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wifelinkmtg · 8 months

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TUMBLR POST EDITOR WON'T LET ME TITLE THIS POST ANYMORE SO I GUESS THIS IS THE TITLE NOW. WEBBED SITE INNIT

So let's say you grew up in the nineties and that The Lion King was an important movie to you. Let's say that the character of Scar - snarling, ambitious, condescending, effeminate Scar - stirred feelings in you which you had no words for as a child. And then let's say, many years later, you're talking about it with a college friend, and you say something like, "oh man, I think Scar was some sort of gay awakening for me," and she fixes you with this level stare and says, "Scar was a fascist. What's the matter with you?"

The immediate feeling is not unlike missing a step: hang on, what's happening, what did I miss? You knew there were goose-stepping hyenas in "Be Prepared," but you didn't think it mattered that much. He's the bad guy, after all, and the movie's just pointing it out. Your friend says it's more than that: the visuals of the song are directly referencing the Nuremberg rallies. They're practically an homage to Riefenstahl. This was your sexual awakening? Is this why you're so into peaked caps and leather, then? Subliminal nazi kink, perhaps?

And then one of your other friends cuts in. "Hold up," he says, "let's think about what Scar actually did in the movie. He organized a group of racialized outcasts and led them against a predatory monarchy. Why are you so keen to defend their hereditary rule? Scar's the good guy here." The conversation immediately descends into a verbal slap fight about who the real bad guy is, whether Scar's regime was actually responsible for the ecological devastation of the Pride Lands, whether the hyenas actually count as "racialized" because James Earl Jones voiced Mufasa after all. Your Catholic friend starts saying some strange and frankly concerning shit about Natural Law. Someone brings The Lion King 2 into it. You leave the conversation feeling a little bit lost and a little bit anxious. What were we even talking about?

INTRODUCING: THE DITCH

There is a way of reading texts which I'm afraid is pervasive, which has as its most classical expression the smug obsession with trivia and minutiae you find in a certain vein of comic book fan. "Who was the first Green Lantern? What was his weakness? Do you even know the Green Lantern Oath?" It eschews the subjective in favor of definitively knowable fact. You can't argue with this guy that, say, Alan Scott shouldn't really count as the first Green Lantern because his whole deal is so radically different from the Hal Jordan/John Stewart/Guy Gardner Corps-era Lanterns, because this guy will simply say "but he's called Green Lantern. Says so right on the cover. Checkmate." This approach to reading a text is fundamentally 1) emotionally detached (there's a reason the joke goes, oh you like X band? name three of their songs - and not, which of their songs means the most to you? which of them came into your life at exactly the right moment to tell you exactly what you needed to hear just then?) and 2) defensive. It's a stance that is designed not to lose arguments. It says so right on the cover. Checkmate.

And then you get the guys who are like "well obviously Bruce Wayne could do far more as a billionaire to solve societal problems by using his tremendous wealth to address systemic issues instead of dressing up as a bat and punching mental patients in the head," and these guys have half a point but they're basically in the same ditch butting heads with the "well, actually" guys, and can we not simply extricate ourselves from the ditch entirely?

So, okay, let's return to our initial example. Scar is portrayed using Nazi iconography - the goose-stepping, the monumentality, the Nuremberg Lichtdom. He is also flamboyant and effete. He unifies and leads a group of downtrodden exiles to overthrow an absolute monarch. He's also a self-serving despot on whose rule Heaven Itself turns its back. You can't reconcile these things from within the ditch - or if you can, the attempt is likely to be ad-hoc supposition and duct tape.

Instead, let's ask ourselves what perspective The Lion King is coming from. What does it say is true about the world? What are its precepts, its axioms?

There is a natural hierarchical order to the world. This is just and righteous and the way of things, and attempts to overthrow this order will be punished severely by the world itself.

Fascism is what happens when evil men attempt to usurp this natural order with the aid of a group or groups of people who refuse to accept their place in the order.

There exists an alternative to defending and adhering to one's place in the natural order - it consists only of selfish spineless apathy.

Manliness is an essential quality of a just ruler. Unmanliness renders a person unfit for rule, and often resentful and dangerous as well.

And isn't that interesting, laid out like that? It renders the entire argument about the movie irrelevant (except for whatever your Catholic friend was on about, since his understanding of the world seems to line up with the above precepts weirdly well.) It's meaningless to argue about whether Scar was a secret hero or a fascist, when the movie doesn't understand fascism and has a damn-near alien view of what good and evil are.

There's always gonna be someone who, having read this far, wants to reply, "so, what? The Lion King is a bad movie and the people who made it were homophobes and also American monarchists, somehow? And anyone who likes it is also some sort of gay-bashing crypto-authoritarian?" To which I have to reply, man, c'mon, get out of the ditch. You're no good to anyone in there. Take my hand. I'm going to pull on three. One... two...

SO PHYREXIA [PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE, GROANS]

We're talking about everyone's favorite ichor-drooling surgery monsters again because there was a bit in my ~*~seminal~*~ essay Transformation, Horror, Eros, Phyrexia which seemed to give a number of readers quite a bit of trouble: namely, the idea that while Phyrexia is textually fascist, their aesthetic is incompatible with real-world fascism, and further, that this aesthetic incompatibility in some way outweighs the ways in which they act like a fascist nation in terms of how we think of them. I'll take responsibility here: I don't think that point is at all clear or well-argued in that essay. What I was trying to articulate was that the text of Magic: the Gathering very much wants Phyrexia to be supremely evil and dangerous fascists, because that makes for effective antagonists, but in the process of constructing that, it's accidentally encoded a whole bunch of fascinating presuppositions that end up working at cross-purposes with its apparent aim. That's... not that much clearer, is it? Hmm. Why don't I just show you what I mean?

Atraxa, Grand Unifier (art by Marta Nael)

In "Beneath Eyes Unblinking," one of the March of the Machine stories by K. Arsenault Rivera, there's a fascinating and I think revealing passage in which Atraxa (big-deal Phyrexianized angel and Elesh Norn's lieutenant) has a run-in with an art museum in New Capenna. The first thing I want to talk about is that, in this passage, Atraxa has no understanding of the concept of "beauty". A great deal of space in such a rushed storyline is devoted to her trying to puzzle out what beauty means and interrogating the minds of her recently-compleated Capennan aesthetes to try and understand it. In the end, she is unable to conceive of beauty except as "wrongness," as anathema.

So my first question is, why doesn't Atraxa have any idea of beauty? This is nonsense, right? We could point to a previous story, "A Garden of Flesh," by Lora Gray, in which Elesh Norn explicitly thinks in terms of beauty, but that's a little bit ditchbound, isn't it? The better argument is to simply look at Phyrexian bodies, at the Phyrexian landscape, all of which looks the way it does on purpose, all of which has been shaped in accordance with the very real aesthetic preferences of Phyrexians. How you could look at the Fair Basilica and not understand that Phyrexians most definitely have an idea of beauty, even if you personally disagree with it, is baffling. This is a lot like the canonical assertion that Phyrexians lack souls, which is both contradicted elsewhere in canon and essentially meaningless, given Magic's unwillingness or inability to articulate what a soul is in its setting, and as with this, it seems the goal is simply to dehumanize Phyrexians, to render them alien, even at the cost of incoherence or internal contradiction.

Atraxa's progress through the museum is fascinating. It evokes the 1937 Nazi exhibit on "degenerate art" in Munich, but not at all cleanly. The first exhibit, which is of representational art, she angrily destroys for being too individualistic (a point of dissonance with the European fascist movements of the 20th century, which formed in direct antagonism to communism.) The second exhibit, filled with abstract paintings and sculptures, she destroys even more angrily for having no conceivable use (this is much more in line with the Nazi idea of "degenerate art", so well done there.) The third exhibit is filled with war trophies and reconstructions from a failed Phyrexian invasion of Capenna many years prior, which she is angriest of all with (and fair enough, I suppose.) But then, after she's done completely trashing the place, she spots a number of angel statues on the cathedral across the plaza, and she goes apeshit. In a fugue of white-hot rage, she pulverizes the angel heads, and here is where I have to ask my second question:

Why angels? If you are trying to invoke fascist attitudes toward art, big statues of angels are precisely the wrong thing for your fascist analogues to hate. Fascists love monumental, heroic representations of superhuman perfection. It's practically their whole aesthetic deal. I understand that we're foreshadowing the imminent defeat of Phyrexia at the hands of legions of angels and a multiversal proliferation of angel juice, but that just leads to the exact same question: why angels? To the best of my knowledge, the Phyrexian weakness to New Capennan angel juice is something invented for this storyline. They have, after all, been happily compleating angels since 1997. We could talk about the in-universe justification for why Halo specifically is so potent, but I don't remember what that justification is, and also don't care. Let's not jump back in the ditch, please. The point is, someone decided that this time, Phyrexia would be defeated by an angelic host, and what does that mean? What is the text trying to say? What are its precepts and axioms?

Let me ask you a question: how many physically disabled angels are there in Magic: the Gathering? How about transsexual angels? How many angels are there, on all of the cards that have ever been printed for Magic: the Gathering, that are even just a bit ugly? Do you get it yet? Or do you need me to spell it out for you?

SPELLING IT OUT FOR YOU

There is a kind of body which is bad. It is bad because it has been significantly altered from its natural state, and it is bad because it is repellent to our aesthetic sensibilities.

The bad kind of body is contagious. It spreads through contact. Sometimes people we love are infected, and then they become the bad kind of body too.

There is a kind of body which is good. It is good because it is pleasing to our aesthetic sensibilities, and it is good because it is unaltered from its (super)natural state.

A happy ending is when all the good bodies destroy or drive into hiding all of the bad bodies. A happy ending is when the bad bodies of the people we love are forcibly returned to being the good kind of body.

Do you get it now?

ENDNOTES

It's worth noting that the ditch is very similar to the white American Evangelical hermeneutics of "the Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it," the defensive chapter-and-verse-or-it-didn't-happen approach to reading a text, what Fred Clark of slacktivist calls "concordance-ism". I don't think that's accidental. We stand underneath centuries of people reading the Bible very poorly - how could that not affect how we read things today? We are participants in history whether we like it or not.

I sincerely hope I haven't come across as condescending in this essay. Close reading is legitimately difficult! They teach college courses on this stuff! And while it is frustrating to have my close readings interrogated by people who... aren't doing that, like. I do get it. I find myself back in the ditch all the time. This stuff is hard. It is also, sorry, crucial if you intend to say something about a text that's worth saying.

I also hope I've communicated clearly here. Magic story is sufficiently incoherent that trying to develop a thesis about it often feels like trying to nail jello to the wall. If anyone has questions, please ask them! And thank you for reading. Next time, we'll probably do the new Eldraine set.

#phyrexia #not defining the ditch except by implication #thanks to all the very smart vorthoi on the flavor text discord server for helping me work through my thoughts on fascism and phyrexia #this is technically the march of the machine review also #or as much of one as i care to do

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molagboop · 18 days

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Examining Chozo Anatomy: Arms

Welcome to my deep-dive into Chozo anatomy. Today, I'll be discussing features present on the arms and hands of our feathery fellows.

This post exists simultaneously as a reference for artists and as a fascinating look into the world of Chozo anatomy for all audiences. Whether you're here for references showing how Chozo arms are built or you enjoy taking a peek at Metroid Dread's character models out of game, I've got you covered!

You'll find plenty of images and a full breakdown of the anatomical structure of Chozo arms beneath the cut.

First, a quick overview: from a musculoskeletal standpoint, Chozo arms are built exactly like human arms, diverging at the hands. Chozo hands look like bird feet that evolved in much the same way our hands did.

Part 1: Elbows

Dread Chozo have feathers protruding from their scaly elbows.

Underneath every fountain of large plumage is a soft bed of down. This manifests in patches of plush, miniscule feathers that are grouped together somewhat densely.

Our subjects appear to have primarily smooth skin occasionally interrupted by spots of down from which plumage arises, but I think Chozo that are feathery all over are neat. The concept art and 100% gallery rewards seem to paint a picture of softer Chozo with more feathers all over their bodies (save for their plated arms and hard beaks), but the in-game models appear smooth. We're all familiar with Raven Beak's bald head (which many of us have expressed a desire to slap), but perhaps that head is covered in a fine layer of velvety feathers?

I managed to remove Quiet Robe's left pauldron and embroidered sleeve, so I have a fuller view of his whole arm, including the base of his feathery neck.

Quiet Robe's shoulders are quite smooth. If you want to give peepaw Robe fuzzy shoulders, I certainly wouldn't complain: you don't need to remain 100% on-model, especially considering there's a gaping hole in his back underneath that miter, and the front of his robe hides the abyss instead of an old man's breast. Corners were cut to prevent obtrusive clipping in cutscenes, whose animation plays out in-engine through scripting while the game is running (this is how the game manages to transition seamlessly from a cutscene into a boss fight).

If you'll direct your attention back up towards our Zero Mission concept art, you'll see that the Chozo of yore had spiked forearms/elbows. Those structures may indeed be feathers (upon closer inspection, they do seem feather-shaped: all three characters appear to display different variations in feathering, particularly in the shape of the feathers and how densely clustered they are), but the older designs also appear to possess a carapace of sorts?

The segments between their limbs are more pronounced, sort of like a beetle's exoskeleton. I'm not sure whether to think older Chozo designs had harder skin with feathers situated in specific locations (notably around the face and shoulders), or if our good chums are just skin and bones. Maybe the discs defining their wrists, ankles and elbows are just particularly bony, and I'm misreading their forearm feathers as spined protrusions.

Whatever the case may be, the older designs are charming. I find myself drawn to them despite the focus on submersing my own Chozo in fleshy, feathery pseudo-realism.

Part 2: Forearms and Hands

Like the feet of real birds, the tops of Chozo forearms are lined with rows of hardened scutes. Quiet Robe has cracked, chunky, pronounced plating that seems to show a bit of wear: a hallmark of aging.

Chozo hands consist of three fingers and a thumb. Their digit count is consistent with the amount of toes that most real birds possess. Interestingly, Quiet Robe's knuckles are particularly pointed and pronounced, where Raven Beak X's aren't*. They remind me of jagged little spurs: useful in hand-to-hand combat.

RB-X may not have raised knuckles, but the real Raven Beak's power suit has white knuckle guards that indicate his own might not be so different from our gentle friend. They could also exist to give his armored fist some punching power despite a lack of biological spurs, but this is all speculation.

The palms of both Quiet Robe and RB-X's hands appear to match their inner elbow patches: Quiet Robe's palms are bathed in a violet hue, while Raven Beak X has pink flesh. This is more apparent on RB-X than on our Thoha chum, but that coloration appears to extend some ways down the underside of the forearm.

Part 3: Those Weird Patches of Skin on the Inner Elbow

One thing you'll notice is that Chozo have patches of flesh on their inner elbows, under their arms, and between their fingers.

This flesh tends to differ in color from the rest of the skin. Quiet Robe's are darker, with more saturated red-violet hues.

The patches under the arms run in tandem with the serratus, the muscle on the sides of the torso that reaches inward towards the abdominals.

I tried to take a less weird shot, but couldn't figure out how to position the bones in a way that would provide a decently lit angle without warping the model horribly.

RB-X's patches are stretched, perhaps a quirk relating to its size or an abridging of the feature via the X tampering with the related genes to suit its fancy. I've likened their appearance to the gliding membranes of animals like flying squirrels... not that these are likely to assist the creature in any gliding with how little surface area they inhabit, but their dimension and the way they resemble some sort of connective tissue spanning between the segments of each limb is certainly evocative. It's like having webbed feet, but instead of the webbing being between one's toes, it's situated between the bicep and the forearm.

I'm unsure of whether to write their appearance off as something only RB-X has, or to take them into consideration for Chozo morphology. I've entertained the thought that some Chozo's inner and under-arm patches do manifest more like this (flattening against the body when the arm is extended and stretching as above when the elbow is bent), and how one's flesh appears is a matter of genetics, or perhaps a feature of aging.

As humans get older, some sections of skin begin to loosen and sag. I don't imagine this is much different for Chozo: Old Bird and Grey Voice certainly have their fair share of wrinkles in the manga. At first, I thought the way RB-X's flesh stretched between its limbs looked somewhat taut and uncomfortable, but the more I think about this from the lens of aging, the more likely it seems that these sections could be spots of loose skin. Perhaps this isn't an X-borne bug, but a feature? Who knows.

It's a lot harder to see the patches between the fingers on Quiet Robe's model, but they're present with a great deal of clarity on Raven Beak X.

I think I mentioned this in my post about Quiet Robe's model, but these patches remind me of an anatomical feature seen in older official works (like the concept art for Metroid: Zero Mission). Older depictions of the Chozo had defined, segmented structures on the biceps and the underside of the forearms.

Also of note is the fact that these structures appear on the legs of older Chozo.

Now that we've covered in-game examples, I'd like to give more examples of this feature in concept. First off, you can see these patches in the gallery reward for 100%'ing Burenia in Dread. Upon closer observation, the prisoner on the left appears to display these patches.

The underarm patches are obscured, as their arms are resting pretty close to their torso, but you can barely see the pink patch of flesh running along the serratus and disappearing beneath the arm. The elbow patches are a little clearer.

It's very difficult to see, but I think the coloration around the prisoners' knees may also show some stray sections of pink, matching the leftmost prisoner's inner elbow. Dread's interpretation of the Chozo could possibly have similar patches behind their knees, but I don't see it. It's all up in the air: I say do as you please in that department.

Now for our last example of shirtless individuals in Dread's key art: this hunter** from Ghavoran's 100% completion reward. The inner elbow is a bit obscured, but the modified serratus is clear as day.

The odd patches on Chozo arms were an anatomical subject I wanted to present in-depth because they've changed over the course of two decades: they moved from the sides of the biceps and forearms to the inner elbows and under the arms. Dread does a few things differently from Prime and Zero Mission, which is not a bad thing!

When illustrating characters of a fictional species from existing media, I like to take different depictions across generations into account. Morrowind's Argonians are unlike those we see in Skyrim, and the differences are even more staggering between Arena and Daggerfall! The Chozo have also undergone a few design changes between installments, though admittedly, there's far less whiplash between the Chozo of Dread and Zero Mission than there is between the Argonians of Daggerfall and Arena.

In both cases, the older depictions of the species in question aren't rendered "obsolete" or "not canon" by the newer designs. I'm of the opinion that these discrepancies merely open up more opportunities for interesting and diverse characters. I love seeing Argonian characters with digitigrade legs as Morrowind NPCs had, but the plantigrade layout on characters from the rest of the series is just as fine.

You could give your Chozo the arm structure of older designs, adhere to the more recent arm flesh patch conventions, or toy with a mix of the two: the world is your oyster! You could opt to omit them entirely! Don't let the most recent iteration of the canon hold you back: it's always worth taking a hint from earlier designs when you're playing in a sandbox with decades-old franchises.

I'm not here to say "this is how Dread does Chozo: adhere to the most recent canon or perish": I'm here to show you what Dread does so you can take these design choices into consideration when drawing your own interpretation of this species. Take liberties, and take them often! If you want to remain on-model, that's also fine.

That wraps up our investigation of Chozo arms, but if you notice something I neglected to mention, feel free to point it out!

**Possibly Raven Beak? Who knows: he's old and grey, this one's grey. Maybe these soldiers are out on a hunting trip with the boss, or perhaps he's proving his worth as a warrior by slaying Corpius' uncle solo and cuirass-less. There's no way to say for certain who this is or what's going on: Mawkin culture isn't elaborated upon much in writing during Metroid Dread. I make up my own lore as I go.

*If RB-X's form is an accurate depiction of Raven Beak's pre-death arms. Who knows, maybe his physical form has crusty armored old man scutes like Quiet Robe when Samus piledrives him into the surface of the planet, and the arms we see in-game are the product of the X parasite choosing the more glamorous, younger Raven Beak's smooth baby arms from the pool of genetic material it extracted from his still-writhing form. We'll never know.

#Chozo #Metroid Dread #blender shenanigans #chozo anatomy #Quiet Robe #Raven Beak #RB-X #Raven Beak X #post created February 23 2023 #Metroid #metroid dread spoilers

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marezablr · 3 months

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i just read your future gohan fic and it made me feel horrible both emotionally (as one does about him) and physically. your character writing is great and you absolutely nailed gohan's inner monologue and how he works. however im very curious as to how this 17/gohan thing occured to you, and why you decided to explore that? it took me by surprise and i even considered stopping reading (im glad i didn't tho) at first. future gohan's life and self-perception is already so awful so i wanted to know why you'd add to that in such a specifically unnerving way? specially since you clarify at the start that it's not a shipping thing, im really very curious on your thought process here. but yes great writing

thank you so much for reading! i very much understand the reservations, and i appreciate that you were willing to give it a chance. this answer is a bit long, because i wanted to try to fully, properly respond to what you're asking. so, here we go!

1) how it came to be:

i'd just played the dbz:kakarot dlc, and i had seen some art that made me feel some kind of way about future gohan, so i was browsing ao3 for fic, as one does. i encountered basically this premise in the summary of an explicit fic, and i… was very unnerved by it! a lot. fics will be what they will be! but this concept unsettled me.

but because of that, it stuck with me, and i ended up talking about why with a friend, to help me understand my own response. and in that discussion, i noticed that if you took that element of SA as a premise for a different type of story, a lot of concepts around agency and bodily autonomy that are relevant to the characters come up: gohan as a child soldier, with his right to decide the fate of his own body taken from him and, in this timeline, forever lost; the androids as victims of human experimentation, who had not just their bodies stolen but whose very minds were warped, so that the delight they have in their violent power over others is also the result of violence done to them—of their own minds ripped away and remade to someone else's design.

that resonated with something. so i started exploring ideas, and i ended up getting some concepts for a story that i liked, a story that felt like it was saying something about how people maintain integrity and assert agency in situations that try to take those things from them.

but i was still hesitant about the core premise, so i tried to find ways to write it out of the outline. i tested some things, but ultimately i realized i couldn’t get rid of that part of the story. it just didn't work without it. and it felt somehow cowardly for me to turn away from it? disrespectful, somehow, even? like…

there’s a way that 17 talks to gohan in the dbz:kakarot trunks dlc's english dub. 18 and 17 are both over-familiar with him, but 17 is mock-affectionate in a way that made me want to slap him. it made my skin crawl. and the type of violence addressed in "good loser" is not so distant from the violence that the androids and gohan both experience in canon: it's all violence that happens when someone decides that another person's body isn't theirs to control; instead, the body will be put to the perpetrator's purposes (for the androids, dr. gero’s plans; for gohan, piccolo’s vision of his potential vs the saiyans). (ofc there is a difference between piccolo and gero, which in "good loser" 17 refuses to see, but there IS also a similarity, which gohan refuses to see.)

and there's a link between those canonical violences and the uncomfortable way 17 talks to gohan. as a consequence of those experiences, the androids and gohan were set on a path where 17 and 18, in the bodies and minds that their abuser remade, would treat gohan as theirs to abuse and break, over and over, until they bored of him. and gohan could never back down, because of what he was made into—but also because of who he chooses to be

and that, i think, is 2) why i decided to explore it.

because the premise created a scenario where all those interrelated violences could be addressed, even if the characters resisted facing them. it pulled the uncomfortable truth of their experiences, and the situation they were now in, to the surface. if i wanted to tell a story that looked honestly at the way gohan's agency over his own body has been stolen from him by violence, and how that related to the androids' own loss of bodily and mental autonomy, i couldn’t run away from the idea that let me see it. i had to face it directly.

but if i was going to deal with it directly, i'd have to do so in a way that felt right to me.

so i decided on not doing any explicit content. aside from not wanting to write it, the absence worked better for the story i wanted to tell: 1) it reflected how gohan dissociated away from and repressed the experiences, and 2) it gave gohan a kind of meta-level agency. this is his story, in his pov, and he doesn’t want to share how he was victimized. so he gets to have that refusal.

i also knew i had to take seriously what this kind of violence means for the people involved. to take seriously what it would mean for 18, who was once a teen girl runaway, to see her brother perpetrate the type of violence that she was almost certainly threatened with, violence she may not be able to remember but that sticks deep in her subconscious. to take seriously 17’s mindset as a perpetrator, how he could justify and excuse it and not see what he was doing for what it was—how he could act like he and gohan were both contenders in a shared game, while at the same time enjoying how much he outclassed gohan, how he could differentiate himself to himself from the type of perpetrator his sister is trying not to see him as.

and most of all, i’d take seriously gohan’s experiences: not just the trauma and violation, but also the integrity and unflinching compassion, the deep love he has for the people he protects and for the people who protected him, the will he has to keep fighting even when it feels like a lost cause, because he believes someone else can build on his resistance and that one day that person will win.

that—gohan with his integrity and hope, doing all that he can to stop violence from happening to anyone else, if not now then tomorrow—that felt like the only way i'd feel right about writing this. that was the story that was meaningful to me, enough that, even in my discomfort, i wanted to tell it. i wanted to write more than resilience: i wanted to write gohan's resistance.

in the end, i had to accept that it would be unnerving as a premise, and i couldn't run away from it. all i could do was try my best to write it with care.

thanks again for reading, and for asking this question! it means a lot to me that you were willing to give the story a try. i hope this answer explains how it came to happen, and why i took the approach i did. if you want any clarifications or have any other questions, definitely let me know!

#peridotite #asks

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fuckmywholeactuallife · 6 months

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just saw Here Lies Love on Broadway and I have…complicated feelings about it?

One one hand. There was an insane euphoria of seeing a 100% Filipino cast. Playing Filipino people, too! Not just…oh we have a Vietnamese/Japanese/Chinese character, let’s cast a Filipino bc they’re the only Asians whose parents let them go into theater. And as a fil-am actor, that was very cool!

On the other hand of course is uh. Um. Imelda Marcos is still…very much alive. And the Marcos family is still very much influencing the government of the Philippines. And making her into an Evita story isn’t even accurate? Plus, the music/lyrics were written by two white (British!) guys and it shows.

HOWEVER I will say the production design is a huge part of the messaging of the show. HUGE. while the marcos are saying one thing, the projections and video screens are very much showing another. Death tolls, statistics about their wealth, their cronyism, archival footage comparing the Marcos’ wealth to the average Filipino standard of living, images of the people power revolution, etc etc.

Plus the acoustic song at the end which was composed of real text from revolutionaries contrasted so well with the huge bombastic disco style of the rest of the musical. Idk how to explain it exactly but it really felt like for the past 90 minutes of the show we DID get swept up in the Marcos propaganda machine. The dancing and the lights and the moving set pieces— the whole thing was designed to (imo) really get you caught up in the glamour of it all in the same way fascism promises you big things! things they way YOU want them! And before you’re really aware of it, you are dancing next to war criminals. The end song and the mural reveal felt very tonally different than the rest of the show.

However, I just…think there wasn’t enough THERE there, iykwim. The actual summary of the politics and events is minimal at best, if not outright fabricating some things (she did NOT grow up poor??? Her literal WIKIPEDIA says so. you wrote a whole musical and didn’t do your research??), they really toned down Imelda’s actual role as a dictator, shoving most of that responsibility off on her husband, like she didn’t run the country into the ground all on her own while he was ill, and seriously minimizes how corrupt and evil she was all on her own.

To me, Here Lies Love felt a lot like another Miss Saigon in that it took a huge historical event that devastated thousands of people and still has repercussions to this DAY, and made it sweet and palatable to a western audience. Then slapped a little “fascism bad, defend democracy uwu” moral on at the end. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#personal #here lies love #idk! I really enjoyed it in the moment and then I sat with it more #and sat with their portrayals of these REAL DICTATORS who KILLED THOUSANDS #and the ick started growing #plus i saw some weirdo in the here lies love tag posting uwu cute picrews of imelda marcos and that. THAT made me very upset.

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fostersffff · 5 months

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The Big Gundam Watch, Part 15: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

In my War in the Pocket post, I noted that it and The 08th MS Team make up what are considered to be The Good OVAs. Which, if you haven't read that post, doesn't mean that they're the only good Gundam OVAs, but they're the ones some people like to point to when recommending an entry point to the franchise. This is due to their consistently high production values, relatively short length, and stories that are more "grounded and realistic" than most of the other TV shows, OVAs, and movies in the franchise (which I have since learned is code for "No Newtype Bullshit", rather than implying anything about the believability of the giant robots). The 08th MS Team even sounds like a good compliment to War in the Pocket on paper: one was about the One Year War from an uninvolved child's perspective, and the other is about the same event from an actual military perspective.

Now having seen it for myself: people are not doing this OVA any favors by pairing it with War in the Pocket. I've made multiple passes on trying to soften the impact of that statement, because I don't feel that negatively about The 08th MS Team, but the problem is that I also don't feel that positively about it, either. I don't really feel anything about it, which might be worse!

THE STUFF I LIKED:

The number one thing I liked about The 08th MS Team: the characters have zero reverence for giant robots. And there shouldn't be! This is a story about soldiers almost a full year into a war where mobile suits and mobile armors have become the standard for combat. The Gundams are top-of-the-line equipment, but ultimately, still just equipment, so they don't earn much more that an initial wave of awe. The sole exception is Ginius, whose obsession with the Apsaras is his entire character; Aina and Norris's involvement with that project is largely out of loyalty to him, and to basically everyone else it's considered to be a frivolous waste of resources (which is saying something for Zeon, home of the Big Zam).

The number two thing I liked about The 08th MS Team: the staff had tons of reverence for the giant robots. There are so many little mechanical details to appreciate, but the one I want to call out special is when Shiro is coaching Aina on activating the beam saber to create a hot spring, and you see this intricate sequence revealing that there's a little connector in the hand that locks into another connector in the hilt. It's genuinely my favorite scene in this entire OVA.

This ties into the detail-oriented nature of the production, but I do want to reiterate that this OVA looks fantastic the whole way through. To point to a specific example, Battle Line on the Burning Sand uses a super washed out color palette on everything to emphasize the blinding desert light, even at night.

The extent to which Shiro Amada is a White Meat Babyface Shonen Hero Boy is kind of refreshing. He's a remarkably simple, earnest guy with almost no clumsy awkwardness to his character.

He's also maybe the only character in Gundam thus far to have delivered an actually justifiable Bright Slap (other than the man himself) that didn't feel exclusively like 'MEMBER THE BRIGHT SLAP?????? Considering how much I hate when the Bright Slap is referenced for the sake of reference, I wanted to call attention to when corrections are actually used appropriately.

Norris Packard locks in Best Character, without question. Hard to argue against "Ramba Ral Mk-II with a bigger budget for when he pops off".

Wrote down WAOW BEAUTYFUL 90'S OVA WAMEN multiple times in my notes, but I do want to be slightly more specific and say that the character design for this series falls into my favorite style, which is very... "spiky". Being a 30-something, this style of character design hits the nostalgia center of my brain perfectly, despite the fact that I had never seen this particular series before. Like, if you compare Kou and Nina to Shiro and Aina, the difference in my mind would be described as "spikyness".

I'm actually gonna take an opportunity to punch 0083 and say I really appreciate that Shiro and Aina just a have a normal, adult relationship that doesn't introduce a last minute love triangle that feels as confused as it is tepid. Two good-looking young adults in extreme situations who are still drawn to one another despite being forced apart by circumstances is solid!

ELEDORE AND KAREN DON'T END UP TOGETHER ON SCREEN THANK GOD. I was really fuckin' scared for a bit there when Eledore kept going "MY WOMAN, KAREN, WHO I WILL MARRY" out of fuckin' nowhere. Hey, speaking of that...

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

Eledore sucks. He is a black hole of suck. Cowardly shitheels are nothing new- they're an institution, even, dating back to Kai in 0079- but in addition to being a cowardly shitheel who receives no comeuppance for being one, like Beecha in ZZ, he's also poorly written. And what sucks the most about that is the fact that he could've been totally acceptable with a grand total of like three expository lines peppered throughout the series. Even a single line about being drafted- something I don't think has ever been confirmed one way or the other in the Universal Century- would've gone a long way towards explaining why this guy was within 1000 miles of a warzone.

They shouldn't have had that last episode. It was fine, but I think the way The Shuddering Mountain (Part 2) ends is pretty much perfect. I genuinely wondered if it was tagged on years after the original, but it appears to have been planned from the start. Bizarre.

Okay, with those out of the way, I need to address what I feel is the underlying problem for this story: the writing in The 08th MS Team is hollow. I made a post taking a pot shot at the at the fact that this series is touted as being "grounded and realistic" when it does, in fact, have Newtypes, and tagged on the fact that it seems like the writer seemingly didn't understand that swans and swan imagery aren't a Newtype thing, they're a Lalah Sune thing. That wasn't something that actively bugged me in the moment, but the more I thought about the problems I had with this series on the whole, the more I thought about that. It's such a weird, superficial mistake to make... and then I latched onto the word "superficial", and it all came tumbling down from there.

Let's start with the theme. Like a lot of other Gundam stories, it can be boiled down to "War Is Bad", but what things lead to that understanding? We see countless reasons War Is Bad across all the preceding Universal Century TV shows, OVAs, and movies: the destruction of the environment, the devastation of the human population, the institutional disregard for human lives, including lives that are on your side, including the lives of children, the trauma- physical and mental- that haunts you even if you make it out alive, the arbitrary division of people who might otherwise be friends or lovers, how easily bad actors can consolidate power during or even with just the threat of war... all those are just off the top of my head, and I'm sure if pressed more can be listed. The 08th MS Team really only concerns itself with one of these- the arbitrary division of people who might otherwise be friends or lovers- because the main arc for both Shiro and Aina is that they abandon their respective duties because they are star-crossed lovers.

It's a weirder arc for Shiro than it is for Aina. Aina's association with Zeon comes across strictly as a birthright thing: the Sakhalins appear to be minor Zeon nobility, and her being a test pilot is all but stated to be at Ginius's request. So when she has two fateful life-or-death encounters with a quirked up white Japanese boy, she only really has to justify herself to her brother, which turns out to be pretty easy since he's gone off the deep end at that point anyway. The only thing that keeps her at the Zeon base past that point is her kindly nature, compelling her to help as many wounded people escape as she possibly can.

Shiro's break with the Federation, on the other hand, implies that he got so horny his higher brain functions shut down. And I get it! Aina's a Beautyful 90's OVA Wamen, but it's a little weird for him to completely renounce war so soon after we see his flashback where Zeon launched a gas attack inside a colony and he had to watch a man liquefy in front of his very eyes. You'd think that would matter more than just within the context of that one scene in that one episode!

(Also only realizing this as I write it, but like... was Zeon established to have used gas attacks before this OVA? 'Cuz gassing colonies was the Titans favorite move. Unlike the Newtype swans, it's fine for this to be introduced here, but in light of thinking about the Newtypes swans...)

Actually, Shiro's trauma being a non-factor is a great segue into weird out-of-character moments that start to crop up towards the end of the OVA. Not all the characters, and not all the time, but enough that I noticed several, including:

Aina swearing she's going to go sicko mode if Norris dies, only to not go sicko mode at all once Norris sends the signal that he's going to die.

Karen turning into Goku and getting excited about the prospect of fighting an enemy ace when Norris's Gouf Custom shows up, despite never having shown to be that kind of person before then, or afterwards.

Kellerne (the Zeon officer who cancels the Apsaras project) revealing he's actually a Noble Soldier in the episode where Ginius kills him, despite being a big brash shitheel not just in personal interactions, but also by breaking the Antarctic Treaty and using a nuke.

The 08th MS Team- the squad- never really felt like they developed any interpersonal relationships beyond being in a squad together (this is actually actually addressed in the short that was produced for the blu-ray), so the crux of the last episode being "IT'S CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO ALL OF US THAT SOMEONE CONFIRMS THE COMMANDER IS STILL ALIVE!!!" is another contributing factor to why that episode just feels wrong.

These strike me as examples of "we need a character who will do x in this scene, but we don't have a character who would do x... well, for this scene, they will", and it colors the entire thing as utilitarian. It's not putting well-defined characters into situations, and then showing how those characters would react to that situation, it's presenting a conclusion and then working your way backwards to present the situation that leads to that conclusion.

And it's not even like this can be explained with the complaint (from people who don't engage with mecha anime) that mecha anime is more concerned with showing cool robots than it is with characters. This story is about the characters! The only particularly cool mecha stuff I have ever seen people point to in this is the Gouf Custom, which I now know is because that's really the only mecha stuff of note in this. Like, if you put a gun to my head to come up with other setpieces of note: the Apsaras blowing a hole clean through the mountain was striking imagery... the underwater fight with Kiki tumbling around the cockpit was fun... Shiro trying to take down the Zeon squad occupying the guerilla village on foot was probably the overall most compelling scene in the OVA.

Mind you, The 08th MS Team not having tons and tons of hyper memorable giant robot fight scenes is by no means a strike against it. I can probably only vaguely recall most action sequences from the Gundams I've watched to date, and that's because the cool giant robot fight scenes aren't really ever the point. But, with everything else being a bland and hollow as it is, the whole OVA just comes across as Things Happening. It's not even particularly interesting Things Happening; by nature of being a One Year War side story, you know nothing that happens here can really matter in the greater canon of the Universal Century, so in the end it really just feels like "All this stuff happened. Moving along!"

OTHER OBSERVATIONS:

At least some of my disappointment definitely comes from the fact that the OP writes a check that the OVA never really tries to cash. Based on this thing that plays before every episode and the way I've always heard people talk about it, I don't think it's unreasonable to have expected this to be a military drama!

Oh nooo Michel you got Military Cucked Michel nooo, and judging by the picture (getting married after the baby is born) she must have gotten knocked up like right after she sent that Dear John letter Michel nooo!!!

It's a little weird that the last episode takes care to show that Shiro is lame following their escape, but no attention is called to the fact that Aina's normal suit got melted off. My understanding is that space suits are meant to be ultra heat resistant, so the fact that shit melted must mean she suffered horrible burns, right? Maybe it's working on fictional lava physics, where it's only hot if you're touching it, considering that neither the rest of her body nor Shiro suffer any burns from being that close to the beam.

I understand that the implication is that Shiro and Aina taught the kids how to do it, but doing the "using a beam weapon to turn a frigid body of water into a hot spring" twice cheapened how cool it was the first time.

I was trying to hash out whether it would be worse to be subjected to a court martial or get grilled by your older brother slash superior officer for hooking up with an enemy combatant, but I never considered the dimension of the guards and brass just laughing their asses off at Shiro during the court martial, which makes that infinitely worse.

The blu-ray extra for this was a 9 minute short putting focus on Michel and Sanders, which was actually pretty nice considering how little they interact in the series proper. I'm a little bitter that this got a legit animated short while Cima Garahau got a "picture drama", but this was genuinely a much nicer way for the 08th MS Team to go out than Last Resort was.

IN CONCLUSION:

I re-read my post on the original Mobile Suit Gundam recently, and right at the start I talked about how I was originally only planning on checking out War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory, and this. It's actually kind of difficult to speculate how I would feel about Gundam as a franchise if I had watched those three OVAs in isolation. Maybe I'd like The 08th MS Team more if I didn't have have such a large base of things to compare it to unfavorably, or maybe I'd still wind up unenthusiastic about it, without having the ability to really express why. What I can say with certainty is that I've spent this entire write-up thinking about how the two minute send-off for Duker Iq and Renda- two minor recurring antagonists- in Victory Gundam was significantly more affecting and engaging than anything in The 08th MS Team.

If you'll indulge a food analogy, the experience of watching this really was like eating a sleeve of crackers. They're crackers: there's nothing wrong with them, but rarely if ever will you walk away from eating a sleeve of crackers going "damn, that was great!"

Next up: After War Gundam X! I'm super pumped for this one, because I know almost nothing about it besides the fact that it was the only Gundam TV Series to have been cancelled after 0079. Was it cancelled because of franchise fatigue? Or because it was bad? Possibly some third thing? All or none of the above? I'm excited to find out!

Also it's the source of that funny doctor with a gun meme! You know the one!

#The 08th MS Team #Gundam #Mobile Suit Gundam #The Big Gundam Watch #anime #blu-ray #long post

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sneezemonster15 · 1 year

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i think it's a rather smart choice to have made Sakura the annoying and toxic girl she is, especially since Naruto and Sasuke love each other romantically. If she was strong mature and had boundaries appreciation, the GA would have been more suspicious about why Sasuke doesn't want to be around her or returning her feelings, her being annoying and self centered is exactly what Kishi needed without giving too much

No you are right. Sasuke sees through Sakura's shallow and entitled personality. So he simply cannot gel with her. But Naruto considers her a good friend because he generally only sees the good in people, and forgives the bad, that's how he is. While others have a legit reason for their neuroses, Sakura doesn't. But Naruto wanted to make friends and not be constantly ostracized so he takes whoever offers him friendship. Which is why he doesn't really confront Sakura for her shitty behaviour towards him, but draws a clear line when it is about Sasuke.

Sasuke wouldn't do all that for Sakura, he would confront her head on, like he does. If she was written as a good character, Sasuke would have had no reason to harbour antipathy towards her. And Sasuke is inherently a kind and helpful boy.

Similarly, Hinata was written to be wrapped up in her hormonal urge to be with Naruto, having absolutely no distinct personality herself, unless you count chronic shyness, weakness of spirit, and self absorption personality traits. I guess they are. If Hinata was written to be having a strong will and even average intelligence, she would have moved on from Naruto, since he seriously pays her no attention unless she is getting beaten black and blue. He completely ignored her love confession, lol. That would have been enough reason for a smarter and self respecting girl to rethink her ways. Kishi is very serious about his characterization, he wouldn't play around with it without rationally justifying it in the narrative itself. So he wrote Hinata to be dumb, one dimensional, shadow oriented and completely designed to orbit around Naruto, without having any credible personality of her own. Far from being assertive or opinionated, she can hardly even stand her ground, she wouldn't know her ground if it slapped her directly in her face. Lol. Which is why she doesn't even begin to think about Naruto's complete lack of interest in her. In Boruto, Naruto hardly ever comes home, sends his clones to important family occasions but stays at office counting headbands. A strong willed wife would confront him, but she wouldn't. Imagine Minato/Kushina dynamic, Kushina would not have taken such treatment from Minato. But Hinata is the polar opposite of Kushina. Which is why she is married to a gay man who is in love with his best friend and work partner, and is totally willfully oblivious about it.

Kishi doesn't treat anyone else the way he treats Hinata and Sakura in the entire manga, he deliberately humiliates their characters in the narrative. He wants to show that these are the kind of women who would gladly stay in a loveless marriage with gay men, self absorbed, entitled, shallow, unintelligent, fangirlish, whose self esteem is completely tied up with the men they want, and would take the tiniest scraps those men throw their way as long as they could keep calling them their husbands that they won as trophies.

#ask #anti sakura #anti hinata #anti ss #anti nh #naruto #sasuke #sns

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oneirataxia-girl · 1 month

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Top 5 one piece characters whose design you love and 5 designs you just don't feel

SCREAMS. okay so I should say that I am Not Good At Styling (or pairing stuff in general), so just take my comments as the rantings of a gremlin probably way shorter than you, but other than that-

five one piece character designs I like:

Trafalgar Law - I could go on and on and on about how hot good he looks in every arc he’s in (yes, even stoner!Law), plus all the hearts in his tattoos with the connection to his crew the Heart Pirates and Corazon is elite tbh his tattoos and accessories in general have me looking respectfully

Killer - at first I was intimidated, but after Wano I have a newfound appreciation for him + his design, the mask makes him stand out bc not many characters cover their faces, and his hair is the single most glorious thing I have ever seen, I want a Rapunzel!Killer au for shits and giggles (Kid can be Pascal lmao) (if there's a fanfic of this pls link it)

Uta - UTA MY BELOVED, her look is gorgeous, the two-color hair?? the hairstyle?? the asymmetrical dress?? YES PLEASE, she looks absolutely beautiful and very pop singer-ish if you know what I mean, tbh if she was real I would go in the song realms no questions asked

Doflamingo - now let us be clear, I hate this mutated flamingo as much as the next person, but his design fits him so perfectly that I have to grudgingly give him this win, it's bright, it's over the top, it's hideous to look at, it feels like he too the flamingo part of his name too literally, it feels like Doffy, and so I do think it fits him well

Nico Robin - or more specifically, pre-timeskip!Robin, I just adore the gothy cowboy aesthetic (purple-black and leather fits you'll always be famous to me) and I feel like Robin looks really nice with those bangs. I'm sorry but I'm a part of the pre-timeskip!Robin squad through and through, which brings us to...

five one piece character designs I don't like:

Nico Robin - this time it's post-timeskip!Robin. when I say that I couldn't recognize her, I mean that I actually thought she was Boa Hancock but with a slightly different hairstyle. she's literally so different looks-wise it's hard to reconcile pre and post Robin as the same character. also, (and this is a nitpick) the sunglasses make me stressed bc I keep thinking they might fall off

Rebecca - I know, I know, One Piece defies the laws of everything real-world related, but the gladiator armor makes me unreasonably upset because it's virtually useless. I guess it's a testament to her skills that she's barely hurt during Dressrosa, but still, everytime I see the stupid armor it makes my eye twitch

Carrot - or just most of the Minks to be honest. Oda make them more animal-like challenge, give Carrot the round fluffy body of an actual bunny, don't just slap a fluffy tail and some ears and call it a day, I want a bunny Mink that's like Peter Rabbit, but considering that Oda's... preference as to drawing females, I'm not expecting a miracle

Caesar Clown - it might be influenced by his laugh, but I genuinely sigh whenever this guy comes on screen, his appearance does him No Favors, absolutely no drip whatsoever, he’s so difficult to stand on screen so I won’t talk about him more, I just have an irrational hatred for him

Kozuki Momonosuke - more of a ‘wistful sigh of what could’ve been’ than anything, I just think it would be cool to have Momo be near Toki’s height and Hiyori similar to Oden.

#i did want to give kid a win #but I feel like his appearance is very him and in the end that’s all that matters to me #which is why there’s not much elaboration abt the ones I don’t like #is it sexist to not that most of the op female designs?#bc i'm mostly fine with the male ones (or just accept the bad ones as character quirks) but i just can't with some of the girls/women looks #don't even get me started on the nami-fication

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reginaldqueribundus · 1 year

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I watched Goncharov 2 so you wouldn't have to

I love seeing Goncharov have this weird renaissance on tumblr. It’s like when we all decided to get collectively obsessed with Dracula and the Epic of Gilgamesh. but did you know there's a sequel??

granted it's pretty obscure, like Eighties Bulgarian Treasure Planet levels of obscure, but you can actually watch the whole thing on YouTube for free. I can't even find the original poster, just this shitty DVD cover from Amazon:

FUN FACTS ABOUT GONCHAROV 2

released in 1985, long after anybody would've given a shit about the original

features none of the original cast (except, weirdly enough, the guy playing Andrey's driver, despite Andrey himself being absent)

SOMEHOW passes the Bechdel test

was apparently produced by Benito Mussolini's kid???

the movie starts with a weird, pointless nightclub scene with a ton of characters who get shot dead and are never seen again. it went on for so long I genuinely started thinking this was a Troll 2 situation, where somebody slapped completely unrelated movie's name on this for free clout; but no, this is actually supposed to be a sequel! the plot is that Goncharov's brother, who is also called Goncharov, just wants to sell flowers in Milan but his uncle Vladimir Espinoza (lmao) finds him and drags him off to fight a Galician crime lord named Iago for reasons that aren't clearly explained (and shamelessly rip off the Rocky training montage while they're at it). His Designated Love Interest™ is “Marina”, (imagine a Costco knockoff of Sofia with way more cleavage), whose job is to get kidnapped a lot. She sadly doesn’t get any sapphic undertones aside from a couple weirdly horny scenes with a nameless assassin masseuse who is inexplicably called “the Algerian” despite being portrayed by a Japanese actress (yikes).

The dialogue is so truly awful I strongly suspect English was not the writer's first language. At one point Uncle Vladimir tells his nephew to “gouge out their livers like a beak of the mad kestrel”. I'm 100% certain the guy playing him was hired for his weird resemblance to Al Pacino and not any acting talent; he delivers every line like there's a gun to his head but he also swallowed 30 Ambien. Iago is supposedly Spanish(?) but played by one of the whitest guys I've ever seen (Xander Crane, who has an objectively cooler name than his actual character — dude sounds like a Bond villain). He does a godawful fake accent and keeps accenting the wrong syllables. The part where he screams GON-CHAAAAAA-ROV!! has to be seen to be believed. The mangled English also makes the torture scene unintentionally hilarious, especially when Iago asks “Are you trying to f**k me?” and creates 20x more gay vibes than every Andrey/Goncharov scene combined.

some moments (ex. not-Sofia and Uncle Vlad keep mentioning Katya, but they talk about her like she was this Goncharov's lover) makes me wonder if they started the screenplay before watching Goncharov 1 all the way through, and it was supposed to be about OG Goncharov but they had to quickly rewrite it to be his brother instead. I really hope that's true cuz it would be hilarious and explain why they made a sequel to a movie where most of the characters die at the end.

Aside from (holy shit) Val Kilmer as one of Iago's bodyguards, no one involved with this film has worked on anything else you've ever heard of. The writer isn't even listed on IMDb, and Giuseppe Stromboli's entire filmography consists of this, a kids' cartoon called Spaghetti Briefcase and a bunch of weird Italian chewing gum commercials (which are also on YouTube btw). Matteo JWHJ pops up in the credits as a producer so I can only assume he was desperate for cash.

so yeah. Goncharov 2 is objectively terrible and problematic and lacking in gay vibes or juicy Goncharov lore, but if you want something to get drunk and laugh at with your friends it's got you covered

join me next time and we'll talk about the Goncharov director's cut

#i worked hard on this please reblog it lmao #goncharov #unreality #(neither of these movies exist it's a tumblr meme)#a post by me™#long post

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silverwingborn · 1 month

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7 & 9

7. describe your favorite relationship dynamic. (can be any kind, platonic, romantic, familial, antagonistic, etc.)

My absolute favorite relationship dynamic is found family. I grew up on so many found family films as a kid: Land Before Time, James and the Giant Peach, Lilo and Stitch. I eat that dynamic up! Characters whose lives cross paths and they grow closer and fill gaps the other usually did not know they needed. It is a bond that’s not just love, but also finding “your people” and your home.

9. when you look at a new blog, what is it that makes you press the follow button? is it the muse, the aesthetics, the writing–?

There’s a good number of elements that influence me to press the follow button.

Right off the bat at first glance: aesthetic. How is the blog presenting itself? What’s the description like? (Like are the doing a summary or telling me their entire like story in a wall of text). Is their age shown? Is there a rules & info page for their muse? Are they using icons? How many fonts are they using and are they legible? (Graphic design minor tendencies lol). You can tell a lot about someone just by the immediate presentation alone.

The first thing I look for is a rules page & the muns age. I will not follow if those are not present.

Second thing I look for is if they are mutuals only or not. Is this a Sideblog or the main hub? That way I know if they follow me back or soft block me, I’ll know if they want to engage with me.

Since I rp an OC, it’s a make or break deal if they say they absolutely will not engage with OC’s. If they’re selective and open to possibly interacting with OC’s, then I continue reading the rest of the rules.

Sometimes if I’m leery, I will scroll through their blog to see who they’re rping with. The more people I recognize that I follow and/or interact with, then I’m slapping the follow haha.

Also looking for a pattern in what muse blogs they themselves are interacting with and if I get a feel for motive. For instance, if I see a persons main goal is romantic ships, I will pause on following and weigh the pros and cons based on what I’ve already seen. Are they pinning for one character in particular and collecting them like sexy time trading cards? There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but I love building any kind of relationship with a muse, romantic or not. Exploring their dynamics and chemistry. I made this blog in February and just started shipping with several rp partners I met from the beginning. We’ve done dozens of interactions to build our characters dynamics and said “Yeah! This would work out.” It usually takes me a while to get interested romantically unless the character somehow manages to snag mines attention quicker. I go by my muses vibes honestly haha.

Lastly, I do look at a persons rping. While I’m not particularly picky on length, if I’m seeing a lot of 1 - 3 sentence responses to others that wrote paragraphs, yeah no.

#( thanks for the ask! )#(normally I don’t use small text but I’ve got a headache and I wrote a lot oops)#munday: behind the muse #mun answers #ooc: clipped wings #soulofgenocide

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crystalelemental · 11 months

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Pokemon Team Characterization - Plumeria

Oh thank god, a character with only one team. I forgot about Plumeria, because I admittedly try not to think about Gen 7 in totality when I don’t have to, but she is a Poison type trainer so here goes. Act 4 of a six act event.

I’m sticking just to her title defense team, because her one other battle doesn’t offer much.

The Lead (Gengar) Immediate power and offense. It’s really funny that they got rid of Levitate or I’d have more to say. I guess Cursed Body is something to indicate that spiteful nature when someone gets aggressive, but who know. But leading in with raw offense is that pure aggressive nature. It’s strike first before they strike at you. The coverage is generally good, although Dark Pulse and Shadow Ball strike the same weaknesses. The difference is, Dark Pulse flinches, and that suggests an attempt to surprise or startle a foe through that aggressive response into backing down.

The Ace (Salazzle) While Salazzle is more of the same, the notable difference is on Protect. While overt aggression is her main approach, Protect suggests that central purpose: guarding herself or her friends. Her goal isn’t aggression for its own sake, but functional aggression; a means of safety.

Corrosion as an ability is also interesting. The venom will land. There’s no immunity, or anyone who doesn’t get hit with it. If she doesn’t like you, or you mess with her or her crew, you’re going to get slapped.

The Guards (Toxapex, Crobat) Both of these two also carry Protect, in some form. Toxapex’s being interesting because it also applies Poison if you strike anyway. It’s the warning, then the strike if you don’t back off. Crobat’s focus is on Fly, which isn’t just a means of stalling for more Poison damage, but a means of safety for Crobat for that turn. Notably, its coverage is Leech Life. Meanwhile, Toxapex gets Liquidation, which can break down the foe’s defense.

I think this is where we get a bit more than just the game’s knowledge. Yes, Plumeria is protective of people. Yes, she can be snappy and aggressive when needed, to facilitate that safety. But Liquidation is that means It’s a breakdown. Toxic breaks someone down in a more physical way, while debuffed defenses is breaking the guard. It’s relational aggression, the picking at weaknesses. She’ll verbally tear you down instead if that works better. Leech Life, recovering off the attack, implies a sense of enjoyment from the conflict. She’s someone who enjoys tearing into someone who she feels deserves it.

Muk (Muk) I don’t have a good designation for Muk. The typing covering a common weakness and being strong defensively indicates her as someone capable of providing support. She’s someone to rely on. Brick Break removing screens can be seen as a sort of breaking down walls; getting people to open up. She knows how to get people talking and reacting. Interestingly, this is the only Pokemon that directly applies a status. Toxic into Venoshock is, I think, more of how she approaches. Physical beatdown, but verbal follow-up to double down. She’s someone who doesn’t relent, but doubles down. This is both a positive when in your corner, but a negative if she’s off-base. She’s not going to change her mind easily.

Summation Plumeria is someone whose primary motivation is protection and security. She’s willing to get in people’s faces and be aggressive to make sure no one messes with her or the people who protects. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a warning, but ignoring that means she’s not letting up. Plumeria’s hard to get to back down or change her mind on something, and it can get nasty. She’s empathetic enough to read people, and will dig at a weakness if you’re a problem, but is good at getting people to open up and engage if she likes you.

If you have an alternate read on the team, I’d love to hear it. I am...not the biggest fan of Gen 7, but I did like the Aether Fam and Team Skull well enough, so they get a pass.

#pokemon #plumeria #pokemon team characterization #megazardx2

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elphael · 2 years

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Do you have any advice / resources / ancient magics to make, like. Combat flowcharts or something of that nature to streamline decision making?

We're coming into the final battle of our campaign and the DM asked us to find ways to help make combat smoother – we're averaging an hour per round, with dozens of abilities and items each, and us DPS rolling upwards of 20 dice per turn. Obviously by now we've found ways to streamline (pre rolling, side chat, etc) but if we hit a snag on WHAT to do bc of a Counterspell or silence or someone going down, it comes screeching to a halt.

IDK you feel like someone who probably has an excel spreadsheet accounting for every possible scenario :P

funnily enough i have been toying with the idea of switching my own personal technique for combat tracking as a player to a spreadsheet which i recently did with encounter tracking from the DM side, but I haven't really dug into that at all because I know it would make me lose my mind trying to set up the automation while making it look aesthetically pleasing.

that being said, i have two pieces of commentary and i'll also share a few of my own strategies as well as two personal anecdotes to try to explain what i mean:

a) don't make a flow chart. no clue if you'll see these posts but as of writing this (12pm EST July 13th) I've just gone on a minor rampage talking about how I don't think flow charts are worth it even though that's the one of the current pieces meta in online TTRPG spaces because of aabria / laerynn, which is fine if it works for her and it IS fine if it works for other people.

however, in my opinion, i think flow charts will do a bad job of preparing anyone for the unpredictability of combat and will actually pigeonhole you into using the same strategies over and over again because they look good on paper and are written down in front of you. i don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to write down cool combos or have information in front of you (spoiler alert, i do that) but i think the term flow chart and the idea of an 'if/then' structure is going to be fundamentally useless and stress inducing.

b) speaking as someone whose been on both the player and dm side of this, if your rounds of combat are taking over an hour, this is an entire table problem. this is on the dm for their encounter design / the pace they take as the opposition (whether it's managing too many NPCS/monsters; too complicated statblocks, or indecision) as well as their need to keep things flowing at the table. It also largely depends on party size, if you're a big party, a longer round is normal, but everyone should be moving fairly fast. i'd ask your table as a whole what they think the issue is and and how to remedy it as a whole, not just one 'side' of the table.

now onto my strategies for both of these things. i'm going to explain my version of 'flow charts' last because it'll have screenshots and get long and i want to put something else before i slap in a readmore

my #1 tip for how to pay attention in combat and how to be better at combat is use other players turns to develop your strategy.

use their turns. pay attention to what they're doing so you can base your next turn off of the current state of the board, listen to what they're doing so you can remind them 'hey you've got a bardic' or if you can throw a reaction to counterspell, throw it then. otherwise: this is the time to look up your spells or other complicated abilities and make sure you've read the fine print. that way when it gets to your turn in combat you have the most informed, updated plan of what you can do.

now i'll throw my pc combat tracker under the cut as well as some personal anecdotes for why i think flow charts aren't the right choice

i've made an extensive post about how i think the best thing someone can do when designing a character's combat strategy and options is think about your action economy.

now, ignore anything that looks not RAW, this was a oneshot with funky combat rules (everyone had action surge and extra attack regardless of class; dm is insane for this) and i was using a homebrew warlock subclass, but the fundamental layout is the exact same i use for any character, I just like this example because it's not too crowded

fuck a flow chart, all you need is your abilities laid out in front of you. I think it is much more helpful to sort via action economy and leave shorthand for myself on what things do and use another document or something like 5etools to keep all of the fine print for when I need to look into them.

Then, the ability tracker is key. Not only does this help you keep track of what resources you've expended, it keeps everything super close together. i left the attacks / item information section in this screenshot because it shows that this is quite literally the only thing i'm looking at in combat 95% of the time. my health and AC is at the top of my sheet because that's how my sheets are structured but frankly, if i switch over to spreadsheet pc combat trackers they'll be smushed in here as well.

this gives you all of your fundamental information laid out in front of you so you can develop your strategy on the fly and make the most of every single piece of your action economy you have. I also enjoy having the miscellaneous actions section because again, sometimes i forget they exist and they're quite good. also occasionally i'll use item information or ability tracking to keep little notes for myself when i have something like bardic inspiration or want to remind myself to cast a spell.

why i find this more useful than a flow chart is that it lets you rely on your own intuition and the situation at play instead of a set strategy, which really just doesn't work for dnd in my opinion.

why i think flow charts aren't a great idea i've already talked about but here are two personal stories from recent combat that i think summarize it with an actual play example:

Curse of Strahd, Yester Hill Fight. The gimmick of which was that the druids were concentrating on summoning animals that were whooping our ass and were super spread out. we needed to crush their concentration as fast as possible. In one turn, I beat the concentration out of two different druids a bit over 150 ft. apart. How? I was hasted. A situational thing that you couldn't plan for in a flow chart. I also had no idea WHAT the encounter would look like to plan for it. I had to rely on what the circumstances were and what I had on my character sheet in front of me. Ophelia uses Dhampir stats so i had a 35 ft. movement speed, with haste that's 70 ft. + a hasted action. I used blood cursed of the mark to deal extra damage and gain advantage (bonus action) and my first attack (action) to make a bite attack against one druid. It hit, and because I'm a mage slayer they have disadvantage on their concentration check. I also used bite empowerment (free action) to get a bonus to my next ability check or attack roll. I then used my hasted action to dash, moving 140 ft towards the other druid, to make my second attack (still of my attack action), with a +7 (i believe) additional bonus to hit, and used lunging attack (free action) on my chainwhip to get the 15 ft reach necessary to hit the second. The attack landed, and the druid again, had disadvantage on concentration. Both druids dropped concentration. This is a turn you cannot replicate on a flow chart. There's no logical reason in a vacuum to take one attack, dash and move 140 ft away and take your second attack. There's no way to even know you could move that far. Why I was able to do this was because I was able to look at my action economy and all of my abilities in a condensed way and calculate how to use every single thing I possibly could to do what we needed to do to get control back over the encounter.

The Frayed Mind. This is an example from Gestalt game so ignore if the abilities sound absolutely bonkers powerful, they are, but the same theory of planning a flow chart around 'the most optimal choices' isn't helpful. Rualinn's build is primarily based around stacking upcasted shadow blade (psychic damage) and smites (radiant). The boss we were fighting, the Frayed Mind, as well as most of the enemies in this area, were immune to psychic damage. This meant my character's primary strength and what she was built to do wasn't going to cut it here. Which is fine, I love a challenge, and I think DMs SHOULD challenge what they know their players can do to make them think outside of the box. So what I had to do for this entire arc was realize: I could not play Rualinn optimally the way I built her to fight, however, I still had a ton of versatility and options to readjust as needed. I started relying more on physical damage she could do as well as using her spellcasting for more than just smites. I used her radiant consumption for the first time, used my action surge to cast Fly for maneuverability on the battlefield instead of extra attacks, used Watchers Will for the first time as well. It was a super fun area and boss fight even though I was getting my ass kicked, it made me play to the other strengths of the build I put together. If you put together a list of just the most optimal choices, you won't ever see what the unoptimized choices are. And frankly, most of the time you'll have to make 'unoptimized' choices. Combat is about making due with the situation and the the best you can do the moment.

tldr; i think using flow charts pigeonholes you into options that sound good but could end up not being applicable / keep you from being prepared for things going wrong, the individual challenges of boons of combat you can't predict, etc.

if you want to get 'good' at combat, know your action economy, track your abilities, and use other players turns to plan your strategy as the encounter changes and develops. your plan on the wizard's turn might change by the time you hit the cleric's turn because the fighter's now been knocked and you're the person who could get them up fasted instead of attacking, etc etc.

#d&d advice

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scoutception · 2 years

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Shin Megami Tensei review

Upon the release of the SNES, Atlus, whose Megami Tensei games on the NES were already among the most well designed and memorable RPGs on the console, decided to take the foundation these games built even further. Slapping a “Shin” onto the title and fully distancing themselves from the original Digital Devil Story license, though keeping concepts like the COMP and Demon Summoning Program, the original Shin Megami Tensei, though still influenced heavily by Megami Tensei II, is the game that officially defined the identity of the franchise, becoming one of the most distinctive and influential games on the console. Today, we’re gonna take a look at just what makes this game so special. The version I played was the GBA version, using a patch that ports the official translation from the now defunct iOS version (thanks a lot, Atlus). Note that there will be heavy spoilers throughout this review, so those who wish to keep the story unspoiled, you have been warned.

Story:

Unlike Megami Tensei II, which had loose, but existent story ties to its predecessor, Shin Megami Tensei’s story and setting is a total clean slate. In the year 199X, an unremarkable teenager named Kazuya (note that I’m using the names from Shin Megami Tensei Character Profile: Steven Report I, effectively the closest thing to a source of canon names) begins to have odd dreams that appear to be shared with other people, those being Yuji, a noble and kind, though slightly awkward young man, Takeshi, an abrasive, vindictive, and power hungry delinquent, Yuriko, a mysterious woman who claims to be Kazuya’s eternal partner, and Yuka, a young woman with strange magical abilities who seems particularly tied to Kazuya. In the middle of all this, Kazuya begins to receive messages from a mysterious man named Stephen, warning that ancient demons from the Expanse are invading the human world, intent on annihilating humanity, and that the only hope of combating them is the Demon Summoning Program he invented, allowing one to communicate with and command these same demons.

Just as Stephen warns, demons begin appearing throughout Japan, and chaos rapidly overtakes the country, with a JSDF commander named Gotou using the situation to launch a coup and instate martial law, causing the American military to move in, intent on restoring order. Attempting to work through the madness that his life has become, Kazuya meets up with Yuji and Takeshi, who have similarly found themselves directly involved, allies with a resistance led by Yuka intent on keeping Gotou or the American military from destroying the country in their struggle, and discover that Yuriko is an agent working for Gotou. Eventually, Ambassador Thorman, the commander of the American forces in Japan, is revealed to be Thor in disguise, a high ranking agent of God working to bring about the Millennium Kingdom, a plan to bring about an eternal paradise for God’s followers, at the cost of the lives of all who do not worship Him.

In an attempt to rid Japan of the demons, Thor has a cluster of ICBMs launched at Tokyo, and with no other way to escape, Yuka is forced to send Kazuya, Yuji, and Takeshi to the Diamond Realm, a section of the Expanse ruled over by En no Ozuno, in order to save their lives. After escaping from the Diamond Realm, the trio discover that thirty years have passed in the time they’ve been away, that demons continue to infest the ruins of Tokyo, and that the remaining human population has been reduced to taking shelter within the ruins of Tokyo’s wards, with only two cults holding any significant power: the Messians, devout followers of God who attempt to provide charitable services to the wasteland, yet ultimately wish to continue the plan to bring about the Millennium Kingdom at any cost, through the creation of the Basilica, an enormous cathedral that will ultimately be used to summon God Himself, and the Gaeans, followers of the fallen angel Lucifer who seek to prevent the creation of the Millennium Kingdom and restore the old gods that God once banished to the Expanse to power, yet ultimately prove to be obsessed with power above all else, happily oppressing anyone weaker than themselves and resisting any attempts to build a proper society.

Confronted with the seemingly hopeless nature of the wasteland, and the lack of obvious other powers besides these two extremist groups, Kazuya’s group begins to fracture, with Takeshi’s lust for power driving him to discard his humanity and ally with the Gaeans, while Yuji’s kind, yet naive nature causes him to become taken in by the Messians’ stated goals, while failing to see the sinister forces that drive them. In the end, Kazuya is forced to make a decision: ally with the Messians, and bring about a peaceful, lawful society for those who believe in God’s salvation, at the exclusion of all others, ally with the Gaeans and create a world a truly chaotic and free world for the strongest of men and demons, or, against all odds, take a neutral stance, attempting to keep law and chaos in balance, at the cost of making enemies of both factions and risking becoming an extremist little different from them.

To cut to the chase, a very large part of what made SMT1 so notable when it came out was the sheer bleakness and complexity of its setting and writing. What certainly could have been a straightforward story of good versus evil is instead a tale of the dangers of ideological extremism, and how any cause, regardless of its intentions, will only cause more harm than good if it does not know how to moderate itself. While the different subseries of the franchise tend to prefer their own messages, and the later games in the series usually pick one specific faction to theme their stories around, for the most part, this is the foundation later games would follow. Law and Chaos, despite both having their fair points, are simply too dangerous to trust with humanity’s future, and Neutrality, even if not good, at least removes the most dangerous elements from the world. While it does draw from Megami Tensei II’s plot quite a bit, and frankly has gotten more than a bit repetitive over the decades, it’s still very impressive for something from a 1992 game, and even more so considering plenty of games afterwards were, and still are, more than happy with binary, blatant good and evil morality systems. The cast also set many standards for the series, such as the general personalities of the Law and Chaos representatives, and the recurring character of Stephen, the inexplicably ageless scientist who totally isn’t based on Stephen Hawking and provides you with COMP upgrades throughout the game. It also gave some more distinct identities to certain demons, such as Belial and Nebiros being the caretakers of Alice, who makes her debut her as well, and the four archangels, Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael, being God’s highest ranked agents, though there are a few wonky things, like demons like Thor, Odin, and freaking Loki being Law aligned.

That said, while it’s probably fairer to them than some other games in the series, the portrayal of the factions is still far from perfectly balanced. While the Law faction is actually pretty well written, with a decent amount of good actions and intentions that almost make them seem appealing, contrasted by the brutal methods they employ to achieve their ultimate goals that surpass what Chaos ever manages, Chaos does not fair nearly as well. Besides Takeshi, who’s still a much more abrasive, petty, and violent character than Yuji, and, if you’re feeling generous, Yuriko, there is no Chaos aligned character who comes off as even somewhat decent. Yama, who’s taken it upon himself to judge the crimes of humanity, and claims that the use of the COMP to control demons is akin to slavery? Gladly lets you go free when Chaos aligned, showing that “crimes” are only worth punishing when they aren’t done to further his cause. The various endgame bosses like Surt, Astaroth, Arioch, and Asura, who claim to stand for freedom and fight against the suppression of emotion that God desires? Declare you a mindless puppet and try to kill you for willingly siding with Law or Neutrality, bitterly refusing to accept their own defeats afterwards, showing that they only respect the freedom and power of those who choose to benefit them. Even Lucifer, who appears a few times throughout the game in the guise of Louise Cypher, who usually comes off as at least somewhat reasonable and sympathetic? Repeatedly tries to lure you into getting killed, just for not explicitly siding with him. Obviously, the other members and bosses of Law are just as hypocritical and manipulative in many ways, but the fact that even the regular, random NPC Gaeans vocally stand for destruction and the violent oppression of others, with nothing to indicate they really intend on anything beyond that, makes Chaos come off as the blatantly evil faction of the bunch, way more than was probably intended.

This also just ties into a bigger overall problem with the story, namely that it’s just way too dark and depressing for its own good. While focusing both on a present day and post apocalyptic setting is actually pretty unique for the series, more than anything, it just rubs in how much the characters lose over the course of the game. Allies and loved ones die, vanish, or leave you for the sake of their own goals, and sensible people appear less and less the deeper you get into the game, conventional morality nearly totally stamped out by the extremists’ pursuit of their goals. Additionally, it ties into another big problem I have with the alignment system, namely that the story barely changes before the endgame, no matter who you choose to align with. Ally with Thor and kill Gotou, the source of the demons infesting Tokyo and swearing allegiance to God? He nukes Tokyo anyway, and leaves you for dead for good measure, for no apparent reason. Help Echidna, who seeks to destroy the Basilica entirely, by killing the angel Aniel? She doesn’t go through with it in the end, making that choice completely pointless for a pure story standpoint. While obviously technical limitations, and the many constraints of storytelling, mean that only so much variation is possible, it also means that no matter what you try to do, the world ends up in an absolutely horrible state, to the point that the Neutral route doesn’t really accomplish anything besides keeping anyone else from winning. It’s more than enough to kill any real investment in the story. That said, while it does fall flat in places, the story of SMT1 still deserves credit for what it does accomplish, and it does manage to be a properly harrowing experience.

Gameplay:

The basic gameplay of SMT1 is pretty similar to that of Megami Tensei I and II, and since I’ve written reviews of them, which you can read here and here, I won’t go into a ton of detail on it. The bulk of the gameplay is first person exploration, in the style of Wizardry, with a world map that you traverse in between locations. You have six party slots total, with demons being able to occupy three of these slots at a time, later upgraded to four, and the methods of acquiring demons is either recruiting them after encountering them on the world map or in other areas, or fusing two or three of them into a new demon, as demons cannot level up or use equipment. Summoning demons requires money, and keeping them summoned outside of the world map requires magnetite, with demons taking damaged when magnetite runs out. Your human party members can equip both melee weapons and guns, and use either to attack in battle, and attacking generally consists of wildly swinging at whichever enemy the AI decides to target, which is pretty annoying when enemies appear in large numbers. It’s very standard early SMT fare, and frankly, it’s not very interesting. Not busted like some combat systems, but very far from being one of my favorites.

That said, SMT1 does make some notable improvements and additions compared to the older games, some of which are unfortunately only present in the PSX and GBA versions. The party system has been altered to be more akin to Wizardry, with the first three slots representing the front row, and the latter three slots representing the back row, with whoever is in the back row taking less damage from physical attacks. Demon abilities are now clearly divided between magic and extra abilities, the latter of which take the form of attacks like fire breath, group hitting physical attacks, or charging, and are now freely selectable to use in battle, unlike earlier games, where the use of them was completely random. Stats have undergone a slight tweak, with there now being six in total instead of five: strength, which influences the power of physical attacks, intelligence, which influences max MP and magic defense, magic, which influences magic attack, with both of these combined influencing the rate at which a character learns spells, vitality, which influences defense and the maximum HP of a character, agility, which influences the speed, accuracy, evasion, and defense of a character, and luck, which influences miscellaneous elements the critical hit rate or chance to ambush enemy demons. The mechanics of guns have also been changed, as besides the properties of the guns themselves, which have different potential target amounts and base damage, they also require bullets to work, which, alongside differing damage values of their own, can also come with special effects, namely inflicting status ailments like sleep or stone.

Compared to MT1 and 2, however, where every stat was useful to level for both human party members, the changes to stats here encourages much more specialization. Magic is completely worthless to Kazuya, as intelligence is what helps with demon negotiation, and luck is really only useful on him. Additionally, while melee weapons do end up stronger by the end, for the vast majority of the game, you’ll likely only find yourself using guns to attack, except in cases where it’s simply not effective. Guns that can target multiple enemies are pretty easy to come by, the status effects they deal can be devastating, and, most importantly, it’s extremely difficult to come across melee weapons most of the time. Knife stores, your initial source of melee weapons, completely vanish after the apocalypse, and the only source besides a few weapons from scripted events or treasure chests are from enemy drops, which aren’t frequent enough to rely on. Therefore, agility ends up way more useful than strength before the endgame. Ironically, this is the exact opposite of MT2′s situation, where guns were near useless past the early game, even considering the even lower frequency of weapon drops.

Since I’ve mentioned demon negotiation, that’s something that’s gotten a large overhaul. In earlier games, it was a simple affair, just a little menu of choices to either try to bribe the demon to your side, persuade or soothe them to increase your chances of success, or attempt to threaten them into joining. Here, however, things have become much more complex. Instead of instantly being presented with a menu like before, you’re now forced to persuade whatever demon you’ve encountered to even hear you out in the first place. Before beginning your attempts at negotiation, you can choose to take either a friendly tone, or a threatening tone, with each leading to different sorts of conversations. Demons also have several different possibly personalities, though each specific demon type will always have the same personality, meaning that Shuten Doji, for instance, will always have a “grumpy old man” personality, while Rangda will always have a “haughty noblewoman” personality. While there are certain paths that always seem to end in failure, and ones that have greater chances of success, and you can learn what answers to take for the most consistent results overtime, unfortunately, it still just comes down to pure RNG in the end, with demons sometimes aggressively fighting off all your attempts to please them. Once you do get through to them, you can either ask them for money, magnetite, request that they leave, or ask them to join you, at the cost of resources like money, magnetite, healing items, and gemstones. All of these tend to give better results if you really manage to make a demon like you beforehand, tending to give larger amounts of money and magnetite, along with usually requiring less resources to get them to join you. You can also threaten them to join you for free if you take the intimidating route, but this usually requires you to be several dozens of levels above your target to have even a chance to work. While it’s a lot more interesting than the old system, it’s also much, much more frustrating to deal with.

SMT1 also made vast improvements to the amount of demons that are recruitable, thanks to the overhaul of the alignment system. In the earlier games, alignment only went so far as evil, neutral, and good, with evil demons being completely unrecruitable, neutral demons being recruitable through negotiation or fusion, and good demons only being acquirable through fusion, only showing up as enemies in a few very specific instances between both games. In SMT1, however, moral alignment was changed to dark, neutral, and light. Neutral demons work the same, as do light demons, for the most part, only being obtainable through fusion, as they simply refuse to listen to you even in the rare instances you encounter them as enemies. What’s significantly changed is dark demons, as while they still can’t be obtained through negotiation, they can now be obtained through fusion, with only a few exceptions among them all, like the Undead race, the Fiends, who make their debut in this game, and most of the Foul face. Therefore, while there’s only 255 demons in the game, not counting bosses, compared to MT1′s 142 and MT2′s 250 demons, 237 are obtainable for your party, compared to 65 in MT1 and 129 in MT2, which, needless to say, is a gigantic step forward.

But of course, the far more significant change to alignment is the addition of Law, Chaos, and Neutral alignments to the mix. Every demon has an ideological alignment along with their moral alignment, with the vast majority belonging to either Law or Chaos. Through the player’s actions, Kazuya’s own alignment can be changed, either through big story events, such as agreeing to kill Thor for Gotou, or vice versa, or smaller actions, like choosing to use the services of Messian, Gaean, or Neutral healing ashrams. While, as I said, the overall story doesn’t change much depending on your alignment, it absolutely changes your experience in terms of gameplay. Not only do you fight different bosses depending on your alignment, with a Neutral playthrough having the potential to fight every single one of them, but the demons you can use, and the ways you can acquire them, changes too. Law aligned characters are restricted to Law and Neutral demons, as Chaos demons reject all attempts to recruit them, and while they can be fused, they aren’t useable in combat. This applies vice versa in the case of Chaos, while Neutral characters can use demons of any alignment. Ashrams that match your alignment cost less to use, so you’ll find yourself hanging around areas with Ashrams that match you, and the differences in stats and abilities that each race tends to have makes for very different parties. It doesn’t mean you can completely ignore one faction’s demons, as more powerful races like Deities and Tenmas very often require demons of the opposite alignment to fuse, but it’s impressive just how many ways your alignment affects the way you play the game, to a degree many other games can’t match.

Fusion has also been tweaked a bit. Along with retaining double, triple, and special fusion, though the latter has been reduced to fusing Cherub, Throne, and Dominion for Uriel and Barong and Rangda for Shiva, marking the debut of that latter method, there’s also a new type of fusion called sword fusion, involving combining a specific couple of special swords with specific demons to make stronger one. Knowledge of this mechanic and what you can use with it can easily get you the Hinokagutsuchi, one of the strongest weapons in the game, and the strongest one you can reasonably acquire, as soon as you obtain its base form, the Kusanagi, but nothing in the game ever indicates what demons work with it, meaning that for those playing blind, it’s either an extreme form of trial and error, or a completely ignored mechanic. Human enemies that can be recruited like demons have also been added, with the special ability of producing a random result when fused with any demon. You can see this in advance, so you’re not just shooting yourself in the foot, and often it’ll result in something weaker than you need, but there are times these random results can save you a lot of effort. This game is also the debut of the system of unlocking boss demons for fusion by defeating them, though it’s really inconsistent. Demons like Vishnu and the Archangels can indeed only be fused by defeating them, but Yama, an optional boss assuming you’re either Chaos or Neutral aligned, is fuseable no matter what, even though Niou, a boss you also fight if you choose to fight Yama, is locked out of fusing otherwise. By contrast, Ravana, a story boss for Law and Neutral, is also only fuseable after beating him, but Indrajit, a separate boss who fights you immediately after Ravana, is fuseable well beforehand. These inconsistencies can be pretty maddening, and the lack of anything in the game to indicate this mechanic even exists makes it even worse.

Frankly, maddening is the perfect word to describe this game. All things considered, it’s easier and less punishing than MT1 and 2 in many ways. The effectiveness of guns makes dealing with hordes of enemies much easier, and light demons are generally very useful. It’s just that there’s so many frustrating elements throughout. The encounter rate, while more than tolerable early on, becomes so much worse after the apocalypse, with encounters happening on the world map literally every few steps. Sometimes, random encounters will actually turn out to be two or three encounters in a row, as in, enemies pop in immediately afterwards without even leaving the battle screen. Equipment is so absurdly expensive that there’s almost no way to afford it besides negotiating money out of random encounters for hours on end. While some dungeons can go on a little long, but are overall tolerable, the final dungeon, the Basilica, is a sixteen floor behemoth that can literally eat up an entire day all by itself, all while the most obnoxious track in the game plays over it. It’s the worst final dungeon I’ve ever gone through in a game, and having to do so three separate times nearly destroyed my sanity. The game also really doesn’t like to make it clear what you’re supposed to do at times, with a few easily forgotten NPCs giving you hints at best. For example, the first location you’re supposed to go through after the apocalypse, Shinjuku, requires you to talk to a specific NPC hidden in a side area you may well not even know about before you can challenge its boss, despite him not telling you anything more than the other NPCs scattered around the area. It’s not terrible, since there’s no encounters within Shinjuku at this time, but it’s needlessly a cryptic moment if you’re not intent on mapping out the whole area and speaking to absolutely everyone. There’s also just tons of moments of obscurity that you’d never figure out without looking up a guide. Beyond sword fusion, there’s sidequests like an optional boss, Kazfiel, who can be fought in Tokyo Tower as a Chaos or Neutral character after the Aniel and Echidna incidents, but only if you haven’t visited it beforehand, which is a pointlessly cruel move when it’s an out of the way area most likely wouldn’t even find without trying to explore on their own. There’s also buildings that get rebuilt and offer you a choice of three items late in the game, but said items get swapped out for rare equipment if you visit during specific moon phases. Obviously, the game never even hints that this could happen, or what phases to visit each building during. The best set of Neutral armor can be found on the world map by visiting the mansions of the Four Devas after meeting Taira no Masakado, himself an optional, hidden NPC, but nothing in the game indicates this process could lead to anything. The crowning moment of awfulness, however, goes to the mechanics of the Fiends. In certain areas, specific tiles with trigger forced fights. Most of the time, it’s a generic enemy you could encounter elsewhere in the area, but rarely, it’ll be a stronger and sometimes exclusive enemy, such as Bigfoot or Cyak, and even more rarely, as in, a 1/256 chance, you’ll encounter one of the three Fiends, Pale Rider, Daisoujou, and David. These enemies give massive amounts of experience, and have a chance to drop some of the most powerful weapons in the game, but said drop rate is apparently also 1/256, which translates to something that would destroy your life if you really wanted it.

And really, there’s no reason to destroy your life over them anyway, because the game is already pretty damn broken, in your favor. For a basic example, the Zio line of spells has a very high chance of electrocuting anyone hit by them, causing them to skip their turn if hit before they can act. Yuka learns Zio spells, and you’ll likely be leveling her agility quite high anyway. Do the math. Assuming you can get it, which isn’t difficult to do once you know what demons you need for it, the Hinokagutsuchi is disgusting broken for the point at which you can make it, and remains so even up to the end of the game. And while the sheer power of most endgame demons can be excused, since you have to make them yourself, there’s two examples that absolutely cannot. On the Chaos route, you outright directed in an unmissable encounter towards Beelzebub, one of the absolute strongest demons in the game, who proceeds to join you for free, regardless of your level. That’s bad enough, but the Law route feels like the developers just stopped caring by the end. Not only are you directed to recruit Vishnu, the actual best demon, for free, but you are required to recruit Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel as well, all of whom are also some of the absolute best demons in the game. Sure, you have to give them up to access Asura, the final boss of Law, but nothing’s stopping you from sweeping the entire rest of the dungeon with this team before them. Even without these free boons, you’ll be strong enough by the end of the game that most encounters are just annoyances, and the bosses give tons of EXP, without being nearly strong enough to justify it. While it’s nice that the game doesn’t try to be impossible, it honestly just makes the experience even more boring by the end. Most bosses boil down to Yuka casting Zionga until either she runs out of MP or the boss dies, and most bosses can do so much damage that it almost feels like it’s intended. All of these elements come together to make one of the most draining gaming experiences I’ve ever gone through, to the point I had to take multi month long breaks inbetween playthroughs, not helped by just how long each playthrough takes.

Finally, to touch on some of the features exclusive to the ports of this game, the most convenient addition is being able to access the automap just by pressing the L button, when originally, the feature was kept behind several menus, which was horrible. That alone justifies not playing the SNES version to me. Additionally, a colored bar is present near the bottom of the screen during exploration that indicates how likely you are to get into an encounter, turning more and more red the closer you are to an encounter. That doesn’t mean it’s always accurate, as you can easily get into an encounter a single step after getting out of one, but it does help. Finally, and most notably, is the addition of A-Mode DDS, a sort of extras menu. Not only does it contain multiplayer functionality that I barely understand, but it also gives access to a demon dictionary, which allows you to see the stats of an demon you’ve encountered across any of your playthroughs, as well as read upon on their lore, like later Demon Compendiums in the series. There’s also the Visionary, a movie gallery of sort that shows extra cutscenes made specifically for the GBA port. To watch these, however, special key items need to be found within the main game. These are shared across all save files, and a good chunk of them are dropped by bosses, but many others are found in what are otherwise empty rooms and areas in earlier ports, appear only after certain events are triggered, or only become available after completing the game, possibly with a specific route, at that. The optimal route order for acquiring them all is Law, then Chaos, then ending with Neutral. Honestly, for the effort you have to put in to get them all, they unfortunately don’t add a ton. Some of them help clear up tiny questions left unanswered otherwise, or give additional characterization to the cast or bosses, but there’s nothing super important there, and others are just plain filler. There’s nothing wrong with just looking up a video of them if you don’t want to go through the effort of getting them all. Finally, beating the Chaos route specifically unlocks the Demon Bank at the Cathedral of Shadows, the location where demons are fused, which allows you to store a number of demons to take out whenever you want. While you can’t use this to get ahold of multiple copies of one demon, it’s actually very helpful, as you’re limited to holding a pretty small number of demons for a good chunk of the game, and saving a demon you could use for fusing something else later helps a ton. It’s definitely one of the most helpful additions, though why Chaos specifically unlocks it is beyond me. Overall, it’s not wrong to call SMT1′s gameplay dated, because it is in many, many ways. While it does take some important steps forward, it also retains a lot of the worst elements of RPGs from this era, and I don’t blame most people from wanting to avoid dealing with it all.

Graphics:

The SNES version of SMT1 also drew heavily from Wizardry in terms of its visuals, by which I mean it looked really, really bad. Both the world map and first person areas looked really bland, with Kazuya’s room, for instance, only having a computer, and otherwise being a bunch of blank walls. Not only was it monotonous, but it often looked extremely unfitting for what the areas were supposed to be. Thankfully, the PSX and GBA versions made massive improvements over this. The world map looks much better, and areas actually look distinct and sensible, with special rooms often having special prerendered backgrounds to represent just what they’re supposed to be. Obviously, the GBA limitations make these look very crunchy at times, but a bit of crunch is still preferable to a bunch of blank, identical walls. It also added a few neat effects, like the camera slowly scrolling upwards upon encountering the bosses within the Basilica, doing a very good job of conveying the sense of scale and importance to them. Sure, the increased saturation of GBA games hurts the atmosphere a bit, but it’s hardly a deal breaker. Plus, the scrolling while moving is much smoother than in the SNES version.

The character sprites, on the other hand, continue to be smudgy, lacking in detail, and overall just, bad. Honestly, I feel like they look the most tolerable in this version. The lower resolution and general crunchiness of the other visuals make them fit in better, while they look terrible in the PSX version, with its fully 3D environments. The demon sprites, on the other hand, are much better. While MT2 was already a big step forward, this was where Kaneko really started getting their designs down. Demons like Michaeal and the other Archangels, Jack Frost, Arahabaki, Beelzebub, or at least his Baal Zebul form, Decarabia, Nebiros, and Abaddon received their iconic designs here, while others like Belial, Cu Chulainn, Shiva, Mara (no, I’m not posting what that, and yes, it looks exactly like you’d expect), and Surt getting designs at least pretty close to what would come later. The sprites in general just look really nice, and while most of them do use the same body templates, plenty actually avoid being pure palette swaps, with Stonka and Rakcharango having their distinguishing eye and demon mark, respectively, which manages to keep them looking distinct. That said, there’s still cases of blatant palette swapping. Barong and Rangda still look the same, Indra is blatantly a swap of Zouchouten, Koumokuten, Jikokuten, and Bishamonten, who are already palette swaps of each other, and so forth. The worst case is with the angels of the Divine race. Angel and Throne look the same, and Power, Virtue, and Dominion are identical as well, something that’s very easy to notice if you upgrade them in a linear order. Archangel’s design, which is otherwise unique among the Divines, get reused for Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel when they’re in your party, which leaves Cherub as the only one that actually has a unique design. I get that space and technical limitations play a part in this, but it’s hard to ignore. Still, that sums up SMT1′s visuals, a mixed bag with some parts that look great, and some parts that just don’t.

Music:

The SNES version of SMT1 has a very distinctive soundtrack, thanks to just having a very distinct, metallic sort of sound to it that shows up in almost every song. It makes for a very good soundtrack that I love to listen to, with songs like the battle theme, the haunting Law theme, the Cathedral of Shadows’ theme, the theme of the mansions of the four devas, and of course, the Ginza theme sticking out to me. Of course, the GBA’s sound capabilities were far below that of the SNES, and the soundtracks of many SNES to GBA ports came out pretty bad because of it. All things considered, though, I feel like this one is pretty well done in comparison. Definitely not better overall, but most tracks manage to retain their feels, including those that I mentioned above. I’d even say I prefer a few tracks in the GBA version over the SNES version. The Neutral theme, for instance, is downright obnoxious in the SNES version, but is actually pretty calming in the GBA version. Ginza also sounds pretty great, and the level up theme, which was pretty offputting original, sounds more fitting now. I have to commend the porting team, they managed to make convert it all pretty well.

Conclusion:

Overall, would I recommend SMT1 to most people? No. Even to people who like modern mainline SMT, this one is a type of brutal I would not even think of trying to put others through. If you’re really, really curious about how it all started, and have the necessary patience, you might be able to get through it, but seriously, just do yourself a favor and just do a single playthrough as Neutral. There’s not enough else to warrant repeat playthroughs. Still, even if it was miserable for me to go through, it was a hugely ambitious game for its time, and its influence on the series is still evident today, and for that, I can respect that. Till next time.

-Scout

#shin megami tensei #smt #atlus #snes #game reviews #atlus games #rpg #jrpg

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 2 years

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what about the raven herself?

Welp, I didn’t expect this one 😅 but since you asked, I’ll provide!

***Standard disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions of the character(s); regardless of what I may think of them, sharing my thoughts is NOT meant to offend or to shame anyone that thinks differently.*** Do I really need to slap the standard disclaimer on a character opinion bingo about my own OC??????

Raven 🥺 my child............................. .. . ....... . .... . .. . .. ......... . . . . .. . .... .. . my birb dotter........... . . . ..... . . . .. ..... . . . .. ... ... . . . .. . . .

WAHAHAHAH I’m very obviously going to be biased with my thoughts 😌 so I hope you’re prepared for that—

When I first had the idea for a “blog mascot” in late spring-early summer of 2020, I had no idea just how attached to Raven I would be. Contrary to popular belief, she’s not meant to be a self-insert or a Yuusona; she’s an OC with her own lore and she exists entirely separate from Yuu. While Raven isn’t a self-insert, she happens to share the same name as my online alias (which I know can get confusing 💦), and she’s also the type of character whose struggles I can relate to. I only put bits and pieces of myself in Raven, a trait or two here and there—just enough to let me comfortably project my issues onto her. She has difficulty expressing her feelings outside of writing, and she longs for the freedom to do as she wishes, to live without restraint… and to understand herself. She feels small and helpless in a world that’s dark and confusing to navigate. In a way, writing Raven gives me a chance to explore and to cope with similar real world issues, so she brings me a sense of comfort and hope. (If you’re interested in hearing a little more about my OC creation process, I’d recommend checking out this post!)

I had many different inspirations when I was designing her looks, personality, and backstory for a cohesive character. What was most important to me was creating an OC that is both layered and “makes sense”. For example, I think a lot of people would describe Raven’s personality as “tsundere”—but why is that? Why is her personality “tsundere”? Because she doesn’t believe she deserves nice things, and she doesn’t think she belongs among humans. Because she’s been betrayed by someone she once trusted, and this reaction is the only defense mechanism she knows. Because her curse may punish her for ever getting too close to anyone. Even her design speaks to who Raven is; she’s trying so hard to emulate Crowley (but more mature), because she doesn’t have a clear sense of what her identity is or what her place in the “story” is anymore, so it’s easier to try and be like someone else. That’s what makes it really fun to design other outfits for her; it feels like Raven’s finally allowed to dress how she wants instead of having to live up to someone else’s legacy. This is totally me playing favorites, but Raven’s really deep 😌 and I hope that more people come to appreciate her for that. (Why not check out this post for more about her? Read the Tale of the Cursed Raven—)

I have the most enjoyment writing Raven interacting with other characters. She takes herself so seriously and tries to act like a refined lady, so it’s amusing when that plays off the callousness of her peers and it forces the childishness she often hides to come out. Jade is particularly interesting to write with Raven, because almost every conversation between them turns into a battle of wits and seeing who can outsmart the other and get them to break and lower their guard Kaguya-sama: Love is War style. I’d like to think that they’re both getting free entertainment from it 😂 With other characters, it’s fun to draw contrasts (Kalim’s/Rook’s/Cater’s cheer vs Raven’s reservedness, Crowley’s immaturity vs Raven’s sense of responsibility, L*ona’s laziness vs Raven’s hard-working nature, etc.), as well as parallels (she and Silver are both adopted, she and Ortho are both students enrolled under “extraordinary” circumstances, etc.). I’m weirdly proud that I cam write Raven with the other students and interacting with them all so differently, because it makes me think she’s as “real” and as fleshed out as the main cast are; it makes me feel like a mom watching her kid make new friends on the playground with the other children 😌

I know that people usually like to see Raven engage with the Usual Suspects (J word, Rook, L*ona), but I would like more opportunities to have her engage with others in the student body as well. Interacting only with “potential love interests” makes a character seem flat and like they were invented solely to be shipped with someone else, so I want to expand on Raven’s platonic relationships and friendships. I don’t want her to be defined by who she loves, but by who she is as an individual. After all, finding “herself” (aka having faith in herself and in her identity) is a big theme of the Tale of a Cursed Raven, and the “self” isn’t defined only by who someone loves, right?

Sometimes I feel guilty about writing Raven and posting it publicly, because she’s a personal character and not a canon one (the latter being what most people come to my blog for). With time, I think I’ve slowly become more comfortable doing it 😌 because seeing my friends and my mutuals share their own OC creations gives me more confidence. I hope I can share more of Raven with the world.

#twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #Raven Crowley #notes from the writing raven #ask game #character opinion bingo

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gilliebee · 11 months

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nine (9) people you'd like to know better

I got tagged by the wonderful @five4boarding and tumblr never gives me a little +1 notification icon when I get tagged in anything (like any other type of note would, so I don’t get it!!), so I live in fear that I’m always gonna miss these BUT I caught this one at least 👉😎👉

Last song: during my morning walk I randomly remembered the catchiest depression bop and then remembered the first time I looked up the guy's wiki and saw that he played hockey and I was like you're telling me a knife-footed ice-gremlin sang this???? (swiss juniors but still high level for his age bracket I think?) Anyway... Tomorrow May Not Be Better (specifically this version https://open.spotify.com/track/0V1quXmlVC6eH5kcfYPWEW ) by Bastian Baker still slaps to this very day 😌👌

Currently watching: My longstanding guilty pleasure is docs/commentary videos about any and all scams, particularly mlms/pyramid schemes. So it should come as no surprise that my brand new guilty pleasure is debt confessions/financial audits on youtube 🙈 I've been been watching a few by caleb hammer whose gimmick is that he gordon ramsey style shames people who come in with their financial records and he's like hey. why do you have $120,000 in consumer debt? why did you finance an ipad for your literal infant child?? why have you spent 30 dollars multiple times a day every day at dunkin for the last 3 months??? (the last one is an exaggeration but the first two I have seen LOL). His thumbnails are wretched I hate them so, so much, and his advice of living spartan-like for a few years to dig yourself out of the hole is ehhh maybe good in theory but generally not exactly...practical. And I think going cold turkey when you're used to constant impulse buying is basically a recipe for just eventually losing control and going on a bender. But. I'm nosy and love hearing about how people be spending their money so that's the best part of the videos for me lol

Currently reading: haven't picked up something new yet BUT I juuuust finished An Unauthorised Fan Treatise which was SO GOOD I literally slammed it nonstop for two days until I finished it. It's formatted like a rpf conspiracy theory livejournal where a fangirl of a supernatural-drama show compiles evidence that the two lead actors are secretly dating. BUT it's noted that the livejournal has been submitted as evidence into for a murder trial so y'know TWISTS AND TURNS lol. There's just something about the format that really compels me, idk I already love reading primers and conspiracies for hrpf couples that I literally have zero investment in and never will- I just enjoy the way the girlies spin a good narrative. (and also watching video essays about the uhhh less casual to super trainwreck ones like the whole larry fiasco even though I never got into 1D, as well as general fandom fiascos like msscribe and snapewives etc etc IT'S ALL SO FASCINATING TO ME 🍿👀) So it was a really natural fit for me to read in a fictional setting. And it's free to read! https://gottiewrites.com/2019/10/14/31/

Current obsession: I’m a hobbyist game maker so at all times I am rotating little bits of character development, experimental mechanics, aesthetics, ui design etc etc in my brain but it becomes much more mentally consuming during the off-season bc god knows when bruins hockey is live it is Featured Live 24/7 In My Brain. But for now... my OCs on my mind 😌💭

tagging (if you want to): OH NO I’M SO BASHFUL I NEVER KNOW WHO TO TAG IN THESE 🫣🫣🫣 uh uh uhh maybe @ghostgeno @alavenderleaf @tylerbertuzzi @reavenedges-lies @krugstrash if y’all are so inclined?? but also no pressure no pressure again I’m just NOSY hehe

#my main communication style is RAMBLING lol #also I didn't tag 9 people because I guess I'm just a rebel rule breaker #this was a great excuse to rant about an unauthorized fan treatise which has been on my mind after finishing it but like my bf didn't know #what tf to make of my rambling about it and all the like fandom culture references within #hopefully this is formatted correctly and hopefully none of the original words accidentally got left in when I copy-pasted that would be #very embarrassing

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eeclare · 1 year

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The Finale

My last Bob’s Burgers bedrooms

These are the characters that I forgot about but I want to make sure they get the recognition they deserve

These are HEAVY on the headcannons guys

Like they are pretty much JUST headcannons

Some are kinda shippy

I don’t usually like to get involved in shipping stuff, just because I can honestly get behind any ship if I want to lol

But these were just fun little headcannons of what I feel are kinda obvious ships

Okay maybe one of them is a guilty pleasure sue me

NOT ALL OF THESE ARE SHIP RELATED

Just to clarify

Starting off strong with Jimmy Sr.’s (And Trev’s) room!

Soooooooo

Jimmy and Trev don’t LIVE together but like

They live together

Lowkey think Trev and Jimmy had an emotional affair turned physical and that is part of the reason Jimmy got divorced

The real reason Jimmy is so jealous of Bob is because Bob can be openly himself (with his sexuality, just in general, really) and Jimmy feels like he has to hide himself, kinda

That was long winded I’m sorry guys

#jimmy and trev angst lowkey

But anyway

At first Jimmy wanted his room to be kinda like a bachelor pad

Hence the tacky bed frame

But then Trev was like no

And just forcefully moved himself in?

Idk but like can’t u see it

Jimmy is totally against Trev moving in with him

But custody with the kids is already settled (50/50) and his ex wife knows about Trev so there’s really no losing his kids atm

Jimmy has a stark white carpet to make it more bachelor pad-y

But Trev didn’t really think it went with his own cottagecore vibe

So he just slapped his carpet on top

And bam, kinda boho eclectic carpet combo

Again, with the bachelor pad thing, Jimmy installed two LED purple lights on the floor

Trev thinks they’re kinda ugly but they were EXPENSIVE so he makes due

He covers one of them up with his carpet

Can you tell whose side is whose yet?

Trev didn’t get to pick the nightstand, but he makes due

It is still Jimmy’s house, after all

Trev is an occasional tea drinker before bed

He keeps his book of the month on the nightstand, just in case he has the time

It wasn’t hard to convince Jimmy of the candle

“For the ambience” he said to convince him

And Jimmy ate it right up

Jimmy had installed really bright white over head lights

Trev hates them (they hurt his eyes!) but again, it’s not really his room, it’s Jimmy’s

Trev still has his own apartment btw so don’t go thinking that he doesn’t have space to express himself

Jimmy does love Trev and if they did officially live together they would each have a say in decoration

(But Jimmy would still have more say because, well, he prefers it that way and Trev likes to keep him happy)

It’s not the healthiest of relationships, guys

Jimmy has a dope oil painting of a ship at sea

He thinks it’s cool af

Maybe if he has a ship on his wall it’ll manifest him getting his spot in the yacht club

His dresser is modern

Trev forced his way into the bottom drawer

But Jimmy still possesses half of it (for his socks)

Jimmy also has the whole of the top drawer

There’s a mirror above the dresser

For Jimmy to fix his hair with and for other activities if they so ensue

Anyway his hair gel is set on top of the dresser

(Trev isn’t allowed to keep his personal items in sight of the kids)

And Jimmy is lowkey pale-ish so he does apply self tanner every once in a while

He also bought an expensive set of martini glasses so they’re all his drinks out of

Don’t worry, when Jimmy Jr. And Andy and Ollie are staying with him every other week they have their own designated glasses that he brought home from the restaurant

So they have age appropriate drink ware

Over all their room is a little cute? Idk

So this is for Ron and Hugo

Hugo had a relatively okay studio apartment before he moved in with Ron

They’re like officially together but unofficially

Not because they aren’t proud but Hugo still isn’t rlly out to anyone and Ron is just happy to be with him

So yeah

Anyway

So Hugo moved in with Ron

Ron rents out the back end of a small house in a middle class neighborhood

But like, lower middle class

Ron wishes he had a garden of his own but he can settle for sharing with the tenant at the front of the house

There’s no backyard, btw

It’s just a small fence and a two car parking spot

The fence divides them from a diff house’s backyard lol

Both Ron and Hugo are avid readers so they have a good assortment of books that they have each read or plan to read

Hugo is kind of a neat freak

So there’s the cleaning spray and cloth on the shelf lol

Hugo has allergies and he KNOWS that book shelves collect a LOT of dust

Now, Hugo would never have wanted a cat or pet of any kind but Ron already had a cat before they even knew each other so he had to learn to deal with it

And secretly not so secretly he has fallen in love with Kirby

But still, Ron is more active in taking care of her

Hugo just cannot stomach it

The plants were also not Hugo’s choice

He has ALLERGIES

Ron loves gardening though and since he can’t have an actual garden Hugo is happy to oblige as long as flowering plants are not kept in the house

And if you think their room is bad you should see their living area/kitchenette

Good lord someone let Ron switch sides of the house so he can garden just a little bit

Hugo is a pale dude

So he makes sure to keep sun block around him next to his bedside table

Hugo also has cold ass feet so he has an extra carpet next to his side of the bed

Also on his side, a bucket and sponge

Because Kirby can sense that Hugo isn’t her biggest fan and takes revenge on him the only way she knows how

So he keeps the bucket there at all times just in case

Ron has a cat treat/toy on his side to try to keep Kirby to stay with him and not bother Hugo

It works half of the time

Ron uses lotion and even though it makes him smell kind of like an aunt he likes to be soft

And he just drinks out of a mug lol not tea not coffee just water (tap water, it’s not even cold)

And the art on the wall is Ron’s choice he thinks the paintings are cute

BTW I absolutely recognize that canonnically there is no evidence that Ron and Hugo are together. I think there is tons of evidence that Ron is gay/ has feelings for Hugo but so far there is no really good evidence to Hugo reciprocating Ron’s feelings. I just like this ship so 🙄

Mr. Fishoeder’s room?

Ik he seems like the kinda guy to have a modern all white and sleek kind of home but based on cannon he has an old-timey kind of aesthetic

He tries to keep on theme

Mr. Fishoeder doesn’t have one consistent partner so he makes sure to have wine and cigarettes at the ready

He has a walk in closet in a different room of the house, so he doesn’t keep much clothing in his dresser drawers

Just towels and such

He doesn’t like to flaunt his money but he does keep a not so secret stash of bills in his cupboard area

He reads maybe sometimes but not often so the books aren’t worth displaying

And his cologne he hides in the cupboard as well

His papa is on top of the shelf in the urn

He doesn’t want to display him somewhere where Felix can easily steal him

And Calvin finds himself to be kind of like a collector of rare and expensive items

Hence the skull

The clock is just there because it fits the aesthetic

The mirror *above* the bed for whatever you want it ti be there for

Calvin cares less about looks than Felix but he still values looking cool in front of his guests

So he does hide the fan he needs up in his room behind a curtain

The fan is ugly but he NEEDS it

It gets bloody hot up in his bedroom

He does have a flat screen TV in the shape of a vintage one

It’s pretty cool, if you ask him

The oil paintings just fit his whole vibe

They��re older looking and expensive lol

I imagine that Mr. Fishoeder is an olive eating man

They’re a good rich person snack and they are delicious with whatever alcohol he’s having that night lmao

The phone makes him feel like a cool vintage mafia boss lol

The tall lamp to the side is just there because Calvin is admittedly getting older and needs more yet dimmer lights to see

That’s it, really

It’s Felix!

He has a decently large room

And he is much more into keeping up with trends and style and such

So he has a kind of theme he’s going for

Kind of antique, but modernized

He’s not thrilled to be living in a treehouse but he’ll make due

God, he misses his apartment in NYC

But you know, he’s happy to live and be close with his brother again

He won’t admit it, but he’s missed Calvin

In fact, the painting above his bed is a specially commissioned portrait of him and Calvin as onions

From that one caricature artist that spends time on the pier

He’s featured in a couple of episodes you’d know him if you saw him lol

The beetroot portrait is by the same guy, but this time it’s a painting of Felix and Fanny

He isn’t big into art, but Felix does like those framed insect hangings

But Felix does love plants (not gardening, just plants)

He keeps potted ones around and even though he doesn’t do the watering (he has people for that) he likes the way they look

the rose is for Fanny next time she comes over btw

She’s not there a lot because she has zero interest in living in a tree but he’s hopeful

He enjoys aroma therapy so he has those weird smelling sticks from homesense lol

And even though Calvin calls it perfume IT ISNT

It’s cologne

Just very floral

He prefers to keep his clothing hanging in his closet (it prevents wrinkles) so the dresser is just there for looks/for his delicates

And even though he’s usually alright at putting his work out mat away he got lazy and just left his stuff on the floor

It’s been almost two weeks

You would think that his help would have had it put away by now

(Spoiler alert, he doesn’t have any “help” Calvin just told him he does so he wouldn’t get upset)

The potted plants are fake too, Felix just doesn’t know it

He lives in a TREE there is literally not enough sunlight so sustain basically any plant life

But whatever, what Felix doesn’t know won’t hurt him

Felix basically insisted that almost every room in his treehouse have a chandelier

Makes it feel more mansion-y

Those double doors are his closet lol

These are only SOME of his clothes

He does have an extra little walk-in closet for the rest of them

His casual clothes are kept in his room closet along with the clothes that wouldn’t fit in the walk in

he likes scented candles and things

So scented candle on his bedside table

The bed is kinda boho chic

He likes it, kinda

The magic is in the mattress

The little couch at the end of his bed ties in with the red curtain on the other side of his room

Felix has a bit of a drinking problem

But only cocktails or vodka

Usually

And he is definitely more Braggy than his brother is when it comes to money

If you’ve got it, flaunt it, ya know?

Teddy is our last guy!

He might be a hoarder but there’s really not a lot that he keeps in his room

He keeps snacks in his night stand

And don’t tell Linda but he knows her hands are soft af so he started buying the same brand of lotion as her lol

He drinks coffee 24/7

It’s the only thing keeping him sane at this point

The lamp just suits him

Also I think technically there would be a window above his bed but I digress

He kinda bought into that holistic crystal stuff

So that’s next to his bed now

And he did used to have a cat, but she died and then he got Francis

He has a lil Kitty shrine on the shelf there

He doesn’t see a point in having art hanging around in his room

But I think ideally tho he would like to have a framed pic of him and the belchers lmao

He has a book that’s like electricity for dummies

Idk just makes sense

He has random building supplies on his shelf lol

And Teddy LOVES 80s music!

He listens to it every morning while getting ready

He doesn’t rlly take care of his room the way he does the rest of the house

So the pain is cracked and chipped

But you know, he loves his little room and his therapist says that it’s good for him to have an outlet where he doesn’t have to focus on fixing everything

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