#Advanced Robotics courses for adults

[justabeewithapen]

Right, I m going to go insane loredump about something but I need to say if you haven't read THIS post by @was-that-a-pun you're going to want to read it first, then come back to what I am doing.

Done that? Great! Venture under the read more at your own peril.

Right, so just re-summarizing what pun said, this is basically an AU where the toy experiments are not just underground work mules, but a genuine attempt to help children who are suffering from incurable ailments. This is where I expand even further. Elliot Ludwig, while deeply invested in the creation of toys, also had his fortune invested into the medical advancement.

This is because his daughter Poppy, who they named their popular Poppy dolls after, was diagnosed with a type of heart cancer that was rapidly growing as her quality of life steadily increased. Studies on reviving dead rats using a mixture of poppy flowers and several other ingredients had been very successful, but generally the rat would die again shortly after due to underlying issues in the body itself. This was when Dr. Harley Sawyer, head of the team, suggested they attempt to move the now functional organs to a different body. Before they even had a chance to begin tests Poppy began deteriorating to a degree where she wasn't going to make it, and so they started with her.

She was an unprecedented success, and an un-replicable one. Almost immediately Playtime Co. had both staff members with ill children and ill staff members offer themselves up to test, after of course more testing had been done with animals to ensure it wasn't a total fluke, and quickly everyone realized this was actually possible. Playtime Co. medical division was given government funding to continue to work on this research (all children and adults who are tested have volunteered for this) and they quickly established a hierarchy of what works best and what doesn't.

Initial tests with shells called Miss and Mister Delights (named after Amelia Delight who is an employee at Playtime Co. and due to chronic strokes offered herself up for testing) determined that the more human like a shell is, the harder the transfer procedure is. Of the 15 attempted, only 5 survive currently, though 7 in total were successful. (Two ended up passing away shortly after due to organ failure). All were adult volunteers from both factory workers and outside.

Each of them suffers from rather severe mobility issues and health conditions, requiring them to live on the property. This was when Playcare was established and some proper work could be done!

Playcare was a lot like a care center combined with a hospital. Patients that are currently waiting to be operated on, alongside patients still recovering from operation all live there (and their parents if they so choose). Set up with several common areas, specialized outdoor areas (see the big dome in the back) so toys and patients can get out while still being supervised, and many more, it is meant to be a home away from home for these kids! The whole place is run by Stella Greyber, with Dr. White as the head Physician. Dr. Sawyer, while he mainly works in the labs does frequently visit to advise and monitor progress. Speaking of Dr. Sawyer, you’ll notice here he is in fact a robot still! This is because Dr. Sawyer began developing his own health conditions while working on the project, and as such began to work on their most experimental body by far in case things got too far. After a severe stroke that lead to even more severe brain hemorrhaging, Harley was forced to be transferred into his robotic body.

While very functional he suffers from a lot of phantom pains, and has a very difficult time eating and drinking. However he is a very stubborn man and he is actively improving his body as he lives in it. Unlike canon he is not a sadistic monster, but he is still totally a drama queen. He is very uptight and super invested in his work, coming across as a total hardaft douche at first glance. He really just doesn’t know how to talk to people, especially children, and tries to avoid them if possible. While he mainly exists in one robotic body he is capable of of plugging himself into the lab’s mainframe system and existing like he does in game, but it is very labor intensive and causes migraines. Dr. Sawyer is constantly trying to push for improvements, his goal would be to one day be able to make little robotic or plastic replicas of the children’s bodies that are actually capable of housing the kids AND growth, allowing an almost normal life. It is a long ways away but he is determined to get there.

Jumping back to the toys! After much study and testing they have figured out roughly which toys are most effective and provide the safest procedures, and which toys are more risky! Of all the toys the easiest and safest procedure would be critter toys. For some reason they have the highest success rate of every other toy type. The biggest downside though would be the quality of life post the procedure.

Critters are very small obviously, they have done bigger ones (different from the bigger body critters, think large Baba Chops) but often the critter bodies can be very unbalanced. While updates to the critter designs have allowed for flexible mouths and fingers they still require a lot of help in everyday tasks such as eating and bathing themselves. Despite that, with a proper care guide (and time spent in Playcare with their parents being properly advised) they can generally return home even if going to school and work on their own would be difficult to impossible.

Mini Wuggies, plastic shelled toys, and long legs all have their own pros and cons that are discussed out with parents and their children before anything is done. They all have a very similar success rate though!

After that would be the bigger bodies (quad toys are generally avoided unless the child and parents are both fully informed of how that can impact quality of life, but some kids really really want to be a specific toy and Playtime tries to honor that when possible. Anyway, Bigger bodies have the lowest success rate, the most diversity, and generally the highest quality of life in terms of what they are capable of.

You’ll notice every kid has a tag around their neck or name tag, alongside a bracelet around their wrist! This helps identify them to doctors who work in playcare (all bigger body toys live at playcare as of now but work is being done to have them and their families return home permanently) that way the doctors know what health conditions they have and what room they need to be in. This is probably one of the few times you’ll see me draw the dough boys, and where I differ from Pun! I think Jack WAS still an accident, but the three of them went through the dough procedure separately. However it was quickly determined that dough was not stable enough to use as all three of them have difficulty keeping their forms solid for very long, and struggle with a lot of memory issues. The trio just ended up becoming fast friends being some of Playcare’s permanent residents. They can combine into Doey, though it is hard (really really hard) and they can’t hold the form for long, but that is just a side effect of how unstable they are. Susan and George live at Playcare alongside Kevin’s mom. Matthew’s parents don’t live in Playcare but do visit frequently.

Memory issues are common in bigger bodies, Kissy has them pretty badly and has to have an escort as she will end up in rooms and not remember how to get back fully. Like Pun said Poppy is somewhat a celebrity inside Playcare and she gets a lot of attention from other toys (which she doesn’t like) but she does like hanging out with Kissy!!

Many of the Delights (even those who didn’t previously work at the factory) have taken up jobs at Playcare, helping toys adapt to their bodies alongside the doctors and educators they have on staff! While not focused on it, Playcare does still have some involvement with local orphanages, trips to and from Playcare and the factory are common for both sides to make!! Playtime Co. is making a concerted effort to normalize the existence of living toys while they try and perfect a more humanoid body for the kids, trying to ensure as normal a life as they can for these kids!!!

Think that’s all I have besides a bunch of random interactions and character details I have in my head haha. This was very much a one off post bc I used to do roleplays with like “mutant/super power kids living in an isolated school/hospital/lab and living their lives” all the time growing up XD it is a concept I am very fond of, and was happy to ramble about a bit!!!

[3liza]

watching a wide range of population groups coming to terms with the cultural institution of "college" being mostly a means-testing scheme that has nothing to do with "education" has been really enlightening. considering how recently the "Varsity Blues" scandal happened im surprised at people not generally drawing more comparisons between rich people being able to cheat their children into prestigious universities and students in general being able to cheat their way through school coursework with a robot writing their papers.

"how dare you cheat on your schoolwork with an automatic essay-writing machine, dont you want to LEARN THINGS" presupposes the wrong problem. the problem is that i can apparently submit cheated essays and not only be accepted via various backdoors, institutional failure states like NCLB and bribes, but then also graduate with an advanced degree, and no one has any safeguards in place to stop me because apparently the quality of schoolwork required to earn a degree is currently, and has been for decades, at the "essay written by a robot/purchased from an essay mill/paid for by my parents via 'tutoring' which is actually a nanny who does my homework" level. and all the kids who, like myself!!!! never got told "everyone else is already cheating" are now mad about it. im mad about it

academic ethics havent been a factor in this discussion for yeeeeears but again, this has been kept a closely-guarded secret from everyone who was either too clueless or poor to be informed via ingroup support. i kept wondering why i was running into credentialed, wealthy adult professionals who were by all appearances both stupid and ignorant, when i personally worked myself into actual physical illness trying to pass schoolwork assignments and still usually failed, and this predated the emergence of large language model academic cheating. being able to pass college coursework with a chatbot is a symptom, surely we can all see that once its been explained.

the bar is currently set at "rich kids submitting fake transcripts with actually photoshopped awards and extracurriculars to college admissions along with a big fat 'donation'", of course everyone else finds schoolwork either exhausting or impossible, and of course the design of academics currently allows a big fat "i pretend i do not see it" backdoor where you can feed garbage into it. thats how universities make money. youre competing with cheaters and have been for decades

[egg-emperor]

Casino Eggman and Krampus Eggman fighting for Game Eggman's love

that could result in some funny shenanigans. I can see them both insisting they'll be the ones to spend the night at game Eggman's at Eggsmas time. Krampus wouldn't usually visit adults but game Eggman can be a manchild at times so he could still count and be an exception lol

KrampusEgg might say Casino Egg doesn't even typically visit anyone's houses like he does so how does he think he'll get in to game Eggman's place and Casino Egg is like "ya think I don't have experience in breaking into people's houses? the high security of his base ain't nothin' to me."

Krampusegg still doubts Casino Egg is going to come through with it and is then surprised when he arrives at Eggman's base around the same time as him wearing a santa outfit but pink and he calls himself Santie Claus and he's like oh shit he's serious

and so trouble ensues as they attempt to get through game Eggman's high security and advanced robots just to enter his base then make his way to him inside and have quite the interesting bonding experience during it. and Casino Egg attempts to flirt constantly with KrampusEgg as is usual for him with every guy

so KrampusEgg is like "I thought you wanted the other Eggman, not me. is this is an attempt to charm me into distraction so you can get to him first?" and Casino Egg is like "nooo not at all ;)" but truth is, he's finding he is genuinely into him too. I mean he's another Eggman, how can he not be

anyway they finally get to modern Egg's bedroom and wake him up by loudly stumbling in while bickering over who gets him. and when he asks them what the hell they're doing, they both trip over themselves to try to charm him into wanting to spend the night with them instead and kicking the other one out

KrampusEgg's main motive would be so he can then punish him for his evil like he would children only he's a manchild instead but he could also find he's genuinely into him too, while Casino Egg's main motive for wanting to stay over at game Eggman's is just to fuck as usual because he's Casino Egg

but then Casino Egg is like "wait why am I even fighting over him like this, I'm literally extremely polyamorous and into both of you" so he proposes them all staying here together and game Eggman is like "hold on I never invited either of you here anyway you just broke in >:\" but of course he will wanna spend time with other handsome eggs really XD

now I don't wanna speak on KrampusEgg's feelings much without approval since he's not my creation, he's weirdofish's, but Casino AU Egg would certainly be all for it and game Eggman being a canon monsterfucker and eggfucker just like Casino Egg, he'd totally be down to negotiate them all spending the night together, perhaps also joining him to visit and terrorize the naughty kids for fun as a fearsome but also very funny trio!

[lemmylemons]

I wanna hear about your OCs

-Noisey anon

Tank you anon :3

I'll put it under a cut just so it's not a long blab :3

But some fankids for a Tekken AU I have, most of these are from ships *I* enjoy:

- The twins are a pair of boy and girl adults who look like fashionistas but are actually extremely deadly trained assassins, from Russian of course. Dragunov's son and daughter, Emil (remember him tee hee) and Ania, are the product of some relationship Dragunov would NEVER talk about (you know), but they were both raised by Dragunov, and Bryan Fury of all people. (I heart Furynov) The two are operatives for the Spetsnaz, although Emil is under his forced year of military service and Ania is there for funsies (both being 18).

I had another version where I typed everything out way better and I should probably actually sit down and write but, here:

The AU is Reina taking over the Zaibatsu for Heihachi, who is now actually dead from old age, kill that old man. She wants Jin and Devil Jin under her control, and Toma's devil, who hasn't actually shown himself yet. Kazuya still owns G-Corp and is very much willing to fight for Jin after Jun's return that they're able to settle themselves...

- JinHwoaXiao is such a GRHAGRGRGRG ship, I have a fankid for them named Toma, a boy with Jin's stoicism, Xiaoyu's love for ANYTHING related to an amusement park and Hwoarang's cockiness. Toma's Jin and Xiao's son, but raised by all 3 of them, in the AU, which takes place long after 8 when everybody's a bit older and there's yet another tournament, this time called by an older Reina - Toma's about 17-18, making Jin, Hwoarang and Xiaoyu somewhere around their 40's (they didn't have Toma RIGHT after 8 obviously). Toma knows about his Devil Gene and goes out of his way to be sure he has control of it.

- Hikari Kazama, is about 13, and she's a blabbering yet sweet mess of a fighter, she's a little clumsy, but makes up for it by hitting hard. Again being from Jin and Xiaoyu but raised by all 3, she's not exactly ready to participate in the King of Iron Fist, but she does follow along and loves to see her family.

- T.I.T.A.N - short for Technologically Intelligent: Trial Advanced Newborn (still work shopping that name) is a humanoid robot created by Lee Chaolan's Violet Systems company. The humanoid cyborg, Titan, sometimes called Ty, bears a striking resemblance to Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Bosconovitch, being their "son". Titan was built mostly as an experiment but completely welcomed by his parents. Titan doesn't QUITE understand human emotion as he isn't exactly a human, he 100% looks like one and loves his parents dearly, as that's what's programmed, other than that, he's completely oblivious to emotion and is seeing the world in the most literal way possible... Until it comes to ducks and ducklings. He would fucking die for ducks. No one knows why.

- yet another Raven under, now, Master Raven's fleet. Being the daughter of Great Raven (Raven, THE Raven) and (an OC of mine whom I love dearly) Evangeline Chevalier, she's the newest edition, being trained in ninjutsu and specific military tactics - with 2 parents who both sound like they have a stick up their butt half the time, she's a little less tense, but still 100% means business, trying to take the twins down specifically (ah, generational beef)

That's really all I have SO FAR, I'm coming up with a few more, one specifically for Steve Fox and my OC Kev, as I think they'd adopt a kid, and another for King! but other than that :3

[theageofsims]

The Age of Sims 2.8 - Part 24 - “Loss in Confidence"

Even when Gloria didn't have time to hang with friends, she never seemed to run out of people to be around. Some that new her would say that it was possible because she worked in Food Service for all of her adult life and where there was food, there were tons of people both stuck inside the kitchen and outside of it, but others that knew her from childhood knew that even when she was desperate for some alone time… she never could find it because most of the people around her just simply wouldn't allow it.

To be quiet and alone meant something must be wrong with her, she learned very early in life. Still, as insulted as she found their reactions to be, she knew that her place in the world was to be around food and with that came the expectablitiy that she would be surrounded by many others. So many others that a lot of her work days were filled with literally passing the frying pan to the next cook, chef, or baker in line so that things could run as smoothly and as quickly as possible so that a hungry customer wouldn't turn into a 'hangry' customer.

As for William, he had spent more time alone than he wanted to admit -- and most of the time spent was basically him just being lost in his thoughts.

He was never so introverted that he fit the stereotypes of scientists who spent their lives stuck behind a microscope or a telescope, but he had done a lot of overthinking and analzying when it came to just about every area of his life, and for so long, that it was no surprise he was becoming more and more mentally exhausted and taking random naps throughout the days.

He certainly had plenty to do even without his little nephew around, but the weather hadn't been all-that-friendly in recent months and so his crops hadn't done so well and harvesting was next to nothing, so gardening was out of the question -- and he hadn't really been in the headspace to advance himself in robotics… but napping only made him feel guilty that he could catch zome Z's while Gloria out there in the world doing exactly what he knew she was doing… along with something he didn't know she was doing.

Of course the truth about what he didn't know she was doing, was her spending most of her free time alone, while telling him she was at work. In those moments she would often stare into space, overthink the decisions she made -- insisting they must have been mistakes, while wondering what on Earth could go wrong next.

It wasn't the healthiest or the happiest state of mind to be in, but she was honestly afraid to voice her doubts and concerns because they just seemed to sound pointless every single time she tried to speak them -- even to herself.

It was like every shred of confidence she had, had literally fell away from her, piece by piece -- without even realizing that it was getting away from her until it sat somewhere in the distance, staring back at her… wondering if she was ever going to reach for it again.

She had to snap out of it, but avoiding everything she was supposed to be doing was a lot easier even though she was slowly losing the battle with being able to manage everything…

[hua-mo-jin-is-a-cutie]

Okay so I have a fnaf dca au in my head and I wanna post it here because I think it'll get better reception than on insta stories or twitter. So hear me out.

Royal Guard AU

WAIT- I know it's been done before, but this one is different I promise! So this is lowkey based on a dream I had and I'm still working out the details.

Basically there's this kingdom that is know for clockwork and robotics. And it's in a bit of a conflict with a neighboring kingdom. So to protect their young princess they build a far off hidden sanctuary of sorts entirely staffed by some very advanced clockwork robots. You got your daycare attendant as per usual, responsible for the overall care of the princess. Then there's the glamrocks, Freddy is sort of like a tutor, teaching her general knowledge and also things she needs to know about how to rule a kingdom and stuff. Chica is the chef, she grows the food and cooks it. Roxy is the stylist and tailor, responsible for keeping the princess well groomed and making her new clothes as she grows. Monty is in charge of guarding the main entrance. And Bonnie is responsible for keeping the princess active and fit. maybe the DJ (a smaller version of him) could give her music lessons idk)

This hidden care facility is hidden deep in the woods and is fairly large, the largest room being the daycare of course. I have this vivid image in my head of a large room where the ball pit is the floor and there's a long bridge overtop of it that connects to rooms and play structures that line the walls.

And I think the general plot would be that she was only supposed to be hidden out there for a few years at most and then she would be retrieved when the war was over. But it just like... never happened. No one ever came to get her. And while she loves her robot family, a now adult princess would be concerned for her kingdom, for her parents. So you've got sort of a tangled situation, but instead of being evil and keeping the princess trapped for nefarious reasons, you've got sun and moon just genuinely concerned for her safety if she leaves the facility. I think maybe they would venture out together, the princess and her royal guard (daycare attendant). But I don't have any ideas past that.

Mainly I've just been having fun imagining the slice of life of her younger years in this isolation with her robot family.

Idk is this anything?

[foster-the-world]

Oh, so he's a robot?

We really liked the inclusion school for baby boy. I think we prefer it over the 2e school. Seems more align with what we want our kids to learn about. Plus, rich parents who think their kids are gifted scare me. Fingers crossed he gets in to either one, I guess. Lines like that are one of the many reasons I hate the whole idea of private schools. "Getting in" is such a wild thing to say about a four year old. I know some people are used to this but as a life long public school kid its not at all what I'm accustom to nor does it align with our values. All kids deserve a spot. They gave us a spiel about not being able to handle kids with emotional regulation issues. (Despite the school being a place for "everyone" of course) Are there four year old's who don't have emotional regulation issues? Last I checked four years are still figuring out emotions. In fact, most adults are still trying to figure out their emotions (myself included). Anyway, I assume they mean aggression - which is not an issue for baby boy. He will hit Rebel on occasion but luckily he keeps his hands to himself amongst classmates. How he will behave on interview day is anyone's guess? He could be a perfectly behaved, extremely charming kid or a feral animal. No way to predict. He def has more charming little kid days but a new environment could throw him off.

We were telling him that we looked a Kindergarten that would have a kid with a wheelchair and a kid who uses an AC adaptive computer to talk. His response "Oh, so he's a robot? Beep, beep, bop, bop." He included robot arms. Which we thought was hilarious and reminded us why we talk to our kids about these things in advance of meeting people who communicate/walk/do whatever in a different way then they are used to. We showed all three videos of kids who uses adaptive devices to communicate. Pretty cool.

[thisismynamenowxpoetry]

ATTENTION GEN Z, I know we hate poetry, but please, if you've ever felt alone, or hated technology, or hated Gen Alpha, please read this, repost, do whatever, but please, this was written for all of you <3

The news this morning 

Was talking about how we go to Chat GPT

For therapy

And advice

And my mother said it’s just because we don’t know how

To communicate face to face

When why should we?

You shoved an iPad into our faces

The second we were old enough to comprehend it

You put on the TV

And we believed the characters were speaking live

And they could see us

Through those pixels

Why shouldn’t we turn to a computer

To give us answers

When it’s that that gave us the issues to begin with?

Why shouldn’t we

Chat with a computer

About nothing and everything

When it is that 

That made us feel so isolated?

People wonder

Why we’re so concerned about Gen Alpha

And it’s obvious

When we think about it

It’s not because they’re growing up too fast

It’s because we know what it’s like

To have wires shoved into our veins

And now

Now they were born with them

Already pulsing through their blood

We don’t want them to make the same mistakes we did

But I think it’s too late,

They’re already turning into what we don’t want

Anyone

To ever be

And it’s scary to watch,

We know what technology has done to us

And we don’t want to watch anyone else

Succumb to it like we did

We are the last generation

Who went outside to play

And know what birds sound like

And wish to break their phones

We are the last generation

That will ever

Ever 

Have a normal childhood

Now we can just watch

As the depression rates get higher

And more young children know what suicide is

Too early

And learn how to self harm

And lose their innocence

And be scared of men

And not care for dolls

We are scared of them

But we’re scared for them

Of course we turn to AI to talk to

Our parents don’t get it,

They can barely find opening hours for a shop,

While we can find a 10-step guide on how to murder,

Or build a bomb,

And guides on how to manipulate your body

And everything is at our fingertips

This is generational trauma that they have created

We can watch someone shooting their brains out

And we can receive photos from anyone

And why do we know what everything we shouldn’t worry about is?

We had COVID

And we turned to screens

And went on TikTok

And created trends

And it felt like a community

Until everyone was there

And we couldn’t do anything

And we got addicted

And we can’t turn back

We started with chat rooms

And we found like minded-people

And it was always “sweetie, be careful of creeps on the internet”

And now it’s just

“Be in bed by 10”

But we’ll keep scrolling

And we all have friends who live half the world away

And if you mention that

Someone has to ask if you’ve called yet

And “have you seen their face?”

We can look at anything

There are guides for everything

We know where Kim K was two minutes ago

And why do I feel pressure to always have something on my story?

We talk to robots

Because no adults will ever know

How sick we feel 

Before we go on our phones

No adults can know

How we’ve seen every scar

And depression become a trend

And we have to use the hashtag actuallyautistc

No adults will know

How there are video essays on anything

And we shouldn’t know about everyone that has been raped

Or murdered

And we shouldn’t have wikihow

On how to be attractive

It started as a joke,

How stupid is this thing I found?,

But we keep reading it

And we start to believe it

Why would we read books?

Technology is constantly advancing

Everything is irrelevant in months

And we must be careful not to be cancelled

And a dress can divide a nation

We don’t want to watch Gen Alpha

Leap so blindy into their screens

Trusting what they read,

We want to keep it for us,

We have to live with it,

And as much as they suck,

It is our fault for staying 

And posting everything

We are a sad generation with happy pictures

And a face full of makeup

And we’re just perpetuating stereotypes

And you can’t like something unless you’re obsessed

We can know the cure for any medical condition

But there is no guide on how to destory our screens

And lives

And I know I’m fifteen

But this is ruining mine,

And so many others' lives.

We don’t want to see little kids

On their mums phones

And my mother defends it,

Saying mums just need a minute to breathe,

But please

Anything else

I don’t want to see a baby already addicted to CocoMelon

We don’t want to see

More people falling into a hole

And we know it’s why we’re sad

But nobody else should have to go through it,

That’s for us,

That’s an us problem

I saw a six year old

Using Drunk Elephant

And swearing in her GRWM

And none of that is fair,

How are we letting this slide?

But we can’t do anything

Because we don’t want to admit there’s a problem

We can learn anything about Hitler

And anything about Meryl Streep

And it can be within the same two fucking clicks

I remember

When my age on TikTok clocked over to 15

A few days before my actual birthday

And it was then

That all I saw was suicide notes,

And self harm scars

And how to hide things from your parents guides

And abuse stories

There was no going back,

Every other person whose a teenage girl on the app

Is probably met with the same things as me

The algorithm

Is designed to show you a positive video

Every few scrolls

Just to keep you hooked,

And it works,

It’s a science,

It works to a T

We can know where any friend is

And read receipts plague us

And anything will be screenshot

And used against you

School thought taking away our phones 

Would fix this,

Like it’s a magical cure,

When all it’s teaching us

Is how addicted we are,

And how best to hide an earbud

And we need music to concentrate!

Or course we do,

We have constant stimulation

It is never quiet

There is always a voice talking

We are getting mad at kids for being on a phone

When we all know

We’re just mad that it is actually happening

And we can’t warn them

And no one will listen

Because how could it be that bad?

In ten years

People who grew up with technology 

Are going to end up with something like PTSD

Because we can’t let go of it

We can’t put it down,

We can get an essay written for us in seconds,

And Dall-E can make anything for us

So of course we’ll talk to AI,

It’s better than talking to a real person

And acting like we’re okay,

We’d rather sit behind a screen

And control sims

And listen to music

So we can’t hear our minds

Every time I scroll through

I’m met with tales of girls who get killed by their fathers,

Every time I scroll through

I’m showen another 7 second video

With sad litte text

On sad little faces

We want to escape,

We want to tear our veins out,

Rip the wires,

Shove them back in to our body

After we re-wire our brains,

Of course,

Because we can diagnose ourselfs with any mental illness

That we see fit

Because there has to be something wrong with you

We will never go back,

It is impossible 

We have Whispers from Pinterest

And sad purple quotes

Lining our camera roll

Which should highlight our happy moments

But is just videos of us crying

It has ruined relationships,

How dare we follow another guy,

How dare he like another girl's photo?

We have our music right there

We don’t have to learn lyrics,

We can play any instrument,

We must like Taylor Swift,

We must have Kanye West

Everything is a trend

And your clothes must match your aesthetic

And you have to be funny

Or smart

Or creative

And how dare we burn out?

How dare we burn out

When if we didn’t rot in our beds

Scrolling aimlessly

Would solve half our problems?

There is no fix now,

We have to watch them grow up

Knowing they’ll ask what this-big-word is

Before they’re even five

Because an ad came up on mummy’s phone

And “what’s a vape?”

And “am I fat?”

All we can do now

Is listen to our sad songs

And act like social media

Didn’t ruin our perceptions

On everything.

[miloscat]

[Review] Shadow the Hedgehog (GCN)

Sonic but with guns.

Sonic Team USA’s final game before returning to Japan was this title starring Sonic’s popular new rival character. It’s a very memetic game due to pushing the series in a slightly edgy direction with a rating one step higher than usual, with such content as Shadow wielding realistic guns and the cast uttering mild curses such as “damn”, “hell”, and “Maria”. But is there more to it than this?

One day Shadow is being a brooding moody dude, thinking about his amnesia, when suddenly aliens invade and start killing everyone. Because Shadow is such a cynical and apathetic cool guy he doesn’t care, until the leader of the alien Black Arms, Black Doom, promises him answers from his lost past. Now that it’s personal Shadow starts shooting people and grabbing Chaos Emeralds to do… something.

This is where the plot gets difficult to describe, as Shadow 05 (which is what I’m calling the game now, in the style of Sonic 06) has a branching structure. Each level has two or three separate objectives that will take you on a different course, giving different cutscenes and motivations for the edgy hedgehog. Edgehog. It all hinges around Shadow’s identity crisis which is a good hook for the character… one they already used in Heroes in fact. Shadow 05 replays and expands on those story beats while adding in a bunch of Sonic Adventure 2 follow-up. And aliens.

Is Shadow an alien? A robot? A failed science experiment? Does he want to protect the world, or destroy it? Ostensibly your actions determine the direction of the story, but the progression of the plot and Shadow’s arc are all over the place and thanks to the disjointed nature of the potential level order. The cutscenes often seem disconnected from what you’ve been doing, and Shadow will just get teleported somewhere so that the next level can start. There are ten different endings which amount to him basically saying one line differently, and because the path to get there is so complex there isn’t a consistent throughline so his motivation can seem to come from nowhere in these moments.

Despite story messiness, the prerendered cutscenes still look maybe the best in the whole series, except for Unleashed obviously. And even the in-engine ones look great too, with competent pacing and staging, and a full cast of professional voice actors for the first time, including Tails, now voiced by an adult! This is also the debut of Mike Pollock as Eggman who persist to this day and does an excellent job.

This step up in professionalism also comes with a technological advance. Heroes still looked like a Dreamcast game in many ways, while Shadow 05—despite being on the same consoles—feels truly next-gen (for the time). You know, whatever that means. Environments are detailed and busy, with pitched battles between the NPC factions playing out as you run through. Your interactions are complex but unusually for a Sonic game they also work reliably; much fewer missed light speed dashes this time around, for example.

Most levels play out in corridors, Shadow racing through them but often being interrupted. It can feel cramped due to narrow paths and debris clutter. The areas being filled with enemies to shoot and crates to break, on top of objectives which can demand slow and methodical hunting of particular objects or enemies, feels at odds with the standard fast-paced Sonic gameplay which the engine is still built around.

It helps that you can easily warp between checkpoints, a mechanic building on Charmy’s warp flowers in Heroes. This means if you miss something it’s trivial to go back and replay sections. Completing runs unlocks new guns in special crates, while really scouring a level can permanently get you keys. Find five keys for a particular level and a special door opens somewhere in the stage. The manual said these can contain warps or shortcuts but the only time I got all five was for the first level which you play through every run… you would think you could unlock a way to skip most of it but no, the door only contained a basic gun and a car, when there was already another car mere metres away. To say I was underwhelmed by this mechanic would be an understatement.

Having different objectives to complete within a level is a fun idea but in practice the action plays out mostly the same regardless, and if you're going for all ten endings like I did, you'll end up playing some levels the exact same way. Not to mention the bosses, which also get repeated across different branches, but worse there's only three final bosses between ten endings, and they're all stinkers. One of them is literally a slot machine on wheels that you have to chase around, it's shocking.

They try to vary things up in the levels which I appreciate. The vehicle sections aren't bad (and mostly optional), there's brief turret shooting bits, and rail shooter sequences that are a million times better than the ones in Sonic Adventure 1. You get decent grind rail parts complete with the JSRF-style tricking of Heroes but with better animation. While the shooting can feel a bit tacked on at times, there's a fair amount of weapon variety. Levels generally have some amount of branching, but two in particular have more sprawling open designs; these sadly don't work very well. In fact they're awful. Central City has you finding bombs within a strict time limit, and The Doom is just a maze of identical grey corridors. I tried to avoid them both after playing them once.

Within the 23 levels there's a good diversity of environments. Many of them are remixed from Adventure 2 and Heroes, which feel like fun callbacks that have been souped up. The Ark station for example feels more epic, whether you're flipping gravity, escorting Maria around in a flashback (even better, she's not in danger and you don't have to protect her), or falling through space as the structure collapses around you. Revisiting the Ark even lets them fill in lore gaps from SA2, like what is going on with the Artificial Chaos (there's also a fleeting line during the true final boss that explains how Shadow survived SA2's ending). The new biomes are even better, like a neon cyberspace, a fleet of ancient ruins animated into flying machines, or the creepy alien bio-base. Cool stuff.

Maybe my favourite feature is how the cast of Sonic characters have been integrated. In each level, Shadow has Black Doom talking in his ear telling him it's fun to do bad things, but also Sonic or one of his furry friends, or even Eggman, accompanies you. Also Espio is there sometimes. They'll tell you off for killing incapacitating the "good guys", act as your tutorialising Omochao figure, and just generally yuck it up with Shadow. Having a different buddy in almost every level who has their own stuff going on, helps you in battles, and lightens the tone a bit is a great use of the cast and a fun dynamic. The only downside is Big is nowhere to be seen. Boo.

When all you know about Shadow 05 is "lol guns" or "there are 326 possible progression permutations" it's easy to treat as a joke. But I didn't expect a "spinoff" to pay off story threads set up in the previous two games (I miss when Sonic games had continuity), or to integrate a huge array of gimmicks and mechanics mostly successfully. Or to be the most solidly built of the pre-Unleashed 3D games. Yes it's got its problems and messes, it's a 3D Sonic game. But Shadow 05 is not a spinoff, it's an essential game to this era. It may be my favourite of this era. And it definitely has the best vocal themes of the pre-Ohtani era in Almost Dead and Waking Up!

[lesbian-honey-lemon]

top ten smartest characters in BH6, my ranking:

1- Hiro Hamada. Of course he’s at the top, lol. Not only did he outsmart Obake, he also came up with everyone’s hero gear, coded Baymax’s other chips besides Tadashi’s, made a working energy amplifier (that didn’t immediately explode) in like two days with only Krei’s failed prototype to go off of, and HE IS IN SFIT AT 14. Of course he’s the smartest. Also he’s made other robots completely on his own like the microbots and Mini-Mac. He also comes up with most of the battle plans for BH6, and helped cure Liv Amara alongside Karmi.

2- Obake/ Bob Aken. First off, he was also in SFIT as a teen. My headcanon was that he started attending at 16, and Karmi’s like a week younger than him (so she’s technically still the 2nd youngest person to ever go to SFIT). Also!! He was the FIRST to make an energy amplifier, with absolutely nothing to go off of. His was the first, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Krei’s amplifier was based off of Obake’s amplifier. Yes the amplifier exploded immediately but he was still the first. And of course, as an adult, he made a shit ton of advanced tech. He made Trina, the most advanced AI in the whole BH6-verse (even better than Baymax because she’s basically indistinguishable from a human and can make her own decisions outside of her original purpose), he made an underwater base, a bunch of other robots, and was able to follow Shimamoto’s clues to rebuild the star machine. Also he managed to play Hiro and the rest of BH6 like a damn violin and would have succeeded if it wasn’t for Globby.

3- Honey Lemon. Honey Lemon is a goddamn genius and I will die on this hill. Her chem-purse has the INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS. So in battle, she has to legitimately think up and type in a chemical formula to make the compound to use. So she’s gotta have some MAJOR chemistry skill, an excellent memory, and wicked fast reaction time. She also found a way to cure Globby. Also let’s not forget that time she made a literal amnesia serum in like two minutes for Hiro to give to Karmi when she thought that Karmi was onto them. Also, she did uncover Lenore Shimamoto’s secret life as a scientist alongside Wasabi, and Lenore hid that shit really well.

4- Tadashi. Honestly, Tadashi and Honey Lemon are almost tied for third, but Honey Lemon’s a little smarter. He probably got into SFIT early too, cause he couldn’t have been that old. He was probably in at like 17 and died at 20. Also, he made Baymax, one of the most advanced AIs to ever exist, plus the actual robot is rlly advanced too. So just for building Baymax, he can have this spot, because of how advanced Baymax is. Although running into a burning building was kind of a dumb move.

5- Karmi. Karmi’s actually pretty gifted and you all are unnecessarily hating on this poor girl. She’s 16 and at SFIT, and while my headcanon is that she only got in a week younger than the third youngest student, she’s still the second youngest to ever go to SFIT. She also was able to observe BH6 close enough to write moves that could actually work with their gear, which allowed them to escape Momakase and save Karmi herself. Also, she’s made some epic tech. She made the patches to subdue Oreo Knox, which Di Amara later used for her own evil work. She also did that project with the electric currents in the roses, which probably has some pretty interesting uses. She also got chosen to be Di’s intern, and although she got manipulated big time, I can’t say I blame her or say she’s any less smart for literally being mutated and tortured by a woman she thought was her friend and mentor. Also, Hiro would have never gotten the nanobots to work and cure Liv Amara without Karmi’s help and insight. She also made that glove in Season 3 to beat Hardlight. In short, Karmi is way smarter than the fandom gives her credit for.

6- Gogo. Gogo’s actually quite smart and she’s come up with some interesting things. Her maglev tech is really advanced and gives her an extra edge in battle. She also was the first to catch onto the fact that Karmi had a point with her fanfic and was the first to start using Karmi’s ideas to drive up the wall to chase Momakase. She also came up with that train thing we saw her with the model of in CtC pt 1, which I assume is her midterm project. The world can always use more high-speed rail so she’s quite smart in my book for that. She also of course worked with Hiro to make that awesome bike she chased Mr Sparkles with in S2. Plus she’s in SFIT, which is a really challenging environment on its own so she’d have to be really smart to get in.

7- Wasabi. Wasabi and Gogo are like, exactly tied for 6th. They’re both on the same level of smart, but I like Gogo more so she gets 6ths (no hate to Wasabi fans, I like him too). Wasabi, of course, has his plasma blades, which are literally second to nothing but graphene. He can cut through nearly anything with his tech. He also worked with Hiro to build that space junk disposal device in S1, and helped Honey Lemon uncover the very well-guarded secrets of Lenore Shimamoto’s life as a scientist.

8- Wendy Wower. Wendy, although a minor character, has shown herself to be pretty damn smart. She wrote the thesis that Trevor Trengrove stole, which was the basis for Tadashi’s work. Without Wendy’s thesis, Tadashi would have never made Baymax. So, though she never gained the recognition she deserved for her intelligence, she’s still hella smart. Plus, she did manage to make a name for herself as a beloved educator and inspiration for kids to get into science, and that’s kind of hard to do if you’re not already really smart when it comes to science.

9- Lenore Shimamoto. Lenore Shimamoto is really smart, although her invention failed. She built the star machine, which caused the Great Catastrophe. But, she intended it to be an infinite energy device. So, like a very early interpretation of the energy amplifier. She also built a secret lab and hid all evidence of the star machine so well that it took over a hundred years to find. And honestly, if the only person who could crack your secret was literally the second smartest person in the whole show (Obake), you hid that secret pretty well. She also built and ran a whole art institute, it takes smarts to run such a big university.

10- Professor Granville. Honestly I was stuck on who to put here, but I think she deserves this spot. She’s an accomplished professor, knowledgeable about her subjects, and was obviously smart enough to mentor Hiro, Karmi, and Obake. If she wasn’t smart, they wouldn’t have latched onto her as much as they did. She also fixed Baymax that one time in S2 and went to rescue their asses all on her own, built the robot spider SFIT security system, and has some pretty good deduction skills in order to find out where Momakase was going to steal from next.

You can also put Professor Callaghan here at 10th for similar reasons, being an accomplished professor, writing many papers on robotics and inspiring Hiro’s microbots, and coming up with the plan to kill Krei. But, his plan got foiled by Hiro, and Hiro was an inexperienced superhero at this time, so it’s not like with Obake where Hiro was a seasoned superhero who had a fair shot at stopping his plans. Hiro and Obake were evenly matched. So if Inexperienced Hiro could beat Callaghan, that means Callaghan’s not quite as smart.

[agentem]

Marvel Television Ranking (Disney+ era)

Someone asked me which Marvel shows are worth watching and I made a whole post about it. I watched all of them so you don't have to!

You Should Watch:

WandaVision - This show suffers from Marvel's need to have a final CGI battle (the final episode is let down from the previous). But it's Marvel's best use of the TV format. The emotions of it are so strong and it is genuinely a watchable sitcom in places. And it makes you believe that young girl would fuck that robot in a way Infinity War didn't really do.

2. Loki Season One -- There are a few middle episodes that feel slow in this series, but overall this is probably the best one in terms of consistency. Also high concept, with a strong ensemble. Season Two is fine but would be in a lower tier.

3. Ms Marvel - It's a good stand alone show and Marvel does not seem to be backing down on Iman Vellani being central to the MCU going forward (even though the Marvels was poorly received). So you need to know Kamala and also you're welcome because she's adorable.

These Are Good Shows If You Have Time:

4. Hawkeye - It's not as good as the Fraction run in the comics it is based on and it starts a bit slow, but once Echo shows up it's fun. Plus it's a Christmas theme!

5. Avengers 97 - It was my jam as a kid. It's still my jam as an adult. Not really for children though. I am bummed I can't show it to my nephews (character death, genocide, oddly sexualized Magneto, the whole comics shebang).

6. Moon Knight - If you like hippo goddesses and watching Oscar Isaac act with himself, this is the show for you. So far this series has not connected to the wider MCU in any way. The stand-alone-ness of this series is both a strength and a weakness. You can just watch it! But if you are looking to advance the "overall" plot of the MCU then this could feel "pointless" to some. (I'd argue the hippo is the point.)

These Shows Have Issues

7. She Hulk: Attorney at Law: Dudebros on the internet will make you think this is the worst thing Marvel has ever done and that is not the case. But it is hit or miss, and the comedy is women-centric. I actually prefer the more comedic sitcom moments (like the episode in the yurt). You also have to be able to watch bad CGI a lot; it's like they didn't have time to finish it which is probably what really happened. I grew up in the 90s so I have no problem with wonky CGI.

8. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - I really wanted to like this because Red, White and Black was one of those comics that you read and thought, "of course. This is what would've happened." But mostly it's a let down. Plot points were changed due to the pandemic and it is... noticeable. Anyway, Carl Lumbly is great and if you just want to watch his scenes, then I wouldn't judge you.

9. What If...? I like this one but it feels super skippable. It's like the thing for people who want more Marvel all the time when the culture is dealing with Marvel overload. (Yes, I watched all of it.) I do want to see Jeffrey Wright in live action soon though.

Just NO.

10. Echo -- Very sad to say this because I think the impulse to give Alaqua Cox (she is a disabled, indigenous actress who had never been on TV before) more to do after her debut in Hawkeye was a generous one. But this wasn't thought out enough as it needed to be.

11. Secret Invasion -- It hurts me that this was bad. Luckily Samuel L. Jackson is a pro at being good in bad projects. Simply watching Olivia Coleman's scenes on YouTube would be more satisfying than the show.

[dragonflight203]

Some thoughts as I replay Mass Effect 1:

-Hackett is one of the ones to recommend Shepard as a spectre. No wonder he feels comfortable calling them up for missions through the game. He probably feels Shepard owes them a few.

-One of Joker's first lines is that he doesn't like having spectres on board. That tune changes quite quickly.

-The game eases into aliens. For the few couple of hours the player only interacts with humans and one turian. Another turian is shown in a cutscene. Geth, which are basically advanced robots, are enemies you can kill without guilt. It's not until the citadel that the game really embraces alien diversity. Bioware's wariness on how comfortable players would be about aliens shows very clearly.

-During the Eden Prime drop scene Kaidan is the one to ask about survivors. Of course he is. Kaidan, you paragon.

-Everyone learned about aliens in school. Everyone is an adult. First contact was 30 odd years ago. How exactly did the curriculum get updated so quickly that everyone learned about this in school? Bioware, your timelines make me cry.

-Manuel definitely got hit by the beacon at some point. Interesting that he also saw Saren, but his speech is so confusing no one realizes he's talking about a second turian.

-Nihlus may feel differently about humans than Saren, but he is Saren's student. He skipped all the survivors and made a beeline to the beacon. He's not cruel, but he is efficient. The beacon is the priority.

-Nihlus, we hardly knew ya. Every time I replay it's always surprising how short his screen time is. And those faces when he interacts with Saren... Bioware did a very good job on making him nonhuman but still recognizably expressive. The difference in facial expressions between ME1 and MEA are light years.

-Benezia is clearly used to Saren's tantrums. She dodged like it's something she does on a regular basis.

-Kaidan, about informing the Council about Saren: "Makes sense. They'd probably like to know he's not working for them anymore." Love this man.

-Kaidan only gets migraines. Having experienced one recently, that's a big only. And he's soldier that's frequently in combat. I hope the future has excellent pain killers.

-For this playthrough I'm planning to have Tali and Liara as companions, so I'm skipping everything on the Citadel that isn't necessary or unique to the first visit until I pick them up. It makes the game feel quite different. I usually spend hours on the Citadel during my first visit; this time I'm leaving quite quickly.

-Pallin's skepticism about humanity makes more sense when Harkin is considered. Harkin was the first human in C-Sec, he's corrupt as hell, and humanity did a lot behind the scenes to protect him. Pallin's big on following the law no matter what. No wonder he's not impressed by humanity.

-Anderson has extreme tunnel vision about Saren. From the minute he's mentioned he's convinced Saren's behind it and he's doing it solely out of hatred of humanity. He repeatedly brings this up.

Meanwhile, in the game I get the vibe that Saren doesn't care about humanity too much. He doesn't like them, he might antagonize them if the opportunity comes up, but they're not worth the bother to put actual effort into tormenting. Humanity just isn't that important to him.

-Love those silent interactions between council members where they just look at each other. Again, the difference between ME1 and MEA is stark.

-Going by the Geth core Tali retrieved, Saren considers Eden Prime a victory. The tantrum he threw indicates otherwise. Does he really consider it a victory, or is that just a speech he gave to motivate the Geth?

-At this time, I'm not convinced Anderson believes in the Reapers. He still thinks it's Saren, he just doesn't think it's worth debating Shepard on it.

-I genuinely like Udina as a character. I'd hate to be around him, but he's determined to do a good job, pragmatic, and truly devoted to humanity. Also nice to have someone around who pushes back against Shepard. ME3 wastes him.

-Garrus mentions that he rose in the ranks through C-Sec. What was his actual rank? Detective or the like, I presume. Pallin knows who he is, and that's impressive considering the number of officers there are. Even with Castis as a father.

-Tali mentions Quarian overseers to the Geth when speaking to Shepard. The game definitely pushes the slavery parallels with the Geth, even in ME1. "Overseer" is not the first term I'd use for supervising machinery. Or maybe that's the American cultural bias showing through.

-Everyone info dumps in ME1. Everyone. Enjoyable, but a bit exhausting at the start of the game when it feels continuous.

-Liara in ME1 is a completely different character than in ME2 and ME3. I'm hesitant to consider the change natural growth. It's a shame, because ME1 Liara has quite a bit of potential. They didn't need to rework her character for the later games.

-First time playing on Insanity, and I'm surprised at the lack of trouble I've had so far. Everyone says the battle with the krogan at the end of Therum is difficult, but I only died once. I might regret this later, when I get to the Uncharted worlds...

Edit: Fix spellings

[twin-chains]

Explaining A Chronological LOZ Timeline

(Based on this post)

First, the elephant in the room: Skyward Sword

How does Skyward Sword come after Spirit Tracks?

Well, as we know the world was flooded by the goddesses in the adult timeline of OOT which triggered the events of the Wind Waker. Then after WW/PH, Tetra goes on to sail to new lands and found the kingdom of New Hyrule as we know it over a hundred years later in Spirit Tracks.

With Spirit Tracks having extensive train systems, why stop there? The longer the kingdom stands, the structure and technology of New Hyrule will only continue to improve. Like build large temples and cisterns to honor the spirits or advanced tech like robots in the distant future. Maybe even ones to help them mine resources or man pirate ships to continue exploring the Great Sea (Tetra was a pirate first, after all).

But then there was another terrible war on the surface and the goddesses couldn’t flood the land again to save its people. Out of options, there’s no where else to go but up, and Hylia hid her people in the skies until the war was ended. It’s not like godly intervention is a new concept in this timeline. During the Era of the Sky, some of the flood began to rescind, drying up waters to expose sandy deserts and new lands on the surface.

Thus, the ancient temples of Faron and robots in the Sand Sea of Lanayru in Skyward Sword could come from New Hyrule and part of the Great Sea in Spirit Tracks.

Like cmon, they literally have robot pirates!

And New Hyrule already contains interesting clans and races not seen before in other zelda games like the Lokomo and Anouki. It’s not far off to think other unique peoples like the Kwikwi or Mogma once inhabited the same continent.

Furthermore, remember how the recruits of the royal guards/knights of Spirit Tracks wore specific uniforms that model the WW hero’s clothes? What if one of those recruits happened to survive and be sent to Skyloft? They could have wanted to pass on their knowledge and founded the Knight’s Academy, retaining the knight uniforms as a way to preserve their history. Of course, the meaning behind the uniforms was later forgotten since they end up changing up the uniform color every year. It was only by luck (or destiny) that SS Link happened to get the green version of the uniform.

Basically, my reasoning for SS coming far after ST is the ancient temples/robots, Lanayru sand sea, unique species, and knight’s uniforms all come from New Hyrule.

But what about the Master Sword?

For the most part, we know the blade of evil’s bane is a silver sword with a purplish handle. The iconic look that Fi is based off in the first place, right?

Except, some iterations of the master sword are blue. Or the little diamond-shaped gaps of the hilt are inconsistent, being blue or green or purple (with the crossing ribbons part being green in this case), or are missing altogether. Hell, the MS isn’t even present in the original 1986 game.

Sure, some of these minor color changes can be attributed to graphical limitations or different art styles per game. But what about all the transformations the sword has gone under like the drastic red and gold color changes of an upgraded MS in ALTTP/ALBW? How do we go from a thin, white and light green Goddess Sword forged into the larger blade in SS?

(I made a powerpoint infographic :D)

That's why I propose the master sword isn't one single blade, but rather a title given to multiple swords throughout the years. It already has legendary, grandiose titles like "The Blade of Evil's Bane" and "The Sword That Seals The Darkness" so why not 'The Sword of the Master' which would've gotten shortened to 'The Master Sword' over time. But not just any random sword can be deemed the MS. It's the hero of the sword, the wielder of it, that makes it the worthy blade of a master.

That way it includes the first hero of TLOZ wields the "magical sword" who hadn't yet become a master or how the hero of men forges the Picori Blade which later becomes the Four Sword in MC. And explains how the master sword seems to change locations between the Lost Woods or temples all the time. They're all different blades.

Yes, some Master Swords can be retained between generations though. I'd be willing to say the sword from OOT is the same in TP or the one forged in SS is the same one in BOTW/TOTK for instance (since Fi's chime can be heard in TOTK).

But how does Demise's curse and the reincarnation cycle fit into this?

During the end of Skyward Sword, Demise speaks these final words:

"My hate...never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again! Those like you... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time."

Usually, this is interpreted as Demise declaring this Link and Zelda as the first of an eternal cycle and Ganondorf is his reincarnation. Yet in the Skyward Sword manga, there is a whole other hero who fought for Hylia before the reincarnated SS hero, so how can the SS hero before the first iteration who 'started' the reincarnation cycle?

Remember when Demise says 'those with the blood of the goddess and spirit of the hero are forever bound to this curse/cycle.' What if he isn't saying 'I am actively binding you two (Link and Zelda) to a curse I'm creating right now' as is the common interpretation. Rather, he could be saying 'there is a pre-existing curse that you two are already bound to, and only a god like me can perceive it. So I'm pointing it out to you now because I'm adding more to it.'

It's a bit of a stretch but bare with me.

Yes, Ganondorf/Ganon is seen as the reincarnation of Demise. I mean they tend to have similar builds and the same striking orange-red hair, right? But there several other villains in the franchise that don't remotely resemble Demise or his hatred. In fact, the only time Ganondorf looks like a true reincarnation of Demise is during TOTK (more on this in a bit).

Instead, there's something greater at play. Demise supposedly locks these two souls in reincarnation but fails to acknowledge why the triforce always seems to be a part of this cycle as well. Link is always the representation of courage and Zelda is always wisdom even when these souls are reincarnated as completely different people.

The only explanation I can think of is that the golden goddesses created Link and Zelda's souls to permanently embody their triforces. They locked these two in reincarnation as insurance to keep peace and order in the world when there is a threat or thief of the triforce of power. Sorta like a system of balance, their souls were put in place to keep the more volatile of the three triforces, power, in check if it got out of hand. As mortals, Link and Zelda wouldn't really be aware of the inherent duty/burden placed on their souls but it would be more obvious to an outside deity like Demise. That's why these specific versions of Link and Zelda are only really ever reincarnated when there is any sort of threat to Hyrule to deal with, not just Ganon but also Vaati, Zant, Yuga, Cole, etc.

Besides the reincarnation cycle theory, Demise definitely did declare that his hatred would be reincarnated in SS though. But it's not just every iteration of Ganon. With the greater extent of destruction that Demise causes compared to most zelda villains, I'd go so far as to say the battle against Ghirahim and Demise in the events of SS were the first Calamity from BOTW. The second Calamity was that of the Sheikah, the ancient Zonai hero, and the Divine Beast detailed 10,000 years before the events of BOTW/TOTK. And the third Calamity was the events of not just BOTW, but also TOTK.

You know, the era when the physical embodiment of hatred (aka malice and gloom) poisoned the land, when the hero and most of the kingdom was killed, and when rehydrated Ganondorf looked eeriely more similar to Demise than any other Ganon. It matches up a little too well with how 'an incarnation of Demise's hatred' will haunt them forever. Especially when there is a giant valley on the BOTW map literally called The Breach of Demise.

More to come about how the other games fit into this timeline au. Let me know your thoughts and ideas!

[cerromoreno]

Starbula Week, Day 5: Alternate Universe and Day 6: Family / Holiday

This weekend has been crazy busy, so I guess I’m just combining the two most recent Starbula Week days for the price of one 😅

Basically, this is just a continuation of my post last year that explored the future daughter (Meredith Quill) that I imagine Peter and Nebula having. I won’t rehash it all here, but basically I picture her looking like Millie Bobby Brown, just blue (like…tell me there isn’t *some* resemblance here)

At the time, I didn’t realize that Millie was actually going to be starring in a movie with Chris Pratt (made by the Russo brothers, no less), called The Electric State, which will be releasing in 2025. And now that promo is starting up for it, my Starbula brain is quite delighted 🤭

So in today’s combo Starbula Week post, I’ll both share my headcanon about how an AU Meredith and Peter could fit into the visuals and plot of The Electric State…and, first, some recent press tour photos that look like Peter hanging out with his young adult daughter and make my heart happy 🥲💗

I’m sorry, this is STUPIDLY CUTE. I’ll also just assume that Peter recently lost a bet and had to shave his beard, since otherwise I can't think of why he'd be without his lovely facial hair from Vol 3 😤

Ok, so now for the Starbula/The Electric State AU!

I will admit, basically the only Starbula element here is the fact that she and Peter are married with an adorable daughter who is now in college on earth 😅

Also, I know nothing about this movie aside from what I've seen in the trailer! Everything here is 100% vibes lmao

So in this AU, somehow Peter and Meredith get stranded in a robot apocalypse and have to work together to save the world/escape/rescue Nebula/etc. I actually think it’s a cute concept in general, because how many father-daughter buddy-adventure films are there? 

Ok, here we go...

Meredith's first semester of college has just ended, and Peter comes to earth to bring her back home to Knowhere for winter break. Nebula can’t make it because an important work trip came up that she couldn’t reschedule, which is why she’s not on this adventure lol 🙃

On the way to Knowhere, the two get intercepted and basically kidnapped/trapped on this planet where robots have taken over. (And this is the only universe where this happens, hence it being an AU.) Maybe Meredith and Peter's ship get captured and brought to the planet via tractor beam, maybe it gets boarded and they're forced on to the robots' ship, idk. But clearly these robots had been looking for them…😱 *cue suspense*

Once Meredith and Peter are on the planet, they realize that they can’t escape or call for help, since this advanced robot tech is jamming all of their own technology. They somehow manage to escape their captors, and are now on the run in this strange planet, without a way to call Nebula or the Guardians to rescue them. They end up here for several weeks (months?), hence Peter’s hair getting shaggy and Meredith having a super 90’s hairstyle. (In reality, I think the movie is just set in an alternate 1990’s lol) 

In the meantime, they learn how to work together as a father/daughter duo. Peter reluctantly teaches Meredith how to use a gun and fight, and, after feeling sheltered and coddled by her parents her whole life, Meredith finally feels like she’s being respected and treated like an equal by her dad.

(Of course, who can blame Peter and Nebula for coddling their daughter and wanting her to have a safe, sheltered life, after the childhoods they had both had?)

Also, since there seem to be some nice robots that they team up with in this movie, I guess during their adventures, they end up gathering a little team of friendly robots who want to overthrow the evil robots who are in charge of the planet.

Eventually, Peter and Meredith learn the backstory of these robots, and why the two of them have been brought here. The robots were originally made on earth, or some earth-like planet, that had decided to scrap the idea of sentient robots entirely and sent them all into space, where they crash-landed on this random planet and eventually took it over.

(Maybe the evil leader robots want to take over the universe – typical 🙃 – in retribution for being cast out by their creators, and the nice robots just want to live in this planet in peace, but are being forced to cooperate with the evil, in-charge robots or be taken apart...)

Meredith and Peter also learn that they’ve been kidnapped and brought here as bait for Nebula, who the robot leaders have been enthralled with ever since they’d learned about her – a being who is both mostly robot and is alive. They'd decided that by holding her family ransom, she’d be forced to give herself up in exchange for their safety. What these robot leaders actually wanted with Nebula, Peter and Meredith still aren't sure.

But once Peter and Meredith are eventually kidnapped, Nebula (who has, along with the rest of Knowhere, been distraught for weeks at the disappearance of her family) is sent a message: Unless she comes to their planet, alone, within 24 hours, her daughter and husband will be killed. 

Nebula's arrival on the planet basically starts the climax of the "movie," where she learns that the robot leaders’ goal is to finish her “upgrades,” making her 100% robotic like them. That way, she can be a sort of god for them as they fulfill their "destiny" of wiping out the universe of non-robotic creatures. (The more I thought about this scenario, the more this actually seemed like an MCU-esque mission/galaxy threat, lol.)

Meredith, who is restrained next to her dad, tries to convince her mom not to go along with the exchange and to escape while she still can. However, when a guard begins torturing Meredith in front of her, Nebula distraught, agrees to all of their terms. Of course she’d do anything to protect her daughter. 

And then, of course, they all somehow get out of it 🤪 Maybe Meredith and Peter's new robot friends, who had always been undervalued by the more advanced robots that took charge of the planet, are able to sneak Meredith a gun and she is able to kill the robots holding her captive and free herself, Peter, and Nebula. Then, once they’re all free, the trio – plus their robot friends – are able to destroy the robot leaders for good and free the rest of the planet from their control. Yayyyy

And in the process, the Meredith and Peter (and Nebula!) of this AU have gotten to grow closer, having survived a robot apocalypse and even saved the galaxy together. 

So there you go! My extremely random Starbula AU...with visuals to go with it! 😉

I really do love that no matter how the movie turns out (even though it sounds like the relationship between Millie and Chris’ characters is central to the plot, which is amazing), it will definitely have some fun visuals and vibes to fuel this AU that I've come up with. Can't wait for March 2025! 🥳

@starbula-week

[mekha-draws]

Also on a totally separate note I figured a way to introduce permababies into some tabs 🤔

-Roving Altar: So, one thing I don't mention directly but should be read as implied into the lore is that time cannot be told apart within the Altar.

Days pass normally but to the Altar's residents there is no way to measure the passing hours without falling to confusion or forgetting keeping track but it's all thru little things: written reminders becoming inconsistent, organics left to rot remain intact, sand in a hourglass falling so slow, etc.

"Is it still tuesday? what do you mean friday?" "a week/month/year has passed?" "nah that cant be it, we just did that yesterday" sort of thing; of course there are things that fall through the cracks and reveal that flaw within the clan but a lot of folks are too dismissive to point them out, with good reason after all many of the members of the Altar's members were already life wasters is not like they have better things to do or bother with (some think).

Now in the metaphorical case of a hatchling falling under the Altar's wing, that would be a big can of worms lol. Dragons already take a while to age but surely more heads would start to turn and question the Altar when having to acknowledge the lil kiddo running under the tables and tents that has remained a baby for way too long...

-Silgero's Isle: This one is actually easier to explain lol: constructs are already made to resemble dragons, some just decided to make them babies, for cuteness factor I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. the only issue is that the smaller bodies make them inefficient to fulfill tasks on the long run so some are kept like small trophies, loved recreations of nostalgia/passed ones or -in worst cases- as artificial pets to show off, and like most trend pets, they eventually end up discarded once the burden of their maintenance outweighs the luxury of owning the craft itself. And boy! does the maintenance in these things become expensive...

The mental business in "hatchling" constructs is complicated. Construct programming is tailored to the functions expected of them but if your construct is built to be more of a fancy doll to do funny dances and/or recite little stories and be pretty, then one would not need to include more complex knowledge into them (think of these guys as essentially furbies with the adult constructs being more like a common automaton/advanced robot), take that as you will.

So... with that in mind... discarded baby constructs can end up like stray kittens in box at Onn's place. He will figure out what to do with them there. At the very least Savim has experience with children.

[nocturnal-nexu]

"Ninjago 7 AU"

General Lore Master Post

(I'll tag any posts I make related to this AU with "#ninjago 7 AU" so you guys can find them easier.)

(Warning! I love character analysis, so this is going to be really long.)

When Pixal first started constructing her little Mini Pix army, she started with just some simple base programming. To follow instructions and stuff. They aren't necessarily conscience AI like Zane and Pixal are.

But after making a few Mini Pix's, Pixal decided to experiment a bit by incorporating a slightly more cognitive AI system. It's not programming exactly like hers and Zane's, though.

Just like in real life, I think that Ninjago's AI learns through experience. Like how after you search and look at different things on Tumbler or Pintrest, it starts to tune the feed to your interests. Or how, after running tons of scripts from a show through an AI, it can predict how a script from that show would go. (Albeit a very wacky and random version of a script. 😂)

Of course, Ninjago has vastly more advanced technology than the stuff we have.

I think that Cyrus Borg built Pixal with most of her "experience" data already built in. I don't think he had time for an AI to learn and develop from analyzing situations in the outside world. The tech boom in Ninjago City seemed to happen pretty fast in season 3.

(This could also partially explain her extremely robotic personality at the beginning of Rebooted. Most of her "experiences" at that time were just information and data recorded in her system and not actual real-life experiences.)

Anyway, because of this, Pixal was built to be mentally an older teenager/young adult from the start.

Mini Pix #7, however, was built with only a base AI, with little to no life experience data built in. She is definitely much more aware of her surroundings than her many counterparts, but she is still just a base AI. Her AI programing at the time of her creation is about that of a 3 year old child.

She, of course, gets schematics of whatever Pixal is working on, just like the other Mini Pix's, and knows how to do technical things (that's what she was programed to do after all) but there is a big difference between technical knowledge and emotional maturity. Basically, just imagine a 3 year old who is crazy smart for some reason, but still has the mannerisms of, well, a 3 year old.

(Like if she isn't scheduled to work on whatever project Pixal has going on at the moment "7" will go pout in a corner. She's just a little toddler who wants to be included in whatever is going on.)

After spending a lot of time and energy programming "7", Pixal found that she did not have much of either to spare when there was so much work to get done, vehicles to build, and missions to help organize. So, for the rest of the Mini Pix models, she used her original blueprints, and no more AIs were integrated.

Now we're up to Crystalized.

In the episode "The Fall of the Monastery", "7" as we know, saves Pixal, Wu, and Skylor from the monastery fire. (This particular scene is really important later. I'll get to that.) After which, in a subsequent episode, Pixal decided that she deserved a name and thus dubbed her "Mini Pix 7"

"7" also joined everyone else in that final battle at the end of "Crystalized' as well.

We don't really know when Pixal first made all the Mini Pix's, but at the time of "Crystalized" I have "7" being about 4 1/2 cognitively.

(If you have any info that says otherwise, let me know! I love discovering all the lore of this show, and I know that the time frames of things always seem to be up to debate.)

Anyway, in the months following the whole "crystal king debacle" as the monastery was being rebuilt and thereafter, "7" became a bit more of a permanent fixture of the team. She helped a lot with the rebuilding and was constantly following Pixal around, wanting to be included. The rest of the team quickly accepted her into their little family. She would always be getting into shenanigans, with Kai and Jay especially, and started to follow Zane around about as much as she stuck by Pixal. She would constantly be asking him to make pretty ice crystals for her and would do happy little somersaults when he obliged.

Well, as well as she could ask, with her limited vocal capabilities.

This became a problem.

As the months passed, and "7" grew and experienced more and more of life, the more she wanted to say. And you can only communicate so much with beeps, boops, and facial expressions.

She would get very frustrated when she couldn't communicate what she wanted to her friends, and as that was becoming more and more frequent, it made for a very grumpy robot.

As this problem persisted, Zane and Pixal started discussing building "7" a proper nindroid body. But they came to a bit of an impasse in regards to her memories.

Pixal argued that it could be dangerous for "7" to have to carry the memory of dragging her family out of her home and then watching it go up in flames. She was essentially 4 1/2 at the time! No child should have to live with that. Maybe not even deleting the memory entirely, but at least blurring it a bit, scrub away the details and such, make it bit less tramatic. And she had noticed that "7" already tended to have very expressive emotional responses to things. She wanted to give "7" the best life she could, as her and Zane at this point had become her main caretakers and in their hearts considered "7" their daughter.

Zane was completely against the idea of any memory erasure or even tampering. He stated that even if their intentions were to help "7," messing with memories was not a good idea in the slightest. He knew from experience.

(Ahem...Dr. Julian....ahem...Ice Emperor...ahem)

The arguments went on for weeks, and the rest of the team couldn't remember a time when they had seen the two so angry.

Especially Zane.

He was very adamant that removing any of "7"s memories was not even to be considered as an option.

(In other words, Pixal is being a momma bear, and Zane is having memory tramua.)

They both made very good points, and really, they just wanted to protect "7" in their own way. In the end, they came to the concensus that they wouldn't alter her memories, but they would keep a close eye on her and her emotional responses to things moving forward. You know, talk to her about it and stuff, and help her to work through the memory if it started to bother her.

About 6 months after Crystalized, Zane and Pixal were finally done building "7's" new nindroid shell. And "7" was very eager to transfer over. She is cognitively around 5 at this point.

The process actually took a bit longer than Zane and Pixal thought. But "7" had been through a lot of adventures in her first couple of years alive. There were a lot of experiences and data to transfer over.

When the transfer was complete, "7" couldn't have been more excited!

The first thing Seven did was excitingly thank her mom and dad for her new body. Zane and Pixal were a bit surprised at this. They saw Seven as their daughter, of course, but they didn't realize that she shared the sentiment and thought of them as her parents. (As pretty much the whole team cared for and looked out for her in their own ways.) There was a lot of hugging and kissing and happy tears. 🥺 🤍💜🩵

(I want to eventually write out this particular scene with all the feels and such)

When asked if she wanted a new name, she declined, saying that she liked the name Mommy gave her. I mean, everyone on the team had been calling her "Seven" for a while, so I think that she would have become a bit attached to the name.

Behind the Scenes!

(I originally did want "7" to ask for a new name. She was going to choose "Crystal". "Like daddy's ice crystals!" was her reasoning. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that with everything she went through in...ahem..."Crystalized," I figured she wouldn't choose a name that would remind her of the evil purple shards that took over her home city and almost destroyed her family.

Also, I came across someone else's Pixane kid OC who was named Crystal, and I didn't want to steal that from them. So, with the combination of those factors, I scrapped that idea.)

In contrast to her parents' calm and thoughtful nature's, Seven is a bit of a handful. She's a very adventurous little 5 year old and is always seeming to get into trouble. Sometimes, in a mischievous way, but mostly, she's just exploring and learning about the world around her like all kids do.

She has a very bouncy and bubbly personality, and, as Pixal observed earlier, she can be rather emotional at times. She is very empathetic and doesn't like it when someone on the team is sad. She loves jokes and harmless pranks, and often, Jay and Kai will rope her into their prank wars. As much as she likes mechanical and electronic things, Seven loves to run around outside. She especially likes finding bugs.

Seven likes to spend time with her parents a lot. She was a bit clingy in her original shell, and that trait has definitely carried over. You'll often find her in the kitchen with Zane or in the Sam X cave checking out whatever new invention Pixal is working on.

Zane and Pixal, love their daughter so much!!! They are a little mini family inside of their bigger found family. They give each other hugs all the time and enjoy a big snuggle pile during movie nights.

Seven still loves watching Zane make snow flurries and ice crystals, and Zane loves seeing her face light up when he does. He often involves her when he's in the kitchen whipping up a new recipe. There is often a big mess by the time they're done. (Like when they made Cole a surprise birthday cake. Flour was everywhere!)

Since she started out working on inventions with Pixal, Seven still has a passion for electronics. She likes to hang around in the Sam X cave with her mom helping her with her inventions, making modification suggestions, and making stuff of her own. Pixal often hums when working on projects and Seven joins in. It often escalates into a full concert, both of them singing at the top of their lungs.

As Pixal predicted, Seven does have a bit of trauma from the whole monastery on fire incident.

It mostly surfaces as nightmares of fire and losing her family.

Zane and Pixal are with her through it all. Comforting her when she wakes up in the middle of the night, encouraging her that they aren't going anywhere. They will always be with her.

Zane got Kai involved, and he was able to show Seven that even though fire can be dangerous, when handled correctly it can be a beautiful thing, providing warmth, light, and comfort.

After that conversation and a few more experiences with Kai teaching her about fire, Seven began to overcome her fear of fire.

Seven loves her aunt and uncles!

Nya thinks that she is the absolute cutest thing and loves to work with her and Pixal on the silly projects Seven comes up with. 5 year olds have some crazy ideas for inventions.

Jay loves having someone around who actually laughs at his jokes. He loves being an uncle and playful teasing often ensues.

Lloyd is teaching her how to play some of his favorite video games, and in the process is taking more time for himself to relax and take a break from being the leader.

Kai is very happy to see this.

After helping Seven overcome her fear of fire, Kai has become a bit of a big brother figure to her. (Big surprise 🤭)

He likes to tease her and get into tickle fights until they both end up on the floor in fits of laughter.

Cole loves being an uncle and is always giving piggyback rides. They have a little game they play where Cole sees how high he can toss Seven into the air. This worried Zane a bit in the beginning, you know, his daughter being tossed straight up toward the ceiling. But he's used to it now. Cole knows what he's doing.

Probably.

Zane and Pixal have discussed eventually passing on Zane's element to Seven. But obviously not right now. Right now, they are just letting her be a kid, and trying to raise her to be the best nindroid that she can be.

And I personally think they are doing a great job.

That's all for now. If you've read this far, wowie! Thank you! You've got some perseverance! I'm not really the best writer, so thank you for listening! I have Seven's design planned out, and I hope to draw her soon for y'all. Stay tuned!

@100-percential-human I'm assuming that the wide eyes emoji on your reblog means that you are interested in this concept, so here you go! I hope you enjoy! :)