I needed to talk about it and I need some guidance now.

Thank you so much for reading and if it's too long or deep for a free reading let me know and I re phrase the question if possible:). Have a beautiful day/night whenever you are reading this 🤍

hello hermit! welcome back! i'm so glad you enjoyed your last read so much! and thank you for trusting me with all this information. i know it's all very personal to your life and i'm honored that you came to me! thank you so much. let's see what your spirit guides have to say but i can't promise they'll hit all these points because that is a loaded question, which you obviously see that! lol

for you, i got the knight of cups, 3 of swords & page of cups.

there is no way to pussyfoot around this. you are going to have hurt feelings from the development for the next year. there is no escaping it and rather than you avoiding it though. i see you taking it on full hearted-ly! good for you, honey! these kind of drastic changes can cause a lot of people to turn off their hearts and emotions because it can become too much for people. it's a lot of change! but you just believe in love so much that i see you growing from all this instead! you go from the page of cups. a beginner in love and emotions to the knight of cups! that takes a lot of self-love and acceptance to get to! and because of all this hard work you do, you create such an amazing armor for your life and for your heart. you learn to take this all in stride and because of this, spirit upgrades you honey! i know it might hurt now and feel like absolute shit but you end up in a place that is far more suited for you! and you make a knight's armor for your heart to protect you the next go round! like fuck! talk about just owning these changes and learning to look so graceful while doing it! trust your heart and feel things to the fullest, honey! it's going to bring you to such great places!

hope you enjoyed it! please give feedback or buy me a coffee when you can! if you want to explore this further, please consider a private read as well. also thank you for sharing with me!♡

love & light!

-tea

as always, my rules & info are in my pinned post if you're interested in a reading of your own!

#tea tarot reading #tarot reading #tarot witch #tarot reader #tarot read #tarot #tarot cards #tarotcommunity #thehermitqueen

[timberlog]

Whelp. The New Year started out great! Turns out I have Covid. And I have been self-isolating for 3 days now.

It really started out as a little tickle at the back of the throat. Not even a full on sore throat where it's hard to swallow because that would have sent up red flags and I would have definitely gotten tested beforehand. Just so happens that it is the busiest time of year for retail workers so I attributed much of my tiredness to the season.

It wasn't until I got hit with all the symptoms at once that I was like "something is seriously wrong with me now". I woke in a pool of sweat due to a fever, coughing, stuffed nose, and I barely had enough energy to get up to go to the bathroom.

Soooo...I've been home and catching up on gaming. Talking to friends I haven't talked to in awhile. But this is a new year, which means new year's resolutions!

I typically don't subscribe to any new year's resolutions because a) I usually fail at them b) they're not realistic and c) if I considered them something that I really needed to change, then I would.

This year is gonna be different because I've realized some of my behaviors that are destructive to me. So here it goes (and it really sucks that nobody reads this because nobody can really hold me accountable):

Learn to let it go - so I'm still in love with my ex...there, I said it. But I think the worst part of it is that I still talk to her. I don't want to just cut her out of my life. I believe as an adult, I should be able to be mature enough to maintain a platonic relationship and any feelings that I may still have is really just a culmination of my own insecurities and has nothing to do with her. She's not being anything other than friendly and she's not purposely trying to lead me on or entice me back. My mind get wrapped around talking with her, hoping to get any hint of her wanting to get back with me (and there really is none) and it destroys me! And I do this to myself!

So this resolution has layers. First layer is to limit myself when it comes to talking to her. This is crucial, because when I text her or anything like that, I turn into this naive little boy waiting impatiently for a reply, checking my phone every 10 seconds to see if she read it or whatever. It's pathetic, I know. So unless she is trying to talk to me. Don't text her. I fucking don't even wanna ask how her day was even though I still care!

Okay, layer two. Be happy that she's happy even when I'm miserable. So this layer is more about my mental state than a behavior. I think selfishly, I want her to be unhappy with her life so she can choose me (someone that hopefully had made her happy). This is a stupid way of thinking and I'm embarrassed to even write this. I need to keep telling myself that I want her to be happy even if it's not with me. She's never once really indicated to me that she's unhappy with being single or struggling with finding another guy (which I don't think she is). She's working on herself and that's probably the best thing for her right now anyway. So I need to be happy for her, even when I'm not happy.

Layer 3. Stop being such a recluse. I need to get out there and make friends which is increasingly hard to do during a pandemic and as an adult. Like seriously, I'm a likeable person. I may not be lovable, but I'm certainly likeable! I know enough general information and have a good sense of humor. So what the heck? I just need to maybe find somewhere to volunteer. Or something that devotes more of my time. Building up those relationships with other people.

So there it is. A three-layer resolution cake. Bake in the oven for 365 days at body temperature. You should have a new Tim by 2023.