#Hunting Strategies

[fogaminghub]

🌟 Dive into the wild world of Red Dead Redemption 2! Our newest guide on "The Aftermath of Genesis" is here to help you hunt like a pro! 🦌✨ Perfect your bow skills and learn how to achieve that elusive Gold Medal with our detailed walkthrough! 🎮

[teeter-beetle]

Recover / Rethink

With perfect points and patient persistence, prehistoric frogs employed unique strategies to hunt great blue herons. Forward-thinking frogs realized the blitzed birds often fled in predictable patterns. By staging squads in strategic spots along the shallows, tribes could pelt the herons with spears, forcing them to fly to "safety." When they would land to de-stud, they would be pelted again. And again. And again. Eventually, the exhausted beast would flap no more.

visit frogiverse.com for more

[captainadwen]

Damian Wayne vs the World

Sixteen year old Damian Wayne is on the hunt for a younger sibling. Being more discerning than Bruce 'child collector' Wayne, Damian's firm criteria for Batman's latest adoption problem includes but is not limited to: black haired, blue-eyed, tolerable humor, not evil, and most importantly - younger than Damian.

Lucky for him, fourteen year old newbie vigilante Danny Fenton is the perfect fit. Now, to fulfill his end of their deal, Damian must defeat the evil government organization hunting Danny in order to gain a baby brother.

Or, @livinghalfway your post made my brain go !! but in such a different way I figured it was better to make a separate post, hope you don't mind/enjoy still

~~

Damian Wayne re-entered Tim Drake's life like a gnat revealing itself in a closed bedroom space. Tim was in t-shirt and a boxers, maneuvering ramen into his mouth with one hand and scribbling out an epiphany on a murder case with another, when Damian's demonic dulcet voice echoed down from the ceiling. "Drake," said Damian, judgemental, "You live like this?"

Tim nearly choked on his ramen, because the day Damian doesn't attempt to murder him - however doubtfully accidental this incident might be - is the day Darkseid decides to be friends with the Justice League. "Fucking knock," Tim coughed out. "And get out. No one invited you in."

"Put better traps if you don't want me here," said Damian, dropping from the ceiling where he'd crawled in on wall-clamps.

"This is my apartment," said Tim. "It's called courtesy."

Damian sniffed. He padded around to Tim's desk and frowns at his cases, then said, with no further lead up, "I need your assistance."

"No," said Tim.

"You did not even listen to my request."

"Don't need to," said Tim. "Answer's still no. Door is that way. Bye."

"Father says mutually assisting each other is beneficial," said Damian.

"Father," said Tim sarcastically, "blamed me for you exploding a glitter bomb in the batcave two weeks ago."

"That is your fault for not being able to provide evidence to the contrary in an appropriately efficient manner," said Damian. He squinted down at Tim. "And he apologized. Eventually."

"I would not have glittered the batcomputer," said Tim. "Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to backup those servers? No, because you don't like tech work, you just profit off it."

"Blaming me for Father's mistake," said Damian, "Most mature of you. But we must put our differences aside. I have selected a new family member and I need you to dismantle a government organization."

That drew Tim up short. He blinked down at his ramen as though it might explain Damian's words to him, but the ramen remained disappointingly uninformative. "Repeat that," said Tim, gesturing with his chopsticks. "Slower, and with more detail."

Damian pulled out his phone and sent him an email. Silence surrounded them in the brief moment it took Tim to set aside his chopsticks and open the email. The subject line was titled 'New Baby Brother', which birthed all sorts of horrifying nightmares of Damian Part 2: Demon Child Boogaloo. The teen in the inserted picture, however, was reassuringly not in possession of Damian's bone structure.

He did have black hair and blue eyes. "Who am I looking at?" asked Tim.

"Daniel Fenton," said Damian. "He is fourteen years old, enjoys puns, and has recently awakened 'ghost powers' that allow him to transform into the vigilante Phantom to fight other ghosts."

"Is he also an orphan with a tragic backstory?"

"No," said Damian, and Tim relaxed. "But that will not be an issue. We can share custody if they cannot be removed from the picture."

"Jesus H, kid."

"I am joking, of course," said Damian blandly. "Murder is wrong."

"Ha ha," said Tim. "If he has parents already he's not joining our menagerie."

"He will," said Damian, with a smug upwards tilt of his lips. "He and I have a deal."

"So you're coercing him in addition to stalking him. Anything else you want to share with the class?"

Damian considered this query with a serious frown, which was how Tim knew this was not a flight of fancy or a very early midlife crisis (although with their lifestyle and Damian already having died before...).

"He has," said Damian after a moment, "a rogue that calls himself 'The Master of all Technology' and is a technopath." This was clearly meant to be of interest to Tim, and not to be a stereotype, but it kind of was.

"Great." Tim turned his attention back to the email the demon child sent him. He scanned through it quickly. There was apparently a secret and evil government organization dedicated to the investigation and extermination of 'ghosts' and other paranormal creatures in the world. Their latest efforts were focused on the town of Amity Park, Illinois, which was 'infested with ectoplasmic pests'. Their words, not Damian's. (It was specified in the email.)

"Okay," Tim drummed his fingers against his desk. "Before I help you defeat this secret evil government organization so that," he opened the email attachment with a contract on it and squinted at the legalese, "this poor newbie teen you've harassed into signing this joins the family in exchange."

"I did not harass him," Damian huffed. "It was a gentleman's agreement."

"Does he know that?"

"I am not a politician, Drake. I thoroughly explained the terms and legalities before presenting any contract. Now ask your question."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because," said Damian, tone implying 'you are stupid and haven't noticed something obvious, idiot'. "Father has begun saying he misses the noise around the manor and looking wistfully at old pictures."

"We still live there though?" said Tim. Damian looked flatly at him. "Sometimes."

"If you lived there frequently enough," said Damian, "you would already know Father is having...empty nest syndrome." Damian sounded disgusted. "I refuse to tolerate whatever inadequate and incompetent child he will find."

"So instead you found an incompetent and inadequate child for him?"

"Don't be stupid, Drake," said Damian. "I would not have chosen someone inadequate. Daniel is merely lacking formal training. Father can rectify this. It will keep him occupied for at least the next two to four years, which gives me enough time to find another black-haired, blue-eyed, tolerable child I approve of to be his successor and my second younger sibling." Damian paused. "Or until one of you procreates and gives him a grandchild."

"You're really serious about this," Tim whispered in horrified awe.

"I am serious about everything I do," said Damian. "Now, you will help me defeat this evil government organization so that our new sibling joins us."

"Okay," said Tim, but his mind snagged on a minor, throwaway detail, so utterly in odds with Damian 'Demonic Jealous Child' Al Ghul it surely came from another person - "Did you just call this kid your successor?"

[stubz]

"...are human chasing games basically the human equivalent to our hunts?"

"Huh?"

"I know they say they don't hunt like us anymore but look."

"What am I looking at? younglings running around aimlessly?"

"the humans you quack."

"That's who I'm looking at. Some of them are fast ye but there's no tactic, no strategy, just mindless running."

"Focus on the adult male. The one who is paired with the youngest."

"...He's not bad I guess. The child slows him down though--Look! she's following him rather than letting him drive them towards her."

"...maybe I was wrong. Oof this hurts to watch." they suck a breath through their teeth. "So many mistakes."

"Aye, my young would've never done what she's doing."

"Oh...looks like he's giving her a thrashing."

"Scolding, not thrashing. They believe thrashing is too harsh on them given their size."

"Bah...he's leaving her. Better off without her."

.

"I don't understand why he talks to them instead of jumping at them."

"Perhaps he doesn't think he can make the jump without falling in? Or to make them more nervous, he walks slowly as he talks. Nervous prey are more reckless."

"True but by the time he runs to where it narrows they'll have made it the trees. He's losing his chance to catch them before they hide--"

"..." "..."

"Sneaky little whelp." they chuckle. "she jumped the narrow end while he distracted them."

"Aye. Can't outrun them but can be quieter than them. Not my preferred way of doing things but I respect that."

"Oh oh! Look at the others now! Look at how they talk amongst themselves. Look at how they're trying to figure out what they'll do now."

"Where will you go little ones? To the steep hills? Back to the stream? The open fields?"

"Oop, a lone runner. Bait. Ah, he holds the child back from taking it."

"...perhaps they are more like us than we thought."

"Perhaps they are more like us than they thought."

[familyagrestefanblog]

Screw it, I'm gonna ask the question:

When has Marinette really struggling to make friends ever been a thing in the show? People are now using Marinette's anxiety as an excuse for why she struggled with behaving in any way normally around Sublime, as well as using it as "duh" explanation for why Adrien is in the "right" for saying that it is a normal thing for Marinette to not know how to befriend people.

But WHEN did she ever act like this while trying to make new friends or form a connection when it wasn't actually explicitly about Adrien?

Cause that's the thing: Adrien is incorrectly projecting the way Marinette treats him onto her treatment of Sublime, saying that this is normal for Marinette.

But its not.

This whole "you only have one chance to make a good impression to become someone's friend" has never been something Marinette's character thought or acted like. She has countless of friends, even more connections everywhere, she's the widely beloved hero of the city, and a team that trusts her and follows her every word.

Her anxiety can get a BIT in the way here and there in how she treats her regular friends (so excluding Chat Noir), but she never did THIS before to make a friend.

Her anxiety can have her badly judge people who she then treats worse, but once she gets over herself she barely has a problem to try and reconnect with them and be their friend

She ONLY treated Adrien like this, hence why he incorrectly projected onto Sublime. What are you all TALKING about that thats the REAL reason for her behaviour?

Shouldn't yall Marinette stans KNOW your fav well enough to know she never did THIS before?

Why are you all LYING?

[sistah-girl-2009]

Yep.

This movie EATS 💙💜💖

tell your friends

[cupophrogs]

How did you meet thing? Do you have to be a certain level to aquire thing?

“Honestly? I was eating Pj Puffs and he just skittered on up and popped a squat.”

[katyspersonal]

who do you think fucked up worse…gehrman or maria?

This is an interesting question, and I kind of didn't think of it before! Time to take a closer look at their crimes I guess. Some of these will be held on the possibilities and 'safe assumptions' though and addressed for the full picture!

1) Both were involved in Fishing Hamlet massacre!

With Maria, we can conclude as much because she discarded her weapons in the well at the place specifically. Her version in the Nightmare realm, a Hunter again, is supposed to be what punishes her, and she is focused on keeping Kos/OoK away from rummaging through. Considering the nature of the Nightmare, as well as the Doll who has spiritual connection with her, it should come from her guilt and regrets rather than.. I dunno, discarding the hunt over natural 'character development' and just picking a cool place to forsaken her past!

Gehrman sleeps better according to the dialogue Doll has after you kill OoK and free it's soul, so if it tortured him so, I think it is safe to say he had to be personally involved too rather than stay back while his students did the job:

They both were involved with Byrgenwerth, following their quest for obtaining the eyes of the dwellers from their skulls, and I suppose cord of OoK?

The thing about this point is that the description is written as though it was Gehrman's curiosity which ruined Maria's "idealisation" of him, or WOULD ruin it had she learned of it! This makes me wonder whether she was really involved in Byrgenwerth all that much, or whether she was aware of the real purpose of Fishing Hamlet massacre beforehand? Her goal, within the Nightmare, is stated to mercy-kill us so we don't allow that curiousity corrupt us to the point of "rummaging through corpse" and similar things, further supported by her visceral attack being an embrace if it is lethal!

I am just saying that here the balance might slightly shift towards making Gehrman 'worse' than her. Maybe she was not aware that it all was not just killing "monsters" but also a pregnant mother with her divine baby, but "well you didn't ask :/". Maybe Gehrman deceived her to use her aid. Maybe he didn't think it would be a big deal for her seeing that Maria was also interested in evolution through talking with Great Ones, and assumed she'd be just as callous about which means to accomplish the goals with?

2) Both were grave-robbing, or at least okay with that!

This one is a little less obvious, but Tomb Prospectors were not the first to go to the Chalice Dungeons! ...It were actually Willem, Dores and Gatekeeper lol:

BUT ALSO it were Old Hunters! We can see the remnants of it by Old Hunter Vitus being one the summons in Chalice Dungeons, hear Gehrman encourage us to go into the Chalice Dungeons to become stronger as via "tradition" of the Old Hunters,

and the fact that one of the things that torture Maria (again, remember that Nightmare Realm is Hell that punishes) is a Chalice:

(A video ( x ) for a better look at the Chalice from a figure)

I'd say that it is not very nice to disturb the undead Pthumerians just struggling in remains of their civilisation! Interesting thing: we can conclude they are even staying there to protect the Great Ones or their remains!

There has been some sort of civil war between ancient great-ones-respecting Pthumerians and who late became Cainhurst nobles! Maria, ironically, fell onto the side of "entitled guys" descendants! But yes, I could see why bullying zombie guys to get more history and archeology relics from them might not seem like much for her at start. Experience in the Fishing Hamlet likely retroactively ruined this period of her life for her: delving into Chalice Dungeons was likewise 'not leaving the corpse alone'. The remaining Pthumerians were right having some honour and dignity. So, that came to haunt her in the form of Pthumeru Chalice. Gehrman is.. well he's here too I guess dfshfdhs

3) Both knew a little too much about Laurence's shady business and did nothing?

Old Hunters used to be friends with Healing Church's Hunters and even had their workshops located close to one another! Gehrman was friends with Laurence and Ludwig, who are both quite strongly involved with Moon Presence (Ludwig's sword and guidance, Laurence's affiliation being known since Byrgenwerth times), as well as the key figure in creation of Hunter's Dream:

This was most likely a bait-and-switch, seeing how the cord itself is still in the real Workshop, and not in the grasp of Moon Presence (unlike, say, Wet Nurse taking Mergo's cord)! I think the purpose of creation of the Hunter's Dream was to "buy time" for the research conceived by the scientists! Remember: Gehrman was known to have "madness of curiosity" that Maria resented, or at least would resent had she known! He might have been fully aware of what Laurence wanted to do and support it! My point here, that with such proximity, he must have known of all Laurence's crimes and agreed with them!

Maria was at least overseer of the Clocktower's Research Hall, which, again, was just beta!Choir.

This last line IS a bit confusing, because it makes it sound as though the nerds looking for the Eyes Inside and the Blood Ministers got split. Laurence and Ludwig make it weird, as Moon Presence is also an Eldrich creature and Ludwig is for sure full of eyes! What also makes it strange is that Choir, and then School of Mensis, are both upper echelons of the Healing Church, but Laurence is supposed to be above both of them.

I think this can be worked with! Let's say what if Choir formed after Laurence's death, which also happened after Maria's death, and Vicars after him were somewhat "powerless" and walked over by Choir and Mensis, only leaders in the name! But that still leaves the bit that the mentioned "division" happened after Choir was formed! Maria and Adeline, however, are locked to the existence of the Research Hall, so, the timeframe when doctors and blood ministers were 100% working together! We find the Eye Pendant that opens the access to the Research Hall in Laurence's hand, and human Skull of Laurence on the platform that hides the secret elevator to that Research Hall. Again, by the Nightmare Logic, they must be connected with Laurence's sins: he started this research, or sponsored it, or was overseeing it, and so on.

This point is not an absolute thing though, because one or both of them might be freed from guilt here. Maybe Gehrman was not as informed and agreeable as we could assume and Laurence did lead him around? Maybe Maria wanted but could not do anything being caught in the web of complicated connections, blackmail and risks for the people she cared about?

4) Both are willingly involved in questionable practices (Maria with research, Gehrman with the cycle of Dream and Hunt)

This point I feel like transcends the morality a little bit, as it touches the matter of 'it is bad if you do it, but it is also bad if you DON'T do it'. I really love Soulsborne universes for having guts to say "you can't win, just pick your poison", but I think it is still worth addressing!

It is up to interpretation in which quantity Maria is involved with the Research Hall! Nothing states whether she founded it, joined in the research later, stepped in and turned the tides (ba dum tss) of the research, or simply was a caretaker/nurse/etc of the broken mess while Research Hall was getting ready for a bit of rebranding. She can be very guilty, or she can be barely guilty but in either case if that was her "redemption arc" that was a pretty bad way to go about it. ...or was it?

Fauxsefka turns people into Celestial Emissaries so they physically can't become beasts instead, and is even stated to be a hero / heroic researcher by Miyazaki:

First, I don't do Death of the Author (in terms of interpreting media I mean, not in terms of a style of writing)! Like, nope. Never. It is just not for me. Creator's word is the final for me; Fauxsefka is the good guy in the story, apparently, and it makes sense considering the fundamentally broken place characters are in! Maria has similarities with Fauxsefka: not only both of them have Cainhurst roots, but also both of them seem to favour 'Stars' line of evolution for humans!

Whereas other patients are afraid of the horrors of the Deep Sea, a concept Miyazaki could not get over well into DS3, Adeline desires them! Other patients seems to have gotten it right, and you can see one of them also clings to Maria mentally to "not drown"; Adeline "didn't understand"! The balcony that Maria wants Adeline to go to so she can forsaken the Deep Sea and seek something "happier" holds unique kind of patients who can shoot cosmic arcane spells:

Herself, Maria is associated with these lumenflowers: their petals are all over her boss arena, and the way to her lays through a much bigger batch of flowers, where Living Failures, other 'Stars' Kin are, whose song lyrics also feature lines 'ave stellar' and 'ave Maria'!

So, how this is different from what Fauxsefka is doing, who is stated to be as much of a good person as possible within this context and with the burden of her knowledge? Fauxsefka was doing more or less rinse-and-repeat practice, with maybe a few patients not surviving the procedure but we don't know what happened: maybe that person was already at the brink of death and she tried to make them live like this.

^ This guy I mean. Maria, on the other hand, is in the time period where the doctors and scientists were only testing the waters (BA DUM TSSS) (ok I will stop) and it was not SO certain what was at the stake, what were the alternatives, what was awaiting the humanity. It is even possible that the beasts problem was not yet bad to the point of "you'll either become a beast, be eaten by a beast or become a Kin, humanity is DONE for!" ! This was an unethical research at the cost of real people! The weight of Maria's sin here really depends on the interpretation, though

As for the cycle of Dream and Hunt, this is complicated and lingers on one's interpretation of what the purpose of the Dream even IS! Its existence provides two things: 1) a hunter who is immortal for the night, thus can sustain the beasts with efficiency like no other, but also effect the continuity of the night ( x ) and 2) supposed sustenance to the Great One Flora of the Moon, who holds the hunt as a concept!

I used to be a bit more set on the idea that if beasts are not sustained and hunted, they will simply overpower those who are yet humans and eat them! It is a self-feeding cycle of people needing to self-defend from beasts, thus having to consume the blood as urgent means of healing and power-up since beasts are too strong, thus risking to become beasts themselves because the blood they consumed during that hunt corrupts them. So, the Hunter's Dream would be a good thing, as it'd help to 'buy time' during nights of the hunt in which not only beasts are more active but Great Ones too! While the Dreaming Hunter holds everything together, the greatest minds of the Healing Church can efficiently study the ways to end beasthood, or ANY problem of humanity, once and for all! It is just better to throw the hunting resources on the Dream, so the scientists don't worry about the beasts and can focus on research. However, I almost forgot that:

This implies that had there not been Mensis Ritual ongoing, people WOULD have the chance to simply 'wait away' the beasthood problem. That, since Rom is not stopping Mensis Ritual but just conceals it, what really makes the inner beast within everyone who consumed the blood inevitably come out is Mergo's cry that draws the Bloodmoon close!

So yeah, the point about Hunter's Dream being helpful for the research of evolution still stands, especially under assumption that the deal with Moon Presence helped to bring more Eldrich Arcane close for "feeding" her. The point about how if the beasts are not hunted they'll simply eat everyone, though, is vague. It is safer to assume that the Hunter's Dream and Research Hall both are both example of hubris of man even if approached differently. Attempts to draw in something dangerous and horrifying, but it is "justified risk" because if you manage to 'tame' arcane/blood, sure, humanity will prosper!

Like... yeah, sure, there IS dangerous and undesireable nature of man that ruins everything and might or might not still linger in humanoids' genes after Loran. But did humanity ASK any of you guys to keep trying to fix it with so many victims and sacrifices? Like, was it WORTH it?

This point is closely tied to 'knowing Laurence's bad antics and doing nothing', yeah. Maria didn't seem to like blood ministration very much, as she disapproved of Adeline becoming a Blood Saint, but she also didn't even approve of blood antics of her own clan! I am not sure what would be her opinion on the Hunter's Dream had she lived to the point when it was created, just that she herself is not willing to ever hunt, so I am leaving this point aside. Is this just blood ministration that she opposes but proximity with a Great One Moon Presence would be something she can see the potential of? Or would she and Gehrman have a pointless cat fight about whose methods are better when they are both hubris of man? In both versions they are 'guilty'! Besides:

In the end none of THIS matters either and everyone was fooled ( x ). The blood offering is a blood offering in any way; whether it is through spilling blood violently during the hunt, or offering the blood's 'red' with how celestial Kin all bleed red. Moon doesn't care what paints it red, in the end.

___________________________________

My conclusion is: both of these characters fucked up almost equally! I think the balance shifts just a little bit and Maria is slightly better than Gehrman since she had some limitations set on how far she was willing to go. Her motivation was not in "curiosity" but strictly in helping humanity, even if in unfair ways, which is apparently not the case for Gehrman?

I'll say this though, NOW I am hooked on the idea of Maria and Gehrman being petty "rivals" ideologically (for as long as they could before Maria's own demons caught up with her). Especially since neither approach is better than the other and they are both cringe loosers! Again, lost comedy gold over Fromsoft making Gehrman's tender and warm feelings for her before and after her death plain. What is not lost, however, is the fact that the two should just kick Laurence and go home :pensive:

[cordyceph]

went to bed and woke up in a cold sweat realizing that claudia's play, the birdie one, is both a direct analogy for her story and also foreshadowing of her death WHILE ALSO nodding to pauls death

claudia'a single minded, desperate drive for freedom eventually lead her directly to her death. she was "nailed down" by lestat (by LOUIS, actually- lestat only kept her for him.), and tore herself free at the loss of her 'foot,' being a stand in for the personal pain she suffered for freedom

no matter what she or anyone did, she was going to die painfully, because she was so desperate to be free that everything was suffocating. lestat, louis, romania, the coven. the only thing that didnt rot in her mind was madeline, because... there simply wasnt time. madeline was fresh and new and, given time, would have probably suffered the same heel-turn claudia gave to everything.

of course thats because she shared louis' hopeful outlook. being free of her parents? would fix everything. when it didn't? maybe if she had louis, it would be worth it. but its not, lestats still here, louis is still in love with him... killing lestat, thatll fix it, and she and louis will be happy in romania, right, the homeland for vampirekind? not quite, so better try paris, the city of love. that doesnt work. the coven, though, will give her what she wants, right? she'll be happy with other vampires?

the only person who makes her happy is? a modern version of lestat? a weird white woman she met on happenstance, who has little to no care for societal norms or faux pas. a blunt, kind of funny, kind of sad woman who lost her family but has a capacity for enduring because what else is she going to do? die? no, she cant do that. she had no friends because she was weird and offputting and had dangerous rumors, no hangups on loving claudia, no hangups on dying or being a killer.

that's... just lestat. without the immortality and the specific traumas, of course, but like. claudia's most beloved person was a funhouse mirror of her most hated. which really speaks volumes for what they could have had, because it wasnt just a clash of personalities. it was lestats bpd clashing with hers and both of their attachment to louis clashing. if lestat had been better at sharing, if louis had been better at loving both of them, if claudia had been less angry at the world for nothing but existing? maybe they could have been a good family. a happy one forever, just like they all wanted, but were unable to give each other

[flow2024]

An early review I’m assuming has now been deleted since I can’t find it anywhere mentioned that there could’ve been a better use of Nile and Quynh, the spectre of the big bad immortal undermined the premise of the immortality itself and the main relationships of the first movie. Which doesn’t sound promising. But it also said there were some strong threads of connection so idk. Holding out hope whilst expecting the worst I guess?

i typed out most of this and then tumblr ate it so i'm typing it again and may skim over some stuff BUT: in essence: while i was watching tog earlier what jumped out to me was the fact that despite being a netflix action movie, with all that entails, and kind of generic in places (said with all the love in my heart) tog does have a very strong thematic undercurrent. both in the conclusion the film comes to, which is we're not meant to be alone, and in the way it treats killing with a certain weight that this kind of movie doesn't always do. immortality is an integral part but also not really, in that i think rucka at one point made a comment about it originally being kind of an experiment in being able to kill off characters in various looney toons ways and still have them survive but became a story more widely about life and death and the way death gives life meaning. etc etc. which is clear in the first film, i think, especially with andy's loss of immortality and nile having a bigger role. it definitely fumbles sometimes but overall it's strong and, fundamentally, it Has A Point.

tog 2, however. first off when it comes to nile and quynh: noriko's arc in the comics is difficult to apply to tog 2, namely because it is in active conflict with andy's rediscovery of her purpose which has already happened, and because quynh is too complicated of a character to tie up easily in 100 mins. she's not a villain you can drop 17 storeys and call it a day. her anger is fully understandable. akasha is an easy big bad to have because she will be disposable at the end of the day and therefore leave a neater conclusion. plus andy has already had her purpose arc so introducing akasha means introducing new information (it seems?) which will shift things and allow for the we help humans vs humans suck conflict. etc

i wouldn't be super surprised if they just didn't know what to do with nile. she's a foil to andy in the first movie and helps that arc by setting up a mentor + mentee, ex immortal + new immortal, old + young kind of thing but that arc again is over. so like. beyond her settling into immortality and becoming more integral to the group i don't know how much she's going to get to do, especially in competition with a lot more information and characters in 100 minutes. which sucks because I Want To See My Girl and i think elements of her plot line from force multiplied, i.e. the other side of depends on the century, learning that they have made bad choices and needing to reconcile that with herself could be interesting. i haven't seen any of the clips by the way and if that's where they seem to be going don't tell me i want to go in blind! but yeah. i hope she's there more but if not ill be very annoyed. the being half cropped out of the thumbnail ain't boding well

generally i fear tog 2 is going to suffer from a bad case of missing the point. its general plot seems to revolve around Immortality Information We Don't Know Yet, but again, the immortality isn't and has never been the point. it's a storytelling device. it's used to explore purpose, whether what we do matters, etc. it's Not The Point Of The Story. but from the trailer alone (which may well be misleading, they often are) i fear it's not going to have that same strength in its themes that made the first film stand out and instead become a generic superhero action thing. as a recorded skeptic. i'll be having fun regardless and my expectations are on the ground so if it is good i'll be pleasantly surprised but i also haven't actually processed that the movie is going to be real and on my screen so who knows maybe it'll be awesome. at the end of the day, it will feature The Character on my screen which is really all that matters

[total-mkulia]

The thing about disventure camp is they do have interesting enough relationships between the characters but like. That is the main draw. So it ends up being that the most interesting part of the show is before and after the challenge, not during, because that’s when the characters talk and actually have meaningful interactions.

Total Drama had many problems but this wasn’t one because they took care to write challenges for the show that allow the characters to interact meaningfully with each other at length. And DC still hasn’t figure out how to do that.

[sneverussape]

“it’s just a ruddy snake, minerva, stop shrieking.”

—

(it’s a giant ashwinder actually)

[front-facing-pokemon]

[wyrmzone]

is this... too scary?

tried something very different from my usual face-drawing style, the results were. menacing

[ranticore]

can Twist's claws not do any damage? the harness keeps him from biting but his claws still look decently sharp..

He has retractile hooked claws which let him climb easily, and they are sharp! But manticores are very slow-moving, have thin skin, and are not physically strong, and getting in a physical altercation close enough to use those claws would be very dangerous to them. It's why their tail is so long (longer than the rest of their body), it's to keep a safe distance between themselves and their prey until the venom can do its job

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

Puppetsilk Leavanny Evolution Line

I was inspired by the bamboo shoot Sewaddle made by @sewatari, and created an evolution line for the little guy!

I call this version of Leavanny "Puppetsilk Leavanny", and it’s a lot more aggressive (and smaller) than standard Leavanny.

For Swadloon, I drew inspiration from the Godseeker (from Hollow Knight), but also the helmet worn by Kaguya in Ōkami.

With Leavanny, I drew inspiration from Ahtal-Ka, from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. I picture them as incredibly intelligent, and as they age their skill at creating puppets increases - to the point where exceptionally old individuals can basically make a bamboo mech, like the device Ahtal-Ka makes!

The original bamboo shoot Sewaddle can be found here:

Go give this little guy some love! :D

(I’m also picturing this Sewaddle as being an ambush predator - they’re as cute as a button, but they’ve got quite a bite! Ever heard of Bobbit worms? I’m picturing a hunting strategy like that.)