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(2/2) The rest of the looping animations! The 18 lawyers were chosen for being present in more than one case.

part one

All with audio!

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(1/2) uploading the individual looping animations in full! Thank you everyone for the love and support <3

part two

All with audio!

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bring back zooterkins, the best 17th-century swear word

I don't normally do Just Characters Swearing, but. ...this kind of wrote itself and then wouldn't leave my head. it comes from both a piece of character-writing advice that has always stuck with me, and also my conviction that Leona is 1000% funnier as a character if his dialogue has to stay G-rated. let Kalim say fuck, but don't let Leona say bastard.

(I'm sorry)

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Originally this was just going to be kairi as a mermaid on her own with no background…

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Aqua with flowers 💐

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ah mannnnn it’s so true that bbs is incredibly liminal and clouded and quietly lonely… especially now that we know more about scala and its history and traditions it becomes clear that what we see in bbs is nearly the end of it all. end of the legacy, now only kept alive by master aqua and one confirmed student. i imagine if you just play the kh games in release order and get to bbs it’s like wow cool!! new wielders!!! new lore!!! new aesthetics and stuff!! but in hindsight it’s like oh man those are just the pathetic scraps of what’s left…

eraqus is just some stubborn and sad old man who in any other circumstances would’ve probably never made it like this because there should’ve been many more masters his age who would’ve been more qualified than him, or at the very least could assist him. their home is some tiny remote place not evidently connected to anywhere as opposed to being in the vibrant center of a grand city. there are only three of them and only two of those were presumably like legitimately found under normal circumstances

and knowing all this just makes the end of the game (but especially the part from aqua’s perspective) so much sadder. it’s so quiet and still after all that loud chaos. eraqus is dead. he leaves behind his key as a memento that aqua must pick up and use to finish one last piece of work. xehanort betrayed them and took advantage of terra and now neither xehanort nor xehanort truly exist anymore. they’re just gone. ven is in a coma and needs to be left behind. aqua is alone. we see her walk through the empty and quiet spaces left behind in the world she knew and even she has to say goodbye to that.

aqua’s role in the story was the one who tried and tried but made very little difference in the end. the tragedy couldn’t be stopped. more than just her own friends and home were lost- a legacy rooted in ancient history was all but severed. and this isn’t even something you can fully comprehend going off of bbs context alone but on a revisit of the story it starts to make you insane. the entire game is just absolutely haunted by the past— immediate, scala-era, and daybreak-era. man

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i miss the trio ever

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when you walk away you dont hear me sayyy

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KH3 Kairi 🌸

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Namine needs new dress

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It's been 3,000 years...

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I was watching a video discussing everything Pokemon Sword and Shield did wrong (mostly in terms of story) and while I think it's a good video for the most part, I do really disagree with the assertion that Hop's arc is good. Hop's arc is as much of a mess as everything else in that game, with some good ideas marred by godawful execution. Especially egregious to me is the way that people assert his arc is better than Hau's in Gen 7 while simultaneously missing the whole point of Hau's character, so I wrote my thoughts down. Comment was too big for Youtube, so I figured I'd post the whole uncut thing here as an analysis post

Hop's arc is still one of the biggest examples of wasted potential in the game. As it is now, it's just a half-baked mashup of Bianca's and Hau's arcs that doesn't do either the "giving up battle and becoming a professor" or "being overshadowed by a famous relative" aspects as well as them

On paper, some things work. Hop trying his best and still not being able to live up to Leon's reputation, but finding what he is good at instead is an interesting idea for a rival, but like I said, both of the main aspects of his arc are done better by prior characters and all Hop does is mash them together in an uninteresting, and sometimes incongruous way. To me, him choosing to become a Professor of all things is the most emblematic part of his wasted potential. Because... why a Professor? He says that he likes to help people, but what about being a Professor specifically is about helping people any more than, say, a firefighter? Hop could come out and say that he wants to be the next Ball Guy and it would fit just as much as his claim that he wants to be a Professor

At no point do we see Hop develop any interest in academic research. Hell, half of the time Sonia shows up to talk about the history of Galar, Hop tries to rush things and steer the direction back to battling anyway. If we take the Isle of Armor into account, then he's not even particularly good at helping or making observations about nature, since he drags us around the island making no progress because he doesn't know the difference between nectar and honey and doesn't think to slow down for half a second. It feels like they only made him a Professor to force a parallel with Sonia, making him the Sonia to our Leon, but it just doesn't make any sense for his personality or interests for him to choose that particular career path

What gets me is that the solution to this is actually presented at the end of the video: Pokemon Battle MANAGEMENT. The game is constantly telling us about how Hop studies battle tactics in order to beat Leon. He's the one making comments about our use of Super Effective Hits or Critical Hits. He's always going on about things like perfecting his throwing technique. The fact that he changes his team up shows his willingness to experiment with various tactics. So why not make him a Pokemon Battle TEACHER? And if that's too similar to Cheren in B2W2 or you don't think it makes sense given that Galar is the only region that inexplicably does not have a Trainer School, then a COACH to expand upon the parallels to modern sports. As it stands now, Hop makes it all the way to the finals for Gym Challengers and loses and just... gives up having anything to do with battle as a career forever, and I don't think that that makes any sense for him at all. He's a great battler, and what better way to utilize his skill, deep knowledge and passion for battle tactics, desire to help others, and deepen the sports aspect of the game than making him some sort of coach for aspiring Gym Challengers?

Compare that to Bianca, whose decision to become Professor Juniper's assistant at the end of the game is actually developed throughout the game. Even after our first battle with her, she's more amazed at the power of our Pokemon than the outcome of the battle, showing early on how her interest is in the actual Pokemon themselves and not necessarily combat. She's always asking questions about the world around her, and in Chargestone Cave we see her stay behind and spend time with Professor Juniper, giving us the implication that they're bonding offscreen and talking about the realities of being a Professor. She also brings up the idea of being a Professor before the postgame where she makes her decision. Hop has none of that, and at times actively goes against it by not really caring that much about Sonia's research

And while Hop's relationship with Leon is still decently well done, I still find it weaker than Hau's similar desire to escape from his family's shadows, and it drives me nuts how often people completely miss Hau's whole character arc and act like Hop having essentially the same core conflict, but with a different outcome, is groundbreaking. To an extent I can understand why, because SuMo's presentation of it is a bit weak (and I say this as someone who's loved Hau since SuMo, but even I'll admit that his arc was done much better in USUM... and was the only arc that was better in USUM), but reducing Hau down to just a happy-go-lucky rival with no real depth while building up Hop is such an insult to Hau and I see the fandom do it constantly

People forget that, like Leon to Hop, we are not Hau's endgoal; Hala is, and as such Hau's main goal isn't to be a Champion, but to be a Kahuna. The biggest difference that I find that makes Hau's story more compelling than Hop's to me is that Hau is already living with the aftermath of Hala's shadow. It's told to us in various NPC dialogue and explicitly in the SuMo postgame, but Hau's father literally left the entire Alola region and his whole family because he was sick of being compared to Hala, abandoning his young son and wife (who we can find in Hala's house) because he couldn't handle the pressure of being seen as a Kahuna's son. Hau is growing up in a broken home, and all he wants to do is succeed where his father failed, not by running from Hala's shadow and tearing apart his home, but by besting Hala and overcoming his shadow entirely. He mentions in the SuMo postgame that being the Champion is something he'd want to do to show off to his father if/when he ever sees him again, and I've always taken that to mean that he considers the Champion title to be an impressive feat that proves that he's left Hala's shadow that he can actually obtain right now, since we're told that the position of Kahuna is for life (so he can only become a Kahuna once Hala passes away)

And because people miss that context, they miss the entire point of his characterization and progression. Hau's cheerful nature is a FACADE. Gladion calls it out when you first meet him. He says that Hau IS strong, but he's kneecapped by not taking battles seriously. Why? Because he's afraid of losing to Hala even if he does give the battle his all, failing to overcome the same pressure as his father that caused him to tear their family apart. He's afraid of failure, so he chooses not to try all that hard, giving himself an excuse if he loses by claiming that he wasn't really doing his best anyway, so of course he lost. This way, he doesn't have to take responsibility for his failures and risk becoming disillusioned like his father did. Lillie's kidnapping is his turning point in both games, where he realizes that by not taking things seriously and trying to minimize his responsibility for failures, he's set himself up to ACTUALLY fail in situations that require serious effort. And it's through this that he learns how to actually overcome Hala as a Kahuna, because a Kahuna isn't just a good battler, but a local leader who bears responsibility. This is part of why I like USUM's additional scene with Hau in the Hau'oli Cemetery during Mina's trial, because he makes it more explicit that his way of doing things before was also hurting his Pokemon, who wanted to win for him but lacked his leadership to do so. It demonstrates how he's changed and how he's learning to reconcile "having fun" with responsibility, how his prior justification of "having fun" wasn't actually fun for anyone and just an escape mechanism to avoid a possibly unhappy reality

And that's not even getting into how Hau's arc fits the theme of the Alola region of family, both its good and its bad. Hau is not an exception to characters like Lillie, Gladion, and Guzma all coming from messed up homes, they just don't draw as much attention to it in the main narrative for him. He represents yet another facade that people put on in response to bad family situations, in contrast to Gladion and Guzma's anger and Lillie's anxiety and withdrawal. Hau is the "pretending everything's fine, don't cause problems" response. He even ties into the sun/moon symbolism, as his concept art notes that he's meant to be the sun to Lillie's moon. Both characters who have lost their fathers, but Hau chooses to remain boisterous and cheerful, like the sun, compared to Lillie's gentle quiet, like the moon

Hop's relationship with Leon isn't even bad, and I do find the idea of him ultimately FAILING in his goal where Hau succeeded to be an interesting twist that could have set him apart, but in comparison to Hau they just don't DO anything with it to relate it back to the themes of the game, and it ultimately comes across as just setup for the nonsensical Professor career swap. There was so much potential to expand the idea into the more sports-oriented aspects of Galar by showing Hop wanting fame and trying to be more showy, marketing himself as Leon 2.0, and trying to make his own fanbase the way that Marnie has Team Yell all in an effort to get his family's attention only for his fans to leave him after a catastrophic loss to Bede rather than just having him lose to Bede offscreen and then feeling bad about being worse than Leon for the rest of the game. They could have tied him more to the "strength" themes that they claim to have by showing him as the SHIELD to Leon's SWORD, with Leon having the offense and power, but lacking the tactical prowess that Hop has, and Hop coming to realize that a slower and more analytical approach can be a different kind of strength when compared to his prior rushing around trying to catch up to Leon. This could all come to a head in Hop choosing to become a battle coach/manager, accepting that he doesn't need the same fame that Leon has to be his equal by taking a less showy job, becoming the shield who protects and helps the newer Gym Challengers in contrast to Leon's sword that inspires them to take action

Bianca has a complete arc that takes her from not knowing what she wants to do with her life, to exploring various options like battle, modeling, and research, to finally settling on research after a game showing her curiosity about the world around her. She has a design and name that make her the White to Cheren's Black and a mirrored arc to him, where he starts out confident about wanting to be the Champion only to start losing faith and having to build himself back up, both arcs fitting into the theme of BW about exploring the grey areas in life, and the unexpected paths. Hau has a complete arc that takes him from a kid who refuses to take things seriously as a fear response to failure brought about by his father's choices to one who takes responsibility and ends up growing into his grandfather's shoes because of it where his father failed. He's the Sun to Lillie's Moon in both design and personality, with a story arc that fits into Alola's theme of family

But Hop has a relationship with Leon that serves as nothing more than setup for a decision that I feel goes against everything we're shown about his character, doesn't particularly tie into the themes of the game, and doesn't capitalize on the aspects that they set up that could have really set him apart from other rivals. I don't even necessarily dislike Hop as a character, and I don't agree with the fandom constantly conflating him with Hau because it's obvious to me that while they do have a number of superficial similarities, Hau's laid-back attitude and inability to take things seriously at the start is the antithesis to Hop's over-exuberant persona and tendency to take things TOO seriously, with their arcs ultimately taking the same idea (family's shadow) in different directions, but I can hardly defend Hop's writing when the end conclusion that they come to with him is such a non sequitur from what we're shown throughout the game. On paper, using his relationship with Leon and the framing of the pressure that professional sports puts on people to set up a career change isn't bad, and I do like how they try to show his struggle with his changing teams, but all they use his relationship with Leon for is set dressing for his nonsensical decision to be a Professor, and that ends up bringing his actually decent (but not fully used to its full potential) relationship with Leon down in my eyes

The end result for me is that Hop ends up lost in the mess of rivals in SwSh, all of whom really fail to live up to their full potential from interesting concepts to me, but at least Marnie and Bede don't actively make me want to rip my hair out the way that Hop's decision to be a Professor does. He's ultimately a victim of SwSh's overall shoddy and rushed writing the same as everyone else, but Hop is the character that I find the most frustrating because the ideas are there, they just aren't pushed to the level that they could be and that's what makes him the biggest waste of opportunity in my eyes

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Hello. What are some of your canon favourite sibling relationships in games, tv shows, books, etc.? Doesn't have to be a healthy bond (but, if is toxic, I hope it's acknowledged in canon as toxic).

Well, I think the first time that I can remember actually caring about a fictional sibling relationship was Katara and Sokka in ATLA, and they still hold up exceptionally well, capturing the way that actual siblings banter and care about each other. I've also been watching reactions to Danny Phantom recently and it's reminded me of just how good Danny and Jazz's relationship is. I used to read fanfics of Danielle getting adopted by the Fentons and the three of them becoming a sibling ghost-fighting team. I've always found it interesting how they could have made Jazz an overbearing sister who's as against Danny as a hero as her parents are, but the second that she founds out about his secret identity she's instantly supportive and I found that refreshing

Thinking of some video game examples, Denys and Yew Geneaolgia's relationship was what ultimately made Bravely Second as a game for me, especially with the way that despite their father's blood purity nonsense, they still deeply cared about each other. I actually didn't care that much about the Subway Twins, Ingo and Emmet, from Pokemon that much at first (probably because I never did the Black/White Battle Subway), but with their more recent appearances in Pokemon Masters and Ingo's plotline in Pokemon Legends: Arceus I've started really enjoying their dynamic, and how it's the outwardly grumpy-looking Ingo is the more eloquent and supportive of the two, while the friendly-looking Emmet is stilted and competitive

Those are just a handful coming to mind right now, and I'm also leaving out relationships that I think are fascinating but not necessarily in a good way (i.e. Phobos and Elyon in W.I.T.C.H.) or characters who aren't related by blood but could be seen as siblings (i.e. clones and everything KH has going on) or are just sibling-like. Hope that's a good list for you!

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Apparently, I was too late to boop you back, so…

*BOOP!*

Haha, yeah, I think I must have just gotten in at the last minute. Thank you!

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i feel like idia might have a rotom

ooh and if I may expand on this: Idia HAD a Rotom, and then he built himself a brother around it. Rotom (Ortho form).

I'm counting Rotom as Ortho's pokemon, so I'm also giving Idia a Porygon-Z (shiny, because ~color coordinating~) and a very lonely Minun.

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some more Twst pokemon as my brain melts at the impending episode 7 drop tomorrow! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I went with Gholdengo and Cufant for Kalim, and Seviper and Malamar for Jamil! I went back and forth a looooot on whether to give Malamar to Jamil or Azul, but ultimately I think it just fits Jamil better. (Seviper was a given though)